Giant Freshwater stingray Thailand – 25 03 2014
European angler Jarno continued his Thailand fishing holiday at the Maeklong River.
The second day of the stingray fishing trip saw Jarno and his companion both moored up on a wide bend of the tidal river.
Baits were soon positioned at various intervals across the river in readiness of more action from the Giant freshwater stingrays.
With water conditions looking good the anglers did not have to wait long before one of the floats burst into life signalling the arrival of the stingrays.
On winding down into the unseen fish the heavy duty stand up rod took on a healthy curve as the stingray moved off with the bait.
The angler applied maximum pressure on the fish with the rod from directly above causing the stingray to come up in the water off the bottom.
The stingray was brought up through the water over the course of the next few minutes only to dive back down and clamp onto the riverbed.
After several minutes of leverage being applied from above the stingray was finally prised off the bottom and brought up to the waiting net.
The Giant freshwater stingray was estimated to weigh 50-60kg’s and was quickly returned after photography.
Within minutes of returning to the fishing area the anglers found themselves attached to a much larger Giant freshwater stingray.
On this occasion a large amount of line was removed from the Makaira multiplier reel causing the captain to open up the engine and follow the stingray downstream.
After replacing most of the heavy duty mono onto the reel the Giant stingray stopped moving and clamped itself onto the riverbed.
Jarno was soon positioned above the stingray exerting as much leverage as humanly possible.
The 130 lb stand up rod creaked as it took up the full weight of the stingray causing the monster fish to move off on another powerful run.
The anglers followed the stingray back upstream where it once again clamped onto the bottom.
The anglers repeated the process once again applying maximum pressure from above for ten minutes before the stingray once again moved off.
On this occasion the anglers were able to keep the fish off the bottom and slowly battled the stingray in mid water.
After a further ten minutes of hauling the fish up to the surface the Giant freshwater stingray was finally brought to the waiting net and carefully brought to the riverside for pictures.
With the battle lasting over an hour the Giant freshwater stingray was quickly unhooked and allowed a few minutes to recover.
After a photographs were taken the monster Giant freshwater stingray was released back into the river.
The Giant freshwater stingray was estimated to weigh 220-250kg’s.
