There are always plenty of opportunity to catch tailor, both in the estuaries and along the beaches I have three go-to lures for chasing tailor, Halco Twisty, Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow Floating Lure and ZMan 3” MinnowZ.
The Halco twisty is a popular option, and it is generally fished with a fast wind to represent a fleeing baitfish, or a burn and kill retrieve. I commonly fish the 8g on the light spin combo, or on the 13’ surf combo, when the surf is larger or more distance is required.
The Yo-Zuri Crystal 3D Minnow Floating Lure is available in 90mm,115mm and 135mm. The Yo-Zuri Minnow is an ultra-realistic baitfish profile, and it has proven deadly when the bite is tough, while also increasing the by-catch of trevally species, kingfish, queenfish and tuna. It can be fished the same way as the Halco Twisty with a fast wind or burn and kill. I recommend to up your leader size from 20 to 40lb or add a wire bite guard to reduce lure losses.
Finally, the deadliest presentation that we have fished in recent years, when fishing heavy surf or a calm estuary, is the ZMan 3” MinnowZ rigged on a 1/2oz 3/0 TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jig head. This presentation casts well on the two lighter spin combos and when the fish are finicky from pressure or being harassed by larger predators, they still can’t resist that paddle-tail on a slow roll, burn and kill, or hop, hop, pause retrieve.
With all the lures I have suggested I stick to natural baitfish colours, such as pearl, pearl blue glimmer, opening night, green lantern, smelt and bad shad for example and you can’t go wrong. My advice when chasing tailor, even in big surf, is don’t forget ZMan 10X Tough soft plastics, as they are deadly and catch a wide variety of species. You can change up the jig head weight and soft plastic size to suit the conditions, swap between the small and larger stick baits or even casting big plastics on 1oz plus jigheads on the larger surf combo.
All of the lures i have mentioned i have attached links for you to grab some great deals. Most of all, get out there and have fun!