bigcountry

Hey, I go fishin alot in the chesapeake bay. I hook into alot of rays. I hear some say they punch out the wings, and make great scallops. Anybody ever do this?

Tazman

bigcountry I have never heard of people eating cow nosed rays, but I beleive you may be talking about sting rays which get a lot bigger than cow nose rays and their wings are some fine eating, firm white meat that taste just like scallop, until the FDA figured out how to test for it, there was a lot of sting ray that were sold in resteraunts as scallop, they just skinned the fins and used a cookie cutter to cut out "scallops"!

BarnesX.308

I skinned out a cow nose a few years back. The meat in the wings is stringy and gross. I heard the fish they use might be skates but I also heard that the whole thing is a rumor.

bigcountry

Well, I guess I will pass up tryin them. Thanks for the info.

Tazman

Skates and sting rays are the same thing, they are black on top and white on the bottom and it is not a rumor, the wings taste just like scallops.

BarnesX.308

Actually, people around the Chesapeake refer to cownose rays as skates, but they are comletely different species. A skate is what you're more likely to catch in the ocean. They are smaller, have a shorter and stouter tail and have rougher skin. The common skate of the northeast is the clearnose skate. There is also the barndoor skate. The skate also does not have a stinger whereas the cownose ray does. Take a look into it and you'll find there are about 50 different species of skates and rays. Perhaps the true skates are better on the table.
SKATE

COWNOSE RAY