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, snapper in season, squid and garfish from every jetty, and salmon on the ocean beaches; the Murray and the Coorong add bream and mulloway. No licence, a reservoir permit, and limits that change often enough to read every time.
Reports current for Friday 25 September
Every one of the 37 South Australia waters we cover has a live read this morning. None reaches 4 out of 5 and 2 are slow. Water runs 8 °C to 18 °C. Pressure is rising on most of them, which costs a point in our model when the sky is clear. 10 have a better-than-even chance of rain.
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Two gulfs, a long run of metropolitan jetties and the best King George whiting water in the country, all within an hour of the CBD.
The seafood capital at the foot of Eyre Peninsula: King George whiting, snapper and the tuna pens of Boston Bay, with the Southern Ocean over the hill.
A big island off the Fleurieu with a coast for every wind: whiting and squid in the sheltered bays, salmon on the southern beaches, snapper on the reefs.
The Fleurieu’s holiday town: Encounter Bay, the causeway to Granite Island, the Bluff and the Coorong beaches within reach.
Where the Murray meets the sea: the barrages, the Coorong mouth, Hindmarsh Island and the Goolwa beach, a fishery of two waters in one town.
The Limestone Coast’s harbour town: the marina, Lake Butler, the obelisk rocks and the long beaches, with rock lobster country all around.
The top of Spencer Gulf: a tidal creek city where the gulf narrows to a channel, with snapper, whiting, mulloway and blue swimmer crabs on a strong tide.
The steel city on Spencer Gulf: the snapper capital of the state, with whiting on the flats, squid off the jetty and the cuttlefish of Point Lowly.
A hundred kilometres of lagoon behind the dunes: mulloway at the mouth, bream and salmon trout in the channel, and the ocean beach on the other side.
Adelaide’s working river: the Port River and Barker Inlet, mangroves, ship channels and the dolphins, a fishery of bream, mulloway and crabs inside the city.
The Murray’s terminal lake at the Coorong: callop, cod, mulloway at the barrages and carp by the tonne in a vast, shallow lake, with a Bureau gauge.
The Barossa reservoir opened to shore fishing: native fish stocked into a SA Water supply lake near Williamstown, with a permit and a Bureau gauge.
The Fleurieu reservoir opened to shore fishing and kayaks: native fish stocked into a SA Water lake above Myponga, with a permit and a Bureau gauge.
The Barossa’s big reservoir opened to shore fishing and kayaks: native fish stocked into SA Water’s South Para lake, with a permit and a Bureau gauge.
The Murray at Renmark: cod and callop on the Riverland’s river between Lock 5 and the town, with the paddle-steamer wharf and the Bureau’s gauge at the pump station.
The Murray at Berri: cod and callop in the Riverland’s citrus town, on the pool above Lock 4, with the Bureau’s gauge at the pump station.
The Murray at Morgan: cod and callop where the river turns south at the old port, on the pool above Lock 1, with the Bureau’s gauge below the town.
The Murray at Mannum: cod and callop on the houseboat river below the cliffs, with the ferry, the wharf and the Bureau’s gauge at the town.
The Murray at Murray Bridge: cod and callop on the last town reach before the lakes, under the road and rail bridges, 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.
The second-longest jetty in the state 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.
The southernmost town in the state: 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: the first lock above the lakes, callop, cod and redfin under the limestone cliffs, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 2, downstream of Waikerie: callop and cod in the Riverland’s cliff country, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 3 near Overland Corner: cliffs, backwaters and red gums in the Riverland, callop and cod, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
The River Murray at Lock 4, Bookpurnong, near Loxton: callop and 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 country, with a Bureau gauge at the lock.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murray cod, River Murray and lakes Albert and Alexandrina | 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; 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. No catch and release in the closed zones. | PIRSA, snapper management, read 2026-09-23 |
| Water | Type | Live data | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adelaide | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Port Lincoln | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Kangaroo Island | Coast | modelled tide | Oct |
| Victor Harbor | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Goolwa | Town | modelled tide | Mar |
| Robe | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Port Augusta | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Whyalla | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Coorong | Coast | modelled tide | Mar |
| Port River | River | modelled | Mar |
| Lake Alexandrina | Lake | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Warren Reservoir | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Myponga Reservoir | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| South Para Reservoir | Lake | BoM gauge | Apr |
| Murray River at Renmark | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Berri | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Morgan | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Mannum | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Murray Bridge | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Coffin Bay | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Streaky Bay | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Ceduna | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Tumby Bay | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Cowell | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Wallaroo | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Edithburgh | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Ardrossan | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Port Noarlunga | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Beachport | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Kingston SE | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Port MacDonnell | Town | modelled tide | Oct |
| Lake Albert | Lake | modelled | Mar |
| Murray River at Blanchetown (Lock 1) | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Lock 2 near Waikerie | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Lock 3, Overland Corner | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Lock 4, Bookpurnong | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
| Murray River at Lock 6, Murtho | River | BoM gauge | Mar |
Gulf St Vincent and Spencer Gulf are shallow, sheltered and warm early, and their sand-and-weed bottom is why the state is the King George whiting capital: Adelaide’s metropolitan jetties, the Yorke Peninsula, Port Lincoln and the Eyre Peninsula all fish for them from spring to autumn. Snapper come into the gulfs in spring, 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. Inland, the Murray gives cod and golden perch and the Coorong bream and mulloway.
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 state’s fishing app. The snapper closure in particular has changed several times in recent years, and the page that counts is the department’s.
Wind makes or breaks a gulf day: a westerly puts chop and weed onto the metropolitan jetties and a still morning fishes everything. The tides are the most irregular in the country, with dodge tides when the water barely moves, so 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, snapper in spring, squid and garfish from the jetties and Australian salmon on the ocean beaches.
Adelaide and its metropolitan jetties and Port Lincoln, with the Yorke Peninsula, the Eyre Peninsula coast and the Coorong to come from the official gazetteer.