Do you need a 4WD to fish the Murray Mouth at Goolwa?

To reach the Murray Mouth itself, yes — the eastern 10km of the Sir Richard Peninsula is sand-only and needs a 4WD driven on the hard sand below the high-tide line, with no permit required. You can fish the surf on foot from the sealed car park at the end of Beach Road, but the best mulloway water near the mouth is a proper soft-sand drive. Go near low tide, air down, and carry recovery gear.

What size mulloway can you keep at Goolwa and the Coorong?

Inside the Coorong, the minimum legal length for mulloway is 46cm, with a bag of 10 fish between 46-82cm or 2 fish over 82cm. That is more generous than the rest of the state, where the minimum is 82cm. Goolwa sits in the South East Fishing Zone, so the 2026 Gulf St Vincent closures do not apply here — but check the current PIRSA limits before you keep a fish.

Can you collect Goolwa cockles (pipis) for bait?

Not right now. Pipis are closed statewide from 1 June to 31 October, so from June through October you can't take a single cockle anywhere in South Australia — the Goolwa Beach season reopens on 1 November. When it is open the limits are 3.5cm across the widest part of the shell, 330 per person per day east of longitude 136 degrees east, and 990 per vehicle for a group of three or more, and only Goolwa Beach on the Sir Richard Peninsula side is open to recreational collecting. SA Health advice is also that self-collected pipis from Goolwa Beach should be used for bait only and not eaten, because of brevetoxin linked to the algal bloom.

Do you need a fishing licence to fish at Goolwa?

No. South Australia does not require a general recreational fishing licence, so you can fish the beach, the mouth and the barrage without one. You still have to follow the size, bag and boat limits set by PIRSA, including the special mulloway rules for the Coorong and the seasonal bream closure in Lakes and Coorong waters from 1 August to 31 January.

When is the best time to catch mulloway at Goolwa Beach?

Low light is the key — the hour either side of dawn and dusk and right through the night produce most fish, fished on a moving tide. The beach fishes best in spring through autumn when the weather lets you onto the sand, with a light offshore or cross-shore wind cleaning the surf up. Find a deep gutter or the edge of the moving sand at the mouth and soak fresh pilchard, squid or mullet.

Bite Compass

Bite Forecast

Goolwa Beach, Barrage & Murray Mouth

Fri 16 Oct 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

Forecast updated 4:07am ACDT

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16 Oct

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Today Tomorrow Sat 17 Oct

📍 Goolwa Beach, Barrage & Murray Mouth

waxing crescent · 23%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: NE 54° · 11 km/h Swell: 0.7 m @ 8 s S Water: 16.2 °C Pressure: 1021.9 hPa ↓ falling Faces south · Offshore: NW, N, NE · Onshore: SE, S, SW · Forecast wind: offshore

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:00 am

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind NW 3 km/h

Moon waxing crescent all day

Water temp 16.2 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Day timeline

Major Minor Tide Twilight

First light 6:05 am Last light 7:56 pm

High 2:39 am Low 10:30 am High 2:15 pm Low 7:10 pm

Drag or use arrow keys to explore

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 am → 7:00 am

1h 30m

Good

7:00 pm → 8:30 pm

1h 30m

Good

5:00 pm → 6:00 pm

First light

6:05 am

Last light

7:56 pm

Sunrise

6:31 am

Sunset

7:30 pm

Moonrise

9:39 am

Moonset

12:12 am

High tide

2:39 am

Low tide

10:30 am

High tide

2:15 pm

Low tide

7:10 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

12°

↙︎

225°

1 km/h

1am

☀️

11°

↖︎

326°

1 km/h

2am

☀️

10°

↖︎

312°

2 km/h

3am

☀️

10°

↖︎

315°

2 km/h

4am

☀️

10°

↖︎

310°

1 km/h

5am

☁️

10°

↖︎

326°

1 km/h

6am

☁️

10°

↖︎

333°

3 km/h

7am

☁️

12°

↑︎

343°

4 km/h

8am

☁️

14°

↗︎

49°

7 km/h

9am

☁️

15°

↗︎

45°

9 km/h

10am

☁️

17°

↗︎

53°

10 km/h

11am

☁️

19°

↗︎

55°

11 km/h

12pm

☁️

20°

↗︎

54°

11 km/h

1pm

☁️

21°

↗︎

55°

11 km/h

2pm

☁️

22°

↗︎

58°

12 km/h

3pm

☁️

23°

↗︎

63°

12 km/h

4pm

☀️

23°

→︎

68°

11 km/h

5pm

☀️

21°

→︎

84°

7 km/h

6pm

☀️

19°

↘︎

150°

4 km/h

7pm

☀️

17°

↓︎

192°

6 km/h

8pm

☀️

16°

↙︎

206°

5 km/h

9pm

☀️

16°

←︎

263°

1 km/h

10pm

☀️

16°

↑︎

354°

3 km/h

11pm

☀️

15°

↑︎

13°

6 km/h

Hourly Swell

Steady ~0.5 m S

12am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

1am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

2am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

3am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

4am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

5am

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

6am

0.7 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

7am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

8am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

9am

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

10am

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

11am

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↙︎

Slight

12pm

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

1pm

0.7 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

chop

2pm

0.6 m

@ 8 s

↓︎

Slight

3pm

0.6 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

4pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

5pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

6pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

7pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

8pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

9pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

10pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

11pm

0.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Slight

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 16.2°

Tue

13 Oct

15.9°

Wed

14 Oct

16.0°

Thu

15 Oct

16.0°

Fri

16 Oct

16.2°

Sat

17 Oct

16.6°

Sun

18 Oct

17.1°

Mon

19 Oct

17.2°

Tue

20 Oct

17.0°

Wed

21 Oct

16.8°

Thu

22 Oct

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 11 km/h NE (54°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 am → 7:00 am

1h 30m

Good

7:00 pm → 8:30 pm

1h 30m

Good

5:00 pm → 6:00 pm

First light

6:05 am

Last light

7:56 pm

Sunrise

6:31 am

Sunset

7:30 pm

Moonrise

9:39 am

Moonset

12:12 am

High tide

2:39 am

Low tide

10:30 am

High tide

2:15 pm

Low tide

7:10 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot