Hey Des,

I'm a Brisbane lad, living in London UK and should be headed to Karratha late this year, early next year.

I don't mean for this to sound crappy, but you're in for a lot of disappointment fishing anywhere from the Gold Coast through to Fraser Island.
Since you're headed that way, you can try the Maroochy River mouth, which should be a couple of clicks south of Coolum Airport (Sunshine Coast Airport).
Main species will be whiting, bream, dart, tailor and the occasional jewie if you're lucky.
There are a number of rocky headlands you can fish from as well, but not sure what they'll hold for you.

As for gear, a beach and estuary rod should do fine.  I doubt you'll need anything stronger than 12lb line for tailor, 6-8 lb for bream or dart (trevally).

The east coast is pretty fished out, so you're going to have to be bloody patient.

A good source of info will be www.coastwatch.com.au and go to the fishing drop box for the latest fishing reports for SE Queensland (Fraser Island to Northern NSW).
Plenty of bait and tackle shops to get more local knowledge.

feel free to drop me an email on dtrichardson@hotmail.com

Dan.

Des - I'm from Coolum on the Sunshine Coast.
Take a decent 2 piece 10/12ft 10kg surf rod with you if you can...and try off the beaches and headlands. I used to target tailor and jew at this time of year and do pretty good. There are some good headlands around Yaroomba Beach....known jew spot...some big fish(20kg+) get caught here each year. Or try any good looking gutters on a change of tide/early morning/evening. If the weather is crap....hit the rivers/flats with some soft baits...big dusky flathead available if you put in the effort

as above, lived and fished around there for 10 years. Pretty hard work without a boat. Some awesome bass and Toga fishing around this time of year in the Dams near Gympie which is about 30min drive away. That is what I would do, WA has got any beach fishing covered so you might as well do something we don't have. Also worth trying to get up to Awoonga(4 hr drive) and chanse the big barra in November around the full moon, Cania Dam is also great. I think there are hire boats at Awoonga or you could get out with one of the guides.

OUtfits - I would take a 7-8 foot spin with 10-20lb braid. There are a lot of FLathead around the shore of the Maroochy River and they love soft plastics. White or PEarl SLiders are the Shizz with a 1/4 oz jig head.

Went out on a charter from Gold coast and must say that the particular charter was crap, he wasn't even putting the boat over reef/coral so we caught bugger all.

I spent pretty much the whole time with a live out hoping for marlin/sailfish.  They did troll around aswell and the skipper was off his nut so much that when one of the reels was going off he took 20sec to stop the boat.

Did notice off the beach quite a lot of people fishing for tailor and some did quite well.

Hi'yall,

Thanks for the pointers.

Hey Dan, I'm actaully going to be staying on the river, learning how to fly. Will go crabbing for sure. Chilli crab sounds good. Not sure If I have space for a flick strick in my luggage though. Will try to pack one.

And Seansurfy, would 135 Roostas be overkill on the tailor? They're too big for the Perth tailor i've been getting so far, but the bonita sure love them. Got a 5-pc 3m rod (thats already waiting for me over there) and running 15lbs braid. Love them poppas. Anything much smaller doesn't reach really far. Should I use metal slices instead?

Think I'm in for a lotta walking.

Seeyall
Des