South Australia is two gulfs and a Southern Ocean coast, with Adelaide’s jetties on one gulf and Port Lincoln at the foot of the peninsula between them. It is King George whiting water above all, with squid and garfish from every jetty and salmon on the ocean beaches; the Murray and the Coorong add bream, callop and mulloway. No licence, a reservoir permit, and limits worth reading every time.
Reports current for Monday 9 November
Every one of the 42 South Australia waters we cover has a live read this morning. 1 is scoring 4 out of 5 or better and 5 are slow. Water runs 17 °C to 22 °C. Pressure is holding steady on most of them, so the day comes down to water temperature and wind. 34 have a better-than-even chance of rain.
Best right now: Murray River at Lock 6, Murtho 4/5, Adelaide 3/5, Ardrossan 3/5
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Gulf St Vincent at the city’s doorstep: council jetties, King George whiting over the weed and squid under the lights, all within an hour of the CBD.
The port at the foot of Eyre Peninsula: King George whiting in the bays, squid off the jetty and Lincoln National Park on the doorstep, with the Southern Ocean over the hill.
A big island off the Fleurieu with a coast for every wind: whiting in the sheltered bays and salmon on the southern beaches, under the gulf zone’s closures for snapper, calamari and garfish.
The Fleurieu’s holiday town on Encounter Bay: the causeway to Granite Island, the Bluff and the beaches, and salmon in the cooler months.
Where the Murray meets the sea: the barrages, the Goolwa channel, Hindmarsh Island and the ocean beach, two fisheries and two rule books in one town.
The Limestone Coast’s harbour town: the marina, the obelisk rocks and the long beaches, in the one South Australian zone where snapper may still be kept.
The top of Spencer Gulf: a city on a tidal channel of creeks and mangroves, with whiting, mulloway and blue swimmer crabs, and snapper and cephalopods closed.
The steel city on upper Spencer Gulf: whiting on the flats, crabs in summer, the giant cuttlefish of Point Lowly protected, and snapper closed until mid-2027.
The long lagoon behind the dunes of the Younghusband Peninsula: mulloway at the mouth, black bream in season, and a national park of international importance.
Adelaide’s working river: the Port River and Barker Inlet, mangroves, ship channels and a dolphin sanctuary, with bream, mulloway and crabs inside the city.
The Murray’s terminal lake behind the five barrages: callop, protected Murray cod and a level managed around 0.75 m above sea level, with a Bureau gauge.
SA Water’s 1916 reservoir near Williamstown: stocked golden perch, silver perch and catch-and-release Murray cod, a paid fishing permit, kayak launches and a Bureau gauge.
SA Water’s Fleurieu reservoir an hour south of Adelaide: stocked golden perch, silver perch and catch-and-release cod, 250 hectares for kayaks, a paid permit and a Bureau gauge.
SA Water’s second largest reservoir, near Williamstown: stocked golden perch, silver perch and catch-and-release Murray cod, kayak routes, a paid permit and a Bureau gauge.
The Murray at Renmark: callop and catch-and-release Murray cod at the upstream end of the Riverland, with the Bureau’s gauge at the town pump station.
The Murray at Berri: callop and catch-and-release cod on the Riverland pool above Lock 4, with the Bureau’s gauge at the town’s irrigation pump station.
The Murray at Morgan: callop and catch-and-release cod where the river swings south toward the lakes, on the pool above Lock 1.
The Murray at Mannum: callop and catch-and-release cod on the unlocked lower river below Lock 1, with ferries, a busy riverfront and the Bureau’s gauge at the town wharf.
The Murray at Murray Bridge: callop and catch-and-release cod on the lower river above Lake Alexandrina, with the Bureau’s gauge at Long Island.
The oyster town on the Eyre Peninsula: King George whiting in the bay, salmon on the national park beaches, with the flats, the channels and Point Avoid.
The far west coast’s big bay: the jetty, the flats and the channels, with whiting, snapper, salmon and the sharks of the Great Australian Bight beaches.
The last town before the Nullarbor: the Ceduna and Thevenard jetties, Murat Bay and Denial Bay, with whiting, snapper, salmon and the mulloway of the beaches.
