Is the Penneshaw jetty open?

No. The public jetty has been closed since 2 April 2024. Refurbishment and realignment works were due to begin in early 2026 and were still running through August 2026, with ferry timetables rearranged around them between 29 July and 14 August 2026. No reopening date has been published, and any site telling you to fish the Penneshaw jetty is running old copy.

Where can you fish at Penneshaw while the jetty is closed?

The Hog Bay breakwater is the main platform, with salmon, whiting, tommies, sharks and the occasional yellowtail kingfish. The rocky shore at the Christmas Cove harbour entrance is the sheltered option for whiting, flathead, mullet, trevally and tommies, and Hog Bay beach is known for mullet in autumn plus flathead and salmon.

Why is the Penneshaw jetty being rebuilt rather than repaired?

The old jetty sits very close to the ferry navigational channel, which the transport department says is a risk to both ferry operations and public safety now that larger vessels and more services use the crossing. A replacement cannot be built on the same alignment, so the new structure is being moved. The old one also has a long history of storm damage, including in 1951 and 1981.

Can you catch squid at Penneshaw?

No. Penneshaw is on Kangaroo Island's north coast, inside the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island fishing zone, where southern calamari has been closed to targeting, take and possession since 1 May 2026 with no end date. Garfish is closed in the same zone. The island's south coast is a different zone and both are open there.

Can you bring snapper back to the Penneshaw ramp?

No, and this one catches people out. Snapper is closed in the Gulf St Vincent and Kangaroo Island zone until 30 June 2027, and you may not transit a closed area with snapper aboard, so a fish caught legally in the open South East waters off the island's south coast cannot be landed at Penneshaw.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Christmas Cove & Hog Bay (Penneshaw)

Sun 25 Oct 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

Forecast updated 12:32am ACDT

Save

←

25 Oct

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 24 Oct

📍 Christmas Cove & Hog Bay (Penneshaw)

full · 99%

Weather: Rainy Wind: SW 226° · 24 km/h Swell: 0.2 m @ 7 s SW Water: 17.1 °C Pressure: 1014.5 hPa → steady Faces north · Offshore: SE, S, SW · Onshore: NW, N, NE · Forecast wind: offshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 8:00 pm

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dusk

Tide Moving

Wind SW 13 km/h

Moon full all day

Water temp 17.1 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:56 am Last light 8:08 pm

High 4:05 am Low 10:10 am High 4:36 pm Low 9:47 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

7:00 pm → 9:30 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

12:00 pm → 1:30 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:56 am

Last light

8:08 pm

Sunrise

6:23 am

Sunset

7:42 pm

Moonrise

6:51 pm

Moonset

5:21 am

High tide

4:05 am

Low tide

10:10 am

High tide

4:36 pm

Low tide

9:47 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

🌧️

12°

↙︎

237°

15 km/h

1am

🌧️

12°

↙︎

235°

17 km/h

2am

🌧️

11°

↙︎

233°

20 km/h

3am

🌧️

11°

↙︎

231°

22 km/h

4am

🌧️

11°

↙︎

230°

23 km/h

5am

☀️

12°

↙︎

229°

24 km/h

6am

☀️

12°

↙︎

228°

24 km/h

7am

☀️

13°

↙︎

227°

24 km/h

8am

☀️

13°

↙︎

226°

24 km/h

9am

☀️

14°

↙︎

226°

24 km/h

10am

☀️

14°

↙︎

225°

24 km/h

11am

🌧️

14°

↙︎

225°

24 km/h

12pm

🌧️

14°

↙︎

226°

24 km/h

1pm

🌧️

14°

↙︎

226°

24 km/h

2pm

🌧️

14°

↙︎

226°

24 km/h

3pm

🌧️

14°

↙︎

227°

24 km/h

4pm

🌧️

14°

↙︎

228°

23 km/h

5pm

🌧️

13°

↙︎

228°

21 km/h

6pm

🌧️

13°

↙︎

229°

19 km/h

7pm

🌧️

12°

↙︎

231°

16 km/h

8pm

🌧️

11°

↙︎

234°

13 km/h

9pm

🌧️

11°

↙︎

237°

11 km/h

10pm

🌧️

10°

↙︎

243°

9 km/h

11pm

☀️

9°

←︎

250°

7 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.2 m SW

12am

Calm

1am

Calm

2am

Calm

3am

0.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

4am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

5am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

6am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

7am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

8am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

9am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

10am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

11am

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

12pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

1pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

2pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

3pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

4pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

5pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

6pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

7pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

8pm

0.2 m

@ 7 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

9pm

0.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

10pm

0.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

11pm

0.2 m

@ 6 s

↙︎

Calm

chop

Water Temp (°C)

↘ cooling — down 0.6° over the last 3 days

Thu

22 Oct

17.7°

Fri

23 Oct

17.6°

Sat

24 Oct

17.2°

Sun

25 Oct

17.1°

Mon

26 Oct

16.8°

Tue

27 Oct

16.7°

Wed

28 Oct

—

Thu

29 Oct

—

Fri

30 Oct

—

Sat

31 Oct

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 24 km/h SW (226°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

7:00 pm → 9:30 pm

2h 30m

Good

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

12:00 pm → 1:30 pm

1h 30m

First light

5:56 am

Last light

8:08 pm

Sunrise

6:23 am

Sunset

7:42 pm

Moonrise

6:51 pm

Moonset

5:21 am

High tide

4:05 am

Low tide

10:10 am

High tide

4:36 pm

Low tide

9:47 pm

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