17/07/2026
🐟 Mulloway have always held a special place in my heart.
Growing up in NSW, my father was a commercial handline fisherman targeting Mulloway, and I was lucky enough to grow up chasing them too.
I’ve caught them from estuaries, beaches, rock platforms and offshore, using everything from handlines, cane springers, live and dead baits, hard-bodied lures, jigs and soft plastics.
Despite their reputation as a challenging fish, Mulloway become predictable when you understand the puzzle…. bait, tides, moon phases, water movement and conditions all playing their part.
To me, they’re one of Australia’s greatest sportfish. Their silver-bronze colour, spotted lateral line, unmistakable croak and smell, that subtle tap or crunch, the first power run and that famous head shake make every capture special.
No matter how many you catch… each one is just as special as the last.
Growing up fishing NSW waters, I’ve seen the positive changes from increasing the size limit from 60 cm to 70 cm and reducing bag limits from 5 fish, to 2, and now 1 fish per angler. In my opinion, these changes have helped improve the fishery and created better opportunities for recreational anglers.
Now living in Victoria, where Mulloway are not as abundant around Melbourne as they are in parts of NSW, SA, WA and southern Queensland, it’s encouraging to see the proposed Mulloway Improvement Program looking at similar steps - increasing the minimum size to 70 cm and reducing the bag limit to 2 fish.
These slow-growing, long-lived fish are worth protecting. They’re great on the chew, but even better as a fishery we can enjoy for generations.
I haven’t targeted my first Victorian Mulloway yet… but it’s firmly on the mission list. 🎣
This is your Port Phillip Captain signing off.
