Myers Depot Metal Detectors

I stepped on a stingray! Scared the !!!! out of me!

beachdude

beachdude

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
542
Location
Toronto & South Africa
stingray_pool.jpg


OK, I was hunting this tidal pool this afternoon and I got a pretty big scare...

I looking for the lost engagement ring that some chick told me about a few weeks ago. The bottom of the pool is mostly sand covering a layer of granite rock like you see outside the pool. That green stuff you see in the center of the pool is some seaweed that is floating bout an inch or so off the sand.

The pool was built in 1933 and is in the local town where most of the residents are millionaires who live in palatial seaside homes, and they often come down to this pool for a swim .

I figure I am the only person who has hunted it recently (or ever) with a metal detector, and I could hear all kinds of targets in my headphones. The problem is, that they are in chest deep water and once I pinpoint roughly where they are, I can't use my stainless steel long-handled scoop because of the granite under the sand which stops the scoop from scooping content.

So I have to duck under water and fan the sand away with my hand and then run the metal detector over the area, fan some more, scan the area again, all while hanging upside down holding my breath. It is really hard and slow work.

Anyway, I did eventually manage to recover a old coin that is heavily encrusted with sand and it's size and weight doesn't match anything currently in circulation. I will have to carefully clean it to see what it is:

crusty_coin.jpg


I was walking along the sandy bottom on the way out of the pool, and suddenly my left foot got shoved right up toward the surface so hard it buckled my knee! It was like someone had pushed the bottom of my wading shoe really hard from underneath. I nearly lost my balance, and as I swiveled around (still in chest-deep water), trying to see what had happened, I saw a short-tailed stingray swimming away. The ray was I guess about 2 feet in diameter. I am really glad He didn't sting me, because their stings have been lethal and their stingers can even pierce kevlar diving booties - I was just wearing plastic shoes. Man was that thing ever strong!

I guess he got thrown into the pool by bug waves during a recent high tide and can't find his way back out to the sea.

I am not sure if I am going to go back and hunt that pool again....

Short-Tail Stingray:
Short-tail stingray - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
people swim there?

you might want to mention to someone before somebody actually does get stung!

nice coin btw...hopefully
 
Scary experience... I did that once in Puerto Rico. Did not get stung... but sure did get the old adrenaline flowing. Use your scoop ahead of you much as blind people use the white cane... usually that will make them move ahead of you.
RickO
 
That's one of those stories you can laugh about after the fact; but is anything but funny as it is happening.

I remember a sting ray warning that I received from my Dad at age six. He often gigged Flounder in Mobile Bay (Alabama) when I was younger. The first time he ever allowed me to accompany him, he told me to walk by shuffling my feet rather than pick them up off the bottom. The theory was that it's better to bump into a sting ray and scare it away than to step directly on top and risk getting stung. That warning has stuck with me for almost 70 years. Even now, when at the beach, I tend to shuffle my feet along the bottom instead of taking normal steps.
 
napp said:
That's one of those stories you can laugh about after the fact; but is anything but funny as it is happening.

I remember a sting ray warning that I received from my Dad at age six. He often gigged Flounder in Mobile Bay (Alabama) when I was younger. The first time he ever allowed me to accompany him, he told me to walk by shuffling my feet rather than pick them up off the bottom. The theory was that it's better to bump into a sting ray and scare it away than to step directly on top and risk getting stung. That warning has stuck with me for almost 70 years. Even now, when at the beach, I tend to shuffle my feet along the bottom instead of taking normal steps.
Click to expand...

I think I am going to take your Dad's advice as well from now on.
 
I got stung last year while water hunting, talk about pain! If you do get stung the solution is easy: soak wounded area in hot water, as hot as you can stand it without danger of burning your foot, keep changing the water as it gets cooler, takes about 3 hours and you're good. Your foot, if that's where you get hit, will remain swollen, and the actual place the spike entered your foot will take a long time to heal completely, that's normal... Get on some antibiotics to make sure, but the pain will be gone in 3 hours...
That area sounds like a great spot to hunt though, stingrays aside. When you get a signal set your scoop down in front of where the target is and try pushing the target in to your scoop with your foot, tough work but could pay off well for you...
HH, and remember "do the stingray shuffle".
 
i would use

Electroysis on that coin wow,look's like :shock: a something nice,watch out for those sting ray's i think one killed that dude on the discovery channel,the barb perced the heart,happy hunting,and were there is one coin you found ,there might be more,Earl
 
I was just going to mention my friend Steve Irwin was killed by a string ray. And yes when ever wading salt water try to do the stringray shuffle. I really miss him..
 
