Drifting the High Water - Pt 1
"NARIEL CREEK" | May 2026
I find that life can be a blur at times, there is a lot that can happen in a week when balancing work, life, and family. It's part of the reason I started Pristine Fly, to allow me to stop a little more and create content about one key thing in life that slows me down a bit, fly fishing.
During the April and May period in 2026 I had some time off work, and it gave me an opportunity to stop for a while, but it also allowed me to undertake a number of multi-day solo fly fishing trips. It was a magic period where I was able to live life a little differently for a while, with less pressure and less to manage on a day to day basis, and connect more with the outdoors. I found some amazing new water, met some great people and caught some reasonably nice fish.
THE DESTINATION
When I considered what could possibly be one of my final trips of the 2025/26 season, I started to consider where I might want to go during my last week off. I had a three or four day window but noted that the south, in Victoria, had experienced heavy rains and I feared that the rivers would be blown out. So I planned to visit the Nariel Valley in the very north east of Victoria in the hope that it hadn't been hit with such heavy rains.
I had driven through this valley not a week prior on a different trip, but I never got the chance to put in any casts, it was too late in the day. What I could not forget was just how good the valley and the river looked. It was peak Autumn, with rolling green hills, bright yellow Poplars and the clear running waters of Nariel Creek in the center of it all, the area was just asking to be fished. All I could spy from the road on that previous trip was classic looking runs, cobble stone river bed and clear knee deep water. The other key aspect driving me to visit the creek along the Nariel Valley stretch was the high access opportunities. The middle section of the creek itself is surrounded by farm land with amazing public access in many parts. This was strange for me to experience, New South Wales simply doesn't offer this kind of access. It looked magic and I couldn't think of a better place to visit.
RISK OF HIGH WATER
I set off with a reasonable drive ahead of me, I traveled the back roads and headed through Tumut, Tumbarumba, Paddy's River, Tooma and then onto Corryong, a road I had never traveled in the past. As I got closer to the Paddy's River area I started noticing the colour and swollen nature of all of the creeks and rivers I was crossing. It would seem as though it had rained here a little more than I had anticipated. Both Paddy's River and Tooma River were blown out, a chocolate brown colour and flowing fast. I started to wonder if I had made a mistake, maybe I should have waited a few days for things to settle. But with forecast heavy rains in two days, I decided that I had come this far, so why not see how it pans out. Nariel Creek runs from a different drainage than the ones I was seeing, and I thought if all else failed, I might be able to get higher up in the system, where the water might be cleaner, right up in the mountains.
THE SEARCH FOR FISHING OPTIONS
Once I arrived at Nariel Creek I stopped at a spot that I had planned to fish based on what I remembered from my recent drive through this area, it looked particularly good. I parked the car and stood by the creek for some time, just taking things in. By this time I had crossed the creek a number of times driving and yes, the water was up, but it wasn't completely blown out, just some colour with higher flows than I had seen last time. I got my gear together and started heading up the river, but the section I had planned to fish was narrow and really running quite hard, and then I came across a fence blocking any further progress, which I wasn't expecting, I had only walked 100 meters up stream. I retreated and then proceeded to drive down stream, looking intently for somewhere with good access, then drove back up stream continuing to look. I realised I was just wasting time, and settled on a location, but generally really had no idea what I was walking into. I re-gathered my gear, crossed the fence on the supplied step ladder and started looking for calmer water. I only had to venture about five hundred meters before I found a nice long run that was certainly fishable.
I put in many casts and focused on the slower edges, but didn't raise any interest through this run. I fished it hard with a dry dropper rig, Elk Hair Caddis on top, more as a distinct indicator, with a heavier Pheasant Tail Nymph below.
FINDING TROUT
I expected that with the higher flows, I might need to target some structure, where the water slackened behind a fallen tree or large rock. I proceeded up stream to find different water, and didn't really have to walk that far. The river meandered to the right and closed in a little, and there was a good sized branch in the water with much slacker water behind it. I felt there was an opportunity there but also a level of risk given the high possibility of getting snagged. I ended up switching my nymph out, to a pattern that had a red bead, and red tail, to see if this might entice more aggression from trout in cloudy waters. I placed the first cast through the run, it drifted quickly into the slack water but I saw nothing. On my second cast I made sure to place the nymph higher above the slack water, so it would be nice a deep by the time it drifted through. I watched as my Elk Hair Caddis drifted into the slack water and suddenly it darted up stream, I struck and watched a beautiful, fat silvery rainbow perhaps around a kilo, jump clean out of the water. It then jumped again and decided that going deep was a better option. Mindful of the large submerged branch, I kept the pressure on and the fish just sat there for a while, down deep in the current. All of sudden it ran across the river to the other bank and then the line went slack, the fish was gone, the hook had pulled. Maybe it snagged me. I didn't care, it was a sign that I was on the right track in this brand new waterway.
I fished the next few runs without any interest, but I didn't find the same structure until I walked another hundred or so meters up stream. On this occasion a larger rock was creating a slower moving eddy behind it and I thought there was another real chance. I cast the same red nymph with the same intent as my prior encounter, but I did lengthen the tippet to the nymph to about fifty centimeters, as the water was deeper. First cast saw a similar thing happen, I watched my Elk Hair Caddis dart sideways as it drifted well below the rock, and after a reasonable fight I netted a nice healthy reasonable sized brown that had beautiful colours and spots.
FURTHER UPSTREAM
It was starting to get late in the day by this stage, the drive had taken me a little longer than anticipated and I started thinking about getting out and setting up camp for the night at Stacey's Bridge camping area, quite a ways upstream. I did want to see more water so spent the next two hours drifting my nymph through run after run with no real interest. I did spy a last run further up stream, I figured I would fish the riffled water and then walk out. Little did I know, but in my late afternoon laziness I walked past a good fish, which was sitting in the slack tail water of the run I had planned to fish. As soon as I arrived at the water I wanted to fish, about half way up the run, I watched this larger shape downstream from me spook and dafrt off, leaving nothing but a larger boil on the waters surface. Have to be better next time I thought to myself. I fished the run for a good half an hour and then it was really time to get out.
I was the only person camping at Stacey's Bridge that night, it was quiet with nothing other than the sound of the running river. I did manage to put some casts through the water upstream from camp before it got too dark to see my dry fly/indicator, but the water was running really hard here and despite fishing a good looking run, didn't see any more signs of fish. I did manage to meet one of the land owners on my way back to camp, we had a great chat and he said I should really go back when the water clears up and perhaps when it is a little warmer, to fish some of the hatches. He also talked to me about the impact of the devastating fires in 2020, mentioning that it only felt like recently that the river was returning to it's former fly fishing glory, but still had a way to go.
REFLECTION & MOVING ON
I laid in bed that night writing notes about the day, this was a stunning location and I really emphasized the reality of having to find slacker, deeper pockets where the trout can sit in some relative comfort when the water is high and dirty, I also wrote about how I have to get back here in the next season. I made the decision to move on the next day.
When I woke the river was still high and dirty, it had dropped a little but not enough to warrant visiting another stretch in the area. I had another river in mind, one that I know clears up quite quickly after heavy rains, the sublime Swampy Plain River in the Geehi Valley. I packed up, jumped in the car, to learn some more new lessons about fly fishing for trout.
Drifting the High Water fly fishing Nariel Creek - Part 2 coming soon.
