Lake Tabourie Entrance

Lake Tabourie is a small coastal lagoon south of Ulladulla whose mouth sits at the southern end of Wairo Beach, beside Toubouree Point and inside Crampton Island. It is the quietest of the local estuaries — smaller and shallower than Burrill or Conjola, with a caravan park beside the entrance and not much else. The entrance is an intermittently closed and open lake or lagoon and spends long spells closed behind a sand berm, so the lagoon edge is the spot more often than a running channel. When rain breaks it open, the mouth fishes well while the channel runs.

When the mouth is closed, fish the lagoon edge on warm, calm days with soft plastics or a lightly weighted prawn for flathead, and nippers or worms on light running rigs for whiting and bream over the sand. Luderick feed along the weedy edges and come to a float with green weed in the cooler months. When the entrance is open, fish the run-out along the channel edge for flathead and bream. Cross the berm to Wairo Beach to spin metals into the gutters for salmon and tailor at first light.

Dusky flathead are kept inside a 36–70 cm slot with a bag of 5. Yellowfin bream are 25 cm minimum on a bag of 10 shared with tarwhine, sand whiting 27 cm on a bag of 20 across all whiting, and luderick 27 cm with a bag of 10. Off the beach, Australian salmon have no minimum size and a bag of 5, and tailor are 30 cm with a bag of 10.

Hoop and lift nets are closed in Tabourie Lake, so a witches-hat or hoop net is not allowed here. Check whether the mouth is open before you plan around tides; when it is closed, the tide barely moves the lagoon and water temperature matters more. Pump nippers on the sand flats at low water for whiting bait. The lagoon is shallow and clear, so long casts and light leaders help when the sun is high.

Lake Tabourie village is just off the Princes Highway south of Ulladulla. Park near the caravan park and the parking area by Toubouree Point, then walk a short distance across the sand to the lagoon edge and the berm. Access is flat but entirely on sand. There is no formed fishing platform, and facilities are limited to the caravan park and the village.

The lagoon is sheltered from swell and fishes in most weather when closed, though a north-easter ruffles the shallows. When open, the run-out is the time, and the mouth can be rough at the ocean end. Heavy rain raises the lagoon and can break the berm, turning a still pond into a fast channel overnight. The beach side needs a moderate swell and some white water for salmon and tailor.

When the berm breaks after heavy rain, the lagoon drains through a fast channel with collapsing sand banks — stay out of it and keep children back. Even when closed, the lagoon edge drops off in places where the old channel ran. Wairo Beach and the mouth have rips and shorebreak. Bluebottles wash into the shallows on north-easterly days.

Only some of the time. Lake Tabourie is an intermittently closed and open lagoon, and it often sits closed behind a sand berm. Heavy rain breaks it open, and the mouth fishes well while it runs — but treat a fresh breakout as dangerous.

Dusky flathead, yellowfin bream, sand whiting and luderick in the lagoon, with Australian salmon and tailor on Wairo Beach. Dusky flathead must be 36–70 cm with a bag of 5.

No. Hoop and lift nets are closed in Tabourie Lake. Fish with rod and line under normal NSW bag and size limits.