The Nymboida flows into the Mann. Along its length the character is set by slope: the gradient profile shows the steeper and flatter stretches, and the flow charts show how often the river runs high or low and how that shifts through the year. In our experience bass in a river like this hold under overhanging trees, beside fallen timber and in the slack water off the edge of a run, then move out over the shallows at night to feed. The bank cover chart gives you a sense of how much of the river is shaded and treed.

Catfish want a different kind of water: longer pools with a soft or gravelly floor, and the tail of a pool where the bottom comes up to meet a run.

In our experience it is warm water that puts bass on the surface at night, so plan a trip here around the warm months.

Australian bass are the fish to plan around, and they share the river with eastern freshwater cod. Both will come up to a noisy fly at night. Freshwater catfish are the other realistic fly target, feeding by feel along the bottom. Longfin eels are also recorded here, and if you fish after dark one may take a bottom fly now and then.

Underneath them is a list of small natives recorded in the river: Australian smelt, several kinds of gudgeon, crimson-spotted rainbowfish, Marjorie’s hardyhead and mountain galaxias. These are the forage, and a slim streamer in olive or grey is the closest thing the river has to a universal fly.

Carry a few bulky surface flies in 2 to 6 for bass at night, dark Woolly Buggers in 6 to 10, weighted, for catfish, and some small baitfish patterns in 10 to 12 for the edges in daylight.

Summer is our pick. From November through March the nights are warm and bass feed on top, often best from the last of the light into the first couple of hours of dark. Spring can fish as the water warms. Winter is slow for surface fishing in a river like this, and we would leave it.

Watch the rain. After heavy rain a river like this can run high and coloured for days; the live conditions card is the place to check the level before you leave. Give it time to drop and clear.

A six- or seven-weight with a floating line covers the surface fishing. Use a short, stout leader, because at night the fish are not leader shy and the timber is close.

Cast tight to the edges and into the shade, let the fly sit until the rings die, then bring it back in slow pops and long pauses. At night, slow down further and fish by sound. When you hear the take, wait for the weight before you set, because a bass or cod that has only swirled at the fly will often come back for it.

For catfish, change to a sinking tip, cast across and slightly upstream into the slower water, and bring the fly back in short, slow pulls with long pauses along the bottom. Where trees crowd the bank, a roll cast saves flies. In daylight, work a small baitfish pattern along shaded banks with a slow strip; the streamer guide covers the retrieve.

The access card names the places to start. It describes where the river can be reached; it is not permission to walk the banks beyond it. Assume the banks beyond are private, ask before you cross a paddock, and leave every gate as you found it.

As on any river fished after dark, learn the bank in daylight before you fish it at night, carry a head torch and a spare, and tell someone where you have gone. Check, clean and dry your boots and gear before you fish another river.

Under NSW’s trout and salmon fishing rules, the Nymboida is classified as a general trout water in the Coffs District. The listing starts where Wild Cattle Creek joins and takes in everything above that point: the main river, every creek and tributary feeding it, and Wild Cattle Creek as well. Check the current NSW guide for the season that applies to general trout waters before you fish that part of the river.

For the rest of the river, and for bass, cod and catfish anywhere on it, check the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development guide, including its closed-waters list and anything it says about eastern freshwater cod, before you fish.

Before you leave, open the current NSW fishing rules and regulations, confirm the fishing fee and exemptions and check the freshwater bag and size limits.