The Styx River is a New England trout stream, and the reason to drive to it is simple: the whole river and every creek that feeds it is listed trout water above one road crossing.
One road cuts the water into two parts. The Styx is a tableland river that eventually runs into the Chandler River, and where the Armidale-Bellbrook road crosses it marks the line. Above that crossing, the main river, its creeks and its tributaries are general trout water under the NSW trout closure notification. The listing does not reach below it. There is one hole in the upper part: a reach of one tributary, the Serpentine River, beside a trout hatchery.
The first trip is the main river above the road crossing. Rainbow trout are recorded in the Styx, and because it is a listed general trout water, you fish it under the NSW trout rules, which means checking the current guide for the season dates and limits before you go rather than assuming the river is open. Start at one of the inspected sites on the access card, rig a small dry with a nymph under it, and fish upstream.
The second trip is the small water: the creeks and tributaries above the crossing, which carry the same listing as the main river. Take a short rod and expect tight casting. Do this once you have a feel for the main river, not first.
Leave the Serpentine alone between Serpentine Falls and the Point Lookout road crossing. The state fisheries department marks that stretch beside the Dutton Trout Hatchery as closed waters, even though the gazette's wording for the Styx does not spell the exclusion out.
Check the live card for the level, open the current NSW guide for the season, and go.
Water and habitat
The Styx is a tableland stream that drains to the Chandler River. The flow charts show how often the river runs high or low across its record and how the usual flow shifts week by week through the year; read them before you plan a trip, because a small stream's fishing turns on its level.
On a river of this kind, in our experience, rainbows hold at the heads of pools where the current delivers food, in the seams beside faster water, and under any cover the bank gives them. When the water warms in summer they move to the broken, oxygenated water in the runs and riffles. When the river is low and clear they are harder to approach, and the tails of pools are where you spook the fish you wanted.
Fish and forage
Rainbow trout are the target, and they are recorded in the river. Plan the day around them.
Mountain galaxias are recorded here too. They are a small native fish, and in our experience a trout will take one. A slim, dark streamer fished slowly through a deeper pool is a good bet to imitate them.
Beyond that, a tableland stream usually carries mayflies, caddis and, through summer, grasshoppers, beetles and ants off the banks. That is a guide's expectation for this kind of water, not a survey of the Styx, and it shapes a simple box: a Royal Wulff or a Stimulator in 12 to 14, a Parachute Adams in 14 to 16 for fussy fish, a hopper for summer, a Pheasant Tail or a Hare's Ear in 14 to 16 as the dropper, and a small Woolly Bugger for the pools.
When to fish it
The Styx is listed trout water, so the calendar starts with the rules: open the current NSW guide and confirm when the trout season is open before you plan anything.
Inside the open season, the weekly flow chart shows when the river usually runs high or low. In our experience, a tableland trout stream fishes to nymphs and small dries as it warms in spring, turns into a terrestrial river through summer, and slows again as it cools. On hot summer days, fish the morning and the evening and rest the river in the middle of the day. After heavy rain, check the live card: a small river running high and dirty is one to leave for a day or two.
How to fish it
Start with a dry-dropper: a buoyant dry in 12 or 14 with a beaded nymph a rod length or so beneath it. A three- or four-weight rod is plenty, and a shorter one is easier under trees. Fish upstream, cast to the head of each pool and run, and let the flies drift back to you without drag.
If you see fish rising and refusing the big dry, take off the dropper and go down to a Parachute Adams in 14 or 16 on a finer tippet. In the deeper pools, or on a cool grey day with nothing moving on top, cast a small streamer across and bring it back in slow strips with pauses.
Move slowly and stay low. On a small stream the first cast into a pool is the one most likely to catch the fish, so make it count, and approach from below.
Access and safety
The access card names the inspected angler sites along the river. They show you where the river can be reached. They are not permission to cross the land beside them: where a site sits by private property, ask at the house before you go through a gate, and leave it as you found it.
As on any bush river, tell someone where you are going, wade slowly on a bottom you cannot see, and keep out of the water when it is running high. Watch where you put your feet on grassy banks in summer. Check, clean and dry your boots and waders before you fish another river.
Regulations
The Styx River is listed in Schedule 2, Table B1, of the NSW trout and salmon fishing closure notification as a general trout water. The listing covers the whole of the Styx River, its creeks and its tributaries upstream of the road crossing on the Armidale-Bellbrook road. The notification also says that where listed waters run into an impoundment, the backed-up water of that impoundment is not part of the listing.
The state fisheries department's trout-waters guide, which places the Styx in its Coffs district, excludes the Serpentine River from Serpentine Falls up to the Point Lookout road crossing, the water beside the Dutton Trout Hatchery, and marks it as closed waters. The gazette's own wording for the Styx does not carry that exclusion. Treat the hatchery reach as closed.
No other water-specific rule was found for the Styx. Before you fish, open the current NSW fishing rules and regulations, confirm the fishing fee and exemptions and check the freshwater bag and size limits, including the trout season dates for general trout waters.
