At the outer banks in spring, after like 4, hundreds of skates come to the shore and that’s all you ever catch, half the time they cut your hooks in half and they are impossible to unhook
If you would wait for 1/2 hr to 45 min after the skates come through the whiting will come through. Feeding on the worms stirred up by the skates. Also skates are so simple to release even a child can do it. Take a pair of needle nose pliers and grab the hook in the middle of the bend, lift into air and give a short quick jerk and wa-la they fall to water.
Sometimes walking a stingray to the beach is the only option if ya don't want to leave the hook in them, I've caught them up to 4 feet wide from wing tip to wing tip pier fishing.
