# cow nose rays



## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

been fishing where I'm fishing for about 6 years. yesterday I was seeing big schools of these all over the bay. never seen them before. funny how they stay at or near the surface. I googled them and I guess it is a breeding thing. pretty cool.


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## T Bone (Jul 24, 2014)

I have mistaken them for schools of tailing reds over there on more than one occasion...


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## Guest (Jun 5, 2019)

Hammerheads are right behind them!


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

T Bone said:


> I have mistaken them for schools of tailing reds over there more than i care to admit...


that was my 1st thought but then I realized I was in 3 feet of water.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

Boatbrains said:


> Hammerheads are right behind them!


new seen a hammerhead around here have you? Lots of bonnetheads.


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## Guest (Jun 5, 2019)

I have! A few very large 16-18’ers over the years! One was about 2miles SW of the scallop platform in 12-14’ of water. 1 was near the outer spoil banks of the barge canal chomping on the cobia I was catching that day. And was was even larger off shore about 20 miles and was just kinda basking and rolling at the surface. Our area is a major pupping grounds for lots of different species of shark! Had a 14’ plus tiger swim by during a day of trout fishing, about a half mile to my east wad about a million boats with scallopers in the water!


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

wow. I've seen 10 ft bull sharks a few times with 2,000 scallopers in the water a mile or 2 away. its a wonder none of them get bit.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

so yesterday I had one of those refrigerator hook sets (where it feels like you set the hook on a double door fridge) and it broke me off, lost 3 feet of 30lb leader and a few feet of 10lb braid. Have had that happen a number of times around the oyster bars in crystal bay. never get a look at whatever it is.


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Florida is the shark bite capitol of the world (more bites here than anywhere else - mostly because of the great number of folks in the water - year 'round).

Notice I didn't say "attack" since the vast majority of the bites are just that... a single bite on a hand or foot with no follow-up (we're not on the menu for most sharks, thank heavens). Of course your vacation is pretty much ruined if you're needing sixty or seventy stitches...

If you ever hear of someone badly hurt or killed by a shark - the number one culprit in my opinion would be the bull shark inshore (and if the incident occurred at night?). A big tiger since they will swim inshore at night...


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## Fritz (Jan 17, 2017)

I was snorkeling (FL Keys) this February in five feet of water hunting lobster, got back in my skiff and a hundred yards away pops the unmistakable dorsal of a large hammerhead. I was done swimming now, obviously, so I ran over with the TM and shadowed this pig for ten minutes. When that shark was in the shallows his belly was almost rubbing bottom while his dorsal pushed a wake, I’m guessing twelve feet.

I agree with Bob, I see sharks ALL THE TIME from the boat, but almost never when I’m in the water, and I’m in the water a lot, my theory is they see me first so I never see them. Nurse sharks don’t count.

I stay out of the water in low light and any time the visibility is poor.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

Boatbrains said:


> Hammerheads are right behind them!


and cobias pecking off what the rays spook up in the flats.

big bulls / hammers and the bulls like freshwater rivers/ creeks..
people / pets occasionally disappear in the the SWFL canals from bulls.


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## DuckNut (Apr 3, 2009)

I was fishing Saturday and saw a 6 foot spotted eagle ray with a 18 inch moon shaped chunk taken out of its left wing.


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## hipshot (Sep 29, 2018)

FWIW back in the sixties I used to fly over the water in the upper Keys occasionally in a friend’s Cessna 150. More than once we saw boats on the reefs with divers down. Often there were numerous sharks all around, but all of them out of the immedite vicinity of the divers. It always seemed that they were aware of the divers and holding their distance.


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## Guest (Jun 6, 2019)

That plane didn’t belong to Carlos Lehder did it @hipshot?


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## derf1865 (Sep 22, 2018)

I was fishing for bull reds last summer with a buddy at night; we were sight casting them mauling shrimp under bridge lights in the bay. Not sure the depth, but it is very near shore. This was the first trip I had ever taken at night for bull reds, so I was already pumped about the trip. My buddy hooked one on fly not 10 minutes after getting to the spot; I threw my rod down and grabbed the net after he fought it for a little, just as I was going to scoop it up, what I am assuming was a 7+ footer hit the fish and bit it clean in half at the surface, probably breached the water halfway to his dorsal.


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## hipshot (Sep 29, 2018)

Boatbrains said:


> That plane didn’t belong to Carlos Lehder did it @hipshot?


Nope! Never played that game. Actually, one of my friends’ parents were both pilots, and they bought him the plane so he could log time. I’d fly with him after school some times, and some days he let me fly while he did homework. I loved flying but couldn’t afford to do much of it.


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## Ben (Dec 21, 2016)

My buddy caught two of them last year when we were casting at bait schools in upper Matlacha Pass. Caught them on 3” paddle tails on a 1/4 oz. jig head. Surprised the hell out of me. They put up a pretty good fight and make you think you have a cobia on for a couple minutes.


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

devrep said:


> been fishing where I'm fishing for about 6 years. yesterday I was seeing big schools of these all over the bay. never seen them before. funny how they stay at or near the surface. I googled them and I guess it is a breeding thing. pretty cool.


If you sit on the school and keep watch towards the outside of them, you may fine one or several cobias working the outside of the schools. I'd throw dark colored soft plastic jerk baits at them that are rigged weedless, so you don't snag one of the cow rays.


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## devrep (Feb 22, 2009)

Backwater said:


> If you sit on the school and keep watch towards the outside of them, you may fine one or several cobias working the outside of the schools. I'd throw dark colored soft plastic jerk baits at them that are rigged weedless, so you don't snag one of the cow rays.


thanks for the tip. I read that cobia actually feed on the cownose rays.


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## anytide (Jul 30, 2009)

they will follow females giving birth and eat all i hear.


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