Limestone Coast Fishing Spots: the Coorong to Port MacDonnell

The Limestone Coast runs from the Coorong to the Victorian border, and in June 2025 it lost two of its best-known jetties in a single weekend. King tides and six-to-seven-metre swells on 24-25 June split the Robe and Kingston SE jetties in two. A year and a bit later, plenty of tourism copy still recommends fishing off both. That copy is describing timber that has since gone its own way.

The good news is that the fish were never attached to the jetties. This guide runs north to south, spot by spot, with what is actually standing and what is worth the drive.

Why the South East Is the Open Zone

The whole Limestone Coast sits in PIRSA’s South East Fishing Zone, and in 2026 that matters more than any spot on this page. Checked against PIRSA on 11 October 2026:

Every snapper you keep must be reported through the free SA Fishing app or Fishwatch on 1800 065 522 — PIRSA’s snapper page makes it mandatory, not polite. There is no recreational fishing licence in SA. The full statewide picture is in our SA size and bag limits guide and the SA closures calendar.

The Spots, North to South

42 Mile Crossing, Coorong National Park

42 Mile Crossing is the easiest door onto the Coorong’s ocean beach. A 3 km road off the Princes Highway takes any car, caravans included, and a 20-minute walk through the dunes gets you to the sand — a four-wheel drive is only needed to drive the beach itself. The beach is steep, so the gutters form close in, and that is the whole fishery: mulloway to 30 kg, salmon schools in the breakers, gummy sharks and the odd snapper.

The mulloway formula here is a deep gutter, a rising tide after dark, some colour in the water and fresh bait. Mind the size rule: the ocean beach is 82 cm. PIRSA’s 46–82 cm bracket with a bag of 10 belongs to the Coorong waters fishing area behind the Murray Mouth, not this beach, and confusing the two leaves you 36 cm on the wrong side of the law.

National Parks SA says the ocean beach is a gazetted road, so road rules apply, and beach driving should only happen at low tide. North of Tea Tree Crossing to the Murray Mouth the beach closes to vehicles from 24 October to 24 December each year for nesting hooded plovers; 42 Mile sits south of that and stays open. Parks SA also has a live alert about severe erosion and dune collapse making beach driving high-risk, so check the park page the morning you leave. Camping fees are paid before you arrive.

Kingston SE

The Kingston SE jetty is gone. Its 161-year-old structure was damaged in May 2025, split in June, and the damage was assessed at $11.2 million; there is no funded rebuild and the council has said nothing will happen before the 2026-27 summer. Larry the Big Lobster, by contrast, came through fine. The town keeps its priorities where the storms can’t reach them.

Fish the Maria Creek groyne in town for bream, tommy ruff and mullet. The serious program is Long Beach north toward the Granites — 4WD, two vehicles — for night mulloway, salmon and gummies. Cape Jaffa’s marina rock walls, 22 km south, are the district’s most sheltered platform, with big mulloway in the harbour channel for anyone patient enough to swim a live squid at night.

Robe

Robe’s jetty went the same weekend, and as of September 2026 no rebuild has been announced. What Robe has instead is the Lake Butler marina, whose rock walls fish for bream, squid, flathead and summer school mulloway and stay fishable when the Southern Ocean is up. Long Beach runs 14 km of driveable sand north to Boatswain Point; the stretch from the third ramp north is the local pick, and the beach is shallow enough to want a high tide.

One hard no: the Cape Dombey headland, Obelisk included, sits inside a no-take sanctuary zone, and the cliffs there are actively collapsing. Fish the marina instead.

Beachport Jetty

Beachport Jetty is the one that got its timing right. At 772 metres it is SA’s second-longest jetty, and a full refurbishment finished in early 2024 meant it stood when its neighbours didn’t. Float-fish the shallow first stretch for garfish, tommies and mullet on size 10 long-shank hooks, jig the weed edges for squid on calm mornings, and soak a salmon slab off the end after dark for gummy sharks. Winter salmon push through Rivoli Bay from April to September. It is a long walk back for the sinkers you forgot.

