THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

Doubtless there are going to be other examples I don't know about. But it's the trend rather than the
actual distribution that I'm looking to highlight here.
Thornback numbers are on the increase with anglers seeing ever more of them, but for some reason, not
always where they expected to find them from past experience, which is puzzling. Presumably the
terrain won't have changed much over those absent years. So if it attracted them back then, why not
now.
I'm speculating here, but could it be the increase and imbalance between the rays and species such as
dogfish possibly competing in part at least for the same food. Previously, competing species may well
have been kept in check by a larger head of already established rays, whereas now the imbalance has
become too great to challenge.
Only targeted research can ever hope to answer that question. Simple dart tags are going into thornback
rays in Scottish waters and here in the north west. What scientists might be able to do with the data
these can potentially generate is another matter.
Ever since that first fish of mine at Rhyl, I've always had a soft spot for thornback rays. Not necessarily
to the point of regularly targeting them, though I do as the tide slackens when I'm cod fishing in October
and November on the Mersey by putting out a whole calamari squid.
As such, when one pops up anywhere, it's always welcome. And while they don't exactly put up a proper
fight in the true angling dictionary definition of the word, they can be quite a handful due to their surface
area in the tide, particularly if one takes your bait when the water is still running hard in the Mersey.
Ask Welsh international angler Mike Morgan who I filmed having hooked one at peak flow during a
cod championship anchored up just off Birkenhead town hall. A fish that took him a good forty minutes
to bring to the net, after which he had to sit down for a spell to recover.
Tactically speaking, what is true here of thornback rays
goes for all the other ray species too, the only slight
deviation being trace length, breaking strain, and hook
sizes which need to be matched to the size, strength, and
location of the particular species being targeted.
Otherwise, it's a simple heavy monofilament flowing trace
from the boats, and for my money, a similar gauge
monofilament pulley rig from the shore, particularly if
there are potential snags for the lead to go to ground in on
the retrieve.
For thornback and other rays up into low double figures,
four feet of sixty pounds bs monofilament and a 4/0 hook
should do fine. In the Mersey however, we tend to fish
traces much shorter than that rigged as a self hooking bolt
rig, not so much for the rays, but for the cod in the fearsome
run, and these too work well.
Dave Devine, River Mersey
Having a shorter length in a fast tide helps keep the bait
closer to the bottom instead of it bobbling and being lifted
out of the feeding zone due to a combination of tide and
resistance to it.
Typically, when they find a bait, skates and rays will settle over and smother it, then start to position
themselves so that they can get it into their mouth.
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