Gold Coast Winter Bite: Seaway Tailor and Flathead Fire in the Afternoon Push

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Gold Coast fishing report. Light winter pattern on the Coast right now: cool, mostly clear, and a gentle south‑westerly early swinging onshore this arvo. Temps are sitting in the high teens to low twenties, with only a slight chop on the ocean side and the Broadwater pretty comfortable for small boats and kayaks. Tides today are running a **morning low, building to a solid afternoon high**, so that push of clean water back in through the Seaway is the key bite window. The **last two hours of the run‑in** and the **first of the run‑out** are your prime times. Sun’s up around **6:30 am** and dipping just after **5 pm**, so you’re working short, sharp sessions around dawn and dusk. Those low‑light periods, especially with the cooler water, are when the better fish have been chewing. Around the **Seaway and outer sand drop‑offs**, crews have been getting into good numbers of **tailor**, school‑size **jewfish (mulloway)**, and a mix of **trevally**. Most jew are schoolies in the 60–80 cm bracket with the odd better model. Tailor have been solid choppers, great fun on light gear. Up the **Nerang River and canal edges**, flathead are starting to fire, with plenty of fish in the 40–60 cm range and a few bigger lizards off the edges of the main channels. Bream numbers are building around the rock walls, bridges, and marinas, with some chunky fish taken at night on light leaders. Best lures at the moment: - For tailor and trevally in the Seaway: **15–25 g metal slugs**, small **stickbaits**, and **white paddle‑tail plastics** on 3/8 oz heads burned through the washes and current lines. - For mulloway: **soft vibes**, 4–5 inch **paddle‑tails** in natural colours, and **Z‑man style jerk shads** worked slowly near the bottom on the tide change. - For flathead: 3–4 inch **curly‑tail and paddle‑tail plastics** in motor oil or pink, hopped along sandbanks and drop‑offs. - For bream: tiny **hardbody cranks**, small **vibes**, and **unweighted plastics** cast tight to structure. Best bait: - **Mullet strips, pilchards, and squid** for jew and tailor in the Seaway. - **Prawns, yabbies, and small mullet fillets** for flathead and bream along the banks and rock walls. - A simple **running sinker rig** with a 1/0–3/0 hook has been doing the job for most bread‑and‑butter species. Couple of hot spots to try: - **Gold Coast Seaway and the Sand Pumping Jetty side**: work the eddies and current lines on the run‑in for tailor, trevally, and mulloway. - **Crab Island and the channel edges around Wave Break**: drifting plastics for flathead and bream on the making tide. - Land‑based fishos, the **rock walls at The Spit** and **Charis Seafoods jetty area at Labrador** have both produced tailor, bream, and the odd school jew on live baits and metals. Fish light but sensible, keep an eye on that breeze change, and as always, take only what you need. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn