The Cotter's classified trout water between Bendora Dam and the Condor Creek junction, with rainbow trout, deep-nymphing runs in the early-season melt and big deep bends to polaroid once the water clears.
This is the Cotter’s trout water: the classified stretch from the wall of Bendora Dam down to where Condor Creek comes in, cold river inside Namadgi National Park with
rainbow trout in it.
The stretch has a simple shape. It leaves the dam as a tailwater and ends at a creek junction that the rules use as a line. Above it, and below it as far as Cotter Dam, the river is closed to fishing, so on this part of the Cotter this is the water you can fish.
Early in the season snowmelt off the Brindabella Range can have the river running heavy and icy. That is deep-nymphing water: get off the main current into the slower runs and let a heavy rig plummet away from the flow. Once the water drops and clears, the larger fish hold off the back of the big deep bends, where a high bank and a careful look are worth more than a long cast.
The rules are the trout-water set: open from the October Labour Day long weekend to the end of the June King’s Birthday long weekend, fly and lure only, no bait, one rod. Take the size and bag limits from the current ACT fishing guide.
If you have one ACT trout day, this stretch is a good bet. Do not go looking for the reservoirs: Bendora above and Cotter below are both prohibited water.