The Bombala River is a trout stream, and the reason to drive to it is simple: NSW has released both brown and rainbow trout into it across recent seasons.
Read it as one river rather than a set of named reaches. It runs down to join the Delegate River, and the gradient chart shows how it falls along the way. Plan the day around one choice: which access point to start from, and how far you are willing to walk from it.
The first trip, and the easiest, is rainbows in spring. Choose a point from the access card, find the nearest broken water, and drift a weighted nymph through the heads of the runs. Stocked rainbows tend to sit in the faster, oxygenated water and take readily, so in our experience this is where a first visit should start. Before you go, read the current NSW fishing guide, because that guide, not the river's reputation, decides whether the trout season is open and what you may keep.
The second trip is for browns in autumn. As the days cool, walk further from the access point, slow down, and fish the deeper pools and undercut edges with a small streamer. Browns are warier than rainbows and punish a careless approach, so stay low and cast from well back. Give each deep pool a few careful casts from the tail before you step into it, because the fish you want is often lying in the slow water right at your feet.
Summer sits between the two. On mild afternoons a dry fly along grassy banks is worth an hour; on a hot, bright day we would rather fish early and late, or wait.
Pack a 4 or 5 weight, a box of nymphs, a few dries and a handful of small streamers, and open the NSW fishing guide before you leave home.
Water and habitat
A trout stream running to a bigger river. The gradient chart shows its profile and the bank cover chart shows what lines its edges. In our experience trout in a stream like this hold where current meets cover: the head of a pool, a seam beside faster water, an undercut bank, a fallen log. Rainbows lean towards the quicker water; browns towards the slower, shaded edges.
The flow charts show how the river rises and falls through the year. In our experience, when a stream like this runs low in summer, the fish drop back into the deeper, better-oxygenated water.
Fish and forage
NSW stocking records list brown trout and rainbow trout released into the river across recent seasons, and the stocking chart shows when. For the fishing, that points to mostly young fish, still growing, and in our experience a stocked stream can also hold the odd older brown that has survived a few seasons. How well stocked fish hold on in a given stream varies, so fish the likely water rather than assuming every pool has a trout in it.
What they eat is the usual stream-trout diet in our experience: mayfly and caddis nymphs through the year, and grasshoppers and beetles off the banks in summer. A fly box built on those two ideas covers most days.
When to fish it
In our experience spring is the best start, as the water warms and the insects get moving. Rainbows are usually first to respond. Through summer the fishing narrows to mornings, evenings and cooler days, with terrestrial dries along the grassy edges. Autumn brings the browns back into play, and a streamer through the deeper pools is a good bet in March and April.
Whether you may fish the river through winter is a question for the NSW fishing guide, not for this calendar. Check it before you plan a cold-weather trip.
How to fish it
A 4 or 5 weight with a floating line covers the Bombala. Start with a size 14 to 16 Pheasant Tail or Hare's Ear under a small indicator, drifted through the heads of runs and along seams. Fish your way upstream so the fish see the fly before they see you.
When fish are rising, switch to a size 12 to 14 Royal Wulff or a small hopper, and put it tight to the grass. For browns in autumn, a size 8 to 10 Woolly Bugger in olive or black, cast across a pool and stripped back in short pulls, will cover water quickly.
Keep your leader long and fine for the dries, and step up the tippet for the streamer, where a heavy take is likelier.
Access and safety
The access card names the access points. Treat them as locations, not a statement of permission, and respect any fence, gate or sign you meet on the ground.
As on any country stream, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, carry water and sun protection in summer, and watch your footing on slick rock and soft banks. Streams can rise quickly after rain upstream, so never wade a crossing you are unsure of.
Regulations
No water-specific rule was found for the Bombala River. Before you fish, read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide, including its closed-waters list, and take any trout season, bag or size limit, and the licence requirement, from that guide.
