Below the Little River junction the Coxs has finished its steep drop and settles into a confined river on sand and gravel between forested walls, easing steadily for thirty-odd kilometres into the top of Lake Burragorang. The fall of the river on this page is the gentle tail of the whole-river drawing. The Kowmung comes in from the south-west, bringing its own wild gorge water with it, and the Jenolan joins on this lower water too. The drowned stem inside the storage is the end of the map, not more of this reach.

The bank survey switches at the junction: the cultivation of the farmed water above vanishes and dense forest takes over, three-quarters of the corridor and more. She-oaks along the edge make the bank easier to reach than the willow country up near Lithgow, and the canopy keeps the water cool on afternoons that would cook the tableland.

The fish that make the winter walk worthwhile are rainbow trout that have grown in the storage, bigger than the resident fish you cover from a bridge in November. Brown trout live in this gorge too, both species in the river’s survey record. That is a read of the country and of how this river has always been fished, not a survey of this stretch, which nobody runs. The trout classification does not apply here, but the fish do not know that.

What the resident fish eat falls out of the forest: beetles, ants and cicadas off the closed canopy through summer, and caddis in the gravel runs. The winter fish are not feeding so much as reacting, and you fish them accordingly.

This is the winter trip on the Coxs. Rainbows push up out of the storage through July, August and September, and that is the reason to walk. It is a long, cold day, it only happens when there is enough flow to let the fish through, and a dry winter can leave them below you.

The classified water above the Little River is closed through those months. This stretch is not that water. The classification does not apply here, which is what makes this the winter page and Glenroy not; it is also not a substitute for checking the current synopsis before you go.

Summer still fishes, in a wet year and in the cooler hours, for the resident fish in the pockets and runs. A closed gorge runs cooler than the open tableland on the same afternoon, which is a reason to fish early and keep fish wet, not a reason to assume the water is cold. After rain in the Kanangra country the confined water comes up fast and coloured and is genuinely dangerous. Read Island Hill on the stretch above before you walk; it is the last gauge you will see. If the forecast is wet, wait.

Same job as the Kowmung: seams along bedrock, the soft edge behind a boulder, the tail of a gravel run, and the first cast into a pocket is usually the only one that counts.

A four or five weight covers it. In winter you are fishing for lake fish on the move, so a Woolly Bugger or a small streamer swung through the deeper slots and pools, and a heavier Hare’s Ear dead-drifted through the tail-outs at first light. Through the rest of the year a dry-dropper covers the resident fish: a Stimulator you can see in broken light over a tungsten Pheasant Tail, an Elk Hair Caddis when they are on top in the evening, a hopper on the grassed benches before the walls close in.

Wading is the real work. Bedrock is slick, the walls pinch in, and a fall is a long way from a road. If you cannot see the next footing, do not take it.

Park and walk-in. A track on a map is not a right to walk it.

The Six Foot Track is the main way onto this water: it crosses the Coxs a few kilometres above the Little River, around the Bowtells swing bridge, and it is the way into the wilderness water downstream, about five kilometres’ walk from the Aspinall Road end to the river. Breakfast Creek from Dunphys campground is the other walk in, and it is for experienced walkers. There is no public vehicle access onto this stretch, and you should not count on a phone.

The bottom of this stretch runs into Lake Burragorang, Sydney’s drinking-water storage and a WaterNSW dam, and you should treat the last of the gorge as closed water until WaterNSW tells you otherwise. WaterNSW’s own page for Warragamba Dam, as it stood in September 2026, sets out the restrictions in force there: no fishing, no boating, no swimming, no camping, and no entry to the restricted and Special Areas, with penalties of up to $44,000. The one public way onto the dam is on foot, to parts of the wall, on weekends and public holidays only between 10am and 4pm, not on Christmas Day or Good Friday, and it is a walk to look at the lake, not a way to fish it. WaterNSW also says that within the Greater Sydney drinking-water catchment there are areas, water storages among them, where the public is kept out or restricted to walking to protect water quality, and that going into one for any other purpose needs its written consent, which few people get. Neither page draws the line on the Coxs itself. Where the closed country begins above the lake is the question to put to WaterNSW, and to check against the current NPWS alerts, before you plan that far down, because there is nobody at the bottom of this gorge to ask.

Carry what you would need to look after someone overnight a long way from a road, tell someone your plan and your exit day, and give yourself the daylight to get back out.

NSW DPIRD’s general trout classification on the Coxs stops at the Little River junction, and this stretch is below it, so the classification does not apply here. That is why this gorge can be the winter trip. It is not a reason to skip the current NSW freshwater synopsis, which sets the rules that do apply to the fish you catch here. The numbers move. Do not take them from this page.