Stingray City - Need advice on cheats

[KidK9]

Hey all, my girlfriend and I are off on a trip to Sting Ray City in the next couple of days, and I'm wondering if anybody knows any "tricks of the trade" to help attract more stingrays to her so I could get some incredible shots. I've heard putting fish oil on the wetsuit helps. Is this true? Any other suggestions??

 

[H2Andy]

rays hunt by scent, so yeah, putting any sort of fishy stuff on you will help.
they do love squid...

beware of the unintentional ray mobbing, though, which leads to the unintentional ray
hickies . . .

which leads to a very pissed off significant other when you accidentally
pat their bum with squid on your hand, unwittingly making her bum a target for every
friendly ray in the area...

oy vey

 

[SubMariner]

Hey all, my girlfriend and I are off on a trip to Sting Ray City in the next couple of days, and I'm wondering if anybody knows any "tricks of the trade" to help attract more stingrays to her so I could get some incredible shots. I've heard putting fish oil on the wetsuit helps. Is this true? Any other suggestions??

Basically, if you do ANY of the Stingray City charters, they will give out bits of squid to feed/attract stingrays. Once you have a piece of squid in your fist, rays will follow your hand all over the place.

BTW, the key to not having your fingers sucked up by a 'ray (which is basically the u/w equivalent of a super-hoover grabbing your digits) is to make sure that when the feeder gives you the squid, that their hand covers yours completely, and that you immediately close your hand into a fist. This keeps rays plus the pesky scavengers (yellowtail snapper, tangs, etc.) from mobbing you.

When you've played with a ray long enough, you open your hand quickly and let them suck up the food.

FYI, the big rays are the females, while the smaller ones are the males. They tend to hang down on the sand more than the gals, so keep that in mind when you're sharing the wealth.

For the record, rays can hicky you THROUGH your wetsuit. Been there, done that... not very romantic.

 

[KidK9]

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for the great adivce! If anybody has more suggestions, keep them coming! By the way, should I hang with the group or take my camera and squid off to a more remote place?

 

[whitehead]

What is fish oil? I asked at my local supermarket and they stared blankly at me, where would I buy it?

Cheers

 

[JRO]

Make sure you go on a clear day... a little bit of chop and it all goes green.

Otherwise it'll be crystal clear and you won't have any problems getting the rays to come to you. Even after your done feeding them they still follow you around for quite some time.

BTW, that thing about keeping your hand closed around the food....NO JOKE!!! If you even show a little bit of the squid, it won't be the rays you need to worry about...it'll be the snappers!!! They will bite your hand if they see food in it!!!

Be sure to take a look around after your done feeding the rays (usually get bored before you run out of air). All kinds of neat stuff around to check out. I ran into a pair of Stonefish (I think), a pair of Flying Gurnards (SP?), a flounder and tons of goatfish tearing up the bottom....everyone talks about the Morays, I unfortunately missed them.

Enjoy...I am jealous!!!

Jeff

 

[SubMariner]

You guys are amazing! Thank you so much for the great adivce! If anybody has more suggestions, keep them coming! By the way, should I hang with the group or take my camera and squid off to a more remote place?

I would tend to stick with the group simply from a logistics point of view. Not only will it ensure that you get a good supply of squid, but there will be some excellent opportunities for some candid shots of other people with the rays. FYI, don't bother with a strobe; there will be more than enough ambient light in only 15' of water to get some good pictures.

However, a strobe would come in handy for the photo ops that JRO talks about. On my last 'ray dive there were a couple of scorpion fish plus a wonderful juvenile french angel. (They are very dramatic looking: black with big yellow vertical stripes.)

Have fun!