Gold Coast Fishing Report

Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data

Surf beaches, the Seaway, the Broadwater and a network of canals: a city built on water that fishes from the sand, the rocks and the jetty in the same afternoon.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Next tide
Low 1:34 pm model
Air / High
19 °C / 22 °C
Wind
E 4 km/h

Sources: modelled tide curve, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view

Today's Fishing Report

Gold Coast has the water in the comfortable band where most of its fish feed through the day. Today brings a mixed sky, wind E around 3 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 22 °C. Tides: high 7:12 am and 7:12 pm, low 12:34 am and 1:34 pm: the moving water either side of each change is when this place feeds. Water sits around 22 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 10:20 AM-12:20 PM and 10:41 PM-12:41 AM: the windows to build the day around.

Bream illustration

Bream

Good

Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.

Flathead illustration

Flathead

Good

The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.

Mulloway illustration

Mulloway

Fair

Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.

Tailor illustration

Tailor

Fair

Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.

Tie on: Soft plastic on a 1/4 oz jighead · Small hardbody, shallow diver · Squid jig, size 3.0 · Fresh pipi or worm on a small hook. Prime windows: 10:20 AM-12:20 PM, 10:41 PM-12:41 AM, 3:53 AM-4:53 AM. Warmer at 26 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.

Before you go

Queensland has no general fishing licence, but rules and permits apply. Queensland fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →

Chasing bream here? Check the size and bag limits with Queensland DPI before you keep anything; the Bream page has the seasons and the tactics.

Fishing times for Gold Coast today

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (04:49), sunset (18:11), the moon and today's score, with the modelled tide changes in the panel below. Tap a bar to see why.

Bite planner

Solunar majors 10:20 AM-12:20 PM and 10:41 PM-12:41 AM; minor 3:53 AM-4:53 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunsetPRIMEPRIME

Water and weather

A modelled tide curve for these coordinates and the forecast for the day.

Tides (modelled)

Modelled sea level curve from Open-Meteo Marine for these coordinates, datum mean sea level. Fish the moving water either side of each change.

A model, not the official prediction: times can drift by tens of minutes inside bays and estuaries. Check the Bureau of Meteorology tide predictions for the exact times before you rely on them.

Mon
LOW12:34 am-0.37 m
HIGH7:12 am1.19 m
LOW1:34 pm-0.20 m
HIGH7:12 pm0.71 m
Tue
LOW1:02 am-0.35 m
HIGH7:45 am1.18 m
LOW2:16 pm-0.22 m
HIGH7:48 pm0.58 m

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp19 °C
High / Low22 °C / 15 °C
WindE 4 km/h, gusts 9 km/h
Pressure1018.7 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain36% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset04:49 / 18:11
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~22 °C est.

Why the tide matters here: tides and fishing in Australia.

7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Gold Coast

The best day on Gold Coast this week looks like Tuesday 10 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Tuesday, 10 Nov — good at 4/5, rising pressure behind a front, typically the slowest.

Today, 9 Nov — Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:20 AM-12:20 PM and 10:41 PM-12:41 AM
Minor period
3:53 AM-4:53 AM
Sun
04:49 to 18:11
Moon
New Moon, 0% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 18 km/h
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.

Species guide

The species that matter on Gold Coast: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Bream illustration

Bream

Year-round; summer and autumn in the estuaries, winter at the mouths

Yellowfin bream on the east coast, black bream in the southern estuaries. Structure fish: rock walls, jetty piles, oyster racks, snags and pontoons. Prime bream weather. Cast small vibes, crankbaits and 2 to 3 inch plastics at every piece of structure on the rising tide.

Flathead illustration

Flathead

Best: November to April

Dusky flathead in the eastern estuaries, sand flathead in the southern bays. An ambush predator lying on sand and mud edges waiting for whatever the tide brings. The best of it. Drift the sand and weed edges, bounce plastics or a strip of bait along the bottom, and cover ground until you find the school.

Mulloway illustration

Mulloway

Best: summer and autumn, especially after rain

Jewfish. The big silver prize of the estuaries, breakwalls and surf beaches: nocturnal, tide-driven and unforgiving of noise. Fish the deep holes and the rock walls through a tide change after dark; live mullet, yellowtail or a large soft plastic worked slowly.

Tailor illustration

Tailor

Autumn and winter on the east coast; the run reaches K'gari (Fraser Island) in late winter, where the east beach from Waddy Point to Indian Head is closed to all fin fish from 1 August to 29 September

The surf and rock fish of the east coast, running north in autumn and winter. Fast, toothy and best at dawn, dusk and into the dark. Rock ledges and beach gutters on the rising tide; metals cast and retrieved fast, or a whole pilchard drifted through the wash.

