Tailor
Where and when to catch Tailor in New South Wales: the NSW season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find NSW's current size and bag limits.
- Size
- Up to 10kg, commonly 1–3kg
- NSW season
- Year-round
- NSW spots
- 80
Overview
Tailor are one of the most reliable fish on the New South Wales coast and the one that gets a lot of Sydney kids hooked for life. They're about all year, but the run builds through autumn as the east-coast schools head north to spawn, and the beaches, headlands and breakwalls from Port Stephens down through Newcastle, the Central Coast, Sydney and the Illawarra all get their share. Choppers are thick in the harbours and estuary mouths; greenbacks are a dusk and after-dark fish on the ocean rocks and beaches. They're usually in the same white water as Australian salmon, so a morning spin session often turns up both.
NSW Size & Bag Limits
NSW limits for Tailor are set by NSW DPIRD and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them. Check NSW DPIRD's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in New South Wales.
Where to Catch Tailor in NSW
Tailor are listed at about 80 NSW spots. The best of them are the ocean beaches with deep gutters, rock platforms and headlands with white water, and the breakwalls at river and lake entrances where the tide drags bait past. Harbour points and bridges hold choppers through much of the year.
Sydney Harbour
Sydney East & Botany
Sydney Northern Beaches
Sutherland & Port Hacking
Central Coast
Newcastle & Lake Macquarie
Port Stephens & Hunter
Illawarra
How to Catch
Best Baits
Whole pilchards on ganged hooks, garfish, fresh mullet or tailor strips, whitebait
Lures
Chrome slugs and metal slices, Halco Twisty-style spoons, surface poppers and stickbaits, minnow lures, soft plastics on a heavier jig head
Rigs
A ganged rig of three or four linked 3/0–4/0 hooks for whole pilchards, either unweighted, on a small ball sinker, or under a bobby cork from the rocks. For lures, a 10–15 kg spinning outfit and a heavy mono or fluorocarbon leader of 15–20 kg; the teeth slice light leader, and ganged hooks keep them on the metal rather than the line. Wire trace stops bite-offs where it's allowed, at the cost of a few strikes.
Technique
Cast metals or ganged pilchards into the white water and gutters at dawn and dusk. Work metals fast with the odd pause, and retrieve pilchards slowly enough to keep them just under the surface. When a school is on, cast quickly and keep a lure in the water; the window can be short. Birds working, bait spraying and slicks on the surface all mean tailor. Don't drag a fish to your feet slowly through the wash, because the school follows and the next cast is where the action is.
Best Time
First and last light are prime. Schools tend to sit in deeper water by day and come in to feed at the change of light, and after-dark sessions on a pilchard often hold the bigger fish. Many anglers like a rising tide pushing bait against the shore, and overcast days with a moderate swell keep the bite going longer. The best months differ by coast, so check the local season.
- Autumn is when east-coast tailor school up and move north to spawn, so March to June is usually the most reliable run on NSW beaches and headlands, with fish about in smaller numbers the rest of the year.
- NSW sets a tailor size and bag limit. Check NSW DPIRD's saltwater table before you keep any, and expect to release plenty of small choppers from the harbours and estuaries.
Identification
Also known as Chopper (small fish), greenback (big ones), bluefish, tailer
Blue-green to steely grey across the back fading to silver flanks, a small dark blotch at the base of the pectoral fin, a deeply forked tail, and a big mouth with a single row of triangular, razor-edged teeth and a slightly jutting lower jaw. The teeth are the giveaway. The usual mix-up is Australian salmon, which hunt the same white water but have tiny teeth, a longer pointed head and rows of dark spots along the upper flank. Small fish are "choppers", big ones "greenbacks", and the rest of the world calls the same fish bluefish.
Size & Growth
Most tailor taken from the shore are 30–45 cm and under a kilo. A good land-based fish is 50–60 cm and around 2 kg, and anything over 3 kg is a proper greenback worth a photo. The species reaches about 1.3 m and 14 kg worldwide, but a shore tailor over 4 kg is a rare thing. They grow quickly for the first few years and live around a decade. Juveniles grow up in bays and estuaries, which is why so many small choppers turn up around channels and harbour walls.
Diet & Habitat
Pure predators that hunt in packs. Adults chase small schooling fish such as pilchards, whitebait, hardyheads, herring and mullet, plus squid and prawns, and push bait into the wash against beaches, headlands and breakwalls rather than holding on one piece of structure. Look for them in gutters, rips, the white water off rock platforms, and the current lines of estuary and harbour entrances, usually within about 15 m of the surface. Juveniles school in sheltered bays and lower estuaries before moving out to the open coast. Like tuna, tailor keep their body a few degrees warmer than the water, which goes some way to explaining the appetite.
Eating Quality
Good eating if you treat them right, ordinary if you don't. Bleed and ice tailor as soon as they're landed; the flesh is soft and oily and turns fast in the sun. It's off-white with a grey strip along the lateral line, moist and full-flavoured rather than delicate. Choppers are the sweeter eat, while big greenbacks are coarser and better smoked. Cook the same day, pan-fried, grilled or whole on the barbecue, and trim the dark strip for a milder result. It freezes badly, going soft within weeks, so take only what you'll eat fresh. Leftover strips make excellent mulloway bait.
Guides Featuring Tailor
Tailor elsewhere: Western Australia · South Australia