Jungle perch and others in North queensland

[DNYE]

Morning gentlemen!

I'm in port Douglas for the today and tomorrow and the weather is no good for reef fishing so I'm going to target the elusive jungle perch on surface fly.

Has anyone got any advice and or places that fish well for jungles or any other small native freshwater fish in the port Douglas/cairns area?

Cheers!

[Martin Kuhn]

Hi mate. Any clear running water where the water runs through rocky gorge country is where I have caught them in Mackay and in the Kimberly. Small bonefish and bream flies work well. Stream craft is the hardest thing about catching them. Short, light wt rods are the go. Enjoy

[Stephen Bradbury]

Hey Dave, let us know how you go, that's one of the many species I'd love to catch one day. I might have a chance to get a couple of hours fishing for them myself when we're in Cairns in October on the way back from Weipa. From what I've heard from Dan (Flyworld) their fairly easy to find in north Queensland, but hard to trick most of the time.

[DNYE]

Hi Steve, back at work now unfortunately.

Never managed to fool one but definitely saw plenty of them, most of the streams up there hold fish with larger specimens in the deeper pools. The trouble is access most of the time, you need to be standing in the water to get a cast off which is not a great idea when there are big saltwater crocodiles around! I think the more remote you can fish the less wiley they are, I was told by a local that in the upper reaches of the rivers where they mingle with the sooty grunters they tend to be more aggressive feeders, I didn't get enough time to check!

On a side note there are a hell of a lot of small interesting native species over there that one could have an absolute ball catching on super light gear. I wish I took my 1wt and some trout flies with me. Things like archerfish, snakehead gudgeons (and many other gudgeon species), flathead gobies (and many other goby species), sleepy cod and even some of the larger rainbowfish (saw some that appeared to be close to 15cm at the shannonvale causeway!). Some of these species although most not reaching greater than 30cm, are absolutely stunning to look at and inhabit some absolutely stunning spots too. Certainly worth a look, I could spend weeks poking around in freshwater streams up there looking for cool fish and reptiles. Need to go back!

[Stephen Bradbury]

Interesting Dave, sounds like ultralight gear would definitely be the go, but it'd be hard to concentrate on a roll cast while standing in water with toothy lizards in it ?

[DNYE]

Haha I can attest to that first hand!

[Andrew Tindale]

I’ve caught many JPs around Tully area on lure (before I found the world of fluff chucking). If you are worried about salties then you aren’t far enough inland! Think like 20km inland, any small creeks with flow will have sooties and JPs. Cast next to logs, bottom of rapid runs, eddies, shade from tree overhangs etc. great fun in crystal clear water, 2kg JP jumping and tail dancing, odd small tarpon, occasional unstoppable beast (Barra?), you’ll be back for more!
If anyone every heading to mission beach area and wants to give it a go, pm me and I’ll show you exactly on google earth!