Tailor fishing guide.

Where the Tailor bite is on right now

Hero spots in our coverage where Tailor is in season for May. Click through for the live forecast.

Best bait

• Whole pilchards on a ganged hook rig (3× 4/0 ganged)
• Whole garfish ganged
• Fresh mullet strips
• Whole whitebait
• Pilchard halves for smaller fish

Best lures

• Metal slugs 25–60 g (Halco Twisty, Raider, Spanyid Raider) cast and ripped back
• Surface poppers and stickbaits at dawn / dusk
• Hard-bodied minnows in chrome / blue (Rapala CD9, Halco Laser Pro 120)
• Soft plastics on 1/4–1/2 oz jig heads for off-the-rocks work
• Bibless rattling vibes for deeper holes

Technique

Beach: cast metal slugs into the back of the breakers from a sand gutter at dawn or dusk, fast retrieve with rod tip high — tailor smash chrome. Headland: ganged pilchards float-rigged or cast unweighted into the wash, drifted with the current along the bommie edge. Look for bird activity — diving terns mean tailor are pushing bait to the surface underneath. Always use wire trace if you want to land them — their teeth shred 30 lb mono.

Tide windows that matter

Last two hours of the run-up tide into a sand gutter is the textbook beach window — bait gets funnelled into the gutter and tailor patrol it. Dawn and dusk override tide importance: a low slack at sunrise will still fish better than a high tide at midday.

Moon & solunar

Tailor are famously strong on the new moon and the dark of the moon — Fraser Island's legendary "tailor run" peaks around new moon nights and the dawn following. Dark nights with phosphorescence in the water often produce hot night sessions off ocean rocks (with appropriate safety — never alone, never in big swell).

Regulations

NSW: 30 cm, bag of 20 (5 of which can be over 35 cm). QLD: 30 cm, bag of 20. WA: 25 cm, bag of 8. Check the relevant state fisheries for current rules. Tailor are oily and best eaten fresh — they don't freeze well.