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)

Sat 17 Oct 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

Forecast updated Sat 17 Oct, 10:35pm ACDT

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17 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 24 Oct

📍 42 Mile Crossing (Coorong)

first quarter · 32%

Weather: Sunny Wind: NE 67° · 14 km/h Swell: 0.7 m @ 10 s SW Water: 16.1 °C Pressure: 1023.6 hPa ↓ falling Faces south-west · Offshore: N, NE, E · Onshore: S, SW, W · Forecast wind: offshore

★★★★☆

High Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind E 14 km/h

Moon first quarter all day

Water temp 16.1 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day Timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 5:59 am Last light 7:54 pm

High 3:40 am Low 8:50 am High 2:30 pm Low 8:30 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:00 am → 7:30 am

2h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 9:00 pm

3h 30m

First light

5:59 am

Last light

7:54 pm

Sunrise

6:25 am

Sunset

7:28 pm

Moonrise

10:26 am

Moonset

1:03 am

High tide

3:40 am

Low tide

8:50 am

High tide

2:30 pm

Low tide

8:30 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

15°

→︎

75°

14 km/h

1am

☀️

15°

→︎

70°

14 km/h

2am

☀️

14°

↗︎

67°

13 km/h

3am

☀️

14°

→︎

74°

11 km/h

4am

☀️

13°

→︎

80°

12 km/h

5am

☀️

13°

→︎

79°

14 km/h

6am

☀️

13°

→︎

75°

14 km/h

7am

☀️

14°

→︎

72°

14 km/h

8am

☀️

16°

→︎

71°

13 km/h

9am

☀️

19°

↗︎

65°

16 km/h

10am

☀️

21°

↗︎

54°

18 km/h

11am

☀️

23°

↗︎

48°

19 km/h

12pm

☀️

24°

↗︎

51°

19 km/h

1pm

☀️

25°

↗︎

48°

20 km/h

2pm

☀️

25°

↗︎

50°

20 km/h

3pm

☀️

26°

↗︎

50°

18 km/h

4pm

☀️

26°

↗︎

47°

18 km/h

5pm

☀️

25°

↗︎

50°

18 km/h

6pm

☀️

24°

↗︎

57°

16 km/h

7pm

☀️

21°

→︎

69°

12 km/h

8pm

☀️

20°

↗︎

65°

11 km/h

9pm

☀️

19°

→︎

73°

11 km/h

10pm

☀️

18°

→︎

75°

13 km/h

11pm

☀️

18°

↗︎

67°

14 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.7 m SW

12am

0.8 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

1am

0.8 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

2am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

3am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

4am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

5am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

6am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

7am

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

8am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

9am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

10am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

11am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

12pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

1pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

2pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

3pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

4pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

5pm

0.6 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

6pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

7pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

8pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

9pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

10pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

11pm

0.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Slight

Water Temp (°C)

↗ warming — up 0.7° over the last 3 days

Wed

14 Oct

15.4°

Thu

15 Oct

15.4°

Fri

16 Oct

15.7°

Sat

17 Oct

16.1°

Sun

18 Oct

16.3°

Mon

19 Oct

16.3°

Tue

20 Oct

16.6°

Wed

21 Oct

16.8°

Thu

22 Oct

17.3°

Fri

23 Oct

17.0°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 14 km/h NE (67°).

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 → 7:30 am

2h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 9:00 pm

3h 30m

First light

5:59 am

Last light

7:54 pm

Sunrise

6:25 am

Sunset

7:28 pm

Moonrise

10:26 am

Moonset

1:03 am

High tide

3:40 am

Low tide

8:50 am

High tide

2:30 pm

Low tide

8:30 pm

Species at This Spot