# Giant Stingray



## SSMike (Aug 15, 2005)

From the Mekong River.....

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,4602,00.html#2_0


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## Don Smith (Nov 24, 2007)

That guy is way too close to the business end of that ray even if he thinks it's dead.


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## coxhw (Jun 7, 2007)

Don't look Vietnamese to me.


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## TexasFlats (Mar 29, 2007)

Mmmmmmm..... mekong scallops


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## Gofish2day (May 9, 2006)

You may not know it but there are stingray just about that big here in galveston. As a kid in black bay just SE of New Orleans we shark fished. We caught them 6 feet wide and they were not Mantas. You need a deep sea rod with at least 100lbs test. When something hits your 2lbs sand trout and you can't stop it, it's a large ray.


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## Savage Rods (Apr 27, 2005)

wow, that thing is massive


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## squidmotion (Apr 5, 2007)

watched my grandmother pull one in after a 2hour fight at alabama point once.... that thing was wicked.... we estimated it to be in the 250lb range.... biggest, scariest **** stingray i have every seen!!!! they can get HUGE. they are probably like hammerhead sharks..... they really don't know how big those get either.... everytime someone says, 'so and so fish never gets above such and such length', the next week someone from indonesia (or china) shows up with one 10' over the 'maximum'..... 




yeah, 'expert' in that photo is waaaaay to close to the wrong end.... another darwin candidate if that thing springs back to life...!!!!


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## Mudwhistle (Apr 29, 2008)

I would hope they'd pull the barb out when handling them.


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## cloudfishing (May 8, 2005)

Smething does not look right about that picture


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## tokavi (May 6, 2006)

I agree with cloudfishing, doesn't look right to me either.


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## Instigator (Jul 6, 2004)

Photoshopped or not, the southerns we have here get just that big. A couple years ago I came up on a shrimper with one easily that size dangling from his boom.


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## Fish-a-mon (May 21, 2004)

I think it is the angle of the camera. We have Southerns that are 250 plus right in our bays.


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## jeeper2 (Mar 24, 2008)

Saw a show about faked images, something to look for is different shadow angles in different parts of the picture. The shadows on the tarp look different than the shadows on the guy. Note the edges of his arm, and the ray's tail seem to morph into a rope. It's Fox anyway, a video supermarket tabloid.


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## seattleman1969 (Jul 17, 2008)

*It's for real....*

I watched a Discovery Channel special about giant fish and these were featured, the Giant Mekong Stingray. Some french guy caught one on that show that went well over 200 Lbs. that river has some huge and unique fish including the Giant Mekong Catfish....


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## Mustad7731 (May 23, 2004)

There is something about that picture that ain't right...The Fox News Link
has some more realistic pictures of the ray...

Back about 1980 I caught a Southern Roughtail Stingray that was about
6' wide...I caught it at the Jetty of the South Pass of the Mississippi River.
As we gaffed her and started bringing her on my boat she gave birth to 17
babies....We took her to the New Orleans Big Game Fishing Clubhouse at
the South Pass lighthouse and weigh her...Exactly 150 lbs...Not bad on 30#
line...We had seen a boat hang her or her buddies on heavy line and try to
stop them short...They broke off within 10-15 yds...I wish I had a picture 
except the one eched in my mind...That Ray covering the whole front of my
20' Mako...

Now that I look back I cannot beleive I killed her just to find out what she
weighted...It was a different time then...


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## Lord of the Salmon (Feb 17, 2008)

gofish2day said:


> You may not know it but there are stingray just about that big here in galveston. As a kid in black bay just SE of New Orleans we shark fished. We caught them 6 feet wide and they were not Mantas. You need a deep sea rod with at least 100lbs test. When something hits your 2lbs sand trout and you can't stop it, it's a large ray.


We would get skates about that size while halibut fishing in cook inlet off of homer. They would **** you off because you thought it was a halibut until you finally got the bastard up 350 feet.


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## aggie07 (Jun 13, 2007)

i agree...possibly photoshopped?


