Hat Head 13/5-20/5

[hatheadheaven]

The annual pilgrimage to Hat Head was on again, so I dusted off the Daiwa Emblem X and Live Fibre 10kg spin outfit and headed north for a week of spinning from the rocks at Korogoro Point.

For anyone who hasn’t been to this place, it has to be one of the best spin spots on the east coast. Apart from being a damn good-looking place, it is a top LBG spot. There is a chance to hook just about anything - from a kingie, bonito, bluefin, yellowfin, even a marlin if you’re lucky.

It's a bit of a hike to get to – a tough-ish 2km walk through the bush to Koro Point – meaning only the die-hards make it out there. Also gotta dodge the ‘roos on the way out there sure wakes you up at 5 in the morning…… Usually a safe spot too as the swell mostly goes across Koro point rather than straight into it.

On arrival first day we were met with torrential rain and gale force winds – no chance of a fish at all The rain stopped on day 2, but the wind was still howling, so the only thing to do was plenty of

Day 3 came around quickly, complete with stinker of a hangover, and the wind had died down so we were a chance for some action. Got to Koro Point about 5.45am and were met with some rough seas, but that wasn't going to stop us.

What a day we had - was the best day’s fishing I’d ever experienced. We pulled our first fish about 6am – a nice mack tuna. A succession of tailor and macks for the rest of the day saw the tally reach 66 fish landed, which included 43 tailor (30cms to over 70cms – most around the 50-60cm mark) and 23 mack tunas (from 40cms to an 80cm beast). All the macks went back in, but we kept 10 tailor for a feed for the week. A heap more hook ups on the tailor than we actually landed, but they seem to be experts at spitting trebles We left them still on the chew at 2.30pm - we were simply were too buggered to keep fishing. An amazing day.

A nice tailor (note the Fishraider patch )

And a Mack:

The next four days were not quite as productive as the 3rd day, but still managed to land around 15 fish per day.

Undoubtedly the fish of the week was this beauty caught by my mate, Greg:

A nice Northern Bluefin that went 110cms and 41lbs. She gave 2 blistering runs that had the Sealine shrieking with delight, and after about 15 mins of to-ing and fro-ing, we had her safely gaffed. Spare a thought for Greg though – he had to carry the thing back to the house!!! He was quite a site walking through the streets of Hat Head looking like this:

That’s his third land based Bluey, something I am yet to experience. The previous day I had a monster on which was headed for Hawaii, did all the hard work to get it about 10m from shore when it had a final run and a busted me off just below the plait on the double. On closer inspection, the line had busted exactly where I had slightly kinked the line when tying the knot – a lesson learned the hard way…...

All in all, a fantastic week

Cheers

Simon

[hatheadheaven]

couple more shots....

view from the rental:

view across the bay at this beautiful place:

[hatheadheaven]

and some final shots.....

Greg hooked up on another tailor:

[Trouble]

Great report mate and pics...Defiently sounds like a place for future holiday..

[cajun]

Sensational stuff.  I will add that area to my "gotta see one day" spots.

49143[/snapback]

Sensational alright.

The Hat is a magic place. The point is relatively safe, but the island, and a few other spots up that way have claimed lives in the past. A young (20 odd) guy was killed while my mates and I were camping 20 odd years ago. The family's tent was at the back of ours, and the look on his parents face over the few days it took to find the blokes body will live with me forever.

Great photos there HHH, brings back lots of good memories too!

Cheers

Ken

[Slider]

A great report Simon, some red hot spinning sessions there! Its been a while since I last went spinning off the rocks...its always a ball.

Cheers

Brent

[breenysfella]

sounds great fella's. I run 2 rods mainly a 8ft Rex Hunt signature series shimano with a pwoer spin 4000 with 20lb main and leader am i chance of landing?

Also i chase Salmon and Tailor with my 6'8 Rader with my Daiwa cappra 2000 with a 20lb fireline mainline and 20lb leader will a be deadset dreaming to use this or the other rod ???

And the overal safety whats it like? fishing wise and waves etc

cheers fellas

[hatheadheaven]

sounds great fella's. I run 2 rods mainly a 8ft Rex Hunt signature series shimano with a pwoer spin 4000 with 20lb main and leader am i chance of landing?

Also i chase Salmon and Tailor with my 6'8 Rader with my Daiwa cappra 2000 with a 20lb fireline mainline and 20lb leader will a be deadset dreaming to use this or the other rod ???

And the overal safety whats it like? fishing wise and waves etc

cheers fellas

49204[/snapback]

G'day mate - I will leave this up to the experts, but....

Don't know much about the capricorn or powerspin, but all I can say is the quicker the retrieve the better when spinning for decent sized fish from the rocks. Any decent rod with a bit of strength should be fine.

For high speed spinning, I have just the one rod, 10ft long, use 10kg tortue, tie a double in it, and peg out the 70g lazer - easy!

Don't know where you are from BF, but don't be disheartened if you find it a bit hard to land something around Sydney - I spend countless hours flogging the ocean in nthn Sydney for the odd hit. Really are spoiled on the trip to the Hat.

Just remember - plenty of line, fast retrieve, and keep at it!