A robust management strategy is integral to the sustainability of commercially and recreationally important species. In South Australia’s Lakes and Coorong Fishery, a multi-gear, multi-species fishery, the black bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri) stock has been classified as ‘depleted’ since 2016, based on commercial fishery performance (catch and effort data). In response to sustainability concerns, the Black Bream Recovery Strategy was developed in 2018 to promote stock recovery. Management measures consisted of (i) seasonal/spawning and spatial fishing closures, (ii) the development of biological performance indicators to monitor stock recovery (incidental CPUE and fishery age structures), (iii) a long-term fishery-independent survey (including pre-recruit age structures), and most recently (iv) the development of commercial CPUE standardisation to account for key sources of variation in commercial fishery statistics (e.g., fishing closure months). Through the implementation of fishing restrictions and integration of fishery-dependent and -independent proxies for relative abundance and recruitment, continued improvements in black bream stock performance have occurred in recent years, resulting in a reclassification of the stock to ‘recovering’ in 2025. Our findings highlight the value of integrating multiple, complementary indicators in a weight-of-evidence approach to support future stock assessments and harvest strategy development.