How to catch big rays

I moved a four foot long ray which had a 2 foot disc. Did it by myself so used a soft mesh keep net that I use for fishing. Got her in then grabbed her tail n supported her weight with my other arm. Was quickly done and reduced alot of stress chasing her with a big net. Probably.not the most common way to catch big rays but worked well.

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Just a pic of her to. . Vat was four foot long by 2 foot wide.

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I read this thread with great interest since I just set up a second 1000-gallon ray pond and I needed to move 2 large castexi females into it. One of them is 24" disk, the other is 22" disk. In the past I've used both the rubber net method and the container method. These rays are too heavy for me to pick up by myself safely (I'm a girl), plus last time I used the rubber net on them, it bent from the weight. I also want to mention that it seems to vary from ray to ray on how calm they are during moving. One of these castexi is very calm and the other is very timid and freaks out easily.

I'm very experienced moving large koi (up to 36"), so I used a similar method to what I do with koi. I have a 30" koi net and 30" koi bowl and I got a friend to help me move them last night. It went amazingly well! Under 8 minutes to catch and move both of them. I slid the net under the ray, then gently lifted and had my friend slide the bowl under her. I slid the ray into the bowl and gently poured out most of the water. I put a towel in the water over the ray to pad the barb if it did thrash (plus I thought it might calm them a little to be covered). My friend and I then lifted the bowl and put it in the new pond, which was very close by.

i have a large rubber net on hand for the day i need to handle them. worth the piece of mind. I've used it plenty for catching large arowana, prochilodus etc.

I have a team diawa (think that's how you spell it ) snare free landing net so far so good


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Big rubberized net like most say is the best on the ray and the keeper. Always water on the floor when transferring big fish. Hands out of the equation is always best.


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I use a large, flat tupperware container with a lid. Like containers meant to slide under the bed. I take my time, shoe the ray in, lid it, lift it. It is a wee heavy but better than risking a ray on the floor.