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Herolds Bay Fishing & Solunar Times
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61 /100 ★★★☆☆ fair
1.4h off the turn — strongest push; 1.1m — working the gullies nicely; rising fast (+4.7 hPa/6h) — post-front.
Why the bite reads fair right now
🌊Tide flow+12
1.4h off the turn — strongest push
〰️Swell+8
1.1m — working the gullies nicely
🔻Pressure-8
rising fast (+4.7 hPa/6h) — post-front
🌙Solunar+7
major window within the hour
↕️Tide direction+2
pushing in
🌘Moon phase+1
mid-cycle
Bars are the live points each factor added to (green) or took off (red) today’s score. Full breakdown below.
Show how this score is worked out
| Baseline | an average day on an average tide | +40 |
| Solunar | major window within the hour | +7 |
| Moon phase | mid-cycle | +1 |
| Tide flow | 1.4h off the turn — strongest push | +12 |
| Tide direction | pushing in | +2 |
| Wind | 5 km/h onshore, light | -1 |
| Swell | 1.1m — working the gullies nicely | +8 |
| Pressure | rising fast (+4.7 hPa/6h) — post-front | -8 |
| Water temp | 15.6°C | 0 |
| Total | 61 | |
Every factor above is live data for this spot. Solunar and the weightings are an informed guide, not a guarantee — the sea gets a vote.
📖 Today’s story
Fishable, pick your window. A strong pushing tide is moving food around. A 1.1m swell is working the gullies. The barometer’s climbing hard after a front, which can shut them down. Today’s pick: Garrick on live bait or spinning spoons. Best window today around 21:48.
📉 Barometric trigger
Rising hard after a front — can shut them down, climbing next 6h.
Last 6h +4.7 hPa · next 6h +1.8 hPa · live from Open-Meteo.
Tide: rising, 1.4h from the turn (next high 13:58)
Moon: Waxing Gibbous (88% lit)
Major bite: 20:48–22:48 · 09:13–11:13
Minor bite: 14:50–16:20 · 03:16–04:46
Strongest near dawn/dusk or a tide change. Nearest tides →
🐟 Best fishing times today
🎣 Reading today’s bite…
■ prime ■ good ■ fair ■ quiet ■ dawn/dusk H/L = tide · tap an hour for detail
🌊 Today's tide
⚖️ What you may legally keep here
| Species | Min size | Bag limit | Closed season |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black musselcracker / poenskop | 50 cm | 1/day | none |
| Blacktail (dassie) | 20 cm | 5/day | none |
| Galjoen | 35 cm | 2/day | 15 Oct - last day of February |
| Garrick / Leervis | 70 cm | 2/day | none |
| Hottentot | 22 cm | 10/day | none |
| Kob / Kabeljou (dusky kob) — shore & estuary, east of Cape Agulhas | 60 cm | 1/day | none |
| Shad / Elf | 30 cm | 4/day | 01 Oct - 30 Nov |
| White musselcracker (brusher, cracker) | 60 cm | 2/day | none |
| White steenbras (pignose grunter) | 60 cm | 1/day | none |
A recreational fishing permit is required (available at the Post Office). Over and above the per-species limits above, Reg. 22(7)(f) prohibits keeping more than ten fish in total per day irrespective of species (except species with no bag limit, or a bag limit above ten). Sizes are measured snout to tail tip.
Source: Marine Living Resources Act 18 of 1998 — Regulations (GN R1111), Annexure 7 (Regulation 22). Limits shown only for species named in this spot's notes; where a common name covers more than one species (stumpnose, musselcracker) every applicable limit is listed. Regulations change — verify with DFFE before keeping any fish.
🐟 What’s biting at Herolds Bay now (September)
In season: Kob, Garrick, Galjoen, Blacktail, Hottentot, Musselcracker
Kob
Garrick
Galjoen
Blacktail
Hottentot
Musselcracker
Today’s pick: Garrick — Garrick are running — work spoons or live bait along the backline. Try live bait or spinning spoons.
🎣 Target now — tap a species
📅 When each fish runs at Herolds Bay
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shad | × | × | ||||||||||
| Kob | ||||||||||||
| Garrick | ||||||||||||
| Galjoen | × | |||||||||||
| Blacktail | ||||||||||||
| Hottentot | ||||||||||||
| White Steenbras | ||||||||||||
| Musselcracker |
peak run off-season closed (protected) • ring = this month. General SA run seasons.
Run seasons are a general SA guide; the sea gets a vote. Always check current bag & size limits.
🎣 Where to fish Herolds Bay
The marks our local knowledge describes for this spot — what the structure is, what holds there and how it is fished.
⛰️ Gullies
Holds: Shad, Kob, Garrick, Galjoen, Blacktail, Hottentot, White Steenbras, Musselcracker
Bait / lure: mussel, shad
💡 Top tip
“Typical catches along this coast are blacktail, hottentot, galjoen, shad and musselcracker from the rocks, with kob and white steenbras from the surf gullies and garrick following the baitfish in summer.”
Across the whole spot
Tide: pushing tide
Best light: dusk
Season: summer
Baits that work here: chokka, mussel, prawn, sardine, shad
Marks are drawn from our own local knowledge for this spot — each one shows the sentence it came from. They are descriptions, not survey positions: we do not publish a cast coordinate we cannot stand behind. Rock and ledge angling is dangerous in big swell — check the conditions above and never fish a ledge alone.
☀️ Sun & skin — out on the water all day
Sunrise 06:16 · Sunset 18:28 · Peak UV 6
Surfers & anglers get the highest UV dose of anyone. Recommended: SPF 50, reapply every 2 hours and after every session.
Shop SPF 50 sunscreen →Surf/wave: Open-Meteo Marine. Sun/UV/pressure: Open-Meteo. Tides: Stormglass model. Solunar is an approximate guide. Generated Wed, 23 Sep 2026 09:13 SAST.
Aerial map — Herolds Bay
Rocky ledges
The cove
Rock ledgeCasting spot
Hand-styled from NGI 0.25 m national aerial. Markers show productive marks & casting spots — indicative local knowledge, not live conditions or navigation advice; tides, banks, rips & hazards change, so use your own eyes on the day.
🎣 Cast Coach: the dashed arc suggests a cast from the beat toward the nearest deep water / structure — adjust for the tide on the day.
About Herolds Bay — Fishing Local Knowledge
The reefs and rocky points that book-end the little beach give anglers plenty of ledges to fish, with the sandy centre offering a surf option when conditions allow.
Typical catches along this coast are blacktail, hottentot, galjoen, shad and musselcracker from the rocks, with kob and white steenbras from the surf gullies and garrick following the baitfish in summer. Redbait, chokka, prawn and sardine are dependable baits, worked on the incoming tide and into the evening for kob. Mind the rip currents when wading, keep an eye on the swell washing the ledges, and check current bag limits and the galjoen closed season before keeping fish.