Bat ray caught at Oceanside Pier

Roscoe Riddle, 18, of Murietta, fought for 30 minutes with a large bat ray before it was hoisted onto the planks of the Oceanside Pier on July 28. The catch drew a steady stream of onlookers.

The reading on the digital scale: 48 pounds.

“In his fight to bring it in, the bat ray took him up the south side of the pier, past Ruby’s, and back just in front of the restaurant, where I finally gaffed it and brought it up on the deck,” said Ron Riddle, Roscoe’s father.

Roscoe said he was fishing for shark, halibut, or rays, and used mackerel as bait. He said the bat ray was the largest ray he has caught, so far. He has been fishing “on and off my whole life,” he said, “and really got into it this past year.”

His catch last week off of the same pier was a shovelnose shark that weighed about 30 pounds; prior to that, he reeled in a leopard shark that measured about four feet and weighed about 40 pounds.