The jetty town north of Port Lincoln: Tumby Bay jetty’s whiting, garfish and squid, the Sir Joseph Banks islands and the beaches of the peninsula’s east coast.
Franklin Harbour on the Eyre Peninsula: the sheltered harbour’s whiting, garfish and crabs, the oyster town’s jetty and the gulf outside the entrance.
The Yorke Peninsula’s copper-coast port: Wallaroo jetty’s squid, whiting and garfish, the marina and the gulf’s snapper grounds outside.
The Yorke Peninsula’s bottom-end jetty: Edithburgh’s squid, whiting and garfish, the tidal pool and the reefs of Troubridge Shoal, with the wrecks coast beyond.
The Yorke Peninsula’s east-coast jetty: Ardrossan’s blue swimmer crabs, whiting and squid, the cliffs and the gulf’s grounds off the town.
Adelaide’s southern jetty and reef: Port Noarlunga jetty, the Onkaparinga mouth and the reef, with squid, whiting, garfish, bream and salmon.
A long jetty on the Limestone Coast: Beachport’s whiting, salmon and squid, Rivoli Bay and the Southern Ocean beaches.
The Limestone Coast town at the bottom of the Coorong: Kingston jetty and Lacepede Bay, the beaches to the Granites, with whiting, salmon, mulloway and the crayfish fleet.
South Australia’s far south-east corner: the crayfish port’s breakwater, the reefs and the beaches, with salmon, whiting, sweep and the Southern Ocean.
The lower lake beside Lake Alexandrina at Meningie: callop, redfin and the other fish of the freshwater lakes behind the barrages, with no current gauge.
The River Murray at Lock 1, Blanchetown: callop in the first weir pool above the lakes, cod for release only, and a Bureau gauge upstream of the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 2, Taylorville, downstream of Waikerie: callop and released cod in the Riverland’s cliff country, with a Bureau gauge above the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 3, Overland Corner: an 85 km weir pool of cliffs, lagoons and red gums in the Riverland, callop and released cod, with a Bureau gauge.
The River Murray at Lock 4, Bookpurnong, between Loxton and Berri: callop and released cod among the Riverland’s red gum flats, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 6, Murtho, near the Victorian and NSW borders: callop and release-only cod beside the Chowilla floodplain, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
SA Water’s 1897 reservoir in Adelaide’s southern suburbs: catch-and-release Murray cod, a paid permit, shore and kayak fishing, an all-access launch and a Bureau gauge.
SA Water’s 1903 reservoir near Spalding in the southern Flinders Ranges: stocked golden perch, silver perch and rainbow trout, a paid permit, a shoreline fishing zone and kayaks.
SA Water’s 1922 reservoir 27 km north of Port Lincoln: catch-and-release Australian bass, a paid permit, shore and kayak fishing, and a new Wattle Hub car park.
A 3.2-gigalitre reservoir east of Port Pirie, open for shore fishing from 1 May to 1 November, with golden perch, silver perch and released cod under an SA Water permit.
The former Leigh Creek supply dam in the northern Flinders Ranges: Murray cod and golden perch stocked in 2019, an SA Water permit, a live Bureau gauge and pest-control closures.
Species activity across the covered waters, written for the southern year. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for the dominant water type here, in degrees Celsius (estimated, not a reading).
Read from the agency page named on each row, on the date shown, and calculated for 2026 from the rule as written: a date written as a day of the week is computed, not copied. Species with no published closure are not listed, which is not the same as open.
