Gold Coast

Gold Coast is famous for long sandy beaches, metropolitan skyscrapers and it’s elaborate maze of busy canals and waterways. Despite the hectic boat traffic and huge fishing pressure, Gold Coast fishing spots still produce great fishing all year round.

Gold Coast Creeks, Rivers & Canals

The Gold Coast waters are almost completely free from commercial netting. As a result the estuaries produce some fantastic fishing for land based and boat anglers.

Gold Coast creeks and rivers produce catches of Mangrove Jack over summer, Bream, Flathead, whiting, Trevally, Tarpon and Cod are caught throughout the creeks, canals and lakes. Flathead are caught year round, but they are in high numbers during Spring.

Bream school up in the clear waters near the entrances during Winter. This can make for some fantastic fishing on both baits and lures.

Mulloway lurk around the estuaries for the dedicated angler. The best times of the year to target them is the cooler months, find the bait and they will be around. The mullet spawn is also a great time to target massive Mulloway around the river mouths as the mullet move out of the estuaries.

Quality Mangrove Jack from the Gold Coast creeks. Photo Cred: @GoldCoastFishingFanatics

Coomera River

The first river in the Gold Coast area, is heavily developed with housing estates. However it still seems to produce some good fishing at times. Its best fish by boat or kayak as land based access is fairly limited. The river fishes well for Bream, Flathead and Whiting, other species like Trevally, Cod, Tailor and the odd Jewfish are also caught in the River. The river is most notable for its Summer Mangrove Jack fishing.

Broadwater

Extremely popular stretch of water on the weekends. The Broadwater produces mostly Bream, Whiting and Flathead.

Nerang River

One of the busiest rivers in Queensland, the Nerang River still seems to produce some good fishing. The best time to fish the river is at night, early morning and Monday to Friday. There’s so much structure in the river is it hard to know where to start. The river produces Bream, Trevally, Flathead, Cod and Mangrove Jack.

TulleBudgera Creek

A fairly shallow creek with some good weed beds, that produces Bream, Whiting and Flathead. Tullebudgera also produces Mangrove Jacks mainly in Summer. Soaking live baits around the canals is the best way to target jacks here.

Currumbin Creek

Currumbin Creek is a great land based fishing creek. Again the river produces okay fishing for Bream, Whiting, Flathead and summer Mangrove Jacks. Futher upstream anglers can target Australian Bass during Summer.

Gold Coast Beach Fishing

The Gold Coast beaches produce year round fishing for Bream and Dart. Tailor and Mulloway are also caught in the deep gutters along the beaches in the cooler months. From May to September is the best time to chase Tailor. They love whitebait and metal slugs lures. Some of the better Gold Coast beaches for Tailor fishing are Narrowneck and Main Beach.

During Spring flathead can also be hooked near the river mouths and in the beach gutters.

Whiting are around all year, but are best targeted in Summer in the shallow gutters. Whiting love yabbi and worm baits.

The key to successful fishing along the Gold Coast beaches, is finding the right gutters. Look for deeper water where the waves are breaking on an outer bank. For Jewfish and Tailor, finding the right gutter is key, along with fishing at dawn and dusk. After larger swells there are generally lots of deep gutters along the beaches.

Gutter along Broadbeach – A good place for beach fishing on an incoming tide

South Stradebroke Island

North Currigee Beach is known for producing some great beach fishing for Tailor and Bream. The odd jewfish are also hook in the deep gutters here. A great beach to fish after a storm.

The Spit

Good beach fishing over the winter months, fish the high tides for Bream and Tailor early morning and at dusk. Dart are also abundant, and during Summer whiting will happily take yabbi baits.

Broadbeach

A very busy beach that does form some great gutters for beach fishing. Tailor, Bream, whiting and dart are all caught along the beach here.

Palm Beach

Palm Beach forms some great deeper gutters. The fishing here can be good for Bream, Tailor and Jewfish, mainly in winter. The mouth of the river produces some good Tailor fishing in Winter.

Currumbin Beach

The rocks and river mouth produce good Bream and Tailor fishing in Winter. A rising tide is the best time to fish the river mouth and around the rocks of the beach. Jewfish are also caught here during cold winter nights on a rising tide.

Gold Coast offshore fishing

Gold Coast produces some great offshore fishing. There are several reefs, gravel grounds and interesting structure in close. On the way out of Broadwater, the seaway has been known to produce Mulloway, Tailor, Tuna, Trevally and small Kingfish. Offshore on the reefs, anglers fish Snapper, Pearl Perch, Cobia, Mackerel and Tuna. Dolphin fish, Wahoo, Kingfish and Marlin are also around. The offshore fishing at the Gold Coast is seasonal, as fish come in go with the change of tempature.

Good offshore fishing starts about 5km offshore from the seaway at Cotton Reef. But the further offshore the better the fishing gets.