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

Sun 23 Aug 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

←

23 Aug

tap to pick date

→

Today Tomorrow Sat 5 Sep

📍 Goolwa Beach, Barrage & Murray Mouth

waxing gibbous · 74%

Weather: Sunny Wind: N 13° · 10 km/h Swell: 1.4 m @ 10 s SW Water: 14.3 °C Pressure: 1021.3 hPa ↓ falling

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:30 am

Solunar Between windows

Time of day Dawn

Tide Moving

Wind N 7 km/h

Moon waxing gibbous all day

Water temp 14.3 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:00 am → 7:30 am

1h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 7:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

1:00 pm → 1:30 pm

30m

First light

6:21 am

Last light

6:14 pm

Sunrise

6:46 am

Sunset

5:48 pm

Moonrise

12:57 pm

Moonset

3:31 am

High tide

9:00 am

High tide

12:30 pm

Low tide

6:18 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☀️

9°

↖︎

336°

4 km/h

1am

☀️

9°

↑︎

342°

6 km/h

2am

☀️

10°

↑︎

7°

6 km/h

3am

☀️

9°

↑︎

21°

9 km/h

4am

☀️

9°

↑︎

13°

8 km/h

5am

☀️

8°

↑︎

12°

7 km/h

6am

☀️

8°

↑︎

16°

7 km/h

7am

☀️

9°

↑︎

18°

8 km/h

8am

☀️

11°

↗︎

42°

8 km/h

9am

☀️

13°

↗︎

57°

11 km/h

10am

☀️

15°

↗︎

67°

12 km/h

11am

☀️

17°

↗︎

45°

11 km/h

12pm

☀️

18°

↑︎

13°

10 km/h

1pm

☀️

19°

↖︎

324°

12 km/h

2pm

☀️

19°

↖︎

309°

17 km/h

3pm

☀️

18°

↖︎

315°

15 km/h

4pm

☁️

17°

↖︎

304°

11 km/h

5pm

☁️

15°

←︎

291°

6 km/h

6pm

☁️

12°

↖︎

296°

5 km/h

7pm

☁️

11°

↖︎

328°

2 km/h

8pm

☁️

10°

↑︎

350°

4 km/h

9pm

☁️

10°

↖︎

329°

3 km/h

10pm

☁️

11°

↖︎

330°

3 km/h

11pm

☁️

11°

↗︎

35°

6 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 1.8 → 1.2 m SW

12am

1.8 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

1am

1.7 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

2am

1.6 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

3am

1.6 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

4am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

5am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

6am

1.5 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

7am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

8am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

9am

1.5 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

10am

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

11am

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

12pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

1pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

2pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

3pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

4pm

1.2 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

5pm

1.3 m

@ 9 s

↙︎

Moderate

6pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

7pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

8pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

9pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

10pm

1.3 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

11pm

1.2 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 14.3°

Thu

20 Aug

14.1°

Fri

21 Aug

14.1°

Sat

22 Aug

14.2°

Sun

23 Aug

14.3°

Mon

24 Aug

14.1°

Tue

25 Aug

14.2°

Wed

26 Aug

14.3°

Thu

27 Aug

14.5°

Fri

28 Aug

14.5°

Sat

29 Aug

14.5°

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 10 km/h N (13°).

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

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

6:00 am → 7:30 am

1h 30m

Good

5:30 pm → 7:00 pm

1h 30m

Good

1:00 pm → 1:30 pm

30m

First light

6:21 am

Last light

6:14 pm

Sunrise

6:46 am

Sunset

5:48 pm

Moonrise

12:57 pm

Moonset

3:31 am

High tide

9:00 am

High tide

12:30 pm

Low tide

6:18 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

Mulloway (Jewfish)
Australian Salmon
Yelloweye Mullet
Black Bream
Australian Herring
Flathead