ritchie Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Hope everyone's having a great weekend & recovering from Chrissy & NYE! We are planning a 3 x day camping trip down at Killalea camping grounds, just up the beach. so, just wondering if anyone fished off that beach? any decent gutters in the area across the campsites? I am just weighing my options as to either take my beach fishing gear or light gear for the lagoon area Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 7, 2023 Share Posted January 7, 2023 Are you referring to Killalea near Shellharbour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ritchie Posted January 8, 2023 Author Share Posted January 8, 2023 hi @noelm, yes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 OK, the beach fishes pretty good, use Worms and fish light in any gutters at low tide, the rocks at either end of the beach (fishing onto the sand) is good for Bream at early morning or late afternoon. Not too sure what "Lagoon area" you are referring to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 26 minutes ago, noelm said: OK, the beach fishes pretty good, use Worms and fish light in any gutters at low tide, the rocks at either end of the beach (fishing onto the sand) is good for Bream at early morning or late afternoon. Not too sure what "Lagoon area" you are referring to. Killalea Lagoon I suspect Noel. Deckee shows it holds fish. I am sure you would know this place Noel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted January 8, 2023 Share Posted January 8, 2023 On 1/7/2023 at 7:50 PM, ritchie said: Hope everyone's having a great weekend & recovering from Chrissy & NYE! We are planning a 3 x day camping trip down at Killalea camping grounds, just up the beach. so, just wondering if anyone fished off that beach? any decent gutters in the area across the campsites? I am just weighing my options as to either take my beach fishing gear or light gear for the lagoon area Thanks in advance! This area looks lovely. Looking foward to the report Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I know the Lagoon, been there a million times, but......I kind of doubt it would have anything decent in there, but, you never know! Last time I wandered around the actual lagoon (a couple of years ago) it was just a shallow swamp looking place, maybe they have cleaned it out during the recent upgrade of the entire area? I have been going there since we rode bikes and had to go through an old farmhouse to get to the beach, hence the locals call it "the farm" you had to pay 20 cents (2 bob in the old days) we had home made trailers for our surfboards and fishing gear, you could only access the Shellharbour side, and had to walk down that big hill, it was a killer going back up...... During summer we would camp on the beach Saturday night to surf all the next day, plenty of fish to eat, and I know a "secret" Lobster hole there, we had Lobster, boiled in sea water if it was calm weather! Made "Billy Tea" and had a great time, but then.....progress, and the entire dynamic changed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 1 hour ago, mrsswordfisherman said: This area looks lovely. Looking foward to the report It is a fantastic spot in Summer, the beach is at a funny angle, and NE Summer wind blows nearly offshore, and the swell comes straight in. Like everywhere it's changed considerably, to be in someways better, but in others ways, a bygone era. Fished, surfed and dived there literally thousands of times, it's kind of funny now, I hardly ever go there, maybe it's like driving past your Grand Parents old house or something, it's just "not the same" weird hey? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Nice bit of history @noelm thanks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Walking down memory lane (and wandering way off topic) but, when I was kid, there was a man in Shellharbour, no idea of his name, but everyone called him "Togo" (or similar) and he had this big home made trailer thing, and two horses pulling it (no car/truck could ever get down and onto the beach) and he used to hand shovel Shellgrit onto the trailer/cart, mostly in a place called Maloney's Bay, near Killalea, no idea what he did with it, but there must have been a market somewhere! Nearly every day he was there, shoveling grit into the cart, then off he would go, along the beach and up the grass/rock track, the horses struggling on the steep grade. Anyone know what Shell Grit was used for years ago? The only use I know is for chooks! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Just answering my own question (via google) from 1955 to 1973, millions of tons of Shell Grit was used to make glass, paths and feed Poultry, no idea why it was used in footpaths? The practice was stopped in 1973 and alternatives were used. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 I remember driving up past that way from Dunmore railway station as a kid and there was nothing either side of the road except for that small cemetery. I was up there again just a couple of years ago and barely recognized the place. Sad really, but that’s progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Yep, Dunmore used to be just the "end of the road" before the rail crossing, but now there's houses everywhere, a new Hospital is marked out now too, ready to start building, near the old train station. Where we used to go up the road to "the farm" would be roughly where Shell Cove is now, entering the dirt track near the traffic lights at Shellharbour Workers Club. It was quite a ride towing a board trailer, all your gear on an old back pedal brake Malvern Star....no 21 gears then! My mate always towed the trailer, because he was a bike rider as a sport, and could leave us for dead. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 (edited) This is quite alarming, be warned, I found this picture of the lagoon, about 6 months after I was last there, it does prove there is fish there though, I did a bit of "digging" and apparently the lagoon was cleaned up, and the recent rain has filled it up again, this photo was in 2020 and doesn't paint a great picture. Edited January 9, 2023 by noelm 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 23 minutes ago, noelm said: This is quite alarming, be warned, I found this picture of the lagoon, about 6 months after I was last there, it does prove there is fish there though, I did a bit of "digging" and apparently the lagoon was cleaned up, and the recent rain has filled it up again, this photo was in 2020 and doesn't paint a great picture. Hard to tell from the pic, but are they mullet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted January 9, 2023 Share Posted January 9, 2023 Yep, big Mullet, I was there around 6-12 months before that was taken (only guessing time frame) and it was just a shallow, muddy swamp kind of thing, but during the drought we had then, it must have dried up even more, killing the resident fish. I was told it is quite deep and clean now, but I haven't looked myself, it was just what I was told this morning when I asked as I was cleaning my Blackfish at the ramp. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ritchie Posted January 11, 2023 Author Share Posted January 11, 2023 thanks all for the awesome info! Looking forward to some off the grid time away from it all & hopefully catch a fish or two too! I'll keep ya all posted! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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