WE are wading up a stream in the rainforest at the foothills of the Port Douglas Mountains in tropical north Queensland. Gaz’s last words do little to make me feel comfortable in this foreign environment, but we are soon distracted from all of that. We are searching for something, and as Gaz’s pace slows my thoughts are back on fish. Up ahead, a tree across the water blocks our path. We make our way onto the bank and sneak towards the tree, crouching to get under the palms that line the banks.
The fish we are looking for is a predator and Gaz has already told me that the biggest, dominant fish in the pool will be holding up where the feeding opportunities are best. The log has created a funnel, pushing all of the water in the creek through a narrow one meter wide channel and there at the mouth of the funnel, sits a dark shape.
It’s a jungle perch, without a doubt, and it hasn’t spotted us. To the untrained eye, the big perch seems to drift slowly and aimlessly through the channel, but we know better. This fish is hunting. JP (jungle perch) have an eat first ask questions later mentality and if by some miracle, through this dense scrub, we can land a lure in front of it, it will strike, but therein lies the challenge.
Gaz carefully grabs the trebles of the lure and pulls it towards him until the rod is fully tensioned. When he lets go it is sling- shotted into the stream, landing a foot away from the fish. Instinctively the perch turns to strike, but before it can close the distance on the lure, another fish appears from the shadows and Gaz is hooked up. That was my introduction to fishing for jungle perch.
Gaz runs guided tours in the area and he has taken me out for my first experience. The thing I quickly learnt about these fish that makes them so fantastic and yet so challenging to fish for is their vision. It is so incredible that they can spot their prey well before it even touches the water, allowing them to calculate its landing spot and be ready waiting in position to intercept it the
second it touches down. If you’re a dragon fly looking for a drink, then there is a very real risk that this will results in a quick end as you disappear below the surface, however if you’re a fisher who loves their surface action, then it’s the perfect recipe for a good time.
Competition for food in these streams is intense. The big fish make the most of their dominance and take up residence in the best feeding spots. The forest is alive, but the streams are clear and food is scarce. The vast majority of their food comes from the canopy with insects, frogs and even berries making up their diet. This means the best spots are right under waterfalls, on the edge of a flow, under the shade of a big overhanging tree or anywhere that will give the fish first chance to capture food entering the stream. This competition for food means JP have an eat first, ask questions later mentality. So if it lands in the creek from above, it normally quickly disappears in a flurry of bubbles. At one stage I heard the plop, plop, plop plop of something falling from the canopy. I looked up to see a Wompoo Fruit Dove feeding in the tree. As it fed on the fruits it carelessly knocked many more into the water, another food source entering the system.
Keep an eye out for Crocs,” says Gaz. “They shouldn’t be up this far, but you just never know.
While a couple of the biggest fish will take up these prime feeding locations, in a healthy systems each pool can be loaded with upwards of 30 fish, meaning smaller fish must be fast and aggressive, using their vision to their advantage.
Of course, this vision means that they can spot you from an absolute mile away so it’s best to try and send your casts as far as possible without launching them into every overhanging tree. And as far as leaders go, you can forget about anything over 10lb monofilament. Lighter leaders will also give you the best distance and accuracy when throwing the smaller lures you will want to use for these fish. Luckily they are clean fighters, so as long as you keep your cool (and are willing to get a bit wet to untangle the fish from the odd snag) you will land your fish. JP are not a big fish and 30cm is a prize while anything above 40cm is an absolute trophy and a 50cm beast is once in a lifetime. Light bream and trout style spin gear works great and for fly fishing light 2-5 weight is plenty to pull these fish out.
The country you are fishing can often be tight so casting style can get a little… agricultural. There is no shame here in being a little unorthodox and creativity is encouraged as you bounce, lob, flick, slingshot, bow and arrow, pitch and teabag your lures into their desired location. It took me a while to get my eye in and repeat casts into the trees had Gaz reminding me that we weren’t looking for “parrot fish” today… classic gags, Gaz.
In terms of lure choice you can fish for them with small paddle tail minnows and grub curl tail soft plastics or shallow diving crank baits when they aren’t feeding, but it’s rude not to always try surface first. Cup faced poppers, walk the dog stickbaits and surface plastics such as frogs and goats are favorites. Similarly with flies, Gaz pretty much fishes exclusively with dry flies. They will take a wet fly but why would you miss the chance for that surface strike?
When I started the day casting a little popper around, I fished the same style I had for other aggressive surface fish, casting incessantly at any attractive bank, snag or waterfall. While the retrieve style doesn’t matter too much, unlike a lot of other aggressive surface predators, JP get spooked by too much casting rather than fired up.
