Access here has not been confirmed on the ground — treat every way in as unverified.
The Macleay is a coastal New South Wales river you drive to for Australian bass on a fly.
Think of it as two waters: the tidal river near the coast, and the non-tidal water from Belgrave Falls at Kempsey up to the source. In our experience the fresh water is where the fly fishing for bass lives. Belgrave Falls is the one place name worth learning, because the state's net restriction on the non-tidal water starts there.
Start in the fresh water on a warm evening between December and March. That is when, in our experience, bass come up to take a popper or a cicada fly off the surface beside overhanging trees and fallen timber. Nets other than a landing net are banned in the non-tidal Macleay and its tributaries from Belgrave Falls upstream, which in practice means your landing net is outside the ban; the notice does not itself close the water to other methods, so check the current NSW recreational fishing guide for anything else before you fish. The access card shows the public boat ramps on the river; check where each sits before you plan a kayak or small-boat trip.
For a second trip, come in spring or autumn and fish subsurface. In our experience a small dark streamer worked past snags and rock bars keeps producing when the surface bite is off. The net ban still applies; for seasons, bag and size limits, read the current NSW recreational fishing guide before you go.
In our experience a cold snap is no time to drive up expecting surface bass. The fish sit deep and the fly fishing gets slow.
Check the flow chart and the live gauges, then pick your evening.
Water and habitat
Bass in a river like this hold on structure: a fallen tree, a rock bar with a deep edge, the shade line under a bank of overhanging growth. They sit tight through the heat of the day and move out to feed as the light drops. Read each pool for the one piece of cover with deep water beside it, and fish that first.
The flow chart shows how the river moves through the year, and the gradient profile shows how the bed falls along the main stem. Coastal rivers can rise and colour quickly after heavy rain, so look at the live gauge cards before you drive.
Fish and forage
Australian bass are the fly angler's fish here. The stocking chart shows bass released into the river, which means some of the fish you hook may have started life in a hatchery. Freshwater catfish, longfin eels and freshwater herring have also been recorded. Goldfish and eastern gambusia, both introduced, turn up too.
What matters for your fly box is the small fish. Australian smelt, several kinds of gudgeon (Cox's, empire, firetail and striped), crimson-spotted rainbowfish and Pacific blue-eyes have all been recorded. That is a river full of small, slim baitfish, and in our experience a bass feeding on them will take a small dark streamer in size 6 to 10 without much fuss. Add the beetles, ants and cicadas that fall off the trees in summer and you have the case for carrying a surface fly as well.
When to fish it
Summer is the heart of it. From December through March the last hour of light is when bass come to the surface. In our experience spring and autumn fish well subsurface, with the streamer doing most of the work. Winter slows everything down, and in our experience it is a poor time to make the drive for bass on a fly.
How to fish it
Two setups cover most of the fresh water. The first is a floating line and a short, stout leader with a popper, a cicada or a foam beetle, cast hard into the shade and left to sit before the first twitch. Most takes come in that first pause.
The second is a floating or intermediate line with a small streamer, cast past a snag and stripped back in short, uneven pulls. Keep the rod low and be ready to turn a fish's head away from the timber the moment it eats; a bass that reaches a snag is usually gone.
A kayak or small boat lets you drift a stretch and put a cast into every piece of cover from the water, which in our experience is the most efficient way to fish a river like this.
Access and safety
The access card shows the public boat ramps on the river; check where each one sits before you choose a launch. For bank fishing, plan your route with a map and assume land along the river is private unless you know otherwise; ask before you cross it. As on any coastal river, check the gauge before you go, stay off the water when it is rising after rain, and wear a lifejacket in a kayak or small boat.
Regulations
A NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development notice bans nets, other than a landing net, in the non-tidal waters of the Macleay River and its tributaries from Belgrave Falls, Kempsey, upstream to the source. The notice restricts nets only and does not itself close the water to other methods; it is not the only rule that may apply. For seasons, bag limits and size limits, and for the current closed-waters list, check the NSW recreational fishing guide before you fish.
3 named access sites
These authority-listed points are separate from the mapped track intersections above. Some were inspected and some are public boat-ramp records; each row says which. A listing does not grant permission across private land, so check closures, signs and gates when you arrive.
Surface flies for bass at dusk· Dec to MarIn our experience the warm months are the time for a popper or cicada pattern put tight to bank cover as the light goes. Check the current NSW recreational fishing guide before you fish.
Small baitfish flies in the fresh water· Oct to AprA small dark streamer, stripped past snags and rock bars, covers the hours when nothing is taking off the top.
