Khancoban Pondage is a stocked trout dam beside the township of Khancoban, and the reason to come is simple: the state puts rainbows, browns and Atlantic salmon into it season after season.
Think of it as one body of still water. The line that matters is where any creek meets the backed-up water of the dam. Below that line you are on the dam and its general trout dam listing; above it you are off that listing, so check how the stream is treated in the current NSW guide.
The easiest trip is a boat or a kayak off the listed ramp for stocked rainbows and salmon from spring into early summer. The dam is listed as a general trout dam in the state's trout and salmon closure notification, but no rule written for this water alone was found, so check the current NSW guide before you go. Start on a windward bank or the drift line off a point and cover water with a slow-stripped wet fly.
The second trip is from the bank for browns in autumn and winter. The listing that covers the dam stops where each creek enters it, so a brown you follow upstream takes you off that listing the moment you step into the stream. Fish the margins at first and last light and stay on the dam.
Murray cod turn up in the release history too. If you want to try for one, check the current NSW guide first, because the trout dam listing tells you nothing about cod. In our experience a trout-focused trip is the better use of your time here.
Check the current NSW DPIRD freshwater guide, pick an access site from the card, and start with the wind in your face.
Water and habitat
A dam at Khancoban. The wet-surface chart shows how the dam's footprint has behaved over time, which in our experience is a fair guide to whether the edges you fish in one season will be there in the next.
On any stocked dam of this kind, fish hold where food concentrates: along the drop-off where the shallows meet deeper water, off points that push into the wind, and near the inflows where streams bring in cooler water and drifting insects. Those are the places to start.
Fish and forage
The stocking chart shows four species released here in recent seasons: Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout, brown trout and Murray cod. The salmon and rainbows appear in every season on the chart; browns and cod in most. Read the chart as a history of releases rather than a head count of what survives to be caught.
Stocked trout and salmon in still water feed on what the lake gives them: midges, damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, snails, small baitfish and whatever land insects the wind blows on. In practice that means a fly box built around a few size 10 to 14 wet flies and nymphs such as a Hare's Ear, a dark Woolly Bugger in two weights, and a handful of small emergers for calm evenings.
When to fish it
Spring is the start of the best of it in our experience. Freshly stocked and holdover fish cruise the warming edges and take a moving fly readily. Summer pushes fish deeper through the middle of the day, so plan on dawn and dusk and look for an evening rise on calm nights.
Autumn is when browns tend to show their teeth, chasing larger flies as the water cools. Through winter the fishing slows, but a slow wet fly on a windy shore still takes fish. Whatever the month, check the current NSW guide before you go.
How to fish it
Treat it as a stillwater. A 6-weight rod with a floating line and an intermediate covers most days. Fish the wind: a breeze blowing onto a bank stacks food and fish against it, and a drifting boat lets you cover a lot of water with a team of wets fished loch-style.
From the bank, walk and cast rather than planting yourself. Short, slow strips with long pauses suit stocked fish. When fish are rising on a flat evening, drop to a long leader and a single small emerger, and put it in front of a cruising fish rather than on the ring it just left.
Access and safety
The access card names the sites: a boat ramp listed by Maritime NSW and a set of angler access sites listed by NSW DPIRD. Those listings describe where people get on the water; they are not a promise that every site is open on the day you arrive. Check current land-manager and ramp advice first.
As on any open dam, wear a lifejacket in a boat or kayak and turn back early if the wind gets up, because open water builds a chop quickly.
Regulations
Khancoban Pondage is listed in Schedule 2, Table B2 (general trout dams) of the Fisheries Management (Trout and Salmon Fishing Closure) Notification 2023, with Khancoban as its nearest town. That listing covers the backed-up waters of the dam; the tributaries upstream of where they enter those waters are not included, so check how any creek is treated before you fish it.
No water-specific rule beyond that listing was found. Check the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development freshwater fishing guide for bag limits, size limits and any closure notices, and for licence requirements, before you fish. If you target Murray cod, check the same guide for them.
