Ledge Point

Ledge Point Camp

Ledge Point is about one and a half hours north of Perth and a few clicks south of Lancelin. The town evolved around the cray fishing industry and has some good beaches south of the township. It has certainly expanded since I was last here 40 years ago:)

About half of the population are holiday-makers, while more permanent residents enjoy a relaxed and quiet lifestyle. A little general store provides the basics (including a bottleshop)for most occasions. Although pretty slow, a coin-operated air pump is at the shop to pump tyres up (which you should have deflated to around 15 lbs if you were on the beach).

Ledge Point hosts the Annual Windsurfing Classic held every January and is alleged to have world-class windsurfing conditions at this time of year.

Shitty Point

We left Perth at 5 am, hoping to arrive for high tide and sun-up to make the best of our weekend fishing-camping trip. We headed straight onto the beach on arrival and let the tyres down to 15lb. Driving south along the Ledge Point beach for about 3ks, we came upon a promising rocky headland. Rigging up, we cast in, and I immediately lost two rigs between rocks and seaweed. Later back in town, I recounted the story, and a local grinned…, “yep, that is Shitty Point”.

A Mate Kicking Back

We’d missed high tide by this stage and headed back north to find a beach area without seaweed. Not all that easy. Within a kilometre or so, we found a steeply inclined beach but an area where we could camp. We set up and put the lines in again. Fishing all day and into the night, we caught a small trumpeter. The real problem was casting beyond the breakers.

The steep beach meant waves were breaking 50 metres out. Even with our 15-foot rods casting beyond the surf proved quite tricky and, at times, just impossible. By 9 pm we decided to rest up with a few quiet scotches and try again at daybreak.