Only the first or second cast will entice a strike. So if you misplace your cast or try to go too early at a lesser snag, well you might have just spooked all the nearby fish and missed your chance. Once I started being more selective with my casts, and holding off until I was in a position where I knew I could nail them right where I wanted, my strike rate went through the roof catching more and bigger fish.
While a couple of the biggest fish will take up these prime feeding locations, in a healthy systems each pool can be loaded with upwards of 30 fish, meaning smaller fish must be fast and aggressive, using their vision to their advantage.
During the wet season when there are higher flows the JP start to move around. It is likely that this is the time that big mature fish migrate down to the brackish water to spawn. There have been rare occasions where big mature Perch have been spotted out on reef flats during this period, however not much is known about their time out in these waters. After spawning, the adults and their progeny must then swim against the flow back up to the fresh as far as they can. The smaller immature fish that didn’t make the salt water migration to spawn will also make the most of these increased flows.
As their isolated pools reconnect with the rest of the stream, it gives them the chance to explore further upstream in the search for new feeding grounds to establish themselves in for the coming dry season. While the fish are extremely active during this period, one of the best time of year to catch them is during the middle of or towards the end of the dry. As the flows slow down and the clarity improves, water levels begin to drop. The warming waters and reduced supply of food means the JPs become hungry and are in an almost constant mood to feed.
We continued up the stream, picking up fish at almost every likely spot. One thing I was curious about was if there were any other fish in the system, I had only seen JP’s so far and they were so aggressive I thought it would be difficult for anyone else to compete. I overshot one of my casts, landing it on the opposite bank. As I dragged it back over the stagnant shallows filled with decaying leaf litter it disappeared in a spray of water. A snakehead gudgeon had been waiting for something to stir in the leaves and mistook my lure for its next feed. This fish hides in the leaf litter, camouflage is its power rather than outright pace and it was fascinating to see how this species had managed to find its own unique feeding niche in such a small system. Throughout the day we also pulled a small tarpon and in one section had tiny barramundi and mangrove jack fingerlings follow our lures. I knew that these species spawned in the salt and that the juveniles of these fish also swam upstream to safer waters. But this was the first time I had ever seen individuals this small. To see these tiny fish, barely 10cm confidently swimming around in the safety of the clear creek was fantastic. While they would have been an easy feed for any bigger fish living in the estuary, here in the safety of this creek they were kings.
Further up another log blocked our passage, we exited again and re-approached the bank, eyes straining as we searched for fish. Slowly we approached the fishy looking edge, one step… pause…one step….pause….”F*$K” was the only word to leave Gaz’s mouth as he jumped backwards. Of course Crocodile was the first thing that sprang to mind, my eyes did a double time transect of the river as I froze even stiller than before. Nothing. Maybe there was a snake I had missed. “What, where” I asked.
“Croc, there at your feet!” was his immediate response.
I looked down, and there, nose wresting almost on the edge of the bank, was a 2.5m salty. It was in less than 1m of crystal clear water, only a few feet away from me, how had I missed it? The secret in its deception had been its position, precisely in the only shadow available. The contrast hid him perfectly, and with the bank clearly cut up from wallowing pigs, he waited in the shadow for the next pig that might stray too close to the bank. A vivid reminder of my first impressions of the area; this was an untamed piece of nature we were exploring. What a privilege to see one of these danger lizards in the crystal clear water of the Forrest. Devastatingly the awkwardness of the shadows and overhanging tress meant I could not capture this unique photo opportunity so we watched on in awe for several minutes before we got back into the fishing.
Considerably further up the creek, and past a rope swing (apparently we weren’t the only ones who hadn’t expected crocs up here) the fishing kept getting better and better as the day went on and the water warmed up. We got onto loads of JPs but I often found myself again distracted by the many new Forrest creatures I hadn’t encountered before. An electric blue flash would come and go across the creek. And try as I could, I never managed to capture the spectacular Ulysses Butterfly on camera. This might be the first and last butterfly that gets a mention in this magazine, but this thing is unbelievable and makes you feel like you are fishing in an Avatar movie as it appears and disappears from the canopy. And if you managed to take your eyes off the creek for long enough to properly scout the jungle you are always a chance of spotting some incredible and rare creatures such as Forrest Dragons, Tree Kangaroos and Cassowaries.
Gaz’s tours, Jungle Perch Angling Adventures, explore systems in the Cairns/Port Douglas area and I have to thank him for all of his knowledge he imparted on me the day out. There were plenty more tips that I was sworn to secrecy with so make sure you ask about these secrets if you get the chance to fish with him.
It’s dense and humid in the Jungle, but the untamed country of the jungle perch is well worth exploring.
Michael Tropiano is a fishing photographer and marine biologist. Check out his work at @tropi_the_ local and findwildphotos.com.
