Gday all, well thought i better get some keyboard time up me and finally post up a report on my trip up to Horrocks with my Girlfriend Anna. WARNING it is a very long report!

Headed up to Horrocks beach during the first week of the School Holidays with my Girlfriend for a mixture of fishing, boating, snorkelling, 4x4ing and sightseeing(overnight trip to Kalbarri Sea Cliffs and Gorges).

I took my trusty old Hilux with soon to be sold tinnie in tow. As i am selling it to my brother in a few days time i thought i would like to have one last fishing trip in it, seeing that the last time i used it was at Horrocks also but in July 2009. Even put a new Lowrance HDS5x in between trips, so definitely had to try it out for at least once!!!

So we left Perth at 6am and arrived in Horrocks at around 3pm after a stop to shop and check out Geraldton, and battling every hill my Hilux encountered whilst towing the boat up there. Yep wont miss dropping down to third gear and 50km/h crawling up hills with a new Turbo Diesel 4x4 to be bought soon. Mind you we did take the coast road the whole way and i'll say there seemed to be fewer hills to struggle up.

So after arriving and unloading everything, took the missus for a tour around town. Took all of 2 mins. Then took her for a tour of some of the Land Based fishing locations, with my rod of course. Resulted in a hooked and dropped Tailor arond the 50cm mark i guess. So packed in for the night and went back to prep the boat for the next coming day.

First whole day, i got up at 6am to try my luck where i had dropped my Tailor the evening before. The spot came up with the goods with me landing 4 Tailor during the session with the biggest going 60cm(Pic 1) Good way to start a trip! Back to the chalet to load the tinnie up and head out with Anna. After a pleasant beach launch we were on our way out the gap in the reef towards the open ocean(about 1km offshore hahaha).

Upon getting out we were straight away greeted by the sight of birds working the surface, which to me screamed Tuna. So after screaming over to the surface action in a jiffy we were both throwing metals and retrieveing like crazy into the school. This resulted in us landing 3 Northern Bluefin Tuna each(pic 2-3). Was absolutly stoked! I had missed this sort of spinning for Tuna since out last trip up here. We ended up keeping one for some fresh Tuna that night and released all the others.

The rest of the day went slow with only a undersized Sambo being caught. Oh well no Dhui's or Pinkies for today so headed back in to try our luck at Tailor in the reef whitewash for some fun. Back inside the reef lagoon i drove the tinnie as close to the reef as safe to, and Anna let fly with a Gardie on gangs straight into the surf. She only got to put the bail arm over and start to turn the handle when she was on. TAILOR! What started out as a pretty slow fight and me telling Anna to harden up and get the fish in, turned into quiet a battle as the Tailor must have realised what was going on and sought to scream back over the reef shallows. After a lengthy fight and a hell of alot of tricky boat manouvering to avoid the surf hitting side on and shallow reef Anna got it boatside. Well i said it to her then and i'll probably keep saying it to her for a long time, 'I have never seen a Tailor that big in real life!' I netted her into the boat got some pics weighed her and released her succesfully back to menace bait schools once more. Ended up being 6.4kg and 87cm(Pic 4,5,6). It was one FAT tailor. After a beauty like that one i was happy to return for that day. Fresh Tuna for dinner with some nice brews! Great first day!

Day two started with a sleep in(decided to give the LB Tailor a rest) and heading out in the tinnie again. Before headin outside the reef i wanted to have a crack and see if i could get a monster Tailor also in the reef surf. One cast, one 64cm Tailor. Not bad, but not as big as Anna's. After that one i wanted to get outside while the weather was still calm and have a crack at some demersals again. We were again greeted apon getting out by masses of Northern Bluefin Tuna again busting up surface, so after having a bit of fun with us each catching and releasing one each we started to drift fish in earnest. After about an hour of nothing in 6m of water my rod started screaming like mad! Grabbed it and straight away felt immense power, that and it started to tow the tinnie a bit. I straight away assumed Sambo. Oh well after an hour of nothing a bit of fun was welcome.

After giving me a hell of a work out and towing the boat around a fair bit i got her boatside and into the net. Took some quick snaps and released her(Pic 7). I guess such an immense fight in shallow water had buggered her a fair bit as we had to swim her beside the boat putting forward for about 5 mins before she swam off. In the shallow water we saw her return to the bottom and cruise off. Very satisfying to know that she swam off good, i hate the thought of killing such an awesome creature if your not going to keep it to eat.

