Omadale Brook is a small trout stream in the Peel District of NSW that feeds the Hunter River. The reason to drive to it is simple: rainbow trout are stocked into it, and its upper water is classified trout water you can cover with a light rod in a day.
One junction divides it into two parts: the point where a side stream, Polblue Creek, comes in. Above that junction, the brook and its tributaries (Polblue Creek included) make up the classified trout water. Below it, the brook runs on alone to the Hunter River. The gradient chart shows how the whole length falls.
Start with the upper water, above the Polblue Creek junction; late spring into autumn is a good bet. Rainbows are the fish. Choose an access point from the access card, walk to the water and fish upstream with a dry and a small nymph. This part is listed as a general trout water, which in practice means the current NSW trout guide's closed season, limits and gear rules for general trout streams apply. The guide, not the weather, decides when you can go. Put your time into the pools and deeper runs, and walk briskly past thin, even water.
The lower brook, below the junction, is the second trip and the one to settle before you drive. The trout-water listing does not describe it, so read the current NSW trout guide for that stretch before you fish it. If the guide leaves you in doubt, stay on the upper water.
Pack a 3 or 4 weight and a box of small dries and nymphs, and read the NSW trout guide before you leave home.
Water and habitat
A small brook falling towards a large river. The gradient chart shows its profile, and the bank cover chart shows how much of the edge is treed and how much is open. On water this size that matters a great deal. Where the banks are open, a trout sees you coming across the grass. Where they are covered, shade and overhanging growth give fish a place to sit and a steady supply of insects falling in.
In our experience, trout in a brook like this hold in the deeper water: the head of a pool where the run tips in, the seam along faster current, an undercut bank, the slack behind a log or a boulder. Shallow, even-bottomed stretches hold fewer fish and spook them first.
Fish and forage
NSW stocking records list rainbow trout released into Omadale Brook over recent seasons, and the stocking chart shows the pattern. For the fishing, that suggests many of the rainbows you meet are stocked fish, and a stream this size usually keeps trout modest. In our experience rainbows are happy to sit in faster, broken water, so do not skip the broken water at the head of each run.
The fly box is a guide's read. Small-stream trout feed mostly on nymphs drifting near 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 days.
When to fish it
Settle the season first: the listed upper water follows the general trout stream rules in the current NSW trout guide. Within the open months, in our experience a small NSW trout stream fishes best from late spring into autumn. Late spring brings the first steady hatches. Summer is the time for hoppers and other terrestrials along the banks, best early and late in the day when the light is off the water. Autumn often gives cooler, clearer days and fish feeding hard before the weather turns. After heavy rain, give a small brook 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 9 foot leader tapered to 5X is plenty. Keep low, stay 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 the seam. Two or three clean drifts tell you whether a fish is home; then move up. In summer, swap the dry for a hopper and land it tight to the bank wherever grass meets the water. In a deeper, slower pool, a small Woolly Bugger stripped past cover can move a trout 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 stream, tell someone where you are going and when you expect 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 brook can rise quickly after rain, and no crossing you are unsure of is worth wading.
Regulations
Under the NSW trout and salmon fishing rules, Omadale Brook in the Peel District is classified as a general trout water. The listing covers the whole of the brook and its tributaries upstream from its junction with Polblue Creek, and includes Polblue Creek. Within that water, the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development trout guide sets the closed season, bag and size limits and gear rules for general trout streams, and those apply. The listing does not describe the brook below the Polblue Creek junction. Read the current NSW trout guide before you go, including its closed-waters list and what it says about licences. Take the dates and limits for whichever part you plan to fish from it.
