Eungella Dam is an impoundment on Broken River, and it sits at about 560 metres, which gives it a cooler climate than most of North Queensland. That altitude is why you may be wearing a jumper on a morning when the coast is hot.

FlyLife’s writers describe dense drowned timber and water lilies, which give fish plenty of places to hold. Bushland and mountain terrain flank the northern and eastern shores, and the remaining shoreline is cleared. In our experience the places where timber meets lily edge and deeper water are the ones worth working first, because fish like cover with an ambush route out of it.

Barramundi and sooty grunter are the species stocked into the dam under the Queensland scheme. Other small native fish are recorded in the area, though they are not what you are driving here for.

Pack flies that suit fish living in timber: weighted baitfish and large nymph patterns that sink without snagging every second cast, plus a couple of surface flies for the lily edges. Keep the weed-guard pattern flies for the weediest bays.

The warmer months suit both fish, and the calendar below is a guide’s read rather than a record. The one seasonal detail the writers give is for barramundi: they describe fish sheltering in the bays under lily pads, then moving onto warm, turbid edges to feed, with the timing of that move sliding about an hour later from one day to the next. If you see the edge warming and clouding, fish it.

Because the dam is high, it is a fair bet the mornings are cool and the water is slow to warm, so give the fish a little time before you start.

Fishing tight timber takes a repertoire of casts. FlyLife’s writers recommend roll casts and creative back-casts, and taking a moment to watch and plan your back-cast before you commit. Most lost flies and lost patience here come from a rushed cast into the trees behind you.

When a fly hooks only by the point with the line unwrapped, roll-cast the line past the snag so the weight of the loop pulls the fly back out of the wood. When the fly is in weed or lily stems, FlyLife’s writers say a single sharp strip that rips it through the stems frees it more cleanly than a steady pull, which tends to bury the hook and drag the plant under.

For barramundi, the approach the writers describe is patience: wait for wind and rising colour along an edge, then cast into the skinny water where they come up to feed.

Eungella Dam is on Eungella Dam Road at Eungella, about 145 km west of Mackay. Sunwater owns the dam, and its site is where to check current facilities, fishing vessel requirements and dam alerts before you go.

There is more than a kilometre of cleared shoreline near the main camping area for bank casting, though boats are the more usual way to fish the dam. Camping beside the dam is described as available for a modest fee, with basic facilities and a small concrete boat ramp; confirm what is currently on offer with the dam’s operator before you rely on it.

As on any impoundment with standing timber, take care wading near the wood, keep a good look at the water as you move, and tell someone where you are going.

Eungella Dam is a Stocked Impoundment Permit Scheme water, so you need a Queensland SIP before you line fish it. No other water-specific rule was found for the dam. Check the current Queensland Government fishing rules published by Fisheries Queensland, including size and bag limits and any closed seasons, before you fish.