Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Jounama Pondage Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The small Snowy Scheme pondage between Talbingo and Blowering: stocked trout, golden perch and cod in a water that rises and falls with the power station.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~13 °C est.
Air / High
11 °C / 19 °C
Wind
SSE 4 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Jounama Pondage is in its cool-water rhythm: slower presentations and the warmest hours of the day. Today brings clear skies, wind SSE around 5 km/h, steady pressure near 1018 hPa and a high of 19 °C. Water sits around 13 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:14 PM-1:14 AM and 11:41 AM-1:41 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Brown trout
Excellent
Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
Tie on: Blade or vibe, slow hops · Lightly weighted plastic · Whole pilchard or squid on the bottom · Suspending hardbody. Prime windows: 11:14 PM-1:14 AM, 11:41 AM-1:41 PM, 4:58 AM-5:58 AM. Warmer at 23 °C. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
New South Wales requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from A$7.00. New South Wales fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with DPIRD NSW before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Jounama Pondage today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (05:56), sunset (19:45), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:14 PM-1:14 AM and 11:41 AM-1:41 PM; minor 4:58 AM-5:58 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Bureau of Meteorology station 410573 (Jounama Pondage RL) has sent no reading in the last 30 days, so conditions here are modelled from weather, season and the nearest stations.
No recent gauge reading
Readings come back here when station 410573 reports again. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp11 °C
High / Low19 °C / 7 °C
WindSSE 4 km/h, gusts 10 km/h
Pressure1018.3 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain3% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:56 / 19:45
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Jounama Pondage
The best day on Jounama Pondage this week looks like Thursday 12 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Thursday, 12 Nov — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:14 PM-1:14 AM and 11:41 AM-1:41 PM
- Minor period
- 4:58 AM-5:58 AM
- Sun
- 05:56 to 19:45
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Overcast, 11 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Jounama Pondage: seasons written for the southern year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Streams from October to June in NSW and from September to June in Victoria; lakes open all year; Tasmania from the first Saturday of August
Open all year No closed season in lakes and dams; the winter closure applies to streams only. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
The stocked lakes of the Snowy Mountains, the Victorian highlands and the Tasmanian central plateau. Closed seasons apply on the rivers: check the state rules. Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Brown trout
Streams from October to June in NSW and from September to June in Victoria; lakes open all year; Tasmania from the first Saturday of August
Open all year No closed season in lakes and dams; the winter closure applies to streams only. Rule as read from DPIRD NSW on 2026-09-23.
The wild trout of the highland rivers and Tasmania's lakes. Spawns in autumn, hence the closed rivers through winter in NSW and Victoria. Prime. Nymphs and streamers on the rivers, and the lake edges on the overcast days.
When to come: the Jounama Pondage calendar
Activity by species and month for the southern year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 13 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Jounama Pondage today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 14 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 17 °C, wind to 18 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 21 °C, wind to 11 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, from A$7.00, the same for residents and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and marine park zones are set by DPIRD NSW and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the New South Wales licence page before you keep anything.
Access
Jounama anglers need the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, whose shortest receipt is A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the others.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Jounama Pondage is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Jounama Pondage: the full guide
The lake
Jounama Pondage is the regulating storage on the Tumut River immediately below Talbingo Dam, where the Tumut 3 power station discharges, and it releases into Blowering Reservoir below. Snowy Hydro does not publish the levels of its smaller storages because they rise and fall rapidly and frequently, and that describes Jounama well: it fishes very differently from one hour to the next. The national parks service’s Jounama Creek campground, with toilets, picnic tables and wood barbecues, gives access near Talbingo. The pondage swings with the generation schedule, sometimes by a lot within a day.
Species and seasons
DPIRD’s stocking plan shows brown and rainbow trout released into Jounama in 2025/26, and golden perch and Murray cod in 2024/25. The trout feed along the edges and in the current at the head of the pondage on bait, spinners and flies through the cooler months and at first light in summer; the golden perch and cod hold in the deeper water in the warm months, with cod closed from 1 September to 30 November under the rule the species card computes. Jounama is on DPIRD’s list of impoundments where silver perch may be taken, but freshwater catfish, closed west of the Great Dividing Range except in a few named dams, must be released. There is no closed season for trout on the pondage.
Where to fish it
The pondage is narrow and small enough that a kayak covers it comfortably, and a bigger boat is unnecessary. When the station is running, the current where the water enters is where the trout feed; the edges downstream fish on bait, and the deeper water towards the Jounama dam holds the natives in summer. Keep well clear of the dam and the power station outlets, where water can rise and flow without warning.
Reading the report
A rising pondage usually means the station is running, and the trout feed in the current it brings. The water temperature estimate runs cold because the water comes from Talbingo, and the page labels it as an estimate. Wind matters less on the narrow pondage.
Licence, access and rules
Jounama anglers need the NSW Recreational Fishing Fee, whose shortest receipt is A$7 for three days; our New South Wales licence page has the others. No park entry fee applies in the Tumut area of Kosciuszko National Park, and pets are not allowed there. DPIRD’s trout rules, the cod closure and the list of dams where silver perch may be kept are in the sources.
Common questions
When does Jounama Pondage fish best?
Often when the Tumut 3 station is running and cold water is entering the head of the pondage; the trout feed in that current.
Is Jounama stocked?
Yes. DPIRD’s plan shows brown and rainbow trout released in 2025/26 and golden perch and Murray cod in 2024/25.
Is fishing good at Jounama Pondage right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.