noon
Finding that the pool was clear of snags , I bent on three extra hooks , baiting each one with the whole of a tiny fish . Again the baits were seized before they reached the bottom ; I hauled in two more bream , and as they came struggling and splashing into the shallow water I saw they were being followed by literally hundreds of the same species , and also by fish much like an English grayling -- the pool seemed to be alive ! The presence of such large numbers in so circumscribed a space could , however , be easily accounted for by the absence of rain for so many months , the drying up of many minor pools and stretches , and the diminution of the water generally throughout the creek and its tributaries driving the fish to congregate in the deeper and larger pools . By noon I had caught as many fish as the boys could carry . None , it is true , were very large , 2 1/2 lbs . being the heaviest ; but I was pleased to learn that there were places farther down the creek where the blacks frequently caught some very large cat-fish ; when the water was muddy from heavy rain . These cat-fish , or , as some people call them , `` jew-fish , '' are the heaviest and best of all the Queensland river fish I have ever tasted , except those which , for want of their true name , I called grayling , and Hansen asserted were trout .