Do you need a fishing licence to fish Horseshoe Bay jetty at Port Elliot?

No. South Australia does not require a general recreational fishing licence, so you can fish the jetty and rocks without paying a fee. You still have to follow the state bag, boat and size limits — King George whiting, for example, are 32cm with a bag of 10 here, because the reduced gulf bag of 5 stops at the Fleurieu tip — and the SA Fishing app is the easiest way to check the current rules before you head out.

What fish can you catch at Horseshoe Bay Port Elliot?

The bay is best known for salmon trout (Australian salmon) and tommy ruff (Australian herring), with garfish, southern calamari (squid) and yelloweye mullet all on the cards. Silver trevally and the odd snook show up in the warmer months. A berley trail of bread and pollard fished into dawn or dusk is the standard approach for most of them.

Is Horseshoe Bay a good spot to take kids fishing?

Yes — it's one of the more family-friendly spots on the Fleurieu. The bay is sheltered and calm, there's a playground, toilets, showers and a cafe metres from the sand, and the short low jetty is an easy walk from the car park. Herring and garfish keep young anglers busy, and the same berley trail that pulls them in is simple enough for a first-timer to run.

When is the best time to fish Horseshoe Bay Port Elliot?

Autumn into the cooler months is the peak, when salmon trout school into the bay and the herring and garfish fish well on a berley trail. Across the year, the run-up tide into dawn or dusk out-fishes the middle of the day. Pick settled weather after a swell has dropped if you're chasing squid, since they need clear water.

Can you catch snapper at Horseshoe Bay or anywhere near Port Elliot?

Yes. The snapper closure covers the West Coast, Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent / Kangaroo Island zones, and Horseshoe Bay is not in any of them — the gulf zone's eastern boundary runs south from the southern tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, just east of Cape Jervis, so Encounter Bay sits in the South East Fishing Zone. Snapper here is 38cm minimum, with a daily bag of 5 and a boat limit of 15. Check the current PIRSA rules before you go, because the boundary matters more than the postcode.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Horseshoe Bay Jetty (Port Elliot)

Mon 31 Aug 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

←

31 Aug

Today

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 5 Sep

📍 Horseshoe Bay Jetty (Port Elliot)

waning gibbous · 90%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: NE 23° · 10 km/h Swell: 1.5 m @ 10 s SW Water: 14.5 °C Pressure: 1031.2 hPa → steady

★★☆☆☆

Low Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Turning

Wind NE 10 km/h

Moon waning gibbous all day

Water temp 14.5 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Now

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:00 am → 7:30 am

1h 30m

First light

6:11 am

Last light

6:20 pm

Sunrise

6:36 am

Sunset

5:55 pm

Moonrise

9:12 pm

Moonset

7:50 am

High tide

12:54 am

Low tide

7:00 am

High tide

1:06 pm

Low tide

7:30 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

8°

↑︎

360°

7 km/h

1am

☁️

8°

↑︎

360°

7 km/h

2am

☁️

8°

↑︎

9°

7 km/h

3am

☁️

8°

↑︎

15°

7 km/h

4am

☁️

8°

↑︎

18°

8 km/h

5am

☁️

8°

↑︎

18°

9 km/h

Now

☁️

8°

↗︎

23°

10 km/h

7am

☀️

9°

↗︎

28°

11 km/h

8am

☀️

11°

↗︎

41°

10 km/h

9am

☀️

13°

↗︎

58°

9 km/h

10am

☀️

14°

→︎

73°

10 km/h

11am

☀️

16°

→︎

81°

10 km/h

12pm

☀️

16°

→︎

88°

11 km/h

1pm

☀️

17°

→︎

83°

11 km/h

2pm

☀️

17°

→︎

85°

11 km/h

3pm

☀️

18°

→︎

88°

10 km/h

4pm

☀️

17°

→︎

88°

7 km/h

5pm

☀️

16°

→︎

90°

2 km/h

6pm

☀️

14°

↑︎

11°

2 km/h

7pm

☀️

12°

↖︎

337°

4 km/h

8pm

☀️

11°

↑︎

342°

6 km/h

9pm

☀️

11°

↑︎

352°

9 km/h

10pm

☀️

12°

↑︎

354°

12 km/h

11pm

☀️

13°

↑︎

357°

15 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 1.6 → 1.2 m SW

12am

1.6 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

1am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

2am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

3am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

4am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

5am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

Now

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

7am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10am

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11am

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

12pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

1pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

2pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

3pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

4pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

5pm

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

6pm

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

7pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

8pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

9pm

1.0 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

10pm

1.1 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

11pm

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 14.5°

Fri

28 Aug

14.5°

Sat

29 Aug

14.5°

Sun

30 Aug

14.5°

Mon

31 Aug

14.5°

Tue

1 Sep

14.6°

Wed

2 Sep

14.5°

Thu

3 Sep

14.6°

Fri

4 Sep

14.6°

Sat

5 Sep

14.5°

Sun

6 Sep

14.6°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 10 km/h NE (23°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:00 am → 7:30 am

1h 30m

First light

6:11 am

Last light

6:20 pm

Sunrise

6:36 am

Sunset

5:55 pm

Moonrise

9:12 pm

Moonset

7:50 am

High tide

12:54 am

Low tide

7:00 am

High tide

1:06 pm

Low tide

7:30 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Australian Salmon
Australian Herring
Garfish
Southern Calamari (Squid)
Yelloweye Mullet
Skipjack Trevally (Skippy)
Snook