[Harry Hill]

BWE member Sven wrote me a note the other day asking if I wanted to go out of Newport for some rockfish this Friday. Of course I did so we arranged to meet at the coast guard station about 6am. We bought some bait at the barge, the anchovies were tiny little two inchers but the sardines were nice about 5 or 6 inches. They were still $10 for a kayak scoop so we loaded up and headed out side. We were going to hit the kelp but the swells were a little rough so we headed out a couple of miles to about 150' of water, give or take a little. Sven started right off catching small sharks, smooth hound sharks he said. I hit a sand dab hole and started catching them. I had my feet hanging over the side and had just landed a sand dab when something grabbed my foot. I almost died, from a heart attack. It scared the beejeebers out of me, all I saw was a brown swirl. Then it came back, it was a bat ray, about 50 or more pounds and it started slurping the side of my boat. After few minutes if moved to the back of my boat and kept chewing on it for about 20 minutes or so. It didn't stop until I started paddling in, I was experiencing my first bout of sea sickness from the swells. Once we got in the bay the sickness went away and we started fishing for halibut, we did pretty good as far as numbers go but only got one legal fish, about 23" that Sven caught, with a borrowed sardine. His bait tank quit and all his bait died but I had a lot so we just kept fishing. I had one pretty nice halibut up to the boat but he came off right at the boat. Anyway, we had a good time, kept getting bites until the tide changed then we headed home. It took me three hours to get home, normally an hour and fifteen minute drive. After thinking about why the bat ray kept trying to eat my boat I think the bait guy had dumped a bunch of the tiny anchovies in with the sardines, they were so small they were going out my overflow and the bat ray was feasting on them. I can't tell you why he bit on my foot but I think I'll keep my feet in the boat from now on. I forgot to add the picture of Sven and his fish, when you see this watch Americas Most Wanted and see if he looks familiar