Big Momma

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

I watched that video again and noticed you made a false cast before presenting the bug. Have you abandoned that since improving your slip lift, or do you still need it?

A while back after reading some of your posts on free-rising Snakeheads it dawned on me that what you are essentially doing is similar to casting to rolling tarpon. There seems to be quite a few similarities between the two species that both have primitive air-breathing lungs... which I guess is not that much of a surprise.

Do you notice a relationship between how often they free rise and water conditions that may effect how much oxygen is dissolved in the water?

[Paul Arden]

What sometimes happens Gary, is when the babies surface I make an adjustment to line length and line position while waiting for the adult/s to surface (or not). And if the adult surfaces while I’m doing this then I go straight into the backcast without the line touching down.

There are however, very occasionally, times when you do have time for a false cast even from a water pickup. It’s not very often but it does happen — both with babies and free-risers. Generally speaking however, from a water pickup, there is rarely time for a false cast.

It’s quite difficult to show that stuff on camera I find. When you are standing on the boat looking at the babies your eyes zoom right in on fish and block everything else out. A zoom lens would actually show what we see when fishing. But even professional cameraman don’t seem to catch this. It’s incredibly difficult to focus in on the action when it lasts a second or two and sometimes appears out of the blue (or in this case green!).

I missed some shots today that I really should have put in.

Do you notice a relationship between how often they free rise and water conditions that may effect how much oxygen is dissolved in the water?

Absolutely. This is the determining factor I think. For maybe half the year they don’t freesrise. Wet Season proper, nothing really. Straight after the wet for 1-2 months, also nothing. It appears to be that when the water temp is close-to or over 32C that you see most breathing activity (water temp is 28C in the Wet. And usually 30-32C at other times of the year. The max I’ve measured in the surface column has been 34C). — Sorry I have absolutely no idea what that is in Fahrenheit

If it’s windy, nothing —but they would also be hard to see and if they do rise in the wind then they are always the fast up-down rise with no possible shot. They never seem to look back up in these situations. After heavy rain they don’t air breathe either. In fact it is quite noticeable early “summer” (June) they won’t even rise the day after a thunderstorm but they appear again the day after that. Drizzly afternoons however can be good. I suppose not enough rain to fully oxygenate the water but overcast enough that they are active during that part of the day.

Also when they first start free-rising in the year, which is usually around late April, they can be “oncers”. It’s only really later in the year that they surface every 5-7 minutes when active and that you can track them.

—

Can you catch the Tarpon when they roll? Is this them breathing?

Giant Gourami do the same by the way. But they are not lungfish and have a different mechanism for absorbing the oxygen from the air — but they do/can gulp it. However I’ve never managed to have one of these actually eat the fly or even look at the fly when doing this. They seem to have their heads down in these circumstances.

Cheers, Paul

[Mangrove Cuckoo]

Paul,

Rolling tarpon are about the only way to "sight fish" them in the mangrove areas. Unlike the clear flats of the Keys, the water is commonly tannin stained and often turbid. And since tarpon are essentially mirrors, they are like magicians with their disappearing act... a 100# tarpon in shallow water will be easily seen when it rolls and dang near impossible to spot as soon as it submerges. If you can see anything it is often their dark unmirrored tail.

"Reading" the rolls is an art. How they roll will not only tell you their mood and what depths they are holding, but it tells the angler where to put the fly to intercept them.

Apparently, rolling delivers supplemental oxygen and definitely not their only source. Similar to what you have observed, hot calm waters will spur them to roll, sometimes often, while cooler or wind chopped waters (that hold more O2) can keep them from rolling at all.

Where I expect they differ from Snakeheads is that they are migratory and often travel miles, even when they are just hanging around, so they do roll occasionally when on the move, even in choppy cool waters... probably again for supplemental O2.

Very commonly, after hooking, jumping, running, and pulling the skiff for a while a tarpon will roll for that deep breath of more air. If you can stop them from rolling the fight is almost finished.

And curiously, it sure seems like they will roll to see what is going on above the surface! You can quietly enter a known morning spot, non motorized and like from about 1/4 mile away, and accidentally clank the tip of the pole on a rock on the bottom... and the area that showed no rollers will immediately have fish eyes above the surface... as they head for deeper water.

Many an old tarpon angler will have removed the plastic or metal points on their push poles and replaced them with hand whittled forks cut from branches of a native tree... the wood does not clank.

[Paul Arden]

Hi Gary,

Very interesting!

When the Snakehead are with their babies and swimming between stumps, they might surface every 3rd, 4th or 5th time the babies surface. Sometimes not at all, but usually within that period. However when crossing open water it’s not uncommon to see them rising every time the babies surface. I’m quite sure that they are sighting in the way that we do when open water swimming!!

Also if your were to motor into a sheltered bay with the outboard, many snakehead will rise quite quickly but these will be the spooked rise, which has a fast turning down movement. (These fish never eat). Whether these fish are looking or getting a breath for a longer stay down I don’t know, but they definitely know you are there!

The babies are being led by the female (usually) who is at the front while the male defends the rear. That’s how I usually hear it and it often appears that way. They cover many kilometres doing this but I believe return to basecamp at nightfall. Sometimes when you get close they come looking for the boat. The sound of the thruster must be responsible for that. If you can get slowly away it’s often possible to reset and still get a successful shot. However if they find the boat it’s always game over.

Any noise from the boat, dropping something for example, that’s pretty much the end of the game. With free-rises spook a few and you spook them all. And once spooked they stay spooked for hours.

Gourami on the other hand are much less spooky of the boat. I can only assume that’s because only I fish for them. I can actually get shots at them running the outboard. That never happens with Snakehead.

I caught baby Tarpon when fishing with Gordy Hill and he taught me the technique of how to fight them. I also chased them with another chap I fished with down there. We also night fished for the big ones too. They certainly pull! Any idea how often they breathe?

With Snakehead they seem to breathe when they are actively feeding which means 9.30am-12.30pm (direct sun overhead is 1pm). And again 4pm-dark (7-8pm) tapering off to dark.

It’s possible to fish the banks and catch small ones 1-2KG ie juveniles. The bigger ones I only catch after surfacing. Fishing the territory with fast sinking lines might work but I haven’t been very successful doing this even when I know they are there, so trying to do this and locate them at the same time seems like a lot of wasted life in my book!

Cheers, Paul