A river feeding a bigger one. In our experience trout hold where the current gives them food and somewhere to rest: the head of a pool where the run tips in, a seam beside faster water, the slack behind a rock or a log. Walk quickly past thin, even water and spend your time on the deeper runs and pools.

NSW stocking records list brown trout and rainbow trout released into the river, and the stocking chart shows which seasons.

Atlas of Living Australia records also list river blackfish and twospine blackfish in the river. They are native fish. The trout are the reason to plan a trip, and the blackfish are a reason to check the native-fish rules in the state guide before you fish.

The rest of the fly box is a guide’s read. Trout in rivers like this feed on nymphs drifting along the bottom and on whatever lands on the surface, and in warm weather that includes grasshoppers, beetles and ants off the bank. A few buoyant dries, a hopper and some bead-head nymphs cover most of it.

Settle the rules first: take any season for the river from the current NSW trout guide. Within whatever it allows, in our experience a trout river like this fishes best from late spring into autumn. Summer is the time for hoppers and terrestrials along the banks, fished early and late when the light is off the water. Autumn often brings cooler, clearer days when browns get busier. After heavy rain, give the river a day or two to drop and clear before you go.

Fish upstream, keep low and stay back from the edge. Start with a dry and dropper: a Royal Wulff with a bead-head Hare’s Ear or Pheasant Tail under it. Put it in the head of each pool and let it ride down the seam. Two or three good drifts tell you whether a fish is home; then move up. In summer, swap the dry for a hopper and land it close to the bank wherever grass meets the water. In the deeper pools, a Woolly Bugger stripped past cover can move a brown that will not come up.

The access card names the access points. Treat them as locations, not a statement of permission, and respect any fence or sign you meet on the ground.

As on any bush river, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, carry water and a small first-aid kit, and watch your footing on wet rock. Rivers can rise after rain, so keep an eye on the sky and never wade a crossing you are unsure of.

Before you fish, read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development trout guide, check its trout-water lists and closed-waters list for the river, and take any season, bag and size limits and licence requirements from it.