Surf Master said:
Electroysis on that coin wow,look's like :shock: a something nice,watch out for those sting ray's i think one killed that dude on the discovery channel,the barb perced the heart,happy hunting,and were there is one coin you found ,there might be more,Earl
Click to expand...
That dude is Steve Irwin..
 
Aint nothing like the feeling of your foot starting to move out from under you, especially when you out in the ocean. There is a lot of strange things out there. Nice finds.

Dew
 
zeemang said:
I got stung last year while water hunting, talk about pain! If you do get stung the solution is easy: soak wounded area in hot water, as hot as you can stand it without danger of burning your foot, keep changing the water as it gets cooler, takes about 3 hours and you're good. Your foot, if that's where you get hit, will remain swollen, and the actual place the spike entered your foot will take a long time to heal completely, that's normal... Get on some antibiotics to make sure, but the pain will be gone in 3 hours...
That area sounds like a great spot to hunt though, stingrays aside. When you get a signal set your scoop down in front of where the target is and try pushing the target in to your scoop with your foot, tough work but could pay off well for you...
HH, and remember "do the stingray shuffle".
Click to expand...

Scott,

The stingray shuffle is great advise! It saved me on my last trip it was a small one maybe 12" to 14" shot out of the sand as I kicked it. But later in the trip I did manage to step one of those round ball things with spikes sticking out all over it. My water shoes saved me on that one the spike just stuck through the sole as I felt the spikes if I had no shoes it would of been another story. Be careful down there I heard the jelly fish season is starting soon?
 
On a cruise about 5 years ago we were taken on a Stingray Encounter. This is a scheduled off ship activity. We were put on a small boat and taken to a area were stingrays congregate. (Grand Cayman islands) They had us jump in with mask, fins and snorkel. It was on a reef in about 5 ft of water. I knew nothing about Stingrays at the time. I wonder if they still have this activity? Looking back, it was awful dangerous.
 
Congrats on the coin. Now time to go back with a snorkel and a spear... Hope he gets out before you go back.
 
Can't wait to see what that coin is. Every year we go down to Hatteras and surf fish. I was wading in the water when all of a sudden the sand starts to move around and under me for about 100 ft. Hundreds of 4 foot long and 6 foot wide stingrays start swimming away. I looked like some guy from a cartoon who stepped on a banana. My arms were flailing but I made it to the shore by walking on stingrays.:lol: Pretty scary
 
Check this out

This could pay for itself if ya use it enough. I would love to mount something like it on my boat along with a hukah breathing device to hit sandbars and beaches and rivers. Go to youtube and type in coinvac it looks to be something that would work great, hh
 
Stingrays here in Guam get huge, maybe 5 or 6 feet across or more. My friend went spearfishing at night and got attacked by a stingray. He had a couple fish and a lobster hooked on his waist and the stingray wanted his catch. He said he climbed up on a piece of reef rock and was standing in ankle deep water. The stingray was launching itself out of the water by flapping it's wings. It was gliding up the side of his leg past his knee and flapping all over him. Talk about freaky...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Scubacat
Strange Pendant
Replies
8
Views
186
Scubacat
Scubacat
W
I found a turtle today
Replies
7
Views
276
KOB
KOB
romyrome
Gold 1st Target, Silver & A New Friend
Replies
13
Views
327
Popsgoatee
Popsgoatee
FelixtheCat
My 3rd Class Ring! 14k - And Last 2 Apple Filled Hunts
Replies
15
Views
382
FelixtheCat
FelixtheCat
W
Lightning struck again
Replies
17
Views
338
melbajoe
M
Back
Top Bottom