Gold Coast Winter Bite: Seaway Tailor and Jew on the Turn

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Gold Coast fishing report. Light winter pattern on the Coast today: cool morning, mild arvo, mostly clear skies and a light westerly early, tending northeast sea-breeze through the afternoon. Temps are sitting mid-teens at first light, nudging low 20s by lunchtime. Sunrise was just after 6:30, sunset around 5:00, so your bite windows are tight and focused around dawn, dusk and tide changes. Tides on the Seaway are running a decent morning high, dropping to a mid‑day low, then filling again into the evening. That flooding afternoon tide is pushing clean ocean water back through the Seaway and into the Broadwater, which usually fires up the predators in the channels and around the rock walls. Inshore, the Seaway’s been the headline. Local crews have been putting a few solid **tailor** and school‑size **jewfish (mulloway)** on the deck on the top and first of the run‑out. Night sessions are producing better numbers of jew, with the odd fish nudging the magic metre. There are also plenty of **bream** tight in on the rocks and pontoons, and a sprinkle of **flathead** on the sand edges, especially around Wavebreak and the deeper drains. Best baits inside: - For jew: fresh **mullet fillet**, **live yakka** or **slimy mackerel** slow‑rolled along the bottom. - For bream: **prawns**, **mullet gut**, **chook gut** and **hardy pilchard cubes**. - For flatties: **whitebait**, **pilchards** and **small poddy mullet** drifted over the flats and drop‑offs. Lure fishos have been doing well with: - 3–4 inch **soft plastics** in natural baitfish colours on 3/8–1/2 oz jigheads for jew and tailor in the Seaway. - 60–80 mm **vibes** and small **soft vibes** hopped along the bottom in the channels. - 70–100 mm **minnow‑style hardbodies** and **paddle‑tail plastics** for flathead on the run‑out over the banks. - Tiny **crankbaits** and **small prawn imitations** around structure for bream. Offshore, when the wind and swell line up, crews heading wide of the Seaway have been finding mixed bags: **snapper**, **pearl perch**, **trag**, and a few late‑season **mahi‑mahi** still hanging about the fish‑aggregating buoys and trap lines. Snapper are starting to nose in on the closer reefs as we slide deeper into the cooler months. Best bet out there is **float‑lined pilchards**, **squid** and **strip baits** on the 18–36 m reefs, with **7‑inch jerk shads** and **slow‑pitch jigs** working well for those fishing lures. If you’re land‑based, the rock walls on both sides of the Seaway are holding tailor on first light – metal slugs and small stickbaits punched into the wash are the go. Work fast until you find the school, then slow the retrieve if they’re shy. Burley a trail and you’ll pull in bream and tarwhine as by‑catch. Couple of hot spots worth a look right now: - **The Gold Coast Seaway rock walls and pipeline** on the turn of the tide for tailor and jew. Fish big baits or heavy plastics close to the bottom and hang on. - **The channel edges around Crab Island and the western side of Wavebreak** on the last of the run‑out for flathead, with a good chance of bream and the odd trevally when the bait stacks up. Remember, water’s cooler, so slow your presentations down, fish lighter leaders where you can get away with it, and really pay attention to those short bite windows around tide changes. 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