Fly fishing the Hunter and Barrington Tops

The Hunter River runs from small headwater creeks to the sea, and its fish list follows it down: bass and freshwater catfish through the long fresh middle, then mullet, bull sharks and mulloway once it turns tidal. The Pages River and Rouchel Brook are carp and catfish feeders of the Hunter, and the Allyn River delivers its water to the Paterson.

Lake St Clair is an impoundment on Glennies Creek, twenty-five kilometres from Singleton and about two and a half hours north of Sydney, at the foot of the Barrington Tops. It went in during the 1980s to back up the supply from Lake Glenbawn further up the valley, and when full it runs about fifteen kilometres long and up to three wide. DPIRD’s Peel District guide counts Glenbawn among its large dams.

The trout streams are all small. Stewarts Brook runs down to the Hunter, and Carters Brook feeds Stewarts Brook. On Omadale Brook, another Hunter tributary, the trout water begins where Polblue Creek joins. The Barrington River begins as small, weedy tributary creeks, and the Gloucester River has its trout water above the junction with Sharpes Creek.

Lake Macquarie is the odd one out, a big coastal saltwater lake near Newcastle joined to the sea by Swansea Channel.

St Clair’s middle is open water. Both ends carry drowned trees close to shore and at the heads of the bays, and thick weed fringes the whole lake, so fish the ends and the edges. A dark streamer worked slowly against the trees is the fly version of what the lure anglers cast there, and on still, warm summer nights a popper along the weed after dark is said to give exciting fishing. The bass are said to grow to trophy size. Golden perch are the second stocked fish, deeper in the timber; silver perch went in too, but anglers meet few of them now.

Glenbawn is stocked with the same three fish, and its bass are worked along the weedbeds. Walk the shore the wind blows onto at first light with a baitfish pattern and keep moving, because the fish are rarely spread evenly along the weed.

The trout brooks are three- and four-weight water. Fish upstream with a buoyant dry and a small bead-head nymph under it, spend your time on the heads of pools and undercut banks, and walk past thin, even water. Carters and Stewarts brooks have had browns and rainbows stocked; the rest are rainbow water. On the Barrington’s upper creeks, weed lanes and Scotch broom squeeze the cast, so bring a short rod and a roll cast.

The warm tributaries are sight-fishing water. On the Pages, the Allyn and Rouchel Brook, walk the banks on a calm, bright day with polarised glasses, look for tails and mud clouds on the slow margins, and put a small weighted nymph in front of a feeding carp. Catfish in the Pages and Rouchel Brook are a dusk job, a dark heavy fly crawled along the bottom of the deepest pool.

On the main river, bass take a popper at first and last light in the fresh reaches. The tidal lower river is a mulloway gamble with a big fly on a fast-sinking line; young hatchery-reared mulloway tracked in the Hunter preferred deep water to the wetland creeks, which tells you where to put it.

Lake Macquarie wants the rod you would take to a bream flat. Water, bait and fish all move through Swansea Channel, and large schools of Australian salmon are said to run into it in the cooler months. Bream work the lake’s shallow edges and drop-offs, and the artificial reefs off Galgabba Point are reported to hold bream, snapper, flathead and silver trevally.

Start at Lake St Clair. The campground on the shore has sites at the water’s edge and a concrete ramp, so you can fish first and last light without driving; bookings are essential. Launch early into a tree-lined bay at one end and fish the timber.

For trout, choose a brook rather than the Hunter itself: trout are not among the fish recorded in the main river. Near Newcastle in winter with a few hours to spare, take a sinking line to Swansea Channel for the salmon.

Bass and golden perch fish best from late spring into autumn, roughly October to April on the lakes, with the after-dark surface fishing at its peak in summer. In winter, fish deep and in the middle of the day. Carp and catfish go quiet in the cold too.

On the trout brooks, late spring brings the first steady hatches, and summer belongs to the hopper and the beetle, fished early and late when the light is off the water. After heavy rain, give a small brook a day or two to drop.

Seasons, closures, limits and licence requirements change; check NSW DPIRD’s current freshwater fishing rules and closures before you fish.

A line on the map is not access permission. Use the access points on each water’s card, and on a storage check the current level before a long drive: a falling lake pulls the weed line and the standing timber out of reach.