You are very close and I don't see anything wrong with this approach. The first split is in a list context and there is no need to assign "junk". The 2nd split should also be put into a list context and then just take the 2nd thing via a "list slice", [1] subscript. See below..
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my $line = 'client 127.0.0.1#47560: query: host.example.com IN AAAA';
my ( $part1) = split (/#/,$line);
my ( $ipaddr ) = (split(/\s+/, $part1))[1];
print " part1: $part1\n ipaddr: $ipaddr\n";
__END__
Prints:
part1: client 127.0.0.1
ipaddr: 127.0.0.1
Occasionally you will see:
(undef, my $ipaddr) = split(/\s+/, $part1);
And although that will work, I wouldn't use it. Assigning something to undef as a lvalue "throws it in the bit bucket". I think it is "cleaner" to use the slice.
Update: Now of course, if you just want the IP address:
my $line = 'client 127.0.0.1#47560: query: host.example.com IN AAAA';
(my $ipaddr) = (split/[\s#]/,$line)[1];
print "$ipaddr\n";
__END__
prints:
127.0.0.1
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