The South Australian Liberals have announced it will create a new fishing body to represent the state's 277,000 recreational anglers if it wins power in March next year.

Opposition spokesman David Ridgway said the first step was to abolish the existing peak body for recreational fishers, RecFish SA.

It will then be replaced with a Recreational Fishing Council and merged with small recreational fishing lobby groups.

"We've currently got RecFish SA, the SA Fishing Alliance and RecFish Central — which are two other bodies that have been set up," he said.

"You can't have a sector or industry represented in a fragmented way so we want to develop a new recreational fishing body that represents the entire industry."

The State Opposition will also re-establish the Fisheries Council, which was disbanded in 2014, and restructure it to represent both commercial and recreational fishers.

"RecFish SA are quite protective of their turf and naturally everyone resists a bit of change, but we don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater," Mr Ridgway said.

"We just want to make sure we have a body that represents all of the sectors in the recreational sector.

"It will be challenging but it's hard to manage a fishery if you have different messages coming out of the same sector."

Lost support

RecFish SA was criticised by some recreational anglers in 2014 when it supported the State Government's marine park plan.

That included establishing no-take zones that commercial and recreational fishers were prohibited from fishing in.

RecFish SA's executive director Danny Simpson said the Liberals did not consult with the sector.

"We were quite shocked by the announcement, we certainly had no indication that the Liberal party doesn't support recreational fishing in SA. But this announcement seems to indicate that," he said.

"We are the peak body and every single recreational fisher in this state has the opportunity to continue to work with us for the betterment of recreational fishing.

"At the end of the day we have the support of the recreational fishing sector in South Australia.

"We have a membership-based organisation, which includes many of the larger fishing associations such as the Australian National Sportfishing Association.

"We also have recreational fisheries committees established as a conduit to the community."

While the recreational sector is against the move, the commercial sector is more supportive.

Dennis Holder from Wildcatch Fisheries SA, which represents some commercial anglers, says a new Fisheries Council has merit.

"The sooner the recreational industry gets unified and starts talking with one voice the better off we will all be," he said.

"The [former] Fisheries Council did work to a degree, but it's a good starting point where we go forward with fisheries management in SA because I believe at this stage it is lacking."

Recreational fisherman Heath Woodward said recreational fishers want a louder voice when dealing with government.

"Recreational fishermen aren't being heard by the South Australian public," he said.