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)

Fri 04 Sep 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

←

4 Sep

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 5 Sep

📍 Horseshoe Bay Jetty (Port Elliot)

last quarter · 54%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: NW 318° · 13 km/h Swell: 2.1 m @ 10 s SW Water: 14.5 °C Pressure: 1016.6 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NW 11 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 14.5 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

5:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

6:06 am

Last light

6:23 pm

Sunrise

6:31 am

Sunset

5:58 pm

Moonrise

12:41 am

Moonset

10:15 am

High tide

2:23 am

Low tide

9:42 am

High tide

1:00 pm

Low tide

8:00 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

11°

↖︎

303°

10 km/h

1am

☀️

11°

↖︎

308°

10 km/h

2am

☀️

11°

↖︎

311°

10 km/h

3am

☀️

11°

↖︎

316°

10 km/h

4am

☀️

11°

↖︎

320°

10 km/h

5am

☀️

12°

↖︎

324°

10 km/h

6am

☀️

13°

↖︎

328°

11 km/h

7am

☀️

13°

↖︎

330°

12 km/h

8am

☀️

14°

↖︎

332°

12 km/h

9am

☀️

15°

↖︎

331°

12 km/h

10am

☀️

15°

↖︎

329°

12 km/h

11am

☀️

16°

↖︎

324°

12 km/h

12pm

☁️

16°

↖︎

318°

13 km/h

1pm

☁️

16°

↖︎

312°

13 km/h

2pm

☁️

17°

↖︎

307°

12 km/h

3pm

☁️

17°

↖︎

304°

12 km/h

4pm

🌧️

16°

↖︎

304°

11 km/h

5pm

🌧️

16°

↖︎

308°

9 km/h

6pm

🌧️

15°

↖︎

315°

7 km/h

7pm

🌧️

15°

↖︎

328°

5 km/h

8pm

🌧️

14°

↑︎

344°

3 km/h

9pm

🌧️

14°

↑︎

345°

2 km/h

10pm

☀️

13°

↖︎

294°

2 km/h

11pm

☀️

13°

←︎

262°

4 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 2.3 → 1.8 m SW

12am

2.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

1am

2.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

2am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

3am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

4am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6am

2.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

8am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

9am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11am

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

12pm

2.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

1pm

2.1 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

2pm

2.1 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

3pm

2.0 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

4pm

2.0 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5pm

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6pm

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

7pm

2.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8pm

1.9 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9pm

1.9 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10pm

1.9 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11pm

1.8 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 14.5°

Tue

1 Sep

14.5°

Wed

2 Sep

14.5°

Thu

3 Sep

14.5°

Fri

4 Sep

14.5°

Sat

5 Sep

14.6°

Sun

6 Sep

14.6°

Mon

7 Sep

14.5°

Tue

8 Sep

—

Wed

9 Sep

—

Thu

10 Sep

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 13 km/h NW (318°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

5:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

6:06 am

Last light

6:23 pm

Sunrise

6:31 am

Sunset

5:58 pm

Moonrise

12:41 am

Moonset

10:15 am

High tide

2:23 am

Low tide

9:42 am

High tide

1:00 pm

Low tide

8:00 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

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