Khancoban Creek is a small trout creek in southern NSW, and the reason to fish it is plain: NSW stocking records list brown and rainbow trout released into it, so there are fish to find in water you can cover with a light rod.
The creek has a simple shape. It runs down from its source and finishes at one bottom end, where it meets the backed-up water of Khancoban Pondage and the Swampy Plain River. The gradient chart shows how steeply the creek falls along its length.
The creek trip comes first. Browns and rainbows are the fish. Choose one of the access points on the access card, walk to the water and fish upstream with a dry and a small nymph through the warmer months, which in our experience is when a creek like this is at its best. Spend your time on the pools and the deeper runs, and walk quickly past the thin, even water where a trout has nowhere to hide. Before you go, read the current NSW fishing guide, including its trout-water and closed-waters lists, because the season and the methods allowed come from the guide and you want both settled before you string up a rod.
The second trip is the pondage at the foot of the creek. It is still water with its own page, and in our experience it is the place to go if the creek is low and clear or you want room to cast for an afternoon. Do not treat the two as one day's fishing by accident; they ask for different gear.
Start on the creek with a 3 or 4 weight and a box of small dries and nymphs, and check the NSW guide before you leave home.
Water and habitat
A small creek falling to still water. The gradient chart shows the profile, and the bank cover chart shows how much of the edge is treed and how much is open, which matters more on water this size than almost anything else. Where the banks are open, trout see you coming across the grass. Where they are covered, the shade and overhanging growth give fish somewhere to sit.
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 rock. Shallow, even-bottomed stretches hold fewer fish and see them spook first, so walk past those and spend your time on the pockets with depth.
Fish and forage
NSW stocking records list brown trout and rainbow trout released into the creek over recent seasons, and the stocking chart shows the pattern. For the fishing, that means most fish you meet are likely stocked fish, and in our experience a creek this size keeps most of them modest.
The fly box here is a guide's read. Small-creek trout feed mostly on nymphs drifting along the bottom and on whatever lands on the surface. 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 season first: the current NSW fishing guide sets it, and you take the dates from there. Within the open months, in our experience a small southern NSW trout creek 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 when the browns get more active. 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 leader of 9 feet tapered to 5X is plenty. Keep low, keep 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 or Royal Humpy 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 there; then move up. In summer, swap the dry for a hopper and land it close to the bank wherever grass meets the water. In any bigger, slower water you find, a small Woolly Bugger swung and stripped past cover can move a brown 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 creek, 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. Keep an eye on the weather: a small creek can rise quickly after rain, and it is never worth wading a crossing you are unsure of.
Regulations
Read the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide before you fish, including its trout-water list and its closed-waters list. Take the season, the methods allowed and the bag and size limits for trout from that guide, along with what it says about licences.