After the Sambo we decide to head out deeper to 20m. First drop and i was on. Fought very strange with lots of head shakes and runs but not much weight. Soon surface as a little Blacktip Shark(Pic 8). The interesting thing was though when it came up there were somewhere between 20-25 other sharks some alot bigger some around the same size all following it up. With it still on the hooks boatside i threw in some mullies and sure enough a school of sharks came up and started smashing the mullies. It was awesome seeing that many sharks like that all in feeding mode in glassy water with vis down to 10m. Now i have been to the Rowleys and seen up to 10 sharks at a time behind the boat but to see 20-25 seemingly schooling awesome! They even bloted out the screen on the Lowrance!, from under the boat to the bottom, so i guess there were more down out of view.

Well with all the sharks around we decide to move away before trying to drfit again. Resulted in a nice Pinkie of 52cm and about 4 big dumb NW Blowies. After the Blowies had chomped their way through many traces and a couple of plastics, we decided to call it quits and head back in. Had a crack at the Tuna again on the way back in and we got two each and released them all but one for some fresh Tuna and also for our Chalet neighbour as he wasnt having much luck Land Based. And got another Tailor in the reef surf inside the lagoon which also relased well on the way back to the ramp.

Day three i decided to give the boat a rest and just do some spinning from the land early morning. My first spots turned up nothing after an hour so decided to do some exploring with the aid of google earth on my phone(ahhh technology hey!). Saw a spot that looked decent on the phone so pulled up there and had a flick with a metal. First cast 70cm Tailor(Pic 9), second cast another 70cm Tailor. I had encountered a school, and there were HEAPS. It was like salmon season, everytime i retrieved the lure there would be 7-8 monster Tailor all chasing it at once with me hooking up every cast for what seemed like nearly 30 mins! My PB came at Tailor 4. It put up a stirling fight and just wouldnt give in for ages right in the beach line. Ended up going 89cm!!!!!(Pic 10-11) Absolutly stoked.

Have never experience Tailor fishing so hot. Ended up landing 14 Tailor and dropping 9. All Tailor were released and swam off well. Well after a session like that i took the rest of the day off to do some snorkelling in the shallow reef lagoon with Anna. Was absolutly beautiful. Its no Abrolhos or Ningaloo, but sure beats anything at Rotto or Perth! Didnt even bother having a crack in the afternoon, just did some 4x4 lessons for Anna which she got the hang of very quickly. Planned to try my Tailor spot again the next morning with the intention of Anna catching here first LB Tailor.

Day Four started with us at the Tailor spot before the grey light had even started. Straight away it was on again. Anna dropped 4 Tailor before manging to land one at an awesome 71cm(Pic 12). Bloody good effort for a first LB Tailor! After that i had a crack again and manged to land 3 more around the 70cm mark and drop 5 more(Pic 13). All Tailor were released bar one that had swallowed the metal right down its throat. Oh well we had fresh Tailor on the BBQ for breakie that morning! Stopped in to see some of the Aboriginal Rock art in the area on the way back into town(Pic 14-15). Pretty awesome, you would think you were somewhere like Uluru!

The next two days, Five and Six, saw us head up to Kalbarri to do some sightseeing of the Gorges and the Sea Cliffs. Pretty awesome stuff. Anna had never been to this part of W.A before so she was soaking it in big time. I had a go fishing Chinamans one night for Mulloway, but didnt get anything by 9pm so called it quits. Also did some Horse Riding at Big River Ranch, bloody fun as, though have now figured out how fast a 'canter' is on a horse. Wasnt really prepared the first go and nearly shat myself. More fun than a rollercoaster i thought though. Though by the fourth crack at a canter i was well into it and loving it. Also some great scener as you ride along the banks and at times in the Murchison River(Pic 16). Nice natured horses too. If your ever up that way and have ever wondered what its like to ride a horse i highly recommend it. Lots of fun, well priced, great horses and very professional staff.

Day Seven saw us back at Horrocks with me determinded to try and catch a LB Tailor on my Trout spinning gear(Pic 17). Well i suceeded albeit smaller than the other Tailor we had encountered previously, but still put up an awesome fight on 2kg line! That night we headed up to the mouth of the Hutt to see if we could find any Mulloway at the broken river mouth. Alas i think my fishing luck had run out and left by 10pm.

Day Eight was spent packing everything up and strapping the boat all down for the tow home. Stopped in at The Pinnicles on the way home. Pretty cool place. I didnt realised some were so tall!

All in all was an absolutly mega trip. Probably the best trip i have ever had up there out of 6 trips over the last 10 years. Anna had a ball to so i think we both will be planning on heading up there again next year, but without the tinnie, so will be purely landbased. But hey if those mega Tailor are around again i definitely wont be complaining.

Buz.

Also put some pics in of the local Ospreys, one even showing me how to catch fish!

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