When to come: the Gold Coast calendar

Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bream
Flathead
Mulloway
Tailor
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 22 °C (estimated, not a reading).

102030JanMarMayJulSepNovNov, ~22 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Gold Coast today.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Sun, Nov 8

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Bream led the card at good. High of 25 °C, wind to 29 km/h.

Sat, Nov 7

5/5 Excellent. Go now. Everything lines up: pressure, wind and light are in your favor. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 29 °C, wind to 19 km/h.

Fri, Nov 6

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Bream led the card at excellent. High of 24 °C, wind to 21 km/h.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

Licence

Queensland has no general recreational fishing licence; permits apply on some waters and the limits and closures do. Details and where to buy →

Regulations

Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by Queensland DPI and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the Queensland licence page before you keep anything.

Access

Queensland has no general fishing licence; the size and bag limits, closed seasons and the Moreton Bay Marine Park zoning at the northern end apply, and Coombabah Lake and the tidal part of Coombabah Creek above it are closed to all fishing.

About this water

Gold Coast is a coastal town in Queensland, Australia, covered from the Queensland reports and listed in all Australia waters.

Fishing Gold Coast: the full guide

How the Gold Coast fishes

The Gold Coast is a long strip of surf beach from Coolangatta to South Stradbroke Island, with the Tweed, Currumbin, Tallebudgera and Nerang systems cutting through it and the Gold Coast Seaway opening the Broadwater to the sea. That gives it four kinds of fishing within a few kilometres: the beach gutters and the headland rocks at Burleigh and Currumbin, the rock walls of the Seaway and the creek entrances, the calm water of the Broadwater and the canals, and the offshore reefs and the shelf for the boat fleet. Most of what a Gold Coast fishing report covers is the first three, and the Seaway’s northern and southern breakwaters and the sand-pumping jetty at The Spit are where many visitors start.

Species by season

Tailor and dart are the beach fish, tailor best in the cooler months at dawn and dusk in the gutters; whiting fish the beaches and the Broadwater sand in summer; flathead lie on the edges of the Broadwater and the river drop-offs in the warmer months and bream work the walls, the canals and the pontoons all year. Mulloway are the prize of the Seaway walls and the river mouths at night, mangrove jack the canals and the snags in summer, and the Seaway itself turns up trevally, tailor and school mackerel on the tide. Offshore, snapper in winter outside the 15 July to 15 August closure and pelagics in summer, but that fishery depends on the bar and the swell more than anything this report scores.

Reading this report for the coast

The score is built from wind, pressure and sky over these coordinates, and on this open coast the swell and the wind together decide whether the beaches and the walls are fishable; a south-easterly stirs the surf and a westerly flattens it. The tide panel is a modelled curve for these coordinates and says so; the Seaway and the rivers are tidal to the last metre, so use the curve for the run-in and run-out and the Bureau of Meteorology page for exact times. The planner shows which day of the seven lines up.

Rules and access

Queensland has no general fishing licence; the size and bag limits, closed seasons and the Moreton Bay Marine Park zoning at the northern end apply, and Coombabah Lake and the tidal part of Coombabah Creek above it are closed to all fishing. The Queensland Government pages are linked from the sources below. Access is public: the beaches, the Seaway walls from The Spit, the rock platforms at Burleigh Heads and Currumbin, and ramps on the state list at Main Beach on The Spit, Runaway Bay, Tallebudgera Creek and Currumbin Creek.

Common questions

Do I need a fishing licence on the Gold Coast?

No. Queensland has no recreational fishing licence; size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones apply, as our Queensland licence page explains.

What can I catch at the Gold Coast Seaway?

Bream, tailor, trevally, flathead and, at night, mulloway are the regular Seaway wall catch, with school mackerel and kingfish in season on the tide.

Are the tides on this page official?

No. They are a modelled curve for these coordinates and are labelled as such; the Bureau of Meteorology has the official prediction.

Is fishing good at Gold Coast right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Where this page's numbers come from

Tide curve (modelled)
Open-Meteo Marine, sea level height including tides
A numerical model at 0.08° resolution, datum global mean sea level, not the official Bureau of Meteorology prediction. Highs and lows are the turning points of the hourly curve for -27.9983, 153.3344.
Open-Meteo forecast model
https://open-meteo.com/
Queried at -27.9983, 153.3344 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed.
Pages checked
The facts in the written guide below were checked against these pages, mostly from the agencies, water authorities, park services and councils that manage the water, on 27 September 2026. Anything we could not verify was taken out.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written text was drafted with AI assistance from the official pages listed above, and its facts were checked against those pages by automated verification on 27 September 2026; anything that could not be verified was taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Not yet reviewed by an Australian angler or editor. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.