RE: First ray hunt in Delaware
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.