| Fishery | 2026 | Rule | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beetaloo Reservoir: open 1 May to 1 November | Open 2026-05-01 to 2026-11-01 | The Department for Environment and Water opens Beetaloo Reservoir from 1 May to 1 November only, and closes it on Total Fire Ban days and for operational work; shore fishing only, with the SA Water reservoir permit. | Department for Environment and Water, Beetaloo Reservoir, read 2026-09-28 |
| Murray cod in SA Water and DEW reservoirs | Catch and release only, all year | Murray cod may be caught and released all year when reservoir fishing, and never kept. | PIRSA, Murray cod, read 2026-09-28 |
| Murray cod, lakes Alexandrina and Albert | Closed, no reopening date | Murray cod may not be taken at any time from lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and PIRSA lists the two lakes among the waters left out of the January to July catch-and-release window, so they may not be targeted here. | PIRSA, Murray cod, read 2026-09-27 |
| Murray cod, River Murray | Closed 2026-08-01 to 2026-12-31; release only the rest of the year, never kept | No Murray cod may be taken at any time from the River Murray or lakes Albert and Alexandrina. Catch and release is allowed from 1 January to 31 July, except on the Chowilla floodplain and in lakes Albert and Alexandrina; from 1 August to 31 December cod may not be targeted at all, trolling included. | PIRSA, Murray cod, read 2026-09-25 |
| Snapper | Closed until 2027-06-30 | Closed in the West Coast, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent/Kangaroo Island zones until 30 June 2027; open only in the South-East zone, which runs from the southern Fleurieu Peninsula to the Victorian border and includes the south coast of Kangaroo Island (the island's north coast is in the closed Gulf St Vincent/Kangaroo Island zone). No catch and release in the closed zones. | PIRSA, snapper management, read 2026-09-27 |
| Southern calamari, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent/Kangaroo Island zones | Closed, no reopening date | Southern calamari may not be targeted, taken or possessed in the Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent/Kangaroo Island fishing zones since 1 May 2026; PIRSA has published no reopening date. | PIRSA, southern calamari closure, read 2026-09-27 |
| Black bream, Lakes and Coorong | Closed 2026-08-01 to 2027-01-31 | Black bream may not be taken or possessed in the Lakes and Coorong from 1 August to 31 January, a spawning closure PIRSA renews each season by notice under section 79 of the Fisheries Management Act 2007. | PIRSA, black bream: Lakes and Coorong, read 2026-09-29 |
Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf are shallow and sheltered, and their sand-and-weed bottom is King George whiting ground: Adelaide’s metropolitan jetties, the Yorke Peninsula, Port Lincoln and the Eyre Peninsula all fish for them from spring to autumn. Garfish, tommy ruff and squid make the jetties worth any evening, and the ocean beaches of the south and the far west run Australian salmon in the cooler months. Snapper are the exception: PIRSA keeps them closed in the West Coast, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zones until 30 June 2027, and only the South-East zone is open. Inland, the Murray gives callop, and the Coorong bream and mulloway; Murray cod in the river are catch-and-release only, and closed even to that from 1 August to 31 December.
PIRSA says it in one sentence: no licence is needed for recreational fishing in South Australia, only a permit for the reservoirs that have opened to fishing. The rules are another matter: daily size, bag and boat limits for every species that matters, seasonal and permanent closures, protected species, and gear rules down to the marking of pots, all searchable on the PIRSA site and in the free SA Fishing app. PIRSA says any reopening of snapper after 30 June 2027 will depend on the science, not a date.
Wind makes or breaks a gulf day: a westerly puts chop and weed onto the metropolitan jetties and a still morning fishes everything. The Bureau notes that South Australians have their own name, the dodge tide, for the neap days when the water barely rises or falls; the modelled curve on each coastal page is for the direction of the flow and the Bureau of Meteorology’s prediction for the times. The daily report scores the pressure trend, the wind and the sky.
No. PIRSA states that no licence is needed for recreational fishing in South Australia; a permit is needed for fishing in certain reservoirs, and size, bag and boat limits and closures apply.
King George whiting over the sand and weed of the two gulfs, squid and garfish from the jetties and Australian salmon on the ocean beaches. Snapper, once the spring fish of the gulfs, are closed there until 30 June 2027 and open only in the South-East zone.
Close to forty: Adelaide and its jetties, the Fleurieu towns, Kangaroo Island, the Yorke and Eyre peninsulas from Wallaroo to Ceduna, the Coorong and the south-east ports, the River Murray by reach from Renmark to Murray Bridge with lakes Alexandrina and Albert, and the reservoirs open to fishing.
The facts on this page were checked against these pages, from the agencies, park services and operators that manage the water on 27 September 2026; anything we could not verify was taken out.