07-12-2001, 03:09 AM
Hi MJB, want to hear a true story? Late last year my friend Robert and I were fishing of a rocky outcrop called Point Diable(Devil's Point) on the north coast of Trinidad. We were casting 1oz. white jigs on 9ft. surf rods and heavy spinning tackle in about 40 ft. of water hoping to entice the occasional king or more accommodating jack crevalle into having a tasty looking morsel. Well things weren''t going as planned. It seemed that the schools of bait were holding further offshore in deeper water. Nevertheless we were already there so we decided to make a day of it. Things were really boring until Rob's rod doubled over and the sound of music came to my ears, whatever it was at the other end of his line was really causing his reel to sing. The fish then sounded almost to the bottom and held there, providing a lot of resistance as Rob tried hs best to regain lost line.Time and again we would think thie mystery fish was whipped when the fish would just take off again and then hold at a particular depth. Judging from Robert's struggles to pump the creaure up it evidently had to be broad bodied. Finally after about 35 mins of back and forth i finally caught my first glimpse. Have you ever seen a MANTA RAY eat a jig? that was my first and only experience. The ray weighed about 15 to 20 lbs and was about 3 to 3.5 feet across. The manta's mouth is different from the sting ray in that the manta has his mouth positioned normally while the sting ray's mouth is much smaler and positioned on the underside of his stomach. Well this manta sure was hungry because that jig was deeply embedded in his mouth. Well we removed the jig as fast as possible, having no wish to add manta to our cuisine.I shudder to think if the manta had been anywhere remotely closely to mature,it would have swallowed hook, line, jig, and fisherman in one big gulp.Has anyone else out there caught Manta rays unintentionally?<br><br>