Adelaide Jetty Fishing: What You Can Still Catch Off Semaphore, Rapid Bay and the Rest

For about a century, an Adelaide jetty session needed two things: a squid jig and a gar float. Since 1 May 2026 both have been off limits in Gulf St Vincent, and a lot of people have been left on Semaphore Jetty holding a bucket and a slightly lost expression.

The jetties still fish, though. Here’s what’s open, what each jetty from Largs Bay to Rapid Bay still offers, and what to put on the hook now that squid strips and gar fillets are off the menu.

What’s Closed

Checked against PIRSA on 5 October 2026. Every jetty in this guide from Largs Bay to Rapid Bay is in the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone.

• Southern calamari — targeting, take and possession prohibited in the Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zones since 1 May 2026. No end date has been published.
• Southern garfish — targeting, take and possession prohibited in the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone since 1 May 2026. No end date has been published.
• Snapper — closed in the gulf zones until 30 June 2027, and catch-and-release is prohibited. If you hook one by accident, release it straight away.

Anything you catch during a closure has to go back immediately. The SA closures calendar tracks every date.

What’s Still Open

Checked against PIRSA on 5 October 2026. Limits are for the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone, and the full list is in SA size and bag limits.

Port Noarlunga’s seaward end is a no-fishing margin, so the “off the end” notes above don’t apply there; details below.

Yelloweye mullet and silver trevally round out most jetty lists; check their limits in the SA Fishing app. Tommies, previously the fish you caught while waiting for the squid, are now the headline act — like the support band at a Fringe show discovering the main act has cancelled.

One trap: PIRSA warns that tommies and juvenile salmon look alike. Tommies have large eyes, rough scales and silver tails with black tips. Juvenile salmon have small eyes, smooth scales and yellow tails with a black edge. Salmon under 21 cm go back, and fish kept for bait still have to be legal size.

Jetty by Jetty

North to south. Spot pages have live tides, wind and bite windows.

Largs Bay Jetty

Largs Bay is short and shallow, and that’s the point. Blue swimmer crabs work the flats from October to April, and yellowfin whiting come in over the high tide from November. Tommies sit under the lights year-round, and mullet thicken in autumn. The timber deck is slightly uneven. The foreshore has toilets, including a Changing Places facility, plus a playground and a boat ramp.

Semaphore Jetty

Semaphore runs about 585 metres out, which by Adelaide standards counts as a commute. Yellowfin whiting work the inshore gutters on a rising tide from about November to March, and tommies come after dark all year. Mullet and salmon trout are around year-round, and crabs peak in the drop nets from December to February. Night anglers soaking bigger baits off the end can pick up the odd school mulloway or gummy shark.

Grange Jetty

Grange is about 300 metres of sand-bottom jetty: crabs from October, yellowfin whiting from November, and tommies and mullet on berley morning and night. Plan around the rising tide, because the inner flats get too shallow at low water. The deck is level but has no continuous rail.

Henley Beach Jetty

Henley gives you the widest spread of the northern jetties. Crabs run from October to April, yellowfin whiting from December, and tommies peak on warm summer nights. Mullet are the year-round fallback. Henley Square at the foot has toilets, cafés and shade.

Glenelg Jetty

The tourists at Glenelg come for the tram and the gelato; the tommies come for the lights. The seaward quarter of the 215-metre jetty sits over broken sand, weed and rock. Snook arrive with warm water from November, crabs run from November to April, and a King George whiting off the end in rough weather is a bonus rather than a plan. The deck is flat and railed.

Brighton Jetty

Brighton is the metro’s best spring whiting jetty. King George whiting are best off the end from September to December, and snook and tommies hold all year, with the snook working the lights from late spring. If you’re boating out from here, the MV Andrew Wilson wreck about 6 km offshore has a 200 m no-fishing zone until September 2027.

Port Noarlunga Jetty

Port Noarlunga runs out towards a sandstone reef that breaks the swell, so it fishes when the beaches can’t. Expect big tommies, King George whiting on the sand patches, and snook and silver trevally all year. The seaward end of the jetty is a no-fishing margin — you can’t fish within 50 m of it, or within 25 m of any reef exposed at low tide, because the reef is the Port Noarlunga Reef Sanctuary Zone — so fish the main deck and follow the NPWS signs (checked 5 October 2026). Divers and snorkellers use the reef below, so look down before you cast.

Second Valley Jetty

Second Valley is a short, low jetty in a cliff-lined inlet. It’s built its name on squid and gar, but tommies, yelloweye mullet and snook (October to April) keep it worthwhile, and it shelters from the southerlies that flatten the open coast. The jetty is open, but it has a repair history — closed in 2023 when part of the heritage causeway collapsed, reopened after emergency DIT works in 2025, and shut again briefly in late June 2026 to replace the handrails — so check District Council of Yankalilla notices before the drive.

Rapid Bay Jetty

At Rapid Bay you fish the public jetty built in 2009, and DIT says maintenance works on it were completed in 2025. The old ore jetty beside it is fenced off, and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport prohibits all vessels, divers and swimmers beneath it and within 20 metres of it. Tommies run year-round, snook from about September to April, King George whiting from about August to February, and silver trevally and the odd yellowtail kingfish (60 cm, bag 1) in summer. There are no toilets at the jetty, and mobile reception is poor to none.

