Brace of Stingrays caught fishing National Geographic Zeb Hogan – 21 01 2009
Day Four of a two week Thailand stingray fishing expedition in search of Giant freshwater stingray saw the Fishsiam team joined by Dr.Zeb Hogan and the National Geographic film crew.
After previous success on the preceding day fishing at the Maeklong River the team was highly confident of success.
The team fished on a wide bend of the river and fished six rods at various areas beneath the boat with small Marbled Sand Goby livebaits impaled onto Owner SSG circle hooks.
After a short period of time a slight knocking on the tip of one of the rods indicated some disturbance eighteen metres below.
Seconds later all hell broke loose as line began to evaporate from the Shimano multiplier!
Quickly winding down into the fish saw the rod wrenched down towards the surface of the river as a Giant freshwater Stingray slowly moved off with the bait.
A thirty minute battle followed which saw the Giant freshwater stingray characteristically clamping onto the muddy riverbed.
The boat was carefully moved in order to get a direct line of pull from above the fish and maximum pressure was applied resulting in the prehistoric stingray being prised from the riverbed.
After bringing the fish alongside the boat the fish was secured before being transported to the riverside for an inspection by Dr.Zeb Hogan in front of the cameras.
The Giant freshwater stingray was weighed with the help of a crane arm at a weight of 60kg’s and was identified as a good sized male.
Numeric tags were fitted onto the stingray in addition to various scientific data being recorded concerning the fish.
The stingray was placed in a holding tank whilst the scientific examination was carried out.
Leaving the scientist to carry out the examination the Fishsiam team returned to the same area and repositioned the rods.
After only twenty minutes another rod burst into life as yet another Giant Freshwater Stingray picked up the bait.
This time it was clear that this was a much smaller fish as it soon succumbed to constant pressure from the Big game equipment.
Ten minutes after the initial take saw a Giant freshwater Stingray of 45kg’s being secured alongside the boat.
The fish was quickly transported back to the research site and placed in the holding tank with the other specimen.
After weighing and recording scientific data both fish were returned to the river by Dr.Zeb Hogan whilst being filmed by the production crew
