Rays in Rockhopper

It's been a while in coming, but at last Dave got to take me out for a change in his new boat 'Rockhopper'. An inshore trip was panned so Dave could get used to skippering his new boat. We decided to look for a few rays on a set of numbers that throws up a few undulates around the Shanklin area. Dave was very interested in trying here as so far, over his entire angling career, an undulate ray has eluded him.
After a successful launch with the tractor and a short motor round the bay we decided to anchor up and try to get some fresh bait while we still had daylight. It took a while but eventually we had around 30 mackerel and a solitary scad for bait.
As dusk fell the bottom fish started to feed. First up was a small thornback, followed by Dave's first ever (about time!!) Undulate Ray of 10lb 4oz.

Next up was another thornback that didn’t want to come off the bottom to start with…

I then added an undulate just in to double figures while Dave had another three!!!....the best one going 12lb 5oz. I think he had a new personal best beaten twice last night....never had one before and then 4 in one trip!

Dave's new personal best undulate!:

All in all a very enjoyable trip, Dave was very pleased with the boat and his maiden voyage! I enjoyed sitting back for a change while he did all the leg work but I'd forgotten that the crew always pulls the anchor....not done that for a while!