How big does a mulloway have to be at 42 Mile Crossing?

82 cm, with a bag of 2 and a boat limit of 6. The smaller 46 cm bracket that allows a bag of 10 applies only inside Coorong waters, which begin back at the Murray Mouth. 42 Mile Crossing is on the ocean beach, so the statewide rule applies and a 46 cm fish is well undersize here.

Do you need a four-wheel drive to fish 42 Mile Crossing?

Only to drive on the sand. The three-kilometre road in from the Princes Highway takes any vehicle including caravans, and a 1.3 km walking trail crosses the dunes to the beach in about 20 minutes. That makes it the easiest ocean-beach access in Coorong National Park.

Is it safe to drive on the Coorong ocean beach?

Parks SA currently warns that conditions change regularly because of severe erosion and dune collapse from high tides and sea surges, and calls beach driving a high-risk activity for both people and vehicles. The beach is a gazetted road, so normal road law applies, and you may drive only between the high and low water marks, at low tide. Check the park alerts before you go and take a second vehicle on any long run.

What can you catch at 42 Mile Crossing?

Surf mulloway are the drawcard, with fish to 30 kg reported, and salmon, mullet, snapper and gummy sharks come out of the same gutters. The lagoon behind the dunes is a different fishery again, best known for the Coorong mullet. Black bream in the Coorong and the Lakes are closed from 1 August to 31 January.

Is the Coorong ocean beach closed to vehicles at any time of year?

Yes, the northern run is. To protect the hooded plover, the ocean beach track north of Tea Tree Crossing is closed to vehicles from 24 October to 24 December every year, and that closure applies to the beach from Tea Tree Crossing to the Murray Mouth. 42 Mile Crossing sits south of Tea Tree and is not closed, so the campground, the dune walk and the beach in front of it stay available through those two months.

Can you collect cockles or pipis at the Coorong?

Not at the moment. Pipis are closed statewide from 1 June to 31 October, and since 16 April 2026 all bivalve molluscs taken recreationally in South Australia are bait only and not for eating. Recreational take is also prohibited on the Younghusband Peninsula between the Murray Mouth and 28 Mile Crossing, which is a commercial zone.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

42 Mile Crossing (Coorong)

Fri 04 Sep 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

Save

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4 Sep

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Today Tomorrow Sat 12 Sep

📍 42 Mile Crossing (Coorong)

last quarter · 54%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: N 338° · 26 km/h Swell: 2.1 m @ 11 s SW Water: 14.0 °C Pressure: 1013.9 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NE 15 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 14.0 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

5:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

6:02 am

Last light

6:18 pm

Sunrise

6:27 am

Sunset

5:53 pm

Moonrise

12:40 am

Moonset

10:08 am

High tide

2:30 am

Low tide

8:45 am

High tide

1:03 pm

Low tide

7:30 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

11°

↖︎

317°

9 km/h

1am

☀️

11°

↑︎

357°

8 km/h

2am

☀️

9°

↑︎

14°

9 km/h

3am

☀️

8°

↑︎

12°

11 km/h

4am

☀️

8°

↑︎

16°

13 km/h

5am

☀️

8°

↗︎

23°

13 km/h

6am

☀️

8°

↗︎

25°

15 km/h

7am

☁️

10°

↗︎

28°

15 km/h

8am

☀️

12°

↗︎

27°

15 km/h

9am

☁️

14°

↑︎

21°

19 km/h

10am

☁️

15°

↑︎

13°

20 km/h

11am

🌧️

15°

↑︎

12°

21 km/h

12pm

☁️

17°

↑︎

8°

25 km/h

1pm

☁️

18°

↑︎

4°

26 km/h

2pm

🌧️

17°

↑︎

11°

22 km/h

3pm

🌧️

16°

↗︎

26°

19 km/h

4pm

🌧️

16°

↗︎

31°

18 km/h

5pm

🌧️

15°

↑︎

20°

20 km/h

6pm

🌧️

15°

↗︎

23°

22 km/h

7pm

☁️

15°

↑︎

22°

22 km/h

8pm

☁️

15°

↑︎

18°

24 km/h

9pm

☁️

15°

↑︎

360°

28 km/h

10pm

🌧️

16°

↑︎

347°

27 km/h

11pm

🌧️

15°

↑︎

338°

26 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 3.3 → 2.1 m SW

12am

3.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

1am

3.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

2am

3.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

3am

3.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

4am

3.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

5am

3.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

6am

3.1 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

7am

3.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Heavy

ground

8am

3.0 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

9am

2.9 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10am

2.8 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11am

2.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

12pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

1pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

2pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

3pm

2.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

4pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

5pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

6pm

2.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

7pm

2.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

8pm

2.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

9pm

2.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

10pm

2.3 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

11pm

2.1 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Solid

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 14.0°

Tue

1 Sep

13.8°

Wed

2 Sep

14.0°

Thu

3 Sep

14.0°

Fri

4 Sep

14.0°

Sat

5 Sep

14.1°

Sun

6 Sep

14.1°

Mon

7 Sep

14.0°

Tue

8 Sep

14.0°

Wed

9 Sep

13.9°

Thu

10 Sep

14.0°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 26 km/h N (338°).

Wind map data: ECMWF HRES (operational), updated every 6 hours. Not for navigation.

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:00 am

Good

5:00 pm → 7:00 pm

First light

6:02 am

Last light

6:18 pm

Sunrise

6:27 am

Sunset

5:53 pm

Moonrise

12:40 am

Moonset

10:08 am

High tide

2:30 am

Low tide

8:45 am

High tide

1:03 pm

Low tide

7:30 pm

Species at this spot

Mulloway (Jewfish)
Australian Salmon
Yelloweye Mullet
Gummy Shark
Pink Snapper