Saladboi Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Hey folks, Have just joined up to this forum as I have exhausted most online avenues for researching best options to try for a trout or 2 in and around the Blue Mountains. Basically it will be my first time fishing the area but have done a fair bit of freshwater fishing in Canada and NZ and love it. I am wanting to try somewhere potentially over the long weekend and would be more than happy for a bit of a hike/bush bash in to get to a good spot and then camp overnight. I am hoping someone would be kind enough to give me a tip or 2 about areas to try and with some consideration of the current drought and the impact that may have on best places to fish.. Thanks a lot in advance Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Hi Tim there is a webpage called Blue Mountains fishing which will give you a pretty good overview of the rivers and lakes you can hit for trout. Ive personally done pretty well at Thompsons Creek Dam, Lake Lyell and Wallarawang (not really bothered with river fishing ). Ive been up in the general area over winter hunting and its very very dry, most of the rivers have got very little water- another general area to look is Oberon, its had a couple of decent snow falls in the last few weeks and might be ok downhill from there (look in the area south of Black Springs)- but am guessing lakes might be your best bet- you can camp at Lake Lyell-not the others , plenty of accomodation in Lithgow and Oberon if you want to stay a couple of days. Cheers and good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted September 17, 2019 Author Share Posted September 17, 2019 Hi PaddyT, thanks a lot for the reply. Mmm that's a shame you think it may be too dry for rivers at the moment, I really have my heart set on them rather than lakes. I have been looking at Fish River and Duckamaloi on google maps up around Oberon and some youtube vids which looked great but i suppose they may be from before the drought! Maybe someone else will have some intel anyway. In the meantime I will have a look south of Black Springs... assuming you mean Campbells River. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Abercrombie, if you are really adventurous the Kowmung but the spawners have probably dropped back into Warragamba by now. All you can do is give it a crack , i was up near the Duckmaloi about a month ago and whilst i didnt check it out, a couple of its feeder streams had flow and there has been rain and snow since, especially on the higher peaks so logic says it will be flowing at lower altitudes- say around 1000M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcurrall Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Hey mate We usually go most years and fish the jenolan, access off jenolan rd, onto black range rd and then onto a fire trail moorara boss trail. You'll get to a locked gate, you can drive around the first, and park at the second. Be prepared for a BIG walk in and out. I have a mate who takes his dirt bike which makes it a lot easier The spawners basically didn't come up due to lack of rain this year, but there is a very healthy population of browns here that specifically live and breed in the river. Only get up to 1kg or so (compared to the 4kg+ spawners) but have fished here in spring and caught 30 to 40 in a session quite easily. Not unusual to have 10 or so follow a lure in! It is very isolated here, probably 45 min walk in and 1.5 to 2hrs out due to the gradient so take time and prob an epirb if by yourself. It's worth it though, basically walking through rainforest and crystal clear water, you can clearly see the fish hit the lure most of the time. If you walk a few hours downstream you hit where jenolan and coxs merge. Its amazing Small minnows 3 to 5cm in natural patterns work best and 4lb leader max. Good luck! 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcurrall Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Great intel there , how would a mountain bike go- i have vague recollections of walking down and up there when doing Duke Of Ed at school- got a mate whos a keen flyfiser and we might give it a hit in Nov. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcurrall Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 I've seen people take mountain bikes but most of the track is too steep and they end up pushing it most of the way back up. Much better just slogging it out, the journey in and out is what makes it such a good trip - not only how isolated it is but when you get back to the car all cramped up and buggered you swear you'll never ever come back, but them next year you find yourself flying back down the hill 🙄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted September 18, 2019 Author Share Posted September 18, 2019 haha awesome stuff thanks wcurrall! Will definitely be giving this spot a go and will let you know how it turns out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 2 hours ago, wcurrall said: I've seen people take mountain bikes but most of the track is too steep and they end up pushing it most of the way back up. Much better just slogging it out, the journey in and out is what makes it such a good trip - not only how isolated it is but when you get back to the car all cramped up and buggered you swear you'll never ever come back, but them next year you find yourself flying back down the hill 🙄 man, i do a fair bit of that anyway when i go hunting-just trying to avoid further suffering!! But you are right, there is something special about places like that and the bush in general Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 Thanks @PaddyT and @wcurrall for helping @Saladboi Great raider spirit! We have a wealth of info here on fishraider and you can use our search engine to bring up past posts on that area. Welcome to fishraider and we look forward to reading your posts 👏 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hooked-Up Posted September 19, 2019 Share Posted September 19, 2019 Reading through the comments reminded me of a vid I watched earlier today, it’s related to flooding megalong valley by raising warragamba dam wall, the kowmung etc apparently won’t exist along with much more, so if ya gunna do it then get busy! heres the vid 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted October 8, 2019 Author Share Posted October 8, 2019 Hi guys, went down to the Jenolan on the weekend and had a great time. Bloody beautiful and remote. Thanks Wcurral for the tips. caught 3 beautiful rainbow on celtas. River was very low but still some nice pools. Bloody tough walk out that almost killed my brother in law ha! Can see why it’s pretty rarely fished. saw to black snakes, had a nice cook up on the fire and all around great time. Very keen on trying somewhere else for my next adventure.. if anyone has any tips it would be great! (Somewhere with a flatter walk would be cool Sounds like the Cox’s down from Little River could be good? How close could you get by car? Maybe Cox’s river camp ground then hike along? Is that private land or can you get along to underneath the little river and camp? also what’s the easiest way to upload a few pics/vids? