Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
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.
Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Adelaide rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings cloud cover, wind ENE around 21 km/h, steady pressure near 1011 hPa and a high of 27 °C. Tides: high 3:54 am and 4:22 pm, low 10:32 am and 9:56 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 17 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:24 PM-1:24 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM: the windows to build the day around.
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, 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.
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.
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.
The main season. Beach gutters, rock platforms and bay edges on the rising tide; metals, surf poppers and bait all work.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 11:24 PM-1:24 AM, 11:51 AM-1:51 PM, 5:09 AM-6:09 AM. Cooler at 23 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
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.
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (06:06), sunset (19:53), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.
Solunar majors 11:24 PM-1:24 AM and 11:51 AM-1:51 PM; minor 5:09 AM-6:09 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.
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.
Latest readings
Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.
Today is the pick of the week on Adelaide, at 3 out of 5.
Best day this week: today, 9 Nov — fair at 3/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
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.
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, 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. Rule as read from PIRSA on 2026-09-27.
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.
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.
Closed 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. Rule as read from PIRSA on 2026-09-27.
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.
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.
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.
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 17 °C (estimated, not a reading).
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.
2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 23 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 18 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Snapper led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 23 km/h.
South Australia has no general recreational fishing licence; the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →
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.
The jetties are public and free to walk onto, and the North Haven, West Beach and O’Sullivan Beach ramps, all watched by Marine Safety SA webcams, serve the gulf grounds.
Adelaide is a coastal town in South Australia, Australia, covered from the South Australia reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Adelaide fishes into Gulf St Vincent, a shallow, sheltered arm of the Southern Ocean with weed beds and sand patches running along the whole metropolitan shore from Outer Harbor to Sellicks Beach. The city’s fishing is built on that shore and its council jetties, Glenelg and Brighton among the best known, plus the Port River and its estuary to the north and the boat fishery off the metropolitan coast for whiting and squid. Most of what people call an Adelaide fishing report is a report on those structures and the water around them. 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.
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 are off the table for now: PIRSA keeps the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone closed to snapper until 30 June 2027, with no catch and release, and asks anglers who keep hooking them to move on. Garfish, tommy ruff and squid make the jetties worth an evening in most months, southern calamari peak in spring and autumn over the weed, and Australian salmon push along the southern beaches in the cooler months. The City of Holdfast Bay lists whiting, calamari, blue swimmer crabs, garfish, salmon, trevally and flathead among the catch from its two jetties.
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, and that matters here: Gulf St Vincent is where the Bureau of Meteorology describes ‘dodge tides’, neaps with almost no rise and fall for a day or two and irregular times either side. Use the curve for the direction of the flow and the Bureau’s Port Adelaide tables for the exact times.
The jetties are public and free to walk onto, and the North Haven, West Beach and O’Sullivan Beach ramps, all watched by Marine Safety SA webcams, serve the gulf grounds. South Australia needs no fishing licence, but it enforces daily size, bag and boat limits and closures, with a rules search, the SA Fishing app and the Fishwatch hotline, and the snapper closure is the rule that most often catches visitors out. The species section below is scored from the season and today’s conditions; the limits are on the PIRSA pages linked in the sources.
King George whiting, garfish, tommy ruff, squid and, in the cooler months, Australian salmon are the regular jetty catch. Snapper are closed in Gulf St Vincent until 30 June 2027, so any that are hooked must go straight back.
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.
From a modelled sea-level curve for these coordinates, labelled as a model on the page. Gulf St Vincent has dodge tides around the neaps, so check the Bureau of Meteorology prediction for exact times.
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.
Pablo Ruiz QuinteroReadings 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.