# Cow nosed rays [AKA, skates] - hard-fighting, good tasting, lords of the Chesapeake!



## Stinky_Pete (Mar 28, 2011)

*I can remember it as if it were yesterday. It was August, 1978 and Joe Walsh's "life's been good" was crankin' on a pre boom-box radio on an endless sunny day at the Patuxent river Naval base recreational pier. We actually caught lots of fish in those days. TONS of them. So many in fact that we kind of took it for granted - like all of the other great things in our lives that were sure to last forever. 

It was an ordinary bite at first, but before you knew it, line was peeling off of my Diawa 2500c so fast, that I froze.

It was a cow nosed ray. A big one! maybe 50 lbs. I fought that monster for a good hour. I was just a geeky 16 year old and wasn't much to look at, but all of a sudden, I was a star! People came from all over the pier to watch. At one point, this beautiful critter turned upside down, much to the delight of my newfound entourage - they voiced there approval with a round of applause!

Alas, I lost this fish when I tried to beach land it. But I never forgot that fish, nor how for a brief instant, I went from being Opie Taylor, to Ernest Hemingway! This is what fishing was all about. I understood its glory. 

Last year, I finally got to land a ray. After fishing for some 45 years of my life, I finally got one in! Then for good measure, I landed two more. 

There is a trick to it. You can't play these fish; that's a game that they are sure to win. You have to muscle them in. If you beach land them - let the waves help you. Ease them up onto the beach with the help of a wave. If they start flapping their wings, hold steady until they are done. They are very strong fish - one of the strongest in the water, so you must use heavy line to get them in. 20# plus test is good. A gaff will really help. A net will scare them into lunging and breaking your line.










Rays taste excellent. They are not hard to prepare, and there are presently way too many. They are ruining attempts to restock the bay with oysters. I'm not saying we should start shooting them, but we certainly could stand to take few home for a nice cookout. 

Please feel free to update this thread with reports of Cow nosed Rays, whenever you get the urge.

They have been in PLO for a few weeks, and now I hear that they are in the Choptank. Don't know about anywhere else.

Have an awesome time, and impress your kids with a monster fish that will give them a memory that will stick around long after the 2011 season!

Scott*


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

Great story Scott.


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## tosainu1 (Jun 13, 2007)

Great story, almost made me feel like i was there...I did'n know they were edible, and i don't think i'd like to find out...those darn things killed Steve Irwin!


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## greasemonkey54 (May 12, 2010)

I love fighting big rays and can vouch for them being tasty! To land them I get them as close to shore as possible then a friend walks in the water and pushes it ashore with the net. We use 12-20 lb test and they are to heavy to drag ashore and too big to fit in the net.


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## fresh bunker (Jul 9, 2006)

Great story. i love reading stories like this. Doesnt some places use ray wing as scallop imitation? i think i read it somewhere


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## Kwesi W. (Apr 14, 2006)




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## theone1232003 (Aug 11, 2008)

Wow I eat actual skates and think they taste wonderful but never a ray or a cownose ray- skates has no stinger and fat rocky tail -has two mini leg looking things by the tail and have a clear nose- been catching then in AI and Ocean city


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## tosainu1 (Jun 13, 2007)

*thanks for the vids...*

I'm going to try it next time i have one of those bruisers on my line at the Tank ...


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## Green Cart (May 14, 2002)

Scallop (cookie cutter) is an old myth. Based on my previous reading - skates taste good, but cow-nose rays don't. No, I have not eaten either, but if I have to, I will try skate first.


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## Green Cart (May 14, 2002)

Please also read the Recipe Forum where I bumped an old thread/argument "Ray scallops" from 2004-2005 to beginning of the thread (today date May 24, 2011) for your convenience.


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

I've tried both the small skates you catch in the surf at OC and a cow nose ray. The skates are excellent but the cow nose is horrible.


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## sunburntspike (Oct 4, 2010)

Green Cart said:


> Please also read the Recipe Forum where I bumped an old thread/argument "Ray scallops" from 2004-2005 to beginning of the thread (today date May 24, 2011) for your convenience.


i don't know if i learned anything on that thread,i was laughing too hard!!!!


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## surfnsam (Apr 28, 2008)

i guess its all in how its cooked. i sauteed mine in olive oil with basil, oregano, diced tomato and green olives, pretty good. i skinned and filleted the wings of a 50lbs CN ray i caught in crab alley. theres a lot of meat on them. old timer down there told me to bake them like a chicken and the skin peels off easy.

i wish they had a market for them, they are making a mess of the oyster beds and grasses, what little are left. cat food?


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## Stinky_Pete (Mar 28, 2011)

Wow, guys....thanks for the props! That was a great day. All awkward teens should be so lucky as to be the toast of the pier! LOL! 

Remember....we've [us old geezers] caught enough fish to last a lifetime. Make it special for the kids and you will share a place of honor in a timeless fish story!


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## peteformation (Jun 18, 2011)

Nice fish, good to eat! Love to grill them with chilly and butter.

Agree, they are hard to land and good fighter!


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## Gnatman (Sep 15, 2005)

*I totally agree with you, Cat...*



catman said:


> I've tried both the small skates you catch in the surf at OC and a cow nose ray. The skates are excellent but the cow nose is horrible.


...I have eaten skates many times on my trips to France, and they were wonderful. Very delicately flavored and textured. In France the call skates "rais".

Your assertion that cow-nosed rays are terrible is RIGHT ON!

You may want to check out my post in the thread "ray scallops" in the recipes forum.

:beer:


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## RuddeDogg (Mar 20, 2004)

Pretty cool. Up here in Yankee Land our skates look look nothing like a cow nosed ray.


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## Anthony (Jul 3, 2002)

Tried a cownose ray a long time ago. Never again, now I just use them as shark bait.


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## Tracker16 (Feb 16, 2009)

Never tried cownose but enough people have said they taste really bad that I will pass on them. If five people tell me something taste like poop thats good enough for me I don't need to try it.


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## bloodworm (Jan 5, 2007)

I guess its how you cook it. I hear people marinate or prepare it somehow , right now they are scaring all the fish and there not even biting since its the mating season for cownose rays


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