Cambalong Creek is a small NSW stream that runs into the Bombala River, and the reason to fish it is trout that have been put there on purpose: NSW stocking records list both browns and rainbows released into it over several seasons.
The trip worth making is a warm-weather day for brown and rainbow trout. Choose one of the access points on the access card, walk to the water and fish upstream with a dry fly and a small nymph beneath it. The current NSW trout guide decides when you can fish and what you can keep, so read it before you settle on a date.
Pack a 3 or 4 weight and a box of small dries and nymphs, then read the NSW trout guide before you leave home.
Water and habitat
A small creek running down to a bigger river. On water this size, cover matters more than almost anything else. Where the banks are open, trout see you coming across the grass; where they are shaded, overhanging growth gives fish somewhere to sit and drops food into the water.
In our experience, trout in a creek like this hold in the deeper water: the head of a pool where the run tips in, the seam beside faster current, an undercut bank, the slack behind a log or a boulder. Shallow, even-bottomed stretches hold fewer fish and spook them first.
Fish and forage
NSW stocking records list brown trout and rainbow trout released into the creek, and the stocking chart shows which seasons they went in. Not every season carries both, so expect the mix to shift from year to year. In our experience, stocked fish in a small stream are usually modest in size, with the odd survivor that has learned to be careful.
Redfin have also been observed in the creek. In our experience they sit in slow, deep water, which is another reason to give the pools your attention and the shallow runs very little.
The rest of the fly box is a guide's read. Small-stream trout feed mostly on nymphs drifting along the bottom and on whatever lands on the surface, and in warm weather that includes grasshoppers, beetles and ants off the bank. A few buoyant dries, a hopper and some bead-head nymphs in sizes 12 to 16 cover most of it.
When to fish it
Settle the rules first: take any season for the creek from the current NSW trout guide. Within whatever it allows, a small NSW trout stream usually fishes best from late spring into autumn. Late spring brings the first steady hatches and water with some push in it. Summer is the time for hoppers and terrestrials along the banks, fished early and late when the light is off the water. Autumn often brings cooler, clearer days. After heavy rain, give a small creek a day or two to drop and clear.
How to fish it
Travel light and fish upstream. A 3 or 4 weight rod of around 8 feet, a floating line and a 9 foot leader tapered to 5X is plenty. Keep low, stay back from the edge, and make short casts with as little line on the water as you can.
Start with a dry and dropper: a size 12 to 14 Royal Wulff with a size 14 to 16 bead-head Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail under it on a short tippet. Put it in the head of each pool and let it ride down the seam. Two or three good drifts tell you whether a fish is home; then move up. In summer, swap the dry for a hopper and land it close to the bank wherever grass meets the water. In the deeper, slower pools, a small Woolly Bugger stripped past cover can move a fish that will not come up.
Access and safety
The access card names the access points. Treat them as locations, not a statement of permission, and respect any fence or sign you meet on the ground.
As on any bush stream, tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back, carry water and a small first-aid kit, and watch your footing on wet rock and undercut banks. A small creek can rise quickly after rain, so keep an eye on the sky and never wade a crossing you are unsure of.
Regulations
No water-specific rule was found. Before you fish, read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development trout guide, check its trout-water lists and closed-waters list for the creek, and take any season, bag and size limits and licence requirements from it.
