Jounama Pondage is a stocked trout dam near Talbingo. It earns the drive for one reason: it is open to trout fishing all year, so you can fish it for trout in any month you like.
Think of it as one body of still water. The all-year classification is for the dam itself; before you follow any creek running in, check how that stream is treated in the current NSW guide.
The easiest trip is from the bank in spring for rainbows and browns. NSW DPIRD classes it as a general trout dam open to trout all year, which in practice means there is no closed trout season to plan around. Check the current NSW guide for bag and size limits. Pick an access site from the card. Find the bank the wind is blowing onto and walk it with a slow wet fly.
The second trip is a cold-month session for trout. Because the classification keeps the dam open through winter, this is a good place to come for a trout in the depth of winter. Fish the short daylight hours slowly. Stay on the dam unless the current NSW guide tells you a creek is open too.
Golden perch and Murray cod turn up in the release history too. The trout classification tells you nothing about them, so check the current NSW guide before you target either. In our experience a trout-focused trip is the better use of a first visit.
Check the current NSW DPIRD freshwater guide, pick a site from the access card, and start with the wind in your face.
Water and habitat
A pondage is a dam in all but name, and it fishes like one. The wet-surface chart shows how its footprint has behaved over time, which in our experience is a fair guide to whether the edges you fish in one season will be there in the next.
On any stocked dam of this kind, trout hold where food gathers: along the drop-off where the shallows fall into deeper water, off points that push into the wind, and near inflows where a creek brings in cooler water and drifting insects. Start at those places before you try the open middle.
Fish and forage
The stocking chart shows four species released here in recent seasons: rainbow trout, brown trout, golden perch and Murray cod. Read it as a history of releases rather than a head count of what survives to be caught.
Stocked trout in still water feed on what the dam gives them: midges, damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, snails, small fish, and land insects the wind drops on the surface. A fly box for a first visit can stay simple. Carry a few size 10 to 14 nymphs such as a Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail, a dark Woolly Bugger in two weights, and a handful of small emergers for calm evenings.
When to fish it
Spring is the best of it in our experience. Stocked fish cruise the warming edges and take a moving fly readily. Summer pushes trout deeper through the middle of the day, so plan on dawn and dusk and watch for a rise on still evenings.
Autumn is when browns tend to show their teeth, chasing larger flies as the water cools. Winter is slower, but the dam stays open to trout, and a slow wet fly on a windy shore in the brightest part of a cold day still takes fish.
How to fish it
Treat it as a stillwater. A 6-weight rod with a floating line and a spare intermediate covers most days. Fish the wind: a breeze blowing onto a bank stacks food and fish against it, and a team of wets fished loch-style lets you search a lot of water.
From the bank, walk and cast rather than planting yourself. Short, slow strips with long pauses suit stocked fish. When trout are rising on a flat evening, go to a long leader and a single small emerger, and put it ahead of a cruising fish rather than on the ring it just left.
Access and safety
The access card names the sites, drawn from NSW DPIRD's angler access listings. Those listings describe where people get to the water; they are not a promise that every site is open on the day you arrive. Check current land-manager advice first.
As on any dam, watch your footing on steep or muddy banks, and if you take a kayak or boat out, wear a lifejacket and head in early when the wind gets up.
Regulations
NSW DPIRD classes Jounama Pondage, near Talbingo, as a general trout dam that is open to trout fishing all year round, so you can fish it for trout in any month.
That classification is for the dam. Before you fish any creek running into it, check how that stream is treated in the current NSW guide. For bag limits, size limits, licence requirements and any rules on golden perch or Murray cod, check the current NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development freshwater fishing guide before you fish.
