Went on a carpet ride

[RoyL]

"Went on a carpet ride" Your probably asking your self what the hell that means, and Im pretty sure I would have too until the other night. A few friends of mine who I fish with and I decided to try a new spot after getting some reports in the search for a big sandtiger shark from shore. What we got was something that I have been wanting to land for years now. I have hooked into them on mono and have never been able to get them in, but had been wanting to see if with braid it was a diffrent story. There was 4 of us and kevin had never caught a shark before so he was first up as the first rod went off. The fish was definatly big but fought very odd and not like a shark. After a little while we figured it was either a shark that had wrapped it self in the line or a big ray. Well after a bit it was apparent that it was a ray. A big whiptail stingray that we estamated to close to 200lbs. Because of its size we couldn't beach it so I had to go in and wrestle it. This is where the carpet ride comes in. Just an amazing animal with so much power. It was bad enough trying to keep it from whiping me with its 8" stinger, but trying to turn this beast towards shore was even harder. Im still sore from the work out but worth every bit of sweat to get the pictures we did, so I hope you guys enjoy some of them. It was released in great shape.