Close to Canberra there is a proper trout river, and almost nobody outside the territory believes it. The Cotter is one of the ACT's classified trout waters, a snowmelt stream off the Brindabella Range with rainbow trout, deep-nymphing water in spring and, later in the season, big bends to polaroid from a high bank.
Before any place names, the shape of it. The river runs about eighty-five kilometres from the tussock marshes of Namadgi to the Murrumbidgee, and three dams cut it into pieces that the law treats very differently. The classified trout water runs from Bendora Dam downstream to the Condor Creek junction. The reservoirs and their protected catchment waters are closed to fishing. Below Cotter Dam a short open-water run joins the big river.
The trip is the trout water: the river between Bendora Dam and the junction with Condor Creek. At the October opening it can be running hard and icy with the melt. That is deep-nymphing weather. Get off the main current into the slower runs and let a heavy rig plummet. If a warm afternoon brings duns on, a good bet is to move to the tail-outs and change to a dry. Later in the season, in low clear water, it is a polaroiding river: the larger fish hold off the back of the big deep bends, and a high bank is worth more than a long cast.
The rules are the other half of the trip and they are simple. This stretch is trout water, which means a season that runs from the October Labour Day long weekend to the end of the June King's Birthday long weekend, fly and lure only, no bait at all, and one rod. The reservoirs and the water above them are off limits, full stop.
Do this river second, after you have seen how the season is running on the smaller water, or first if the melt has passed and the afternoons are warm. Do not drive up to the reservoirs expecting to fish them. The stretch pages carry the detail: the trout water between Bendora Dam and Condor Creek is the one to read.
Water and habitat
The mapped river is about eighty-five kilometres of mainstem, and it earns that length slowly. It begins as creeks draining tussock marshland, fed from the snow on the Brindabellas, and early in the season a large volume of cold water comes down those drainages at once. The river runs through Namadgi National Park before it reaches the Murrumbidgee.
Three dams sit on it. From the top: Corin, then Bendora, then Cotter Dam near the bottom. The territory's rules name those dams as the boundaries of what may be fished, and they also shape the river's behaviour, because the trout water sits below one storage and above another. The flow in the river's year and the flow-duration chart comes from the gauge below Bendora Dam, so it reads the release into the trout water; the fall of the river and the bank survey cover the whole mainstem. Each stretch has its own page, and the river map draws the four of them with the three reservoirs as the stops between. In our read, the character is a cold, clear stream of runs, bends and pools, heavy enough to need a proper nymph rig in spring and readable enough to sight-fish by summer.
Fish and forage
Rainbow trout are the fish most firmly reported from the Cotter. Brown trout are named in the territory's trout-water rules, but reports of them from the river itself are thin, and neither tells you that a particular pool in the Bendora-to-Condor reach holds one. Treat rainbows as the main expectation and a brown as possible.
For fly choice, think of a cold clear upland river. In our read, a warm afternoon is a good bet for mayfly duns, even early in the season, and through summer ants and other terrestrials are worth carrying. Where the banks run to tussock, a hopper is a fair bet from midsummer.
The Cotter also holds native fish. Macquarie perch, trout cod and two-spined blackfish have all been recorded here. Check the current ACT fishing brochure for which species are protected, and if you catch a fish you are not sure of, release it with as little handling as you can.
When to fish it
The season opens on the October Labour Day long weekend and runs to the end of the June King's Birthday long weekend; those dates move with the calendar, so check the current brochure. Within that window the river has three moods.
Spring is the melt. The river can be heavy and freezing at the opening, and the fishing is deep nymphs in the slower water off the main current, with an afternoon dun hatch as the reward if the sun comes through. Summer is, in our read, the dry-fly season: lower, clearer water, sighted fish on the big bends, ants and hoppers on the tussock banks. Autumn is a good bet for deliberate fish in low water until the season closes after the June long weekend.
How to fish it
Two rigs cover the river. In heavy water, a deep nymph rig under an indicator, fished in the slower, less turbulent runs beside the current so the flies get down. Work the runs one at a time; in our experience the take often comes at the tail-out as the drift straightens. In clear water, a single dry or a dry-dropper, and before you cast, a look. Find a high vantage point above a deep bend and watch the mottled shapes that were rocks a moment ago turn into fish. Take your time in those places and hunt one fish rather than covering the pool.
The ACT rule on gear is worth knowing before you rig up: in trout water the rod may carry no more than two flies, or one lure, and you may fish only one rod at a time.
Access and safety
The river runs through Namadgi National Park. For the trout water, use formed public roads and tracks, obey signs, and check the current ACT Parks information before you go. A line on a map is not permission to walk it.
The Cotter above Bendora Dam wall, and from Cotter Dam wall up to the Condor Creek junction, is closed to fishing at all times.
Early-season flows are the safety point. The melt can run the river heavy and icy, and a fish hooked in that current will use it. As on any cold mountain river, wade with care, or do not wade, and come back in a month if the river is high.
Regulations
The ACT publishes its rules in an annual recreational fishing brochure and on the territory's fishing pages; check the current brochure for licence requirements. Three classifications touch this river.
The Cotter between Bendora Dam and the Condor Creek junction is Trout Water. In trout water, fishing is open from the start of the October Labour Day long weekend to the end of the June King's Birthday long weekend; only artificial fly and lure fishing is allowed in the open season; bait fishing is prohibited; you may use one rod at a time and a landing net; the rod may carry no more than two flies or one artificial lure; and it is an offence to possess a handline, more than two rods, a rod rigged for bait, or any net other than a landing net in or beside the water.
The Cotter above Cotter Dam wall to the junction of Condor Creek, including the Cotter Reservoir, and the Cotter and its catchment above Bendora Dam wall, including Bendora and Corin reservoirs, are Prohibited Waters. Fishing there is not allowed at any time.
The Cotter below Cotter Dam is Open Water, with the more permissive open-water gear rules.
Take any size and bag limits from the current ACT recreational fishing brochure before you fish. The rules are made under the Fisheries Act 2000.
