Narrowneck Beach (Main Beach)

Narrowneck is the thin strip of land where the Nerang River and the ocean nearly meet, just south of Main Beach and north of Surfers Paradise. Offshore sits an artificial reef built in the late 1990s to protect the beach, and the sandbanks it shapes leave reliable gutters along the shore. Those gutters hold the classic Gold Coast surf trio of tailor, dart and whiting, with mulloway after dark. It is the closest proper surf-fishing beach to the high-rises, so you can cast a pilchard into the gutter and still see your apartment.

Read the beach at low tide to find the deeper gutters and rip holes, then fish them on the rising tide. Ganged pilchards or a metal slug cast into the gutter at dawn and dusk find tailor through winter. A running sinker rig with beach worms or pipis in the shallower gutters picks up whiting and dart, and bream feed in the wash. For mulloway, fish a whole mullet or a slab of tailor in the deepest gutter at night around the top of the tide. Move along the beach until you find fish rather than waiting on one spot.

Tailor are the winter headline, with dart around most of the year and whiting in the warmer months. Mulloway are the night-time prize, and bream and flathead turn up in the gutters. Tailor are 35 cm with a possession limit of 20; dart 30 cm (30); sand whiting 23 cm (30); mulloway 75 cm (2); bream 25 cm (30); dusky flathead 40–75 cm (5).

Shark control nets and drumlines operate off Narrowneck, Main Beach and Surfers Paradise — stay more than 20 m from them; it is an offence to be inside that zone. Fish outside the flagged swimming areas and well clear of surfers. Beach worms have a possession limit of 30, and pipis 30. Take home the fish, not the leftover bait: raw worms, yabbies and prawns can't leave the white spot movement area (Caloundra to the NSW border) unless cooked.

Park along Main Beach Parade or in the Narrowneck carparks off the Gold Coast Highway and walk over the dunes onto the beach. The Oceanway path runs behind the dunes, and Main Beach and Surfers Paradise have shops, toilets and showers close by. Parking is tight in summer, but quieter at dawn when the fishing is best.

A small to moderate south-east swell with light westerly wind gives clean, fishable gutters. Big swells make the beach unfishable with surf gear and push weed onto the sand. North-easterly winds bring bluebottles and messy water. The two hours either side of high tide at dawn or dusk fish best.

Rips form along this beach, especially near the gutters you want to fish, so never wade past your knees. Bluebottles wash up on north-easterly winds. Keep well clear of surfers and swimmers, and of the shark control equipment offshore.

Yes. Beach fishing is allowed outside the flagged swimming areas. Shark control equipment operates offshore, and it is an offence to be within 20 m of it.

Tailor in winter, dart, whiting, bream and flathead in the gutters, and mulloway after dark.

Tailor are 35 cm minimum, with a possession limit of 20 per person, which includes any already in your freezer at home.

No. Queensland has no recreational fishing licence for tidal waters.