Two locals apparently got the surprise of their life while fishing on an Alabama beach, where they reeled in a 100-pound stingray during Independence Day weekend.
Chris Moore, Jeremy Sloan along with apprentices from Germany were fishing in Dauphin Island when something snagged their rod, FOX10 reported Sunday. It took the group 45 minutes to reel in the monster-sized creature, they told the outlet.
100-pound stingray takes fishermen 45 minutes to reel in – https://t.co/XiE4QcAlTW pic.twitter.com/qYUolmYJPy
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“After awhile, we both ended up getting tired, I continued to fight the fish to bring it in and probably about 35-40 minutes in, it ended up breaking my fishing pole that we’d just gotten from Bass Pro and I was running a 100-pound test line on my pole so it wasn’t going to break my line,” Moore said. (RELATED: Teen Almost Drowns After Stingray Flies Out Of Ocean, Whacks Him Off Jet Ski Into Water)
In addition to the stingray, Moore’s apprentices caught their first baby shark during their time in Dauphin Island, according to the outlet.
Moore then caught another stingray that was pregnant an hour or two later.
“As I was able to get the hook from its mouth, and went to go release, it didn’t want to swim away right away. It was hanging out right there in the shoreline. Sure enough, within 30 seconds of releasing it, it started giving birth to baby stingrays. So we probably had 3-4 baby stingrays just swimming around right there for everyone to get a watch,” Moore recalled.
Moore said he took the hooks out of the creatures’ mouths before releasing them back into the wild, the outlet reported.
“A lot of people- when they catch them- they cut the tail off. The tail does regrow after a year or two. Usually, when you grab them and just flip them over, it will demobilize them. Be aware of the tail- we’ve all seen the news stories of the tail,” he told FOX10.