Bird workup over a bait ball on the blue water off Bynoe Harbour

Media Centre

Watty, on the record

The podcast, the sessions, the radio spots — and everything he knows about barra.

The library

Fifteen years of talking barra

Radio segments, podcast appearances and the long-form stuff Watty teaches on the water — every one of them transcribed in full. Filter it however suits.

An angler casting from the bow on a flat morning
Know-How

Casting flies: sight-casting barra in the salt and the fresh

The tides to target, the fish to stalk, and the strip strike that sets the hook.

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An angler casting from the bow on a flat morning
Know-How

Casting lures: when to cast, what to throw and how to stay tight

When to cast, what to throw, and why slow-rolling a plastic is the high-percentage play.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Choke points: where barra wait for the bait

Bottlenecks, saddles and choke points — how to find them, and when to be there.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Collapsed banks: the low-tide spots worth marking

River bank slips, flood plain collapses and slid mangrove edges — and when each one fishes.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Deep holes: where barra wait out the tide

How to find a deep hole on a chart, read the tide on it, and fish it slow.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Edges and eddies: the barra spots everyone drives past

Eddies and current edges — how to read them, where to sit the boat, and why the small ones matter.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Mud flats: sight casting the highway between structure

Reading mud flats on the chart, and working them down through a falling tide.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Open water barra: when all the stars align

Submerged rocks, channels and depressions — finding and catching barra away from the bank.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Points: the most consistent barra ground there is

Why points out-produce almost everything else, and how to read the ones nobody else bothers with.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

River and creek mouths: where barra dreams come true

River and creek mouths — timing them on wind and tide, trolling and casting them, and picking a new creek.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Rocks: the structure most anglers never really work out

Rock bars, isolated rocks and rocky points — how to time them and how to fish them.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Snags: which timber holds fish, and where in it they sit

Which snags hold barra, where in them the big fish sit, and how to fish them without burning the spot.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Tides: the overwhelming factor in Top End barra fishing

Springs, neaps, the back of the moon and the rule of twelfths — planning your barra fishing around the tide.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Transition areas: where one kind of country turns into another

Mud to rock, weed to lily line, mangroves to beach — why barra hunt where the country changes.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Warmer water: how temperature switches barra on and off

Cold snaps, warm mud and the midday billabong bite — how water temperature moves barra.

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Kakadu escarpment above still water
Know-How

Weed beds: two different fish depending on the season

Shelter in the cold, a staging edge in the heat — reading weed beds by season.

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Top-down view of a boat working a rock bar and shallow structure
Know-How

The Four Pillars of Top End Barra Fishing

The framework Watty uses to plan every session — Where & When, Wind & Weather, Time & Tide, Techniques & Tactics.

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Drone view over Top End barra country at first light
Know-How

Best Time to Fish for Barra in the Top End

A season-by-season guide — run-off, dry and build-up — and how to pick the trip that suits you.

Read the guide →
A boat working a glassed-off Top End river on a run-out tide
Know-How

The Tides Cheat Sheet

Every Darwin tide for 2027, colour-coded neap, building and waning — the planner Watty uses to line up the best sessions of the year.

Grab it free →
Three anglers laughing together over a barra in the mangroves
Podcast

Bag a Barra — the radio archive

Watty’s weekly Bag a Barra segment on Oz Off Road Radio — 236 of them, back to 2019, every one with a full transcript.

Browse the archive →
The Barefoot rig pulled up on a Top End beach at low tide
Radio

ABC Radio Darwin

The Fishing on Arvos spots with Liz Trevaskis on ABC Radio Darwin — audio and full transcripts.

Listen & read →

Every radio segment is transcribed in full — browse the whole archive, or jump straight to what Watty says about a subject.

Watch

Out on the water, filmed by people who were there

Sessions and appearances filmed by Starlo, Peachy and a few others. Used with each channel’s permission — if you like what you see, go and subscribe to them.

More on the Barefoot channel.

Sat down properly

Long-form interviews

ABC Radio Darwin

Fishing on Arvos

Wednesday afternoons with Liz Trevaskis and Rocky Edwards.

Every Friday, for years

Bag a Barra — 236 segments

Watty’s weekly spot on Oz Off-Road Radio — the full show archive lives over there. Pick a year below for the Barefoot segments, each one transcribed.

2026 35 segments
2025 42 segments
2024 27 segments
2023 30 segments
2022 21 segments
2021 31 segments
2020 40 segments
2019 10 segments

Browse by subject →  ·  Media Centre

As seen & heard on

Hot100 Darwin ABC Radio Darwin 2GB Sydney Fish & Boat Magazine IGFA Captain & Guide Barra Bass & Bream Magazine Fishing Australia TV

Reading about it only gets you so far

The rest of it you learn standing on the bow with someone who's been doing it since 2011.