Southend Jetty

At the southern end of Rivoli Bay, Southend Jetty is Beachport without the crowd — a 224-metre L-shaped working cray jetty that has just come through a $3.8 million remediation. Salmon, garfish, tommies, whiting, flathead, trevally and squid come off the deck. The two ends of the bay shelter from different winds, so when Beachport is blown out, Southend is 20 minutes away. Share the lower landings with the cray tenders through the October-to-May harvest.

Carpenter Rocks (Bucks Bay)

There is no jetty at Carpenter Rocks, and no amount of driving will produce one. The fishing is off Bucks Bay beach and the reef headlands either side — salmon, King George whiting, squid, tommies, garfish and silver trevally in very clear water, best early before the wind gets up. The reef offshore is the one that wrecked the Admella in 1859, and it breaks hard on swells that look harmless from the carpark. Mount Gambier, 35 km away, is the nearest tackle shop.

Port MacDonnell Jetty

SA’s southernmost town has two good platforms 800 metres apart. Port MacDonnell Jetty is about 300 metres long, restored in 2015 and lit, which makes it the coast’s easiest night session — the tommies come on at dusk. The 1.5 km breakwater shelters the state’s biggest rock lobster fleet and fishes the same species with more water under it, but it is gear-restricted: rod, handline or hand net only, and the crays are protected there at all times.

Gear That Covers the Coast

• Jetty and marina outfit: 2–4 kg rod, 6–8 lb line, size 10–12 long-shank hooks, a pencil float and berley for garfish and tommies, cockles or prawn for bait.
• Squid: 2.5–3.0 jigs. Legal here, unlike the gulfs, so they earn a permanent spot in the bag.
• Surf: a 12-foot rod, 20 lb line, 6/0–7/0 hooks and a heavy leader for mulloway and the gummies and rays that share the gutters. Fresh or live bait beats frozen every time.
• Night kit: head torch, water and a second vehicle for any beach run.

Timing and Conditions

This is fully exposed Southern Ocean coast. A westerly or south-westerly shuts down the open beaches; easterlies flatten and clear the water, which is what squid and garfish want. Jetties fish best an hour either side of the tide, whiting and snapper favour a filling tide from October to May, and beach sessions are best when dawn or dusk lands on a high tide. The Bonney Upwelling is why a coast this empty holds so many fish. Check the wind and swell on each spot’s BiteCompass forecast before you commit to a long drive — on this coast the forecast is the trip plan.

FAQ

Are the Robe and Kingston SE jetties open?

No. Both jetties were damaged by storms in late May 2025 and split in two during the king tides and big swells of 24-25 June 2025. As of September 2026 neither has a funded or announced rebuild. Robe anglers now fish the Lake Butler marina walls and Long Beach; Kingston anglers fish the Maria Creek groyne, the Long Beach surf and the Cape Jaffa marina walls.

Which Limestone Coast jetties can you still fish?

Beachport Jetty (772 metres, refurbished in early 2024), Southend Jetty at the other end of Rivoli Bay (through a $3.8 million remediation) and Port MacDonnell Jetty (restored in 2015, lit at night) are all standing. There is no jetty at Carpenter Rocks, whatever some travel sites say.

Can you catch squid and snapper on the Limestone Coast?

Yes. The Limestone Coast is in PIRSA’s South East Fishing Zone, where southern calamari stay open at a bag of 15 with no size limit, and snapper are open at 38 cm with a bag of 5 and a boat limit of 15. The other three SA zones are closed to snapper until 30 June 2027, and every snapper kept must be reported through the SA Fishing app or Fishwatch on 1800 065 522.

What size does a mulloway have to be on the Coorong beach?

82 cm, with a bag of 2. PIRSA’s smaller 46-82 cm bracket with a bag of 10 applies only inside the Coorong waters fishing area, not on the Southern Ocean beach at 42 Mile Crossing or anywhere else on the Limestone Coast surf.

Do you need a fishing licence on the Limestone Coast?

No. PIRSA states that you do not need a licence for recreational fishing in South Australia. Size, bag and boat limits and closures still apply, and the free SA Fishing app carries the current rules for the South East zone.

If the surf is the plan, start with our mulloway species page — on this coast, it is the fish everyone drives for.