Beginners Guide for Kioloa to Lake Tabourie by Gary Brown

For this Beginners Guide I'll start at a small coastal hamlet located about 30 minutes south of Ulladulla and 30 minutes north of Batemans Bay, called Bawley Point. Bawley Point is located in the Shoalhaven region of the South Coast of NSW, strategically located between the Murramarang National Park, Morton National Park, the Meroo National Park and the Kioloa State Forest.

Travelling south from Bawley Point for around 8km you'll find yourself at Pretty Beach in the Murramarang National Park, and travelling to the north for around 15km you'll find yourself at Lake Tabourie. Whether you are looking to fish off the beach for whiting, bream, salmon and tailor or want to cast a line in one of the many rock washes for trevally, drummer, snapper, bream, tailor and salmon, this stretch of coastline has it all.

If the beach and rocks are not your cup of tea you could always try chasing a few dusky flathead, bream, luderick, mullet, garfish and prawns in Lake Tabourie. Even though Meroo Lake is a much smaller waterway, it can hold good numbers of bream, luderick, mullet and garfish at times.

WAIRO BEACH

Wairo Beach is a 5km long, exposed beach backed by dunes reaching up to 30m high and extending a few hundred metres inland towards the Pacific Highway. This beach runs south until you reach the northern side of Crompton Island. The beach can be accessed in the centre via fenced walkways over the dunes from a caravan park and from the highway, and in the south where a 1km long park occupies the area between the beach and the narrow channel, connecting Tabourie Lake with the sea.

The lake usually enters, but is not always open across the southern end of the beach, with the beach continuing on past the lake entrance as a low spit to Crampton Island. Salmon, tailor, bream, whiting and the odd trevally can be caught from this beach. Try using whole or half pilchards, strips of mullet or beach worms for the best results.

LAKE TABOURIE

The township of Lake Tabourie is situated at the back of a few sand dunes and surrounds the lake itself. Even though this particular lake is fairly shallow it at times can hold good numbers of bream, flathead, luderick, mullet and garfish.

For those of you who don't have access to a small tinny or a kayak there are a number of places where you can cast a line from the shore. All you need to do to find one of these spots is drive around the streets and keep an idea of where the water is. Once you spot a clearing you just hop out of your car and see if you can get a line in from there.

Kayaking seems to be the best mode of transport on the lake. You could try casting soft plastics and hardbodied lures along the shoreline for bream and flathead, or live baiting with poddy mullet. Prawning improves with each 'dark' between November and February.

CRAMPTON ISLAND

It's a fair hike from the car park out to the island itself so you'll need to prepare yourself for a long walk, but believe me, the distance is worth it. From the island itself you can target snapper, tailor, salmon, bream, trevally, leatherjackets, luderick and drummer.

You will need to take in all your bait and bring all your rubbish back out with you. The last time I ventured out to the island I took two blocks of pilchards, 1kg of either Hawkesbury River or blue tailed prawns, a couple of slabs of mullet and salted tuna.

If you like targeting luderick you can harvest cabbage and green weed here, but I recommend bringing some of your own as it's a long walk back if you get out there and there is none to get. Live yellowtail and slimy mackerel can be berleyed up on the southern side of the island.

TABOURIE BEACH

I have fished Lake Tabourie a few times and generally it can be a pretty hard place to fish, but there have been occasions when I have managed to get bream, flathead, mullet and garfish. The lake will definitely fish better when it has been opened to the sea. This lake is very shallow with sporadic access to the ocean so the size of fish can be below average. The best way to get around there is in a kayak. This will enable you to work the shoreline with shallow hardbodied lures and lightly weighted soft plastics.

One spot I used to have a lot of success on was on the southwest side of the highway bridge. At sunset with nippers and fresh worms some sizeable bream were around (biggest went 45cm). Make sure you fish light as possible, as the water without current can be very clear and the fish are liable to be very finicky. You could also try with fly hooks, dough and floats for the many garfish and mullet that are found in the lake.

TERMEIL LAKE

Even though this is a very small lake it can at times produce good catches of bream, flathead, mullet and garfish. For the best results you will need to use either beach worms or pink nippers. There are not a lot of land-based spots so I would prefer to fish out of a kayak.