The best ray for eating, and the one best known in Europe, is Raja clavata, the thornback ray. |
It's an unusual find on this coast, with thornback being the most copmmon rays, and they turn up only occasionally. |
Keelan landed bull huss, conger, cod, rockling, pouting and dogfish before latching on to the prize catch of the day, a 20lb 8oz thornback ray. |
Eleven of these are of the shark variety, who live in blissful harmony with stingrays, thornback rays, conger eels and dogfish, to name but a few. |
Thornback and blond rays are most often seen, with brill, plaice, sole, flounder and even turbot on occasion. |
For a while we thought it might be a smallish skate, but it turned out to be a nice thornback of around twelve pounds. |