Huge Sussex Stingray - May 2018

I was fishing the West Sussex beaches over the recent bank holiday weekend in the hope of finding a Stingray. I try most years when the conditions are favourable around this time of year, but so far had been unsuccessful.

This year, everything changed! I fished on the Saturday afternoon with my friend Scott but we never had a bite in a 6 hour session. I then returned alone on the Sunday evening to try the night tide instead, starting at 9pm. It was flat calm with gin clear conditions and I had a solitary dogfish on my first cast, then my ragworm baits remained untouched until 3am.

I was on the verge of packing in as I had used up all my bait when there was a knock on my right hand rod, followed by lots of slack line. Winding down fast, I came up against some serious resistance as a powerful fish kited down tide, taking line as it ran. I had to apply serious side strain to keep it away from some underwater obstructions but eventually managed to turn it. 

After a bit of toing and froing, the fish eventually tired and I was able to slide this huge stingray up the shingle. I was amazed at the sheer size of it, never in all my dreams did I expect to catch a stinger like this. After having tried many times in recent years and not getting a reward, I was suitably pleased. Over the moon is an understatement!

All the other anglers had left the beach much earlier due to the inactivity, so I had to perform some self take photos. I also didn't have any scales with me so the fish was returned without being weighed. There's no doubt that it was huge, some have speculated that it's getting on for record size. Personally, I'm not fussed about the numbers. It's all about the experience and the memories and achieving the goals that I set myself in my fishing. This is one very special fish that I won't be forgetting in a hurry. I doubt I'll ever better that one! What a fish!!