Gold Coast Winter Fishing: Seaway Bream, Flathead, and Tailor on the Bite

Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in with your Gold Coast fishing report. Light winter pattern on the Coast today: cool mornings, mild arvo, and mostly clear skies with a light to moderate south‑easterly onshore. Overnight temps have been dropping into single digits inland, creeping up to the high teens on the water by midday. The breeze has kept things a bit lumpy offshore but very workable inshore and in the Seaway. Tides around the Seaway are running a typical winter cycle with a solid morning high pushing clean ocean water into the Broadwater, then draining out through the middle of the day. That run‑in this morning fired the bite; the start of the run‑out has been the pick this afternoon for anyone working pressure edges and rock walls. Sunrise came on the early side with first light giving the best surface action. Sunset is early enough that that last hour of light still lines up nicely with the late tide movement, perfect for a quick after‑work session. Inshore, the Broadwater and Nerang River have produced a mixed bag. Local anglers report good numbers of **bream** on the pontoons and rock walls, plenty of pan‑size fish with the odd 35‑plus model thrown in. Flathead are starting to show more regularly on the draining banks, with small to mid‑50s being common and the occasional 70‑plus for those working hard. There have also been scattered **tailor** and **school jew** around the Seaway on the change of tide. Offshore, when boats have pushed out between wind bumps, there have been decent reports of **snapper**, **pearl perch**, and a few **trag** off the 24s and 36s. Nothing crazy, but enough fish for a feed if you’re on the marks and fishing that dawn or dusk tide change. Best lures right now: - For flathead on the banks: 3–4 inch paddle‑tails in natural colours, rigged on 1/4–3/8 oz jigheads. Slow‑rolling with little hops along the bottom is doing damage. - For bream: small hardbody cranks and lightly weighted 2–3 inch prawn or grub plastics. Slow and subtle over pontoons and bridge pylons. - For tailor and school jew in the Seaway: 20–40 g metal slugs and 5–7 inch soft plastics in white or pearl, worked through the bait schools on the sounder. Best bait: - Bream are smashing **prawns**, **mullet strips**, and **chicken gut** fished lightly weighted. - Flathead are loving **pilchards**, **whitebait**, and small live **herring** drifted over the edges. - Jew and bigger tailor are falling to **live mullet**, **yakka**, and fresh **mullet fillet** pinned close to the bottom on the tide change. Couple of hot spots to try: - **Gold Coast Seaway**: Fish the north wall on the last of the run‑in and first of the run‑out for tailor, school jew, and the odd snapper pushing in close. Work soft plastics and metals, or soak a live bait in the eddies. - **Crab Island and the channel edges around Wave Break**: Great for drifting the edges on the run‑out for flathead and bream. Focus on that 1–3 m line where the sand drops into deeper water. If you’re land‑based, the rock walls around The Spit and the bridges up the Nerang are fishing well in low light. Keep your gear light, move around, and fish the tide changes and you’re in with a real shot. That’s the rundown for today from Artificial Lure. Thanks for tuning in, and don’t forget to subscribe for more local fishing updates. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai. Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1Pn