Hat head land based

[Samj]

Hello I was watching a video that was made ages ago they were fishing hat head nsw and they were catching heaps of Spanish mackerel land based I was trying to find more videos on it but I couldn't I was wondering if any one has caught mackerel land based there and if you have what did you catch them on.

[dirvin21]

It was a bit of a LGB hotspot some years ago, people would live bait off there and spin

Haven't heard anything from more recent years but doesn't mean it doesn't still happen

[XD351]

If you get up early tomorrow around 4am and call in to The Hi Tide programme on 2SM radio and ask Kieren or Alan to ask Lawrie McNally about Hat head and Mackerel fishing in the area , he is a ref fisho and retired commercial fisho who knows the area like the back of his hand - you will have to listen to the whole show for his answer though .

I fished there 20 yrs ago but not for Spaniards and didn’t do any good but one thing I do remember was the Snakes - every campsite had a long handle shovel close at hand and I wondered why - next day I saw a couple of dead snakes hanging up and I realised it was to kill the snakes  ! Don’t know what it is like now but if you do go up there be careful ! 
That old Video was made 40 yrs ago and a lot has changed since then and the High speed spinning fad Hassan far as I can see  mostly faded away . If I were to go up there today and try for a Spaniard I would float out a big live bait under a ballon , you cover more options that way as you never know what is cruising by - could be Mackerel , could be a Cobia or it could be a Marlin .

[slowjigger]

The currents are strong there which makes live baiting impractical and live bait is also hard to catch. The former was mentioned in the video and they switched to spinning. 

It's a long walk from the car park and one section is particularly off putting with a several hundred meters of hill side to fall down if you lost your footing. 

 

 

[noelm]

Lots of old fishing magazines used to feature Hat Head, and the old movies "A fisherman world" (I think) with Ron Calcutt featured spinning there too. I know they still get Spottie Mackeral there off the rocks.

[Hoods]

Ron's video inspired us years ago & more recently the young fulla. It still fires but I hope you like lots of spinning - bring a long gaff as the ledge is a long slope to the water. Its still safer than a lot of other platforms. Early to late autumn usually but the seasons seem to be earlier now. And yes a nice walk from the car park either way. Take water.

[Hoods]

To drink

[Samj]

hey I was also wondering if the drummer are at hat head during winter

[rickmarlin62]

You can walk out nth side or sth side from gap beach carpark  spanish usually turn up round australia day wknd  sometimes earlier  depending on currents  check fishing reports from further nth   we use 85 gram lures or bigger  we make our own from brass  large pencil poppers work well  mackerel cobia longtails yellowfin are all possibilities  i have only caught one kingy in over forty yrs  live bait is hard to catch  and as mentioned current cam run hard to south so your baits go round next point   spinning is tiring but effective  first light and sunset are prime times but saying that fish turn up all day   general rule with current  no run  no fun  heaps of bream normally at your feet  as well as tailer in evenings  not as good as in the seventies  but still a great place to try