The Great Australian Tailor Comp 2026

Australia's biggest land-based tailor competition. Chase the longest tailor anywhere on the Queensland and New South Wales coast, from 1 September to 15 November 2026 — longest verified fish wins. Your $100 entry includes the Official Brag Mat, posted out to you, so enter early: you can't register a catch until it arrives.

Competition Dates

Start: Tuesday 1 September 2026

End: Sunday 15 November 2026

Target Species

Tailor

Scoring

Biggest Fish (by length)

Prizes

• 1st Place: 2026 Toyota HiLux SR5*

Rules

Entering

• Entry is $100 including GST, one per angler, paid in the app.

• Your Entry Kit is posted to you: a serialised Official Brag Mat registered to your Angler Number, five numbered tags, an Angler Number card and printed guides.

• No other mat may be used. Express post takes 4–6 days and you can't register a catch until yours arrives, so enter early.

• You can join after the competition opens, but no fish caught before you register counts.

• Juniors enter on a guardian's account, with the junior named as the Angler of Record. That junior must personally have caught the fish.

Where and when

1 September 2026, 00:01 AEST — 15 November 2026, 23:59 AEST.

• Any shoreline in Queensland or New South Wales, including offshore islands.

• Land access only: on foot, by vehicle, or by scheduled or commercial ferry or barge.

• No watercraft of any kind. No boats, kayaks, canoes or paddleboards, including to reach or leave the spot, or to move a fish.

• Closed waters, green no-take zones, and any area where taking tailor is restricted at the time are excluded.

How prizes are decided

Your photo does not win you anything. It gives a Provisional Length, which puts you on the live leaderboard and is indicative only.

• Prizes are decided on Verified Length, measured physically by ESFA.

• Total length runs from the tip of the snout to the extreme tip of the tail.

• Minimum eligible length is 40cm. Nothing shorter can be submitted.

Keeping a fish, or letting it go

Release your fish alive as soon as you have the photos, unless it is a Leading Fish.

A fish is a Leading Fish only if both apply: it sits inside the top ten of a division leaderboard you appear on, and it is at or above the retention floor for that division.

Division	Retention floor
Adult (18+)	60cm
Greenbacks (13–17)	50cm
Choppers (12 and under)	50cm

A Leading Fish must be retained and tagged with one of your official tags so it can be physically verified. A fish below the retention floor is never a Leading Fish, however high it sits on the leaderboard.

Divisions

• Choppers — 12 and under

• Greenbacks — 13 to 17

• Adult — 18 and over

Each division is split into Male and Female. Age is taken at the date of capture. Queensland and NSW state leaderboards are for recognition only.

The major prize

A 2026 Toyota HiLux SR5 dual cab 4x4 automatic turbo-diesel in white, standard SR5 trim.

This is a used vehicle. ESFA buys it and holds it for about a month before the prize is awarded, signwritten in competition livery, driven and displayed including on beaches and unsealed roads. At the date of award it will:

• have an odometer reading no higher than 5,000km, disclosed to the winner before delivery and stated in the results announcement;

• show wear consistent with that use;

• have part of its new-vehicle warranty consumed, with the balance passing to the winner subject to the manufacturer's terms.

Signwriting is removed at ESFA's cost before delivery, though the paintwork is not warranted to be uniform afterwards. The stated value is the market value of the vehicle in that condition at the date of award, not its price when new.

• Delivered registered, with six months Queensland registration and CTP insurance. ESFA pays stamp duty on transfer.

• Comprehensive insurance is the winner's own responsibility from delivery.

• Collection from a dealership nominated by ESFA, or delivery at ESFA's election. An interstate winner bears any transport cost beyond that.

• If entrants remain tied after every countback tier, the vehicle is not awarded: it is sold and the net proceeds divided equally, and each tied entrant receives substantially less than half the stated value.

Further prizes will be published in the app before the competition closes. Prizes are not transferable or exchangeable and are not redeemable for cash, except where the law requires it or where a tie forces the sale above.

Fair play

• Submitting a fish someone else caught, using another entrant's mat or tags, or interfering with capture media is cheating and forfeits everything.

• You are responsible for holding any fishing licence your state requires and for fishing within the law.

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This page is a plain-English summary. The binding document is the Official Competition Rules v3.2.