{{+1}}Lake Jindabyne{{-1}}
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Jindabyne is the gateway for the NSW snow resorts and as you can imaging there is plenty of accommodation options. Jindabyne township itself offers a range of services including accommodation, groceries and fuel. There are also two caravan and camping facilities Located at Jindabyne and camping is permitted on the national park shores of the lake as long as you have the appropriate Nationals Perk permit. The best of these are Snowline Caravan and Camping park and Jindabyne township caravan and camping area.
There are a umber of boat launching facilities around the lake including Waste Point, Snowline Caravan Park, Kalkite, East Jindabyne. Only the ramp at the Snowline Caravan Park is concrete so for the rest its advisable to have a 4 wheel drive.
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Lake Jindabyne water flows are as follows:
Water flows into Lake Jindabyne from:
- Thredbo River.
- From the Mowamba river via an outlet near the dam wall and surprisingly that accounts for about 20% of the inflow.
- Lower Snowy River. This is generally only that section below Island Bend Pondage but occasionally when supply into Island bend is in excess of what can be moved to Gehi water is let spill into the lower Snowy River.
- Water can also be drained from Geehi Reservoir back to Lake Jindabyne via a link into the gravity fed tunnel from Island Bend Pondage to Lake Jindabyne. This is rare and more often than not if there is a water coming into Jindabyne from the outlet at the pump station that is only water being drained from the tunnels to facilitate testing or repair work.
- General catchment inflows.
Water leaves Lake Jindabyne via:
- The pump station to Gehi Reservoir on the western side of The Great Dividing Range. Water from Lake Jindabyne can not be pumped to Lake Eucumbene.
- Environmental flows into the Snowy River below the dam wall. From there it goes through Murray 1 and Murray 2 power stations and then down the Upper Swampy Plains river into Khancoban Pondage and then down to the Murray River and the Murray Irrigation Area.
Safety first:
Given the water inflows and outflows it's not surprising that water levels in Lake Jindabyne vary considerably so caution is recommended. Also Lake Jindabyne is a true alpine lake and it is not unusual for several seasons to play out in the one day or even over a few hours.
The lake is about 15km long and about 6km its widest point and up to 37 meters deep. Strong winds often prevail or blow up with little notice and the surface of the lake can turn treacherously choppy with no notice at all. Think about your safety and your companions safety.
- Keep an eye on the weather and always know where your going to retreat to.
- Let others know where your going to be fishing and your timetable.
- Always wear a life jacket. It's compulsary to wear a life jacket in all alpine lakes when ina boat less that 5 meters long ... that includes canoes and kayaks.
- Never wear thigh waders in the boat particularly if your fishing by yourself.
- Take plenty of spare warm clothes and wet weather gear.
- Mobile phone reception is limited so don't think that it will work all the time.
- Only fish Jindabyne in suitable craft. This is not a venue for little dinghies with low sides.
- Always be on the lookout for submerges rocks, trees and fences and in times of rising weather also keep an eye out for floating timber.
- Don't think for a moment that you know the lake. Water levels are changing all the time and consequently where obstructions were below your propeller yesterday they can be right in your path today.
By comparison to Eucumbene, Jindabyne it is a fairly small lake.
There have been some awesome fish taken out of the lake. Browns approaching the pre-metric 20 pound mark and Atlantic salmon to 6kg have been landed and, while not overly common, the anglers that spend some time on the lake will testify to their presence.
How to get there
Lake Jindabyne is an easy two hour drive south from Canberra, through Cooma, on the Monaro Highway and is the doorway to the NSW snowfields and the Kosciusko National Park.
For detailed maps search Falls Creek on Google Earth.
For additional information search various towns in Google Maps.
View Larger Map
Open season
Lake Eucumbene is open all year. Please note that the actual rivers in the region have a closed fishing period and they can only be fished from the start of the long weekend in October through to the end of April.
You should also check out licensing requirements and bag limits.
Jindabyne is the gateway for the NSW snow resorts and as you can imaging there is plenty of accommodation options. Jindabyne township itself offers a range of services including accommodation, groceries and fuel. There are also two caravan and camping facilities Located at Jindabyne and camping is permitted on the national park shores of the lake as long as you have the appropriate Nationals Perk permit. The best of these are Snowline Caravan and Camping park and Jindabyne township caravan and camping area.
There are a umber of boat launching facilities around the lake including Waste Point, Snowline Caravan Park, Kalkite, East Jindabyne. Only the ramp at the Snowline Caravan Park is concrete so for the rest its advisable to have a 4 wheel drive.
Target species
Lake Jindabyne has established populations of Brown trout and Rainbow trout and smaller populations of Atlantic Salmon and Brook Trout. Brown trout are recruited from natural spawning in the Thredbo River and possibly from a couple of other smaller inflows. For rainbows there is natural recruitment from the Thredbo River and other inflows from September into October. On top of that there are around 50,000 Rainbow fingerlings released into the lake each year as well small releases of Brook Trout and Atlantic Salmon fry and occasionally Brown trout. Interestingly Gaden Trout Hatchery which is located just above the lake on the Thredbo river also released large brood stock Atlantic Salmon, Brook Trout, Rainbows and Browns into the lake so there is always a chance of getting a really big fish. But whilst big fish are regularly caught the average size for Rainbows is around 14' to 18" and for browns just a little larger.
