Fiddler Ray (Banjo Shark)
Where and when to catch Fiddler Ray (Banjo Shark) in New South Wales: the NSW season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find NSW's current size and bag limits.
- Size
- Up to about 1.2m, rarely over 1.1m
- NSW season
- Year-round
- NSW spots
- 57
Overview
The eastern fiddler ray is the New South Wales banjo shark: a harmless, banded ray of the sheltered sandy bays and seagrass from the Queensland border south, common enough in the shallows that divers barely look up. Anglers mostly meet it as the heavy, slow weight on a bait left for whiting, flathead or bream. It's edible, rarely kept, and best returned the way it came.
NSW Size & Bag Limits
NSW limits for Fiddler Ray (Banjo Shark) are set by NSW DPIRD and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them. Check NSW DPIRD's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in New South Wales.
Where to Catch Fiddler Ray (Banjo Shark) in NSW
Sandy bottom and seagrass in the bays and harbours, often next to rocky reef. The spots below list them.
Sydney Harbour
Sydney East & Botany
Sydney Northern Beaches
Sutherland & Port Hacking
Central Coast
Newcastle & Lake Macquarie
Port Stephens & Hunter
Manning & Great Lakes
Clarence & Coffs Coast
Illawarra
Shoalhaven & Jervis Bay
Sapphire Coast
How to Catch
Best Baits
Nobody needs a special bait. Squid, pilchard, prawn, pipi, crab and fish strips fished on the bottom for whiting, flathead or gummy sharks all get eaten, which is how most fiddler rays are caught.
Lures
Not a lure fish. A bait sitting on the sand is what finds them.
Rigs
No dedicated rig: whatever is on the bottom for whiting, flathead or gummy sharks is what they take. Fiddlers crush rather than cut, so they don't bite through mono, and a circle hook usually lodges in the corner of the mouth, which makes the release quick.
Technique
A hooked fiddler ray is a heavy, slow weight that hugs the bottom rather than a runner. Keep steady pressure and bring it into the shallows or a landing net rather than hauling it up a pier by the line. If it's going back, unhook it in the water where you can, keep fingers clear of the thorns along the back and shoulders, and support the body rather than lifting it by the tail.
Best Time
Caught by day and after dark, year-round. Divers see them over the sand and around pier pylons in daylight, anglers meet them at night on gummy shark baits, and a tracking study of the east-coast species found it busiest by day on a reef. With signs pointing both ways, the bite times lean neither way and are a soft guide.
- NSW DPIRD's limits table has no row of its own for fiddler rays. The NSW Regulation counts them in the combined sharks and rays limit, which covers every shark and ray except wobbegongs, not the default for unlisted fish, so a fiddler shares the day's limit with any shark you keep.
- NSW sets no size limit for fiddler rays. For sharks and rays the possession limit is the same as the daily bag, and it includes fish in the fridge or freezer at home.
- Some NSW marine park zones prohibit taking any shark or ray; every habitat protection zone in Cape Byron Marine Park does, and Batemans Marine Park's habitat protection zones allow only gummy and school sharks. Aquatic reserves that allow line fishing for finfish, such as North Harbour and Long Reef, allow rays too, because NSW counts sharks and rays as finfish there; Cabbage Tree Bay, Shiprock and Bushrangers Bay are no-take. Check the zoning at your spot before you keep one.
Identification
Also known as Banjo shark, banjo ray, banjo, fiddler, eastern fiddler ray
In NSW this is the eastern fiddler ray: a flattened, almost oval disc with a short, broadly rounded snout, a long tail with two large dorsal fins, and brown to grey skin patterned with lilac-grey, dark-edged bands, including a distinct triangle or diamond just behind the eyes. Sharp thorns run along the middle of the back and over the shoulders, but there is no tail barb. The eastern shovelnose ray is the usual mix-up: its front end is wedge-shaped with a long, pointed snout, and its back is plain sandy brown without bands. Stingrays and stingarees carry a venomous barb on the tail.
Size & Growth
Southern fiddler rays reach about 1.46 m and 6–7 kg, eastern fiddler rays about 1.2 m and rarely more than 1.1 m, and females are the bigger sex. In the southern species males mature at about 68–70 cm and seven years, females at about 89–90 cm and nine years, and they live to about 15. Females carry two to five pups for about a year, with most of the growth packed into the last few months, and give birth in autumn to pups of 21–25 cm. Little is known of the eastern species' biology beyond its size and litters of two or three. Late maturity and small litters are one reason most are put back.
Diet & Habitat
Fiddler rays live on sand flats and in seagrass beds, often next to rocky reef, from the shallows out across the continental shelf, and occasionally move into estuaries. Divers see them around jetties and wharves. They eat crabs, shrimps, worms, molluscs and small fish, crushing shells with rows of small, blunt teeth, and the young live on tiny crustaceans such as amphipods and mysid shrimps. They scavenge too, pushing into fish traps and taking baits left on the bottom for other fish.
Eating Quality
Edible, with meat often compared to gummy shark, but most anglers let them go because a fiddler gives little meat for the work. As with other guitarfish, the part worth eating is the thick tail, skinned and taken off the cartilage. Bleed and ice it straight away, as with any shark or ray, or the flesh picks up an ammonia smell. Big females are the breeding stock, so they're the ones to put back.
Fiddler Ray (Banjo Shark) elsewhere: Western Australia · South Australia · Victoria