Springtime fishing options on Gold Coast

Hi everyone, spring is a great time of year here at the beautiful Gold Coast.

It’s not too hot or rainy, can be stormy in the afternoons, and there are so many species on offer to target in the estuaries.

Flathead, mulloway, tailor, sand whiting, mangrove jack, trevally and crabs to name just a few.

With so many options to choose from it’s hard to decide what to focus on when planning a fishing trip.

The best thing to do is concentrate on one or two types of fish and not get distracted or otherwise your day can end up being fruitless.

 

For example, if you’re after flathead, the run-out tide is best as they wait for food off the bank edges as the water level drops.

If the day you’re planning ticks these boxes, then just stick to lures for flathead.

My two favourite fish to target at this time of year are flathead and whiting.

They are both plentiful and relatively easy to catch, which is a big bonus when you’re a charter guide.

 

One thing is for sure, sand whiting are not easy to catch on lures here at the Gold Coast – certainly not in numbers.

The best bait for them in the Broadwater is live yabbies while bloodworms are best up at the rivers, followed by beachworms.

It always amazes me how sand whiting numbers hold up under so much fishing pressure.

They are a prolific species, and it seems like many thousands of them enter our estuaries in spring to commence their annual breeding season.

 

In the Broadwater most of the sand islands have yabby banks, which is the best place to fish for whiting.

The best of these islands are Wavebreak, Curlew and Crab, where whiting forage for food on the yabby banks when they’re covered by water during run-in tides.

In the Nerang River there are many places where whiting can be caught.

The most well known is the shallow bank on the southern side of the river known as the Council Chambers.

 

Other great areas to catch them while anchoring with a boat are Capri corner, Bundall, Benowa and Carrara.

The best depth I find is 1-2m.

Use a soft-tipped rod with a sliding sinker and swivel, then at least 1m of 6lb fluorocarbon trace and a 4 or 6-size baitholder hook.

AFTA 2024

This year’s fishing tackle show at the Gold Coast featured a lot of exciting new products.

There were so many options it was hard to know which ones to choose.

For my type of fishing, which is light tackle lure fishing in estuaries, I came up with a short list of new release lure highlights.

Most of these I have already used and know they do consistently catch fish, especially dusky flathead.

The Rapala Crush City 3” Heavy Hitter soft plastic is a perfect lure for flathead.

 

It has a big paddle tail and bulky body giving it an enticing wobble action and is infused with scent which makes it perfect for catching stacks of fish.

The Samaki Redic DDS90 is a new hard-body lure that dives to 5m when trolled and comes in a superb range of colours.

Mangrove jack, barramundi, and monster flathead will all fall victim to this exciting new lure.

The newly released MMD HardyHead 90 and 110mm soft plastic lures from Mick Molnar look the goods and will be extremely popular with flathead anglers.

My Lure Box has released new paddle glides which have been exhaustively tested and perfected by John Costello.

These lures slay big flathead, mulloway, and barramundi and come with the big bonus of being easy to use for beginners.

To book a charter with myself or Brad, or if you have any fishing related questions, visit goldcoastrivercharters.com, SMS 0432 990 302, email fishingwithclint@gmail.com or find us on Facebook – Brad Smith Fishing Charters.