Fishing on Arvos — 11 February 2026

We've got Captain Watty and Captain Rocky in in the studio, in our little makeshift studio boat. Good afternoon to you both. Afternoon, mate. Good to be here.

Hey, we've got a lot to cover, as is always, the way with territory fishing. Let's start though. I believe you were listening to Graham Kirby, our wildlife, volunteer about some concerns that he's had about discarded tackle that some birds have been found caught up in that. Is that something that you guys have been seeing a lot or people talk to you about?

Uh, yeah, I mean, it's a, I guess it's a bit of an ongoing thing, like Graham said, there's um, there is numerous tackle bit, tackle bins around Darwin these days, and they perhaps haven't been emptied uh, as often as they should be at the moment. I did just make contact with some of our other AFANT constituents on the way in and I found that they were supposed to be emptied on the weekend, but someone got really sick, so couldn't do it. But the other side of that story is that there's also plenty of normal rubbish bins all around the place and people can just take it in their bags. So it's perhaps less the responsibility of the bin emptier than the individual.

And then you've got the other issue of people getting snagged on high tides or across the other side of a creek and actually can't retrieve that line until a low tide or then it does get tangled up in something too. So there's a few moving parts there, but rest assured it's going to, all those bins will be empty by the end of the week. That is good to hear. Thank you, Captain Watty.

Well, we're Wednesday. I'm usually the Saturday Brekie presenter, though. So it's feeling a little bit like the weekend for me personally. And, you know, the weekend, it's a great time to go fishing.

Where are the spots looking good? Well, like... Recently, this is the shop talk is there's been a few out at South Alligator, and they've been getting some nice fish. So maybe that's worth a go.

Yeah, I think so. There's a couple of Darwin YouTubers or Jabaroo YouTubers that have been putting a few videos up of lots of smaller fish up on the floodplains, particularly, and the south would, that'd be where I would head. Places like Shady Camp and that sort of thing with this big flush, you'd probably find less fish up the top, more out towards the mouth and on the coastal areas, especially with these weird tides that we've got Hutton and starting tomorrow, they're rock, eh? Yeah, we've got very strange tides.

Some people have never seen these tides before. So tomorrow it's just a 2 tide day, which is very odd. And the following day, a 5 tide day, and of course, on Saturday, a 3 tide days. very unusual.

Yeah, so it'd be interesting to see how that goes. So it'll be running in all day, won't it, tomorrow? Yeah, running in all day until 4.30. Only 2 metres or so of movement, which is really unusual, and I'm a bit of a tide chart nerd, and I hadn't even noticed this one, but I think it would have otherwise been a 3 tide day apart from the tide changes at 1201.

So just a little technicality there, but it is strange. to have a 2 tied day and so neat for the next couple of days. So really good if you're looking for some for some clean water and less movement. So do we know what?

is behind these weird tides or is it just the quirks of the territory? They like to throw us some weird things sometimes, the elements? Well, it's the moon is behind what's behind the tides and and the moon doesn't line up with with our diurnal calendar, I suppose. So, yeah, it does whatever it does and we sort of fit in around it and we build these things called time and measurement around the moon, which just does what it does.

But yeah, it just happens to fall. And it is weird to have two, 3 tied days within a couple of days of each other. Usually that happens once every 8 days or so. So, yeah, it's an interesting little anomaly in the tide chart.

Yeah, interesting. I am not a fisher per se. My partner is getting into it. I bought him a very glamorous fishing rod for his birthday last month, but he is not having a whole lot of luck.

So I'm selfishly wanting to pick your brains, both of you, for any tips and tricks on for fishing newbies, uh, because yes, he fished a lot when he was a kid up here. Um, but I think he had the, the, the guidance of his grandad is a very keen fisherman to help him through. So one of your tips and tricks for beginners. I think it depends whether you're lamb-based fishing or you're in a boat because it's 2 different things.

That's a big difference for sure. Yeah, so if he's lamb-based fishing, you know, it's about what the tides are doing, I guess, if you're around the coast, like around the foreshores and stuff like that. There's a wonderful little thing called the land-based fishing guide that you can get in most tackle shops and that is just a gem for anybody that is lambose fishing because it tells you where the spots are, what you might expect to catch and how to catch them. It's quite a good little book.

Um, that's, that's probably the biggest tip I would get if you're land-based. If you're in a boat, you would suspect he's in with other people in the boat. The other thing is just go to your tackle stores because people in there will give you the good oil because they want you to be successful. We want people to come back in the shops and say, we caught something.

We followed your, you know, advice and we, we were successful. Yeah, absolutely. It's so