PA Hardwoods

Anyone else bowfish for shark and stingray? Been doing it since I was about 12 or so. Great fun. Still trying to get my first shark though. But have shot many rays, some in the 75-100lb range. I do all of my bowfishing in Chincoteague, Va where my family owns a beach house. I have some pics but I have to get them scanned in, when I do i'll post them.

RustyOlRanger4x4

i never thought about shooting sting rays we have a spot here called the old pass and in most spots its really shallow like maby waist deep and its full of sting rays it would be perfect i might have to try that

PA Hardwoods

We actually hunt for them from a boat. A type of a scow or anything with a large platform type bow. We drive around in shallow areas until we see a "royal" (waves from when a stingray takes off) and then chase it down with the boat to get close enough to shoot it. What a blast trying to keep your balance on the bow of the boat as your racing along sometimes making sharp turns and then trying to shoot. We use a recurve bow with fiberglass arrows with a seperate short deepsea rod with heavy line attached to the arrow. You shoot then set the bow down as fast as possible Most of the time you throw the bow and it ends up in the water) and grab the rod and hang on for the ride of your life if you just shot a big one. We always have someone shooting backup with an arrow tied to some sort of milk type jug so we can follow the shark or ray easier. It is great fun, you must try it sometime.

E.J.D.

i love to hunt stingrays in the fla. keys....some big ones down there. used to let you take sharks, but changed the regulations......but i did get a 8 ft, lemon the year before, and lots of 4-5 ft. lemons duskys, and blacktips.....rays are great eating too!

HNI_Christine

If any of you guys should get a stingray in the future, do you think you could save me the stinger? No real reason, I've just thought it would be a nifty thing to have.

'Course one day I hope to get my own stingray (and stinger). I'd like to tan the skin if possible too.

Carpmaster

i really want to try stingrays with a bow sounds like a riot whether wading or from a boat.

E.J.D.

i have some nice letter openers ive made out of the stingers. the skin is like a sharks, but SLIMY! be going back down in nov. ill bring some back. better stick to the little ones when wading though..they are stronger than a shark, and dont seem to tire. but a retreivor reel tied off to a deep sea conventional reel might work when wading.

PA Hardwoods

Hey EJD how do you prepare the rays to eat, I've always heard they were good eating. But could hardly find info on how to prepare them. Do you just cut off the wings or what. We usually just pull the ray up into the boat and chop off the stinger with a machete and put the ray back, they usually survive even with and arrow hole in them. Or if we are going for sharks we will slit their bellies open and use them as chum for sharks. The only thing I've heard was to cut the wings off and grill them. But how do you do this? Any help would be great, been wanting to do this for years, Everyones says they taste like scallops.

E.J.D.

just cut the wings off....cut the top and bottom pieces off the cartilage just like filleting a fish......then flip over and skin the meat. 100% boneless. i think the scallop thing is mainly the smaller scates. you will see ridges in the meat, cot between them and you have fish sticks. you can also cut the fish into steaks, great fried or bbqd...actually my favorite seafood.

T_in_PA2

I went last summer. Here's a short write up on it and some pictures. Bowfishing Rays