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 Good stuff, glad you got onto a couple!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wcurrall Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 Pic from near coxs junction 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted August 11, 2020 Author Share Posted August 11, 2020 Hey guys anyone fished the little river? Was thinking of driving to Cox’s River campground and walking down from there. Would be great to be able to car camp somewhere that’s open in winter too if anyone has any spots? (River fishing only for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 was up around Jenolan last week looking for bambi-lots of water in the Fish River and its tributries so will assume that some of those streams that took a massive hammering in the drought will start to restock this season- thats all closed water at the momnet until the long weekend, I wouldnt recommend driving into some of those places until the tracks have dried out and you have a decent 4x4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 Ah yeah nice one Paddy, you reckon the tracks down to Cox’s campground would be shot to pieces even for a 4WD? sounds like that campground isn’t the best for car camping anyway. Would be keen to get in there though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 If camping out there bring some extra warm stuff. Its really remote out in Kanangra-boyd area and not me personally but a mate has had is down as cold as -16. Cold air really gets trapped in that area, I know this is an old forum but though it would be best to let you know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volitan Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Hi Saladboi. Getting back to your original question about best way to fish that region. i fished the area for about 20 years until recent droughts . My best trips were done by taking 2 cars, parking one somewhere on the Coxs and driving the other one further upstream and then walking and fishing between. You get access to the inaccessible. For one walk we parked the car at Lake Lyell right up the arm where the Coxs enters, and the other one at Lake Wallace, where the Coxs goes under the Great Western Highway. The lower car had to be taken in the night before and left there else it would be too long to get it all sorted in a day. I did that trip twice and yep, you do get access to unfished water. the second route was to leave a car at Dudawarra bridge on the Coxs River Road, and drive up to the point where the river goes under the Jenolan Caves Road. both trips are doable in a day, stopping and fishing in the best looking pools. We took lilos which was fortunate as you can lilo past the difficult bits. I don’t think they were essential but you will be doing some long detours otherwise which cuts down on fishing time. these trips were hard work but very enjoyable because you are going only one way and everything is new, there is no long boring walk out the same way you came in. I guess the other advantage is you are fishing all the way, from the moment you start walking, not doing a long walk in to the fishing spot. and yes, I did fish Little River a few time by walking up the Coxs, after walking down the usual track from Packsaddlers. I also got to it once by walking down from the Six Foot Track, after parking in the Megalong Valley. It didn’t really merit the walk, but that was a long time ago and maybe things have changed. Other spots to check out would be accessing the Coxs via MCKanes Falls Road and fishing upstream (my preferred spot). Also, I had a couple of good days in the Sandy Hook area, although both these two spots would be highly seasonal - and things may have changed in recent years. my preferred method was dry fly, so I wasn’t after a lot of fish - just a really good fishing situation where you can see feeding fish and pursue them. For the long trips I used spinning tackle, as it travels better. cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saladboi Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 (edited) Volitan! Thanks so much for the info mate, much appreciated. Will be sure to give a few of those ideas a try and yeah love the sounds of being able to walk one way only. James, -16! Bloody hell, was looking at getting a new sleeping bag but wasn’t planning for those types of temps. My only worry with the Cox’s is the carp but I guess they may not be as bad in the upper reaches around Lake Lyell... Edited August 12, 2020 by Saladboi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 -16 aint going to happen, been going in and out of there for close to 40 years-coldest ive seen is about -7 , and the temp records on the BOM site will back that up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Clain Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 @PaddyT @Saladboi don't want an argument here but all i am saying that that sort of temperature is possible in that area due to the high mountains and steep cliffs funnelling very cold air from all angles. This is the same reason why Lithgow has colder nights than Katoomba. No need to worry about it. All I am saying is it is probably wise to have a decent sleeping bag rated to at least -15 just to stay safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaddyT Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 Record low for Katoomba-8.2 , Lithgow-9.3 , -16 aint happening. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted August 13, 2020 Share Posted August 13, 2020 It should be warmer once TROUT SEASON reopens 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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