The Gloucester River is a NSW trout river where rainbows have been released every season in recent years, and the reason to come is a stocked fishery you can cover on foot with a light rod and a small box of flies.
The river splits in two, and the line that splits it is a legal one rather than a gorge or a dam. It sits where a tributary, Sharpes Creek, comes in. From that junction upstream, the river, Sharpes Creek and every creek feeding the water above are classified as general trout water under NSW's trout rules. Below the junction, that classification does not reach.
Start above the junction. This is the water the trout rules were written for, and the rainbows are your target: fish upstream with a buoyant dry, drop a small nymph beneath it when nothing rises, and choose your way in from the access card. Because it is classified general trout water, the NSW rules for those waters decide whether you can fish it on your dates and what you may keep, so read the current NSW guide before you book the trip. In our experience the warmer months are the time we would choose within whatever window it allows.
The lower river, below Sharpes Creek, is the second trip, and it is not one we would drive for on trout alone, and the current NSW guide is still your reference for it. Treat it as a scouting walk with a slim streamer on, since small native fish and eels are recorded in the river, and let the upper water be the day you plan around.
Check the live card for the level, open the NSW guide, and pack a few sizes of the same dry.
Water and habitat
The gradient chart shows how the Gloucester falls along its length, and the bank cover chart shows how much of it runs under trees and scrub. Use both before you pick a stretch: steeper water tends to break into runs and pockets, while a gentler fall gives longer pools you can read from the bank.
Wherever you fish, trout sit where the current brings food past and gives them a break from it. Look at the head of a pool where a run spills in, the seam along a rock, and the slower water under an undercut bank. The flow chart shows the river's usual range through the year and the live card shows how it is running now, so you can judge whether you are looking at normal water or a lift after rain.
Fish and forage
Rainbow trout are the fish to target. They are stocked, and the stocking chart shows the releases season by season. A river that leans on stocking usually holds young, willing fish more than a head of old, large ones, so plan for plenty of small takes and treat a big fish as a bonus.
Australian smelt, flathead and striped gudgeons and Pacific blue-eye are recorded here. All are small fish a trout will eat, and they are the reason a slim, drab streamer earns a place in the box. Longfin eels are recorded too.
For the box, in our experience you want buoyant dries in sizes 12 to 16, such as a Royal Wulff, an Adams or an Elk Hair Caddis; a beadhead Pheasant Tail or Hare's Ear in 14 to 16 to hang beneath; and a small olive or black Woolly Bugger to imitate the smelt and gudgeons. In high summer, a hopper is a good bet where grass meets the water.
When to fish it
Start with the NSW guide, not a calendar. On the classified water above Sharpes Creek, the trout rules decide which months are open to you.
Within that window, in our experience spring brings trout up to feed as the water warms, and from late spring into summer a dry does most of the work. In the heat of summer, fish early and late, when the light is off the water. Autumn can fish well as the flow settles, and that is when a nymph or a small streamer comes back into its own. Check the flow chart and the live card for the level: a steady river is the window you want, not one still falling after a flood.
How to fish it
Fish upstream. Trout face into the current, so coming from below keeps you behind them. Move slowly, keep low, and fish the near water before you step into it.
A four- or five-weight with a floating line and a long, fine leader suits most of the river. Keep casts short and accurate; on a stocked stream, a drag-free drift matters more than the pattern. When fish are not rising, a dry-dropper rig lets the dry act as an indicator for a nymph hung a short way beneath it. Where trees crowd the bank behind you, a roll cast saves a lot of lost flies. In the deeper pools, swing or strip a small streamer through the tail on a slow retrieve.
Access and safety
The access card names the sites where you can reach the water. Treat each as a way in, not as permission to cross the land beside it; where a track runs through private property, ask the landholder first.
As on any bush river, rocks in moving water are slippery and a river can rise quickly after rain upstream. Wade slowly, test each step, carry a wading staff if you have one, and check the live card before you set out.
Regulations
Under NSW's trout and salmon fishing rules, the Gloucester River in the Peel District is classified as general trout water. The classified extent is the whole of the river, its creeks and tributaries upstream from its junction with, and including, Sharpes Creek. That listing is what brings the NSW trout rules to the water above the junction, so read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development fishing guide, and its closed-waters list, before you fish any part of the river.
Open the current NSW fishing rules and regulations before you leave.
