Took some time to get the laws cleared up, but now rays and skates are a legal bowfishig species. We shot them at Rehoboth Beach yesterday. Great mix of both cownose and southerns stingrays. It would be the perfect place for someone to bring the family. great beaches, boardwalks and now great bowfishing all at the same place.
Steve, congratulations on the "first" and thanks for the pictures. Many more to come I'm sure. Also thanks for your time and effort getting it legal.
How difficult was it to get harvesting them legalized?
How much meat do you get off of one that size?
How big of a boat do you need?
Sorry for all the questions. It does look like a blast.
It took some time. I guess more getting someone to listen. There are not many bowfishermen in DE, so I guess it would not draw much attention.
You get about 10lbs off a 70lb southern, and about 3lbs from the normal cownose.
16x60 would be about the smallest I would use. There were about 1' waves when we were there, and southerns will stick themselves to the bottom. I have had them almost stand the boat up trying to lift a big one in.
We seen 10-15 cownose and about the same amount of southerns. We kicked up another 20+ rays that we could not identify the species since the water was so dirty.
In Maryland we see about 20 sotherns for the day, and on the rare occasion a cownose or 2. If you hunt cownose in the Chesapeake 100+ rays can be seen on some days, but 30-40 is normal.
That was not big for a southern, but a nice one for your first for sure. Have no idea though how big a ray that area will hold since that was our first time hunting there. In Maryland we usually get a 80-100lb ray each trip down there. We have gone times when we seen 100+ every day. I guess when they are in to give birth. We will be down hunting for a few days next weekend and should shoot some giants in Maryland!
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First ray hunt in Delaware
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