In the last couple of years there appears to have been a sharp decline in the numbers of rainbows in particular being caught in Jindabyne ... that does appear to be part of a cycle as its only a couple of years since anecdotal evidence suggested that Lake Jindabyne was moving from being regarded as a brown trout fishery and that Rainbows were becoming increasingly dominant.
Food chain
The main dietary elements for trout in Jindabyne includes Yabbies, Creatian Carp, various nymphs, emerging and mature insects that spend part of their life cycle in the water including Mudeyes, Damsels, Caddis Flies, Mayflies and Chironomids, terrestrial insects such as Grass Hoppers, Beetles, Moths etc and of course mainly for the rainbows Daphnia and even tadpoles and frogs. The mix and dominance of these dietary element changes as the seasons change, as a result of changes in their micro and macro environments and even in response to water levels changing naturally and as a result of water management.
For Jindabyne if you you only have to go back a few years to get back to summer months where there were relatively large hatches of Mudeyes. In other years there have been huge amounts of Yabbies and just a couple of years ago there were massive population of Creatian Carp leading many to believe that they would become the dominant food source for trout in Lake Jindabyne. That of course hasn't eventuated and Creatian Carp populations have settled down dramatically.
The dominant food sources currently appear to be Yabbies, Nymphs and Daphnia (particularly for the rainbows) punctuated with relatively small hatches of Caddis, Mayfly, Hoppers and mixed terrestrials in the warmer months.
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Techniques
Because of the colour of the bottom Lake Jindabyne is generally regarded as the premier polaroiding lake in the Snowy Mountains. The best waters generally are the margins close to deeper water where trout can retreat when threatened or just nervous. Browns and increasingly Rainbows cruise the margins in search for food , particularly in spring and its not unusual for seasoned anglers to be able to target numerous sighted fish in one outing. These fish are however tough to catch and a catch rate of one fish for every six or seven sighted fish is pretty acceptable. There is very little wind lane or slick fishing available on Lake Jindabyne but other forms of boat fishing are increasingly popular. General prospecting using Loch Fly techniques as well as polaroiding and casting to sighted fish are certainly on the increase.
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Fly suggestions
Because of the dominance of yabbies in the trout's menu throughout the year its hard to go past a woolly bugger or two for general prospecting. Brown black and olive all work well but its always worth trying other colour variations. Orange is a great attractor colour when loch style fly fishing and during the summer its always worth having a bibio, zulu or diawl back on the top dropper. For more ideas have a look at:
Nymphs, spiders, corixia and shrimp
Midge pupa, grubs and snails
Loch flies
Streamers & pulling flies
Hoppers, locust & crickets
Emergers
My favourite buggers
Boobies
Here area few of team selections that work well. Substitute similar flies you already have for the flies you have selected ore use these teams as guidance when setting up your own selections.
My default team
This team of flies works at almost any time of the year when the water in the lake is relatively clear. Midge can be around at any time of the year and the bibio covers that food source as well as sunken beetles blow flies and other plump food sources. The dunkeld is just a great all round attractor and the the brown bugger can be taken as a yabby, creation carp, large damsel or just something which attracts trout.This is my go to team on either Eucumbene and Jindabyne when there is no way of matching a hatch etc..
General prospecting in clear water
With three buggers in the team this selection is always worth a try as the main food source in Eucumbene and Jindabyne for large periods of the year is yabbies. A key time for this team is when Snowy Hydro are making dramatic changes in water levels as yabbies have to get on the move to stay at their preferred depth and are very vulnerable to feeding trout.
Damsel feeders
From November through to end of January when the lake rises courtesy of water from winter from snow melts pushes water levels up you often get hatches of midge. Accompanying those midge you can expect increased numbers of damsels feeding on the midge and of course rainbows in particular feeding on both. The following team of olive flies retrieved fast on a sub surface line of produces "cricket score" results.
Midge feeders
Focused on the same phenonomen as above but trageting fish feeding more on the midge than the accompanying damsels this team works wellwhen fished deep and slow on a sink tip or floating line.
Discoloured water
When the river is running high after the snow melt or after heavy rain the water in Tantangara often colours up making the more subtle flies above harder for fish to see or if the fish are a bit lazy brighter flies often stir up some action. On those occasions the following team has done the job for me.
Splashy fish on the surface
You will often come across what seems to be small fish making splash rises particularly close into the shore. Do not ignore those rises as there are often some quite good fish are often also present. Small flies fished relatively close to the surface do however seem to be called for to convert the splashy rises to hook ups. I often also substitute a small diawl back into the above teams, as my middle dropper fly when fish are shy or the water is very clear.
Hot spots
Understanding the weed beds and water levels are keys to successful fly fishing in Lake Jindabyne and if you can couple that with other forms of structure your in with a chance. Both before and after the spawning seasons there are also of course concentrations of fish in the upper reaches of the Thredbo, Snowy and Eucumbene arms of the lake.
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Last Updated: March 24, 2023
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