Fishing Locations

Fishing style -your choice between bait drifting, light spin and/or stream fly fishing.

Targeted fish are trout - both Rainbow and Brown. Alternatively if you want to spend some of the day learning how to land heavy fish on a fly I have some guaranteed big Carp locations that are holding solid fish (3lb Plus). Alternatively I could concentrate on Yelllow belly and Cod Spinning locations.

Locations: There are yellowbelly and Cod in the Cotter but not enough to concentrate on. In the Cotter, you may see the occasional Macquarie Perch and in the Godradigbee the odd platypus. I am not fishing the Queanbeyan river at present as it is too low and hot and its fish are stressed. We could also fish the Lower Murrumbidge for Cod or Yellow belly with spinner baits if you prefer but lately they have been a bit hit and miss as there is so much food in the river.

License: you will need at least a 3 day licence ($6)

The location of all two and three day tours are very similar in topography, flora and fauna with open plains heath fields and sphagnum bogs. The fishing water is of rocky-bottomed rivers clear of weed or snags with grassy banks over hanging deep narrow pools of gin clear water. There are few casting obstacles such as trees and boulders. All locations are within 4hrs drive from Canberra Airport or 2hrs from Cooma Airport.

If you would prefer to fish a slightly more accessible location, I recommend the flatter access provided in to the Upper Tooma River. The down-side is that this gets slightly more fishing pressure as opposed to negligible in the Happy Jacks area, and is more exposed with less sheltered options in windy conditions and takes an additional half an hour to drive to and from the area.

Happy Jacks River and Upper Tumut River access will require riding up some significant hills while exiting on the last day (14km). Tooma River access is flat and a much easier 8km access. However, the trail is much rougher so is about the same travel time.

All areas contain good wild rainbow trout, small brook trout populations with the occasional large (2-3kg) brown trout in the deeper pools. All areas sustain small populations of river black fish (native and protected) with the occasional platypus.