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## Topwater blowup (Feb 20, 2006)

I have caught them so big that their wings hung over the sides of a full size pickup bed. Figured it weighed between 250-300 lbs at the cedars in Highisland off of the beach surf fishing.


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## caddokid (Jun 30, 2005)

I agree with Seatleman, I saw the same show, they routinely catch rays that size in the mekong river.


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## Batboy0068 (Oct 10, 2006)

look at the shadow on his arm. I say fake


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## flounder#er (Mar 7, 2008)

that's one heck of a photoshop job


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## jdsuperbee (Jun 13, 2007)

I just read an article in the Star Telegram Sunday about some pro fishermen in the mekong and chinese rivers fishing for huge rays. He said that soneone had caught one a week before that was 6' across and over 200#. They think that there are some that are way larger. He had caught one over 3' across and was considered a baby. They were saying that due to polution and damming of the rivers, they expect several species of fish to become extinct including the giant rays.


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## The Machine (Jun 4, 2007)

no kidding


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## live2fish-fish2live (May 23, 2008)

is he sticking his arm up the "poop shoot" or what, pic looks off



cloudfishing said:


> Smething does not look right about that picture


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## SEAHUNT186 (Dec 24, 2004)

live2fish-fish2live said:


> is he sticking his arm up the "poop shoot" or what, pic looks off


LOL!!:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: Now that's funny.
That pic is off. His right arm to me is not right around the edges.

If that ray does exist...how much would that weigh??

Steve


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## savage (Dec 31, 2004)

Here's an image dated June 26th, 2000 (a Monday) down at the hanging area at the base of the Texas City Dike. The previous days' contest winners are on display. 

For size - the fellow in the picture is about 5-foot-8.

Yeah - skates get big, but I have to call Photoshop on that 10-footer.


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## bk005 (Feb 23, 2005)

Man everyone is a photoshop pro. 

I watched the discovery channel episode on this to. Something about that delta has more moving water/ food and fish get huge there. There were pro anglers going there just to target these. After the Catfish Ive seen pics from out of there, I dont doubt a ray could be that big. The Mekong "Aint" Galveston Bay...


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## Baystlth1 (Sep 26, 2006)

GOOD GOSH GURDY!!!! That thing is HUUUGE!


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## scuppersancho (May 25, 2006)

TRUE
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080722-stingray-video-wc.html


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## bigmark (Jun 28, 2006)

I think we need to check on SNOPES


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## Tyler (Jun 18, 2004)

Here is a good sized one Capt. Billy Sandifer has on his site.


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## 11andy11 (Aug 12, 2004)

its real. They were trying to find the worlds largest freshwater fish and I guess they found it. That delta has catfish pushing 100lbs as well.


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## 4-G-RANCH (Jun 21, 2008)

I just hope no one steps on that one .................


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## jay07ag (Mar 22, 2006)

we caught one a few years back in bolivar that was 5-6 feet across, felt like trying to reel in a cinder block....broke us off when it got close enough to see us


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## Freshwaterman (May 21, 2004)

I fished the Oil Mans tourny in Cocadre La. (spelling) and the guy that won one the

Miscellaneous Class caught one not quite that big but close.


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## Nathanww (Jan 2, 2007)

WOW!!!!


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## iridered2003 (Dec 12, 2005)

my brother pulled one from somewhere around the jetties in galveston back in the early 1980s that went 198lbs after having 8 babys. won the tackletime that year. thats when it was in galveston at the eastend of the island. sure wish the did it there still. i was hooked up on something at the southjetties a few years ago that i faught for about 45 mins before i got broke off and we believe it was a large ray. if it was, it was big. i've caught a few around galveston, but never landed one over 35 to 40 lbs.


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## IkanRaja (Jun 1, 2004)

It looks like it's true.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-stingray20-2008jul20,0,5344242.story

And it seems to be in Cambodia rather than Vietnam (someone mentioned it doesn't look like 'nam in the picture).


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