Imagery: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics

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Reach 1

Headwaters to Lake Wallace

Reach 1 of 3

Coxs River

17.4 km

Reach length

81%

Tree cover on banks

Species recorded

Seventeen kilometres of small tableland stream north of Wallerawang — farms, willows and power-station country, a gauge at the station that reads temperature and turbidity as well as flow, and fish that have used the lakes.

The Coxs begins as a small trout stream in open farm country north of Wallerawang, about two hours from Sydney, with willows on the banks and the power station on the skyline. Most anglers drive past it on the way to somewhere else. In October that is a mistake.

This stretch is the first seventeen kilometres of the river, from its headwaters down to Lake Wallace, the first of the two dams. It is small, flat, easy-access water with a road never far away. The fish are wild brown and rainbow trout, some of them fish that have spent a year in the lake below and come back up, which makes a brown of surprising size possible in water this size.

It is an early-season river. This is a general trout water, closed from the June long weekend to the October one, and the weeks after the October opening are the trip: pools full from winter, the water still cool, and fish that have not seen a fly since June. From Christmas the hoppers come off the paddocks. In a dry summer the stream runs low and warm and you are better off on the permanent pools below Lyell or on the lakes. Do not come in July. The winter fish are in the gorge far below.

Access is roadside on mixed ground, with farms and power-station land along the bank, and a gate and a fence are the answer to any question about where you may walk. The gauge at the power station reads water temperature and turbidity as well as flow, which is more than most trout streams in the state can say, and its readings sit under Conditions. This water colours before it rises, so give it a few dry days after rain.

Target species

Brown Trout

Rainbow Trout

Redfin

No live gauge

There’s no gauge on this water. Check recent trip reports.

Season

Regulations

Driving directions

Water and habitat

A valley-fill stream in laterally open country, easing gently through its whole length: the fall of the river on this page is the flattest water on the whole Coxs above the storage. Fine-grained bed, grassed banks, willow thickets that make casting awkward and hold fish in their shade, and the occasional gravel run where the stream tightens. The Wallerawang Power Station gauge sits about fourteen kilometres down, just above the lake.

The bank survey draws this as open woodland with a third of the corridor in grass and a tenth under cultivation, which is a way of saying farm country. There is no forest here, and no shade you did not bring. On a hot afternoon the water warms with the paddocks, and the willows are where the fish are.

BANK COVER ALONG THIS REACH · SATELLITE-CLASSIFIED, 2023–25

Dense trees

Open woodland

Sparse trees

Native grass & tussock

Cultivated

Bare

Fish and forage

Brown trout and rainbow trout are the fish this Lithgow country is known for, and both are in the river’s survey record from the 1990s on. The fish here have used Wallace and Lyell as much as they have used the stream, and a brown that has spent a year in the lake can be a surprise in water this size. Redfin, goldfish and gambusia turn up in the slower pools, as they do on any farmed tableland river. The department’s general trout classification is a rule about how you fish, not a headcount.

Caddis in the evening runs, small mayfly on the slow pools, and from Christmas the grasshoppers off the paddock banks. A fish under a willow in the afternoon is waiting for a beetle or a hopper to fall.

Observed

Eastern Gambusia

Gambusia holbrooki

Flathead Gudgeon

Philypnodon grandiceps

Goldfish

Carassius auratus

Mountain Galaxias

Galaxias olidus

Southern Shortfin Eel

Anguilla australis

When to fish it

Early season is the trip. The classified water opens on the October long weekend, and from then until the summer low this small water is at its best. In a wet year it keeps producing through summer; in a dry one it runs low and warm, and you are better on the permanent pools below Lyell or on the lakes.

Read the Conditions card on this page before you drive. Wallerawang reads flow, height and water temperature, and turbidity as well: after rain in the Lithgow country the river colours before it rises. Give it a few dry days. A water temperature in the low twenties is a reason to fish first light and keep fish wet, or to leave the river alone until it cools.

This stretch is closed from the June long weekend to the October one with the rest of the classified water. If you came for trout in July, you want the gorge below Little River, not here.

THE YEAR ON THIS WATER

Early-season window

Fly · Oct–Dec

The season opens on the October long weekend and this small water is at its best before summer thins it. An Adams and a hot-spot Pheasant Tail.

Caddis and mayfly

Food · Nov–Mar

Evening caddis in the runs, small mayfly on the slower pools. The last hour is the hour.

Hoppers off the paddocks

Food · Dec–Mar

Grassed banks between the willows. A hopper tight to the edge on a warm afternoon.

How to fish it

Small water, fish that have seen a few anglers, and willows behind you. Keep the first cast honest. A four or five weight, a floating line, and a leader short enough to roll under the branches.

An Adams and a hot-spot Pheasant Tail as a dry-dropper is the starting rig and will often be the finishing one. On this water the Pheasant Tail with a bright tag is the nymph that earns its place. A hopper along the grassed banks once the paddocks dry off. When the river is carrying colour, a small Woolly Bugger or a worm pattern is more use than a tiny dry.

Fish the shaded banks and the deeper bends. The open, sunlit runs are for the first hour of the morning; the willows are for the rest of the day.

Access and safety

Mixed country: roads, farms, power-station land. A gate and a fence are the answer, not an invitation to find a way around. Confirm who holds the bank before you walk it. The Wallerawang entry near Main Street and the Castlereagh Highway sits just upstream of the power station; do not walk the fenced ground or the station land without the land manager’s word. The Lidsdale State Forest side gives a second way onto the upper water.

Lake Wallace is the bottom of this stretch, not more of it. The lake has its own page.

Regulations

NSW DPIRD classifies the Coxs as a general trout water upstream from its junction with the Little River, and this stretch is far above that junction. A general trout water carries the NSW trout season, which closes this water from the June long weekend to the October long weekend, and the general-trout-water size and bag limits.

The dates follow the public holidays and the numbers move. Take them from the current NSW freshwater synopsis and the trout closure notification, not from this page.

Permitted with conditions

NSW

Under NSW's trout and salmon fishing rules, Coxs River in the Central Tablelands district is classified as a general trout water; the classified extent covers its creeks and tributaries upstream from its junction with, but not including, th

NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development

Read the rule at source ↗