The Macintyre River is Murray cod water, and the reason to drive to it is the chance of a cod on a fly in clear water. FlyLife's writers put its headwaters, out past Armidale, in the first rank of clear-water cod fishing on a fly.
The Macintyre falls under both New South Wales and Queensland, and it carries on to join the Boomi River.
Start at one of the public sites the access card names; the card describes the sites, it does not grant you the bank either side. The river holds Murray cod and golden perch. Beyond the closure at Goondiwindi Weir, your bag, size and any closed season come from the statewide cod and perch rules, so read the current NSW guide, and the Queensland rules if you cross over, before you go. Go in the warm months with a big surface fly for cod and a sunk fly for perch.
The second trip is the headwaters, the water the magazine's writers rate so highly, and they go there for cod. Before you plan it, check the current NSW guide for the trout-waters closed season and the waters it covers.
Leave the water around Goondiwindi Weir alone: a NSW notice closes fishing by any method within 150 metres upstream and 150 metres downstream of the weir face.
Pick a site from the access card, and have a surface fly on before the light goes.
Water and habitat
The gradient profile shows how the river falls along its length, and the bank cover chart shows what grows along it. Read both before you choose a stretch: where the profile steepens you should expect faster, more broken water, and where it flattens, longer and slower pools.
Whatever the stretch, a Murray cod is an ambush fish and it lives beside cover. In our experience that means the snag, the boulder, the undercut bank and the deep shaded edge, and a cod river is best read as a string of those ambush points rather than as pools and runs. Fish each one properly before you move. Golden perch sit wider, often in the slower, deeper water off the same cover.
Clear water is the attraction and the difficulty. A fish that can see a fly from a distance can also see you, so approach every piece of water from downstream and keep your shadow off it.
Fish and forage
Murray cod are the headline fish, recorded with high confidence along with golden perch and freshwater catfish. Silver perch, spangled perch and bony bream are recorded with less certainty. European carp and goldfish are there as well.
The forage is small native fish: Australian smelt, carp gudgeons, firetail gudgeon, three kinds of hardyhead, Murray River rainbowfish, Agassiz's glassfish and mountain galaxias, with eastern gambusia among them. For a fly box, that argues for two things. A slim baitfish pattern in the 3 to 6 centimetre range for golden perch, and for cod a larger fly that pushes water, because a cod will eat whatever it can fit in its mouth.
Trout are not among the fish recorded in the river.
When to fish it
No season specific to the Macintyre was found, so what follows is a guide's read. The warm months, roughly December to March, are usually the best of the cod fishing on a fly, with fish willing to come up to a surface fly early and late in the day. The shoulders either side, October and November and then April, suit a sunk fly for cod and golden perch.
Cod can still be caught through the cold months, slower and deeper, on a sunk fly with long pauses. Before any trip, and especially a spring one, check both states' rules on Murray cod and whether a closed season applies. For the upper river, check the trout-waters closed season in the current NSW guide as well.
After rain, check the live conditions section before you drive. A river that is up and coloured fishes poorly for a sight-fishing angler.
How to fish it
For cod, an eight or nine weight with a floating line and a short, stout leader. A large surface fly, a gurgler or a bulky popper on a 2/0 to 4/0 hook, cast tight to cover and worked back with a pop and a long pause. Expect the take on the pause. When a fish follows and refuses, or the light is high, change to a sub-surface fly of the same size and fish it slower and deeper past the same cover.
For golden perch, drop to a six or seven weight and a weighted fly: a size 2 to 6 Woolly Bugger in black or olive, or a small baitfish pattern, crawled along the bottom off the edge of cover. Keep the leader heavy enough for a cod, because the cod will eat that fly too.
Handle every cod in the water, support its belly, grip the lower jaw, and let it go quickly.
Access and safety
The access card names the public sites on the river, drawn from the NSW angler access site layers. They are the places to start. Between them the river runs past land that is not yours to cross, so if a stretch is not on the card, find out who owns the bank and ask before you fish it.
As on any inland river, water rises fast after rain upstream, and a clear, shallow crossing in the morning can be something else by afternoon. Wade only where you can see your next step, and check the live conditions section before you set out. Carry more water than you think you need in summer, and tell someone where you are going.
Regulations
One water-specific rule was found, from New South Wales. Fishing by any method is closed on the Macintyre River and its tributaries within 150 metres upstream and 150 metres downstream of the weir face at Goondiwindi Weir, under the NSW closed-waters notices. The river is the NSW and Queensland border there, and the notice does not state Queensland's rules, so read those as well.
No other water-specific rule was found. Murray cod, golden perch and the other natives carry their own statewide rules, and the river falls under both states, so check the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide, including the trout-waters closed season and the waters it covers, and the current Fisheries Queensland rules for size and bag limits, any closed season and the licence you need, before you fish.
