THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

A good turn of speed, which along with a never say die attitude that would see some of the Tralee
stingers quite literally leaping out of the water doing a pretty good impression of a giant bat, always
ensured they were a handful. Spectacular stuff.
No wonder then that so many people sang, and possibly quietly continue to sing their praises, and more
than reason enough for boat and shore anglers to again go out searching for them, particularly
throughout the calm shallow waters of inner estuaries and creeks where they love to bask over the sun
warmed muddy sand
EAGLE RAY Myliobatis aquila
Bucket List status – result outside of home waters
As with the stingray, which at a glance the eagle ray kind-of resembles, this is a 'true ray' species. The
main physical difference between the stingray and eagle rays comes at the front end.
In the eagle ray, the head itself is very pronounced, both in terms of appearing to be raised up and in
the way it protrudes forward of the shoulders rather than being merged into them. This allows the eyes
to be set into the sides of the head, as opposed to the traditional skate and ray pattern of positioning
them on top.
A heavily built thick bodied fish with wide pointed wings and a long whip like tail armed with a
dangerous serrated spike or sting at its base just behind the small dorsal fin, a fin that is not present in
the stingray. Colouration varies from dusky bronze though various darker shades of brown to almost
black.
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