Sting Rays in Monmouth County, NJ

were a bunch down in Sea Isle too beginning of July.

I stepped on one in Frisco 2 years ago surfing. Caught a wave pulled out jumped off board put my foot right down one. Stung me and hurt REALLY REALLY bad. Hobbled back to house put foot in warm water all better. The warm water neutralizes the protein they inject into you or something like that i was told. Not sure if that was the same species that is up this way ?

 

yup same species. read my post on page 2

 

You'll be fine as long as you shuffle your feet and avoid pulling a Steve Irwin--trying to hug one....

 

those bodies washed up, huh...

 

+1...when I lived in mantoloking, there was one summer we had a ton of them. Just like described. Made the water look redish and they kind of came up in the waves.

My roomate at the time did the south jersey report for the fishermqn mqgazine and knew what they were right away. He said they can sting, but they really have to be provoked to do so. They have a barb on their tail that has some mild venom. He told me not to worry about it, but not to step down hard or at allbif avoidable, and thats what I did and I didnt get stung.

 

based on your name isn't that like the ol' pot calling the kettle black.

SUPers are kooks by virtue.....no?

 

Use a cookie cutter on their wings and make real scallops. Mmmmmmm. Yummy JK
There have been a lot around in Ocean County too along with some sharky poos. I had an aggressive 5-6 footer charge at me twice on Sunday morning and came within 1-2 ft of me.
A couple years ago I was live lining a bunker off of a 1965 Dewey Weber and hooked up with something huge. After 45 minutes of fighting and being towed many blocks It revealed itself as a huge ray and went right back to the bottom and kept towing me south. I kept trying to land it upside down on the board to retrieve my snag rig from its mouth. Every time I grabbed for the snag it would swing its tail toward my right leg and I would quickly let it go back down still hooked up. I tried to get the snag out a couple of times but the ray was repeatedly defending with its barb, so I cut the line close to its mouth. I had this thing hooked up for 1.5 hours and it wouldn't get tired. Its wingspan was bigger than mine (6'2") and weighed over 100 lbs. It was a crowded beach day and people were like WTF!? My rod was bent in half the whole time. Fun stuff.

 

definitely cownose rays. i've seen them spearfishing plenty of times.

 

interesting app link... sharks?! really? I was in the water last night- around 8 - didn't see anything. but I was north of the shark river...

 

There were a few rays out in the lineup just now, a few miles north of Shark River Inlet. Lifeguards called everyone out at the local beach. The second one I saw had some good size, looked to be about 3 to 4 feet across, and was hanging around the swimming area. The first one I saw through a wave while catching a few an hour earlier looked about 3 feet across.

Water is balmy, the warmest yet, gotta be above 75F. Buoy 44065 reporting 75.9F. Pushing 80F early August?

Ryan