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During its passage it flows through the picturesque town of Tumut before cutting through fertile and generally green alluvial plains which have built up over a millennium. The river banks and surrounding paddocks are punctuated by willows and poplars that have a heritage going back to the early settlers. The whole south to eastern sides of the area is in the shadow of the Snowy Mountains and whilst snow often falls only 20 kilometres away from Tumut during winter Tumut itself is only 280 meters above sea level and significantly lower than the nearby ranges and enjoys a relatively temperate climate with four distinct seasons.

The Tumut Valley is the traditional home of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people and descendants of those first settlers to the area still live in the area around Tumut and nearby Brungle. It's probable that the name Tumut was derived from the Aboriginal word 'doomat' meaning 'quiet resting place near the river'.

The area was settled by early grazing families and the basic town of Tumut blossomed when gold was found at nearby Kiandra. Today Tumut has a thriving dairy and beef industry and small holdings of mixed farming which include grapes, apples and fruit and hops. The main back bone of the town today is of course a thriving timber industry supported by 5000 hectares of well managed pinus radiata plantation all within 25 km of Tumut.

The river around the Town doubles as the tail race for the local hydro generation plant and consequently flows in the river can run from a relatively mere trickle to a thundering 7000 mega litres per hour. Fishing in the river is best at river flows of less than 1200 mega litres per hour as anything above that wading is as good as impossible. Information about river flows is available on the Snowy Hydro website and should be a consideration for any planned Tumut River outing.

How to get there

Tumut is located 423 km from Sydney and 180 km from Canberra via the Hume Highway. The main access to the town is via Gundagai (34 km) with roads going through both Gocup and Brungle.

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Access

If you blow up the google map above you can quickly get an idea of where there is public land such as road verges bridges, parks and the racecourse where public access is allowed. There is also some access to the river as a result of some properties being encumbered by 'enclosure permits' that allow general access to the river through 'private property'. The private property affected by the enclosure permits should not be fenced but some land owners have ignored that and have fenced the access and generally deny it exists. If your certain that a property is encumbered by a 'enclosure permit' and your denied access you can of course refer the matter to the Department of Lands and they will take action. A much better course of action is probably to access via the unfenced public areas or to seek consent from land owners.

Closed season

The Tumut River is categorised as a general trout stream and as such is closed to the taking of all species of fish by any method, from the Tuesday after the June (Queen’s Birthday) long weekend until midnight on the last Friday before the start of the October (Labour Day) long weekend (inclusive) in each year.

Services & facilities available

Tumut is a thriving large rural town with a wide range of services and facilities available and the visit Tumut web site is a pretty good starting point for getting a feel for what Tumut offers.

Target species

The Tumut River is both a brown and rainbow trout fishery.

Food chain

Mayfly and caddis thrive along the full length of the Tumut and in their various stages of development are a staple part of the trout's diet. Also on the menu is a broad range of terrestrials dominated by grass hoppers, locust, beetles, moths and ants.

• Fly fishing options – sub-alpine NSW and Victoria

• What trout eat – sub alpine NSW and Victoria

Techniques

A full range of river fishing techniques are generally applied in the Tumut river with a heavy nymph on the dropper and a lighter nymph on the point being popular through the season, due (nymph under dry) and dry fly fishing also working well and being a bit more visual during the warmer months.

Fly suggestions

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