The Patawalonga River is a somewhat unusual waterway in suburban Adelaide that exits to the sea at Glenelg.
It is unusual in that it has a system of weirs to control waterflow, and is now officially called a lake system.
Patawalonga Lake System diverts stormwater to sea via the Barcoo Outlet and uses Gulf of St Vincent tides to flush the lake with ​seawater.
The man-made lake is 1.6km long and runs along the coast from Glenelg to West Beach.
The way the waterway works is explained here.
The main purpose of the lake system is to stop tides from flooding Glenelg North and Adelaide Airport, and divert stormwater in the Sturt River, Keswick and Brownhill Creeks from flooding property along the lake.
The benefit for fishos is that the lake provides great habitat for fish such as black bream and mullet, and school mulloway are attracted to its mouth when it flows floodwater to sea.
Rock walls outside the lake are ideal fishing platforms for catching salmon trout, black bream, yelloweye mullet, tommy ruffs, flathead, mulloway and garfish.
Mainly bream are caught inside the lake.
Sharks and rays are caught off the rocks at night at high tide.
For mulloway, fish during and after flooding and use small livebait such as salmon trout, yelloweye mullet or tommy ruff.
There are special rules for fishing for sharks and rays in South Australia and for pink snapper.
Here is a list of recommended tackle for SA waters.
Here is the SA seasonal fishing calendar for various fish species.
Patawalonga sea entrance tides
Glenelg coast on Beachsafe
SA fishing regulations
SA marine parks
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