Episode 617: Cairns Jungle Perch With Gaelen McLoughlin

Gaelen’s Cairns Jungle Perch Fishing Tips

• The more time you spend on the water the better you’ll become at reading the creek and knowing where the fish will be. In the faster flowing sections you’ll learn to find back eddies, boulders, undercuts and other areas where the current is a little slower.
• Sometimes JP’s can surprise you where they turn up sometimes, so don’t ignore the faster parts of the current, either. They can be very difficult to see due to their amazing camouflage.
• The best jungle perch streams are faster flowing with back eddies and current breaks. They need to have connectivity to the estuary and not have significant barriers such as waterfalls downstream. Boulders, root balls and shady areas are great habitat for jungle perch.
• Gaelen focuses his efforts on the 25-30 creeks between Babinda and Port Douglas.
• It can be very challenging to cast in these small streams without getting into the water. However, jungle perch often share their habitat with saltwater crocodiles. It’s important only to wade in clear, shallow water where you are confident there are no crocs. Be careful of wading into pools that start shallow and get deeper as you move upstream.
• The best fishing tends to occur when the water is clear, periods following rainfall can be productive but are usually tougher than late in the wet season when the water levels have been low for a while. August to November are the best months.
• A bit of wind can be beneficial as jungle perch eat a lot of insects and fruits that fall from trees, which is assisted by windy conditions.
• Wear decent footwear, some days Gaelen will walk up to 10km up a creek. A lot of the creeks have “ankle breaker” boulders and often are shaded, allowing slime to make them very slippery. Gaelen likes neoprene wetsuit boots with a grippy sole and recommends moving slowly and deliberately to avoid injury.
• Carry a decent first aid kit and if fishing alone, be sure to take a personal locator beacon or a Garmin Inreach. In most places you’ll get a line of sight within a short walk of where you’re fishing.
• A good pair of polarised sunglasses with a photochromic amber or neon copper lens will protect your eyes from the jungle and allow you to see into the water without darkening the view too much.
• Be stealthy, keep low and hide behind structure. Take care where you put your feet so as not to spook fish. Make casts upstream and put plenty of effort into the head and tail of each pool. Jungle perch are easily alerted, so work upstream and sneak up on them.
• Use Google Earth to find point where you can get access to a creek and have 3-4km of river to fish before it gets to hard to walk or waterfall stop fish getting upstream.
• In faster flowing water it’s sometimes worth putting in multiple casts, but in slower pools there is little point putting in more than 2-3 casts as the fish will either take the lure straight away or not at all.
• Practice casting, long, accurate casting makes a big difference when targeting jungle perch, as does casting flat to get under tree branches.

Gaelens Jungle Perch Tackle

• A light spin outfit is perfect for casting light lures. A short 6’6”, 2-4kg rod is easy to cast in close quarters and can be coupled with a 1000-2000 size reel. A 10lb braided mainline is fine Gaelen tends to use 6lb braid and a 10lb mono leader with a small lure clip.

Gaelens Best Jungle Perch Lures

• A small cup-faced popper of around 30-40mm is a great tool for prospecting and can be worked around the slower flowing pools with short bloops. Rapala Skitterpops, Halco Roosta or similar with a red coloured head or cup are great on smoother water when perch are eating fallen fruit.
• A stickbait or surface walker, such as the Pro Lure SF62 is perfect for casting at 45 degrees across the current.
• Fizzers and propbaits are useful when the fishing is quiet and you need to fire up a bite.
• Surface plastics such as ZMan GOAT and ZMan pop frogs in the 3-4” are great in the faster moving water, rigged weedless on a work hook and worked briskly across the water surface.