Rainbow trout
Excellent
Prime. Shore fishing along the edges with bait, spinners and flies, and the rivers if the season is open.
Talbingo Reservoir Fishing Report
Updated Mon, 9 Nov 2026 from live weather and tide data
The deep Snowy Scheme reservoir above Tumut: stocked rainbow trout between steep ridges and trout cod released for their recovery.
2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Water temp
~13 °C est.
Air / High
12 °C / 20 °C
Wind
NE 2 km/h
Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Talbingo Reservoir rewards patience today, with cool water and short feeding windows. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 2 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 20 °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, 4:57 AM-5:57 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 Talbingo Reservoir 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 4:57 AM-5:57 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Water and weather
Bureau of Meteorology station 410572A (Talbingo Res - RO) 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 410572A reports again. Until then the seasonal curve below is the estimate.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp12 °C
High / Low20 °C / 4 °C
WindNE 2 km/h, gusts 14 km/h
Pressure1018.5 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain22% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset05:56 / 19:45
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~13 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Talbingo Reservoir
The best day on Talbingo Reservoir this week looks like Friday 13 Nov, at 4 out of 5, against 2 today.
Best day this week: Friday, 13 Nov — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, 9 Nov — Tough
Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
- Solunar majors
- 11:14 PM-1:14 AM and 11:41 AM-1:41 PM
- Minor period
- 4:57 AM-5:57 AM
- Sun
- 05:56 to 19:45
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Partly cloudy, 11 km/h
- Rain chance
- 0%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Talbingo Reservoir: 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 Talbingo Reservoir 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 Talbingo Reservoir 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 19 °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 19 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 22 °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
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies from A$7 for three days; the New South Wales licence page has the fees.
Storage levels
Compare it with every other storage in the state on New South Wales dam levels today.
About this water
Talbingo Reservoir is a lake in New South Wales, Australia, covered from the New South Wales reports and listed in all Australia waters.
Fishing Talbingo Reservoir: the full guide
The lake
Talbingo Reservoir is the Snowy Hydro storage on the Tumut River above Blowering, a deep, cold lake between steep, forested ridges in the Tumut area of Kosciuszko National Park, with the Tumut 3 power station at Talbingo, at the lower end, and Jounama Pondage below the dam. The national parks service lists boat ramps at the Talbingo Dam wall and at O’Hares campground, and the Landers Falls lookout walk looks into the gorge above the reservoir. It is hydro water, and Snowy Hydro does not publish the levels of its smaller storages because they rise and fall rapidly and frequently.
Species and seasons
Rainbow and brown trout are the fishery, along the edges and the drop-offs from autumn to spring and deep through summer, trolled along the steep banks, cast from the shore and fished on the fly where the creeks come in; DPIRD’s stocking plan shows rainbow trout released in 2025/26. The same plan lists 25,000 trout cod for Talbingo, a threatened native released to rebuild its population: trout cod are closed in all NSW waters all year, so any caught must be released unharmed. Dams and lakes in the park are open to fishing year-round, while the streams that feed the reservoir follow the trout stream closure.
Where to fish it
The ramp at the dam wall launches onto the lower basin, and the steep banks either side are trolling water for trout; O’Hares campground gives a second ramp further up the reservoir. The trout feed along the edges at dawn and dusk, where the creeks enter and where wind pushes food against a bank, and a boat is the practical way to cover the long, steep shorelines. In summer the fish drop deep and downriggers or lead-core lines help.
Reading the report
The level is hydro-driven and the chart shows swings that have little to do with rain; a rising lake floods the edges and brings the trout in, while a falling one exposes them. The valley funnels wind, and the wind row matters for a small boat. The water temperature is an estimate for a Snowy storage, marked as one, and it runs cold, which is trout weather for most of the year.
Licence, access and rules
The NSW Recreational Fishing Fee applies from A$7 for three days; the New South Wales licence page has the fees. Snowy Hydro’s Snowy 2.0 works are under way nearby: the reservoir is open, with occasional delays at the boat ramp, but Lobs Hole Ravine Road, the Lobs Hole camping area and the Wallace Creek lookout are closed. Pets are not allowed in the national park. DPIRD’s trout rules and the trout cod protection are in the sources.
Common questions
Is there a closed season for trout at Talbingo?
No. The New South Wales trout closure applies to streams; the reservoir is open all year and the species card says so with the DPIRD rule.
What if I catch a trout cod at Talbingo?
Release it unharmed. DPIRD stocks trout cod into Talbingo to help the species recover, and they are closed in all NSW waters all year.
Is fishing good at Talbingo Reservoir right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
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
- dpird.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/resources/stocking/enhanced-fish
- dpird.nsw.gov.au/fishing/closures/summary-fw-closures
- nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/tumut-area/visitor-info
- nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/tumut-area/learn-more
- snowyhydro.com.au/snowy-20/roads-and-access
- snowyhydro.com.au/generation/water
- 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.