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Port Alfred Fishing & Solunar Times
85 /100 ★★★★★ prime
12 km/h offshore — clean water; inside a minor bite window; 1.1m — working the gullies nicely.
Why the bite reads prime right now
💨Wind+11
12 km/h offshore — clean water
🌙Solunar+8
inside a minor bite window
〰️Swell+8
1.1m — working the gullies nicely
🔻Pressure+6
falling (-1.9 hPa/6h)
🌘Moon phase+4
building toward springs
🌊Tide flow+4
0.7h off the turn, picking up
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 | inside a minor bite window | +8 |
| Moon phase | building toward springs | +4 |
| Tide flow | 0.7h off the turn, picking up | +4 |
| Tide direction | pulling out | +1 |
| Wind | 12 km/h offshore — clean water | +11 |
| Swell | 1.1m — working the gullies nicely | +8 |
| Pressure | falling (-1.9 hPa/6h) | +6 |
| Water temp | 17.1°C — in the productive band | +3 |
| Total | 85 | |
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
It’s on. A strong dropping tide is moving food around. A 12 km/h offshore is holding the water clean. A 1.1m swell is working the gullies. Today’s pick: Kob on live bait, chokka or fresh sardine. Best window today around 09:56.
📉 Barometric trigger
Falling — a classic bite trigger, climbing next 6h.
Last 6h -1.9 hPa · next 6h +1 hPa · live from Open-Meteo.
Tide: falling, 0.7h from the turn (next low 08:44)
Moon: Waning Crescent (9% lit)
Major bite: 08:56–10:56 · 21:21–23:21
Minor bite: 02:58–04:28 · 15:24–16:54
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blacktail (dassie) | 20 cm | 5/day | none |
| Bronze bream (bluefish) | 30 cm | 2/day | none |
| Galjoen | 35 cm | 2/day | 15 Oct - last day of February |
| Garrick / Leervis | 70 cm | 2/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 |
| Spotted grunter (tiger) | 40 cm | 5/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 Port Alfred now (September)
In season: Bronze Bream, Blacktail, Kob, Garrick, Galjoen
Bronze Bream
Blacktail
Kob
Garrick
Galjoen
Today’s pick: Kob — Falling pressure + the tide change favour kob. Try live bait, chokka or fresh sardine.
🎣 Target now — tap a species
📅 When each fish runs at Port Alfred
| Species | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grunter | ||||||||||||
| Bronze Bream | ||||||||||||
| Blacktail | ||||||||||||
| Kob | ||||||||||||
| Garrick | ||||||||||||
| Galjoen | × | |||||||||||
| Shad | × | × |
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 Port Alfred
The marks our local knowledge describes for this spot — what the structure is, what holds there and how it is fished.
🏞️ Kowie — estuary
💡 Top tip
“Port Alfred is above all a fishing town, and the Kowie estuary is its jewel — a deep, tidal river winding well inland that is one of the Eastern Cape's classic estuary fisheries.”
Across the whole spot
Baits that work here: live bait, 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 06:18 · Sunset 18:01 · 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, 09 Sep 2026 03:13 SAST.
Aerial map — Port Alfred
River mouth / piers
Estuary channel
Beach
Casting spotDeep hole / gully
Hand-styled from Esri World Imagery. 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 Port Alfred — Fishing Local Knowledge
Port Alfred is above all a fishing town, and the Kowie estuary is its jewel — a deep, tidal river winding well inland that is one of the Eastern Cape's classic estuary fisheries. Anglers work the channel edges and sand banks from boats and the bank, while surf and rock anglers fish the beaches and ledges either side of the mouth and out towards Kleinemonde.
The estuary is renowned for spotted grunter and kob (kabeljou), with garrick (leervis) arriving in the warmer months. Grunter are taken on prawn and mud-prawn worked over the banks on the neap tides, and kob on live bait and fresh sardine along the deeper channel edges near the mouth on the push. The surf and rocks add shad (elf), blacktail, bronze bream and seasonal galjoen. Galjoen is protected — check current regulations, bag and size limits before keeping any fish.