Recreational fishing delivers substantial social, cultural, and economic value, and reliable catch and effort estimates are critical inputs to stock assessments and fisheries management. Yet, the telephone–diary and on-site surveys traditionally used to generate these estimates provide only periodic snapshots of recreational fishing activity, limiting their ability to detect fine-scale spatial patterns or respond rapidly to changes in fishing behaviour and management interventions; including responses to catastrophic events (e.g., harmful algal blooms). Rapid advances in digital monitoring technologies offer new opportunities to complement traditional survey programs by providing timelier and spatially resolved information on recreational fishing activity and catch. This study evaluates the contribution of several digital monitoring approaches in South Australia, including camera-based monitoring of fishing activity and catch information collected through voluntary and fisheries officer reporting within the SA Fishing App. Results demonstrate that these approaches can provide complementary information on recreational fishing activity, catch and participation patterns that is not readily available from periodic survey programs. However, their application is constrained by technical, behavioural and statistical challenges, including limited geographic coverage, participation bias and representativeness. We discuss how validation and calibration can support integration of digital data streams into stock assessments and management frameworks.