Day 31…… Stingray

After averting a chicken based disaster caused by rushing to put up yesterday’s images I thought I should allow a little more time today and maybe even come up with a few words.

I can now sum human kind up into two categories. I do not have a clue how to name them. I am unsure if they have their own taxonomy but I may name them Homo Sapien Querulus, like Aurantiaco the separate orange subspecies who dwell in my part of the valleys.  I can describe them in a simple example. The Government, like them or hate them along with the NHS have constructed field hospitals in several major cities. An amazing feat by any standards and probably the execution of a plan for war or civil unrest. Two thousand Covid 19 patients can now be treated in the home of Welsh Rugby.

So here is the thing: social media has reported that The ‘Nightingale’ which is the field hospital in Birmingham’s NEC has NO patients and here is the split, Group A is decrying the Government for wasting NHS money by building a field hospital which at the time of the article had no patients. Group B is saying how fantastic that numbers of sick people are not great enough that we need these amazing facilities.

Just like those of us who are abiding by the advice given to stay at home and only go out when really necessary and the constant moaning of those who thing they should be allowed out to do what they please because dog walkers or cyclists are allowed out.

The chicken based disaster left hot Tandoori chicken fat on the kitchen floor, work surfaces, ceiling, oven and walls and I removed it with the bleach I had been saving to self medicate with if it came down to it (thank you Mr President) You could not make it up? or is it all made up, after all he is a very easy target?

Stingrays

For my entire journey through Clare I had heard of big Stingray being taken throughout Clare but more predominantly in Kerry from marks  in the Tralee Bay. A german spear hunter told me a tale of a 40 kilo stingray he had shot off Farnore Beach years before but this would have been way in excess of the current Irish rod caught record of around 73lb. I had also heard of them being taken from Cregg on warm summer evenings. As for the chances of a fish in Clare now Pulnasherry has to be the best option.  In one open match match a local angler caught two stingers one of over thirty pounds and the other forty three pounds.

I have always thought I hooked a few, fish going off like stream trains and then going solid on relatively snag free marks but in the image above I was fishing Poulnasherry with Andy and Jim from Dover SAC when this small stingray took fresh mackerel and shot off uptide. I had absolutely no idea what it was until I could see it as it did not fight like anything else I had ever hooked. I never had chance to target them any further.

I know there are marks like the Solent and Isle of White which have a good run of stingers but there are also a number of Welsh marks which have been known to produce the odd one or two. A friend of mine said he hooked a largish stinger off the White light in Barry but could not land it as he was on his own but this would have been twenty years ago. They have also been taken more recently off the Green light.

There is a Swansea mark which has produced and if the summer ever comes, warm calm and balmy, if we are allowed out and if tide are right come late August early September  and the tides are big enough for the sun to warm the beaches I will be there with King Rag and Peeler crab to see if there are any about.