Land insects along the banks· Nov to MarBeetles, ants and cicadas dropping off overhanging trees are a big part of why bass look up in summer.
What the record shows
Flows, river gradient, changing water levels, fish surveys and stocking
What the record shows
The river's year
Daily flow at Macleay River at D/s Georges River Junction, every year 1969 to 2026
Swipe to see the rest of the chart.
57 years of the gauge, week by week. The dark band is the middle half of all years, the pale band nine years in ten, the line the median. The shaded strip is the typical range: the band the river sits in about half of all days. In a typical year the river sits in it from early April through the turn of the year to late January, and runs higher than that from mid February to early April. Whether a given day is one to wade is a call made at the bank, not a reading off this chart. Median flow peaks in early March and bottoms out in early October. Flow and temperature are measured at different stations; this chart shows flow only.
20,604 days at Macleay River at D/s Georges River Junction, 1969 to 2026
Swipe to see the rest of the chart.
Read it left to right: the river runs above the flow on the left edge almost never, and above the flow on the right edge almost always. Half of all days sit below 7.2 m³/s. The shaded band is the typical range, where it sits about half the time; it runs higher than that one day in three and above the high-flow mark about one day in seven. These are frequency bands drawn from the record, not a measured limit — judge the water when you get there.
Gauge pins identify the monitoring stations. The slope shows how steeply the river falls; it does not show rapids or safe wading routes.
The banks, seen from space
Land cover in the 120 m beside the water, Landsat 2023 to 2024 to 2025
dense forestopen woodlandscattered trees and scrubnative grass and heathfarmed or clearedbare groundlake
Along the river itself about 93% of the bank is under trees, 5% is native grass or heath and 2% is farmed. The most wooded stretch is 0 to 10 km from the source; the most open is 110 to 120 km. A satellite reads the canopy, not the ground beneath it, so treat this as a read of the country, not a survey of every bank.
Capture records by decade — electrofishing, netting, trapping and rotenone surveys only; a sighting, an eDNA water sample or a stocking release is not a capture and is not counted here. A record is not an abundance estimate, and a decade with no bar is a decade with no capture survey on file, not evidence the water was empty.
Atlas of Living Australia — freshwater fish occurrence records (open licences, with coordinates). Occurrence records from the Atlas of Living Australia and its contributing datasets, including the Victorian Biodiversity Atlas, NSW BioNet Atlas, Sustainable Rivers Audit, Murray-Darling Basin fish monitoring programs, OZCAM museum collections and iNaturalist Australia. Each record carries its own licence and originating dataset. retrieved 2026-08-13.
Stocking on record
31,361 fish in 13 records, 2021 to 2023
Australian Bass, 31,361 across 13 records
Stocked in 3 of the 3 years from 2021 to 2023. These are site-by-year totals, which can combine more than one release. A record is not a promise that stocking continues, and not evidence of what is in the water now.
Source: NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (Fisheries). Source details and licence
NSW Fish Stocking — ArcGIS site markers and linked histories. retrieved 2026-08-29.
Conditions
What the gauges say
water_dropMacleay River at Turners Flat
River flow
waves
m³/s
history
No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
Gauge height
straighten
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No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
water_dropMacleay River at D/s Georges River Junction
River flow
waves
m³/s
history
No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
Gauge height
straighten
m
history
No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
water_dropMacleay River at Traffic Bridge Kempsey
Gauge height
straighten
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history
No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
Water temperature
thermostat
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history
No reading shown: No reading has been captured for this gauge yet, so none is shown.
In the fresh water, on a warm evening, with a surface fly. The access card shows the public boat ramps on the river; check where each one sits before you plan a kayak or small-boat trip. For bank fishing, plan your route with a map and ask before you cross private land.
Can I use a landing net above Belgrave Falls?+
The NSW notice bans nets other than a landing net in the non-tidal Macleay and its tributaries from Belgrave Falls, Kempsey, up to the source, so a landing net is outside that ban. The notice restricts nets only and does not itself close the water to other methods; check the current NSW recreational fishing guide for any other rule before you fish.
Is there a closed season or bag limit for bass?+
Check the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development recreational fishing guide, and its closed-waters list, before you fish. Confirm any season, bag limit and size limit there before you keep a fish.
What rod should I bring?+
A 5 or 6 weight is a good all-round choice for bass on a coastal river. It turns over a small popper tight to cover and still has the backbone to lift a fish away from a snag.
