Several rays live in the English Channel. The thornback is the best known, with blonde, small-eyed, spotted and undulate rays among the others. They spend their lives on the seabed, often half buried, and feed on crabs, shrimps, sandeels and small fish, settling over their food and taking it into a mouth on the underside. That gives a ray bite its character: a few taps, a pause, then a slow steady pull as the fish moves off. Strike too soon and you miss it. Once hooked, a ray holds its wings flat against the tide and feels far heavier than it is. Thornbacks carry sharp thorns on the back and tail, so hold them by the edges of the wings. Ray wings are good eating, and much of what British fish shops sell as skate is ray.
On Reelzy the boat with rays on its list is Kestrel Warrior, a small charter company on the East Sussex coast. Its trips are short and shared: 2 hours from 08:30 for up to 10 people, with rod hire, a tackle shop on board, free tuition from a trained fishing coach and free gutting and cleaning. The boat bottom fishes, drifts and slow pitch jigs. Rays turn up when a bait sits on clean ground; they are not the reason the trip runs, and the boat's recent reports are of black bream, bass, pollack, conger and mackerel. Ask the coach before you go whether the morning will include a bait on the sand.
If rays are your fish, our post on winter boat fishing in Kent describes a day of thornback ray and whiting along the neighbouring coast.
Questions and answers
Short answers to what people ask before they book. Anything else, ask the captain in chat.
How do I know a ray has taken my bait?
Rays settle on a bait before they eat it, so the rod tip taps and nods for a while before a slow, steady pull. Wait for that pull before you lift into the fish. On Kestrel Warrior the boat's fishing coach will show you what to watch for.
Can I fish for rays on a two-hour trip from East Sussex?
Kestrel Warrior lists rays and runs shared two-hour trips from 08:30 for up to 10 people, with rods to hire and free tuition. Rays come to bait fished on the bottom and are never a sure thing, so ask what the trip will fish for that day.