Southern calamari
Excellent
Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
Adelaide Fishing Report
Updated Fri, 25 Sept 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
High 3:03 pm model
Air / High
20 °C / 23 °C
Wind
SSE 6 km/h
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Adelaide is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. Today brings cloud cover, wind SSE around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1024 hPa and a high of 23 °C. Tides: high 3:10 am and 3:03 pm, low 9:09 am and 9:36 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the full moon, the solunar majors run 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM: the windows to build the day around.
Australian salmon
Good
The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Snapper
Fair
Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
Flathead
Fair
Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 10:25 AM-12:25 PM, 10:25 PM-12:25 AM, 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Cooler at 18 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
South Australia has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. South Australia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing snapper here? Check the size and bag limits with PIRSA before you keep anything; the Snapper page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Adelaide today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:01), sunset (18:14), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM; minor 4:55 AM-5:55 AM. Full Moon, 99% lit.
Water and weather
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
Tides (modelled)
Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.
A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Bureau of Meteorology tide predictions for the exact times before you rely on them.
Fri
HIGH3:10 am0.55 m
LOW9:09 am-0.65 m
HIGH3:03 pm0.85 m
LOW9:36 pm-0.95 m
Sat
HIGH3:25 am0.64 m
LOW9:39 am-0.97 m
HIGH3:33 pm0.69 m
LOW9:55 pm-1.16 m
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp20 °C
High / Low23 °C / 15 °C
WindSSE 6 km/h, gusts 13 km/h
Pressure1023.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain76% cloud, 19%
Sunrise / Sunset06:01 / 18:14
MoonFull Moon, 99%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Adelaide
The best day on Adelaide this week looks like Sunday 27 Sept, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today. Every day is scored by the same engine as the report above: pressure trend first, then wind, sky and season. Pick a species and the plan for that day changes with it.
Best day this week: Sunday, 27 Sept — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 25 Sept — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 10:25 AM-12:25 PM and 10:25 PM-12:25 AM
- Minor period
- 4:55 AM-5:55 AM
- Sun
- 06:01 to 18:14
- Moon
- Full Moon, 99% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 14 km/h
- Rain chance
- 19%
Scores are a planning aid built from forecast data, not a promise.
Species guide
The species that matter on Adelaide: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Snapper
Best: October to January in the southern bays
Closed now Reopens 1 July 2027. 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. Rule as read from PIRSA on 2026-09-23.
The southern headline fish. Runs into Port Phillip, Western Port, the gulfs and the WA sounds in spring to spawn; holds on reef and rubble the rest of the year. Fish are thinner inshore. Work the deeper structure and the channel edges with baits on the bottom, and pick the tide change.
King George whiting
Best: December to May in SA; spring and summer in Port Phillip
The table fish of the south. Feeds over sand patches between weed and reef in 2 to 10 metres, mostly by day, mostly on the moving tide. Deeper sand patches and the middle of the day; slower bites, bigger fish.
Southern calamari
Spring and autumn peaks in the southern bays
Southern calamari over weed and sand in 2 to 10 metres of the bays and gulfs; a jig fishery at dawn, dusk and under the jetty lights. Spring and autumn are the seasons: the weed beds on the rising tide, slow sinking jigs.
Australian salmon
Winter and spring on the southern beaches
Not a salmon at all: a hard-fighting schooling fish of the surf and the bays, from WA around to NSW. Great on light gear, poor on the plate. The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Flathead
Best: November to April
Dusky flathead in the eastern estuaries, sand flathead in the southern bays. An ambush predator lying on sand and mud edges waiting for whatever the tide brings. Fish the deeper channels and the last of the run-out; slower hops with a heavier jighead, and a bait on the bottom as back-up.
When to come: the Adelaide calendar
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Snapper
King George whiting
Southern calamari
Australian salmon
Flathead
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 13 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Adelaide today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataThu, Sep 24
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 26 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Wed, Sep 23
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 24 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Tue, Sep 22
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Southern calamari led the card at excellent. High of 18 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
South Australia has no general recreational fishing licence; the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by PIRSA and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the South Australia licence page before you keep anything.
Access
The jetties are public and free, most with lights for night fishing and cleaning tables; the boat ramps at North Haven, West Beach and O’Sullivan Beach serve the gulf grounds.
About this water
Adelaide is a coastal town in South Australia, Australia, covered from the South Australia reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Adelaide: the full guide
What Adelaide fishing actually is
Adelaide fishes into Gulf St Vincent, a shallow, sheltered arm of the Southern Ocean that warms early, holds weed beds and sand patches for miles, and is lined from Outer Harbor to Sellicks with the jetties that define the city’s fishing: Largs, Semaphore, Grange, Henley, Glenelg, Brighton and Port Noarlunga. Most of what people call an Adelaide fishing report is a report on those structures and the water around them, plus the Port River and its estuary to the north and the boat fishery off the metropolitan coast for snapper and whiting. It is a gulf fishery, not an ocean one: the swell that shapes the east coast rarely gets in, and wind is what makes or breaks a day.
The species and their calendar
King George whiting are the fish Adelaide is known for, worked over the sand holes between the weed from late spring through autumn, on the boat grounds off the northern beaches and from the longer jetties on the making tide. Snapper come into the gulf in spring and the fishery has been managed with closures in recent years, so the PIRSA page linked from this report is the first thing to check before you plan around them. Garfish, tommy ruff and squid make the jetties worth an evening any month, southern calamari peak in spring and autumn over the weed, and Australian salmon push along the southern beaches in the cooler months. Flathead and mulloway live in the Port River and the Onkaparinga; the metropolitan surf beaches south of Glenelg fish for salmon and mullet.
Reading this report for Adelaide
The score at the top of the page is built from the wind, the pressure trend and the sky over these coordinates, and in a gulf fishery wind is the number to read first: a fresh westerly or south-westerly puts chop and weed onto the metropolitan jetties and turns the whiting off, while a light easterly or a still morning is when the gulf fishes best from the shore. The tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates, not the official prediction, which matters here because Gulf St Vincent has one of the most irregular tides in Australia, with dodge tides when the water barely moves for a day; use it for the direction of the flow and the BOM page for the exact times.
Access and the rules
The jetties are public and free, most with lights for night fishing and cleaning tables; the boat ramps at North Haven, West Beach and O’Sullivan Beach serve the gulf grounds. South Australia needs no fishing licence, but it enforces daily bag and size limits, boat limits and closures with a fisheries app and a hotline, and the whiting, snapper and garfish limits are the ones that catch visitors out. The species section below is scored from the season and today’s conditions; the limits are on the PIRSA page linked in the sources.
Common questions
What can I catch from the Adelaide jetties?
King George whiting, garfish, tommy ruff, squid and, in season, snapper and Australian salmon are the regular jetty catch; Largs, Semaphore, Grange, Henley, Glenelg, Brighton and Port Noarlunga are the main ones.
Do I need a fishing licence in Adelaide?
No. South Australia has no recreational fishing licence; bag, size and boat limits and closures apply, and PIRSA publishes them. Our South Australia licence page explains what does and does not apply.
Where are the tides on this page from?
From a modelled sea-level curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model on the page. Gulf St Vincent has irregular tides, so check the Bureau of Meteorology prediction for exact times.
Is fishing good at Adelaide right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Tide curve (modelled)
- Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.