[JrBasser]

Nothing was taken. They were landed. we have a promar lobster net we use as a cradle when we land the big rays. The rocks here are a shallow slope and small rocks so we can carry them up safely and remove the hooks, get a quick picture, then carry them back down to the water. In fact this process is usally done so quickly we don't have time to remove the eel grass and hook from the fishes mouth before pictures /\.

And Matt, we actually haven't had any big rays swallow a hook. They kind of run and chew, run and chew. run and chew. Of the two hooks we've been using, Mustad 7/0 stainless hooks and gami 4/0 circles. we have not hooked a fish outside of the corner of the mouth on either. The circle hooks only really help with the smaller baits where you have by catch. The shark above was caught on a carolina rig with a circle hook. The two bigger rays above were caught on the rig I mentioned earlier with the bigger hooks. In my post about cutting the hook out, I was referring to what I would do on the kayak with a big ray. And If I were on the kayak, I would not be intending to catch and release rays, therefore may not be fishing circle hooks.