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

Sat 05 Sep 2026 · Australia/Adelaide

←

5 Sep

tap to pick date

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Today Tomorrow Sat 5 Sep

📍 Goolwa Beach, Barrage & Murray Mouth

last quarter · 43%

Weather: Cloudy Wind: S 178° · 20 km/h Swell: 1.7 m @ 11 s SW Water: 14.6 °C Pressure: 1020.1 hPa → steady

★★★☆☆

Medium Fish Activity

▸ Why this score?

At the day's peak · 6:30 pm

Solunar Major window

Time of day Dusk

Tide Turning

Wind SE 14 km/h

Moon last quarter all day

Water temp 14.6 °C all day

Learn how the score works →

Activity Forecast

Feeding Windows

Best times to fish based on activity score.

Peak

5:30 pm → 7:30 pm

Good

5:30 am → 7:30 am

First light

6:04 am

Last light

6:23 pm

Sunrise

6:29 am

Sunset

5:58 pm

Moonrise

1:51 am

Moonset

11:11 am

High tide

3:00 am

Low tide

6:00 am

Low tide

10:30 am

High tide

12:54 pm

Low tide

6:50 pm

Hourly Wind

High Bite Hours Highlighted

12am

☁️

13°

←︎

249°

5 km/h

1am

☁️

13°

↙︎

244°

8 km/h

2am

☁️

13°

↙︎

240°

11 km/h

3am

☁️

13°

↙︎

235°

13 km/h

4am

☁️

13°

↙︎

228°

14 km/h

5am

☁️

13°

↙︎

219°

16 km/h

6am

☁️

14°

↙︎

211°

17 km/h

7am

☁️

14°

↙︎

203°

19 km/h

8am

☁️

14°

↓︎

197°

21 km/h

9am

☁️

14°

↓︎

193°

22 km/h

10am

☁️

14°

↓︎

188°

22 km/h

11am

☁️

14°

↓︎

183°

21 km/h

12pm

☁️

14°

↓︎

178°

20 km/h

1pm

☁️

14°

↓︎

172°

19 km/h

2pm

☁️

13°

↓︎

166°

18 km/h

3pm

☁️

13°

↓︎

161°

17 km/h

4pm

☁️

13°

↘︎

155°

16 km/h

5pm

☁️

12°

↘︎

149°

15 km/h

6pm

☁️

12°

↘︎

141°

14 km/h

7pm

☁️

11°

↘︎

132°

13 km/h

8pm

☁️

11°

↘︎

123°

12 km/h

9pm

☁️

11°

↘︎

113°

12 km/h

10pm

☁️

10°

→︎

104°

11 km/h

11pm

☁️

10°

→︎

93°

11 km/h

Hourly Swell

Easing 1.8 → 1.4 m SW

12am

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

1am

1.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

2am

1.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

3am

1.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

4am

1.8 m

@ 12 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

5am

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

6am

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

7am

1.8 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8am

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9am

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10am

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11am

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

12pm

1.7 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

1pm

1.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

2pm

1.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

3pm

1.6 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

4pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

5pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

6pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

7pm

1.5 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

8pm

1.4 m

@ 11 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

9pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

10pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

11pm

1.4 m

@ 10 s

↙︎

Moderate

ground

Water Temp (°C)

→ steady around 14.6°

Wed

2 Sep

14.5°

Thu

3 Sep

14.6°

Fri

4 Sep

14.5°

Sat

5 Sep

14.6°

Sun

6 Sep

14.5°

Mon

7 Sep

14.6°

Tue

8 Sep

—

Wed

9 Sep

—

Thu

10 Sep

—

Fri

11 Sep

—

Wind Map

Wind data (text)

Now: 20 km/h S (178°).

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 pm → 7:30 pm

Good

5:30 am → 7:30 am

First light

6:04 am

Last light

6:23 pm

Sunrise

6:29 am

Sunset

5:58 pm

Moonrise

1:51 am

Moonset

11:11 am

High tide

3:00 am

Low tide

6:00 am

Low tide

10:30 am

High tide

12:54 pm

Low tide

6:50 pm

Nearby spots

Species at this spot

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