When to fish for Mulloway: Mulloway are textbook tide-change feeders.
Also known as Jewfish, Jewie, Silver Ghost, Butterfish (juveniles). Bait, technique, tide windows, and where the bite is on right now.
Mulloway — Nocturnal estuary-and-beach ghost — the patience fish. Also called Jewfish, Jewie, Silver Ghost, Butterfish (juveniles).
One bite a night is a normal session. The take is a slow nodding pull — three or four heavy nods, not a hit — and easy to miss if you set on the first knock. The NSW bag was tightened from 2 to 1 in recent years; the population was being pulled apart by anglers fishing pressure-trained holes.
Mulloway is also known as: Jewfish, Jewie, Silver Ghost, Butterfish (juveniles). Nocturnal estuary-and-beach ghost — the patience fish.
Regional names can confuse anglers and cause misidentification. The table of common names below covers the most-used alternatives across Australia, New Zealand and the US:
Key to correct identification: check the regulations-authority species sheet for your state or territory before keeping any fish — minimum legal sizes, bag limits and identification guides are published by each fisheries department and are the authoritative source.
Hero spots in our coverage where Mulloway is in season for August. Click through for the live forecast.
Deeper reading on the species, the tides, the safety, and the timing windows behind the forecast.
Estuary: cast big soft vibes (Samaki Vibelicious is the NSW gold standard) at deep holes, bridge pylons and rock wall corners on a slow lift-pause-drop retrieve. Most jewies hit on the drop. Beach: anchor a big fresh bait on a paternoster rig in a gutter at night, sit still, wait — the bite is unmistakable, a slow heavy nod-nod-NOD. Patience is the entire game with mulloway. One bite a night on a good night is normal.
Field-proven Mulloway methods compiled from published tackle guides — AU East beaches, breakwalls, estuaries and river choke points. Every method links its source.
1live-baiting or fresh dead-baiting
Bait / lure: live mullet, live squid, squid head/rings, pilchard, tailor, salmon, trevally or garfish
Rig: running sinker to a single 5/0-8/0 hook or double-snelled hook rig; pin live bait so it swims naturally
When & where: deep holes, drop-offs, bridge pylons, breakwalls and bait-holding channels, especially during moving water and low light
2soft plastics on marked fish
Bait / lure: 5-7in jerk shad or 4-5in paddle tail in white, natural, pearl or dark baitfish colours
Rig: jigheads matched to plastic and conditions, such as roughly 1/4oz 5/0 for 5in, 1/2oz 7/0 for 7in, or 3/8oz 5/0 for paddle tails
When & where: estuary choke points, current breaks, channel narrows and drop-offs after locating bait or mulloway on sounder
3surf bait rig for beach mulloway
Bait / lure: large fresh bait, squid or slab bait presented naturally
Rig: two snelled 8/0 octopus-pattern hooks on about 80lb supple mono trace, with a running sinker between swivels above the hooks
When & where: surf gutters and beach holes where long casts and a natural bait sink are needed
4large hardbodies, vibes and swimbaits
Bait / lure: 80-100mm+ hardbody, shad, paddle tail, vibe or mullet-profile swimbait
Rig: medium spin/baitcast outfit with jighead or lure weight adjusted for current and depth; rig plastics straight
When & where: bridges, deep holes, rock walls and estuary edges; move if no bites after working a likely zone thoroughly
Mulloway are textbook tide-change feeders. The last hour of the tide turning and the first hour of the new direction is the window. In rivers, the bottom of the tide is when they pull into the deepest holes to wait out the slack. On beaches, fish the rising tide into a deep gutter at night.
Big mulloway are notoriously linked to the dark of the moon — the three or four nights either side of the new moon, particularly when matched with cloudy nights and a small swell on the beach. Full-moon bright nights tend to shut the bigger fish down (or push them deeper). Solunar minor at the tide change beats solunar major at slack water.
Figures come from each jurisdiction's own fisheries authority, with the source linked on every page above. Rules change — closures in particular are reset annually — so confirm with the authority before you keep a fish.
Mulloway are tightly managed and the rules differ sharply between states — New South Wales layers a boat limit and a charter limit on top of the personal bag, and Western Australia splits its rules by latitude. Read the per-jurisdiction figures above. Mulloway populations are pressured and the New South Wales bag was tightened in recent years. Big mulloway 1.3 m+ are 20-30 year-old breeders; release them where you can.
NSW size & bag limits for Mulloway — current DPIRD limits, verified →
Other Australian states — size & bag limits for Mulloway: QLD · VIC · WA · SA
The IGFA all-tackle world record for Mulloway is 66.75 kg, caught by Ronnie Botha at Sunday's River, Port Elizabeth, South Africa in 1998. The Australian record (GFAA all-tackle) for Mulloway is 33.8 kg, caught by Tony Bourne at Sawtell Headland in 1996.
| Record | Weight | Angler | Location | Date | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World record (IGFA all-tackle)Argyrosomus japonicus | 66.75 kg | Ronnie Botha | Sunday's River, Port Elizabeth, South Africa | 1998-11-22 | IGFA → |
| Australian record (GFAA)Argyrosomus japonicus | 33.8 kg | Tony Bourne | Sawtell Headland | 1996-05-18 | GFAA → |
Records as published by the IGFA and the Game Fishing Association of Australia — verify against the linked source before citing.
Olli-Mikael Vaittinen has fished his whole life. Fifteen years of fly fishing, guiding seasons on Norway's Lakselva — his favourite Atlantic salmon river — and a blue marlin landed in Vava'u, Tonga. Founder of Fishare — the app that puts the data behind the decisions every angler makes on the water.
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