Name: Ocellate River Stingray or Peacock-Eye Stingray
Species: Potamotrygon motoro
Thai name: Pla kabeng Amazon
Biggest known fish: 80lb
Lake rod caught record: 65lb
Average weight: 40lbs
Diet: Giant Water Snail, Fish, Shrimp, Prawns, Crustaceans, Squid.
To fish for our peacock-eye stingray we recommend using the worms as the most successful bait, but meat from the giant freshwater snails or alternatively you can use very small fish sections. A fluorocarbon hooklink would be preferable, but these fish are not riggy at all, braided hooklink will work just as well.
Indication begins with a few knocks on the line, similar to a continuous jerking feel, as first the stingray settle over the bait, as they slide over the bait to position the food into their small mouth. Takes from the stingray can be very fast, and once they realise something is wrong they kite around, making short sharp turns, so keep the pressure to the maximum or the stingray will lock onto the bottom. Should they do this, try walking back in the swim and applying pressure from different angles to get them swimming. Once the stingray is on the move, it will glide through the water at speed, so keep maximum pressure on at all times or they will go over a plateau and once again anchor to the lakebed. Each time they lock on the lakebed they are harder to move again. All the time they are sitting like this on the lakebed, they whip their razor sharp tail until eventually they hit the line and it is all over. The best areas for stingray are alongside the hyacinth beds, where they hunt for water snails. When you have caught one of these fish take note of our guide’s instructions on how to handle them, different to the Asian giant stingray, we can not remove the barbs from them as it will kill the fish, so the guides will cover the barbs for you and instruct on the best manner of handling them.