If You Need a Squid: Encounter Bay

Encounter Bay sits outside both gulf closures. At Victor Harbor’s causeway and Screwpile Jetty and Port Elliot’s Horseshoe Bay Jetty, calamari are open at a daily bag of 15 and garfish at 23 cm and 30. Snapper is open too, at 38 cm and a bag of 5, and every kept snapper must be reported. The Victor Harbor guide has the details.

Bait Now That Squid and Gar Are Off the Menu

Checked against PIRSA on 5 October 2026:

• Banned as bait or berley: any uncooked seafood sold for human consumption, abalone, Pacific oysters, and blood, bone, meat (including chicken), offal or animal skin, other than from a fish, worm or insect.
• Crab nets: fish or fish-based baits only. No meat, chicken or other poultry.
• Port River: you can’t take bivalves (oysters, mussels, razorfish or cockles) from the Port River area for any use, bait included.
• Imported bait must be labelled and treated.

In practice, buy bait from a tackle shop, not the seafood counter. Raw supermarket prawns are for the barbecue, not the paternoster. PIRSA’s general bait list still names squid and pipis, but southern calamari can’t be taken or possessed in the gulf zones, and pipi collection is closed statewide until 31 October. If you’re unsure about carrying packaged squid bait onto a gulf jetty, ask Fishwatch on 1800 065 522.

What works instead:

• Tommies: size 10–12 hooks with maggots, gents or slivers of pilchard, under a small float, over a berley trail of pellets, bread and a splash of tuna oil.
• King George and yellowfin whiting: size 4–6 long-shank hooks on a paternoster with bait-shop cockles, worms or bait prawns.
• Snook: 2.5–3.5 inch soft plastics on 1/8–1/4 oz jig heads, or small shallow hardbodies, on a 15–20 lb leader. Snook teeth go through light mono.
• Crabs: pilchards or fish frames tied into the drop net.
• Mulloway: a live tommy (no minimum size) or fresh whole pilchards, fished off the deep end after dark (not at Port Noarlunga, where the end is a no-fishing margin).

Sharing the Jetty With Divers

Rapid Bay and Port Noarlunga are dive sites as much as fishing jetties. Rapid Bay’s jetties are known for leafy seadragons, and Port Noarlunga’s reef has built stairs and platforms for divers. Divers have as much right to be there as you do, and they’re the ones in the water.

• Look for dive flags, bubbles and people on the dive stairs before you cast. Don’t cast over them.
• Wind in while divers are directly below you, and keep heavy sinkers off the deck edge.
• Don’t clean fish or dump frames off the jetty where people are getting in.
• At Rapid Bay, stay clear of the old jetty’s exclusion zone.

A leafy seadragon has never tangled your line, which is more than you can say for the bloke beside you.

The Algal Bloom: Where Things Stand

For the week beginning 20 September, the SA Government’s testing summary reported “zero or low levels of Karenia” along the metropolitan coast, the southern Fleurieu and at all offshore sites in Gulf St Vincent. The current results are on the official Where is the bloom? page. The government’s health advice says fish and crabs you catch yourself are safe to eat if cleaned thoroughly and gutted before cooking, but you shouldn’t eat self-collected bivalves or abalone. Stay away from foamy or discoloured water, and report fish kills to Fishwatch on 1800 065 522.

The month-by-month picture, including what typically bites as the gulf warms, is in the Adelaide fishing report.

FAQ

What can you catch off Adelaide jetties right now?

Tommy ruff, King George whiting, yellowfin whiting, snook, Australian salmon, yelloweye mullet, silver trevally, mulloway and blue swimmer crabs are all open in Gulf St Vincent. Southern calamari, southern garfish and snapper are closed there, so they can’t be targeted, kept or possessed off any metro or western Fleurieu jetty.

Can you catch squid off Rapid Bay Jetty?

No. Rapid Bay is in the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone, where southern calamari have been closed to targeting, take and possession since 1 May 2026, with no end date published. The nearest open water for calamari is Encounter Bay, including Victor Harbor and Port Elliot, where the daily bag is 15.

Is Rapid Bay Jetty open?

The public jetty built in 2009 is the one you fish from, and the Department for Infrastructure and Transport says maintenance works on it were completed in 2025. The old ore-loading jetty beside it is fenced off, and all vessels, divers and swimmers are banned beneath it and within 20 metres of it.

What bait can you use for crabs in SA?

In marine waters, including from a jetty, hoop nets and drop nets can be baited with fish or fish-based products. You cannot use any meat, chicken or other poultry in them. Blue swimmer crabs must be 11 cm across the shell, the bag is 20 combined with sand crabs, and egg-carrying females must go back.

Can you use supermarket prawns as bait in SA?

Not raw ones. PIRSA prohibits using any uncooked seafood sold for human consumption as bait or berley in South Australian waters. Buy bait from a tackle or bait shop instead, and check that imported bait is labelled and treated.

The squid will come back eventually. Until then, check the SA bite forecast for which jetty has calm water and a feeding window tonight — the tommies are waiting.