‘It took us 45 minutes to reel in’; locals land 100-pound stingray at Dauphin Island
By Ashlyn Mitchell
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DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama (WALA) — Chris Moore and Jeremy Sloan knew they’d caught something big when it took them 45 minutes to reel in their anonymous catch.
“After awhile, we both ended up getting tired, I continued to fight the fish to bring it in and probably about 35-40 minutes in, it ended up breaking my fishing pole that we’d just gotten from Bass Pro and I was running a hundred-pound test line on my pole so it wasn’t going to break my line,” said Chris Moore.
To their shock, they discovered a 100-pound stingray once they got it on shore.
“I’ve never caught one that big from Dauphin Island,” said Moore.
Moore was accompanied by his apprentices from Germany who are in Mobile for the summer to work at Airbus. It was their first time at Dauphin Island.
“They didn’t want to grab the fishing pole,” laughed Moore.
They eventually caught their first baby shark which proved to be less daunting than the stingray.
“It was definitely worth it. It’s about building memories. They don’t get to see that on the regular,” added Moore.
About an hour or two later they were in for another surprise, catching a second stingray. This time, this one was pregnant.
“As I was able to get the hook from its mouth, and went to go release, it didn’t want to swim away right away. It was hanging out right there in the shoreline. Sure enough, within 30 seconds of releasing it, it started giving birth to baby stingrays. So we probably had 3-4 baby stingrays just swimming around right there for everyone to get a watch,” explained Moore.
For both stingrays, Moore says they were careful with the catch and the release.
“I never want to cut the hook, I want to get the hook fully out of the animal’s mouth before we release it,” he said. “A lot of people- when they catch them- they cut the tail off. The tail does regrow after a year or two. Usually, when you grab them and just flip them over, it will demobilize them. Be aware of the tail- we’ve all seen the news stories of the tail.”
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