GUIDED TO TAILOR BY THE BIRDS

HI everyone, hope you have all had a good week. Cold was an understatement last Saturday with only the keenest fishos heading out to try their luck on the Tweed and Gold Coast. The rest of the week we have been blessed with sunny days and light winds making spending time outdoors much more inviting. Once the swell eases, heading offshore will be a good option. Let’s have a look at what’s been happening.

Reports of some quality fish around the southern end of the Broadwater this week seeing fishos land a good variety of species such as snapper, tusk fish, tailor, yellow tail kingfish, jewfish, flathead, flounder, bream, squid and morwong. Fishing around the mouth of the Gold Coast Seaway has been extra productive with large bait schools of hardy heads and yakkas proving irresistible to predators.

The run-in tide has fished well. Try starting a drift form the mouth of the Seaway and heading either North in the main channel towards Currigee or South towards Marina Mirage. Live baits have been getting smashed, dead baits like white pilchards, WA pilchards, mullet fillet, prawns and yabbies will all do the trick. Soft vibes and metal vibes up to half ounce in weight work well in the deeper water and is a favourite form of fishing for me. I try to target the last two hours of the run-in tide and the first hour of the run-out tide for best results.

As the water starts to cool down quality whiting are heading back up the rivers in numbers. Local angler Wayne Young has had a good week finding a nice feed of some great quality fish. The Tweed River, Tallebudgera Creek, Nerang River, Coomera River, Pimpama River and Logan

River are all great spots to try your luck. Whiting bite best when the tide is running at a decent pace. Fishing can be quite slow during a tide change. Live bait is the way to go,

Tailor are starting to show up more regularly around Jumpinpin towards the top of the tide and the first hour of the run-out. The Pin Bar mouth, Crusoe Island, Kalinga Bank, Tiger Mullet Channel, Mouth of Whalleys Gutter and Canaipa Passage are all worth a look. When targeting tailor it’s important to find the bait to find the fish. Birds actively feeding are a great indication of a school of tailor. If things are a bit quiet try trolling shallow diving lures around 65-90mm in length until you can tempt a fish. Once located you can try casting metal slugs or surface lures. Matching the size of bait fish they are feeding on is very important.

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports the Tweed River continues to produce good flathead, school mulloway, bream and the odd whiting in the middle to upper reaches, on the flats in lower light with hardbodies that dive to 3.5m, and on Samaki Vibelicious white bait and Ecogear ZX40 colour code 447 in the deeper holes that are holding bait.

Clint has had some maintenance to do this week so only did a couple of trips to the Nerang River and Gold Coast Broadwater. The Nerang River is producing mulloway, flathead, giant trevally and bream on soft vibes and blade lures, while the Broadwater has squid, flounder, winter whiting and flathead biting around the Hollywell area.

Hope you all have a good week and stay healthy and safe. Please email us and let us know how you went.