Fly fishing New England

Start on the tableland. Three streams east of Armidale drain to the Chandler River, and a road out of Armidale crosses each of them. The Wollomombi River has public reserves on both sides of the Waterfall Way crossing. The Oaky River runs in long pools and riffles between that road and the Armidale to Kempsey road, above Oaky River Dam. The Styx River is trout water above the Armidale to Bellbrook road crossing.

Further out, the Guy Fawkes River runs straight through the village of Ebor and over the Ebor Falls, and you fish it from the town common. Jocks Water is a small stream whose access sites sit beside the Armidale road, a dry-fly water of willing rainbows that rarely top a pound and a half.

On the Dorrigo plateau the water turns east towards the Nymboida. The Bielsdown River runs through Dorrigo itself above Dangar Falls, with a reserve along the town water. Out along Waterfall Way, Meldrum Creek runs into Deer Park Creek, which runs on to the Nymboida; the stocking records show rainbows going into Meldrum and browns into Deer Park.

Malpas Reservoir, near Guyra, is the tableland’s still water, stocked with rainbows, a few browns and Australian bass.

North and west is granite. The Deepwater River passes through the town of Deepwater on the New England Highway, a clear stream of boulders and weed beds that is often quoted as the most northerly water in the state to hold trout. It runs on to the Mole River. Tenterfield Creek drains to the Dumaresq River, which is the state line, and the Dumaresq runs down into the Macintyre River. The Severn River is cut by Pindari Dam and carries on to the Macintyre. To the south-west, Lake Copeton sits between Inverell, Bundarra and Bingara on the Gwydir River, which runs on past the wall to join the Barwon.

The trout streams are small and most of their rainbows are stocked, but each stream has its own character. The Guy Fawkes holds stocked rainbows to a few pounds and wild browns said to reach six pounds on the yabbies; the browns are reported to feed hard on a streamer for about half an hour between first light and sunrise. The Wollomombi’s trout eat crayfish almost to the exclusion of anything else, and fish over five pounds are reported. That makes it a weighted-streamer river, fished slowly along the bottom. The Oaky was famous for trophy browns once and is a lesser water now, but browns of four or five pounds are still said to turn up in the deep pools. The Bielsdown carries a slight colour, so a size 12 Royal Wulff does better than a sparse small dry, except in the slow town pools where the rainbows get fussy over mayflies and caddis.

On the rivers the cod fishing is clear-water work. On the Deepwater below the highway bridge the cod average 40 to 60 centimetres and will come up to a surface fly at most times of day, so a gurgler on a 2/0 to 6/0 hook is cast at every weed bed and rock bar. FlyLife rates the upper Severn highly for cod on fly, and the Macintyre’s headwaters are said to be in the same first rank. Copeton is the big fish water: white granite boulders and drowned wattle scrub on the edge of a very deep storage, fished from a boat with a big streamer on a fast-sinking line. The Murray cod and timber page covers the slow retrieve past cover. Golden perch are the steadier fish on Copeton and Pindari, and on the Dumaresq freshwater catfish are the best-recorded native, worked with a dark Woolly Bugger along the bottom of the deep holes.

For trout on a first visit, go to Ebor and walk onto the Guy Fawkes from the common, after rain, with a dry-dropper for the pool heads. With only half a day, fish the Bielsdown town water in summer; you can be on it without leaving Dorrigo.

For cod, go to Deepwater in December and fish below the highway bridge with a surface fly. Leave Copeton until you have a boat, or until you are content to cover only the boulders near the camping areas from the bank.

Do not drive to the Guy Fawkes or the Wollomombi in a drought. A dry year shrinks the Guy Fawkes to murky pools, and the Wollomombi is still coming back from the last run of dry years.

Spring wakes the trout streams, and it is when Copeton’s golden perch come onto the rocky points. Summer is the best of both fisheries. On the tableland it is terrestrial time, with mayfly coming off the Guy Fawkes in the evenings even in the middle of Ebor, and from December to March the Deepwater cod take a surface fly. Autumn keeps the evening hatches going at Ebor and brings the browns back onto a streamer.

In winter the trout fishing moves to Malpas. Cod can still be caught on the Deepwater through the cooler months, deeper and slower. At Copeton, pack for a frost at dawn.

Seasons, closures, limits and licence requirements change; check NSW DPIRD’s current freshwater fishing rules and closures before you fish, and on the Queensland border rivers Queensland’s current freshwater rules as well.

Most of the river frontage here is private grazing land. The public water is travelling stock reserves, road bridges, town reserves and the sites on each water’s access card. A line on the map is not access permission; where a stretch is not on the card, ask at the house first. Tamworth’s waters are on the Peel and Namoi page, and the Barwon, where the Gwydir ends up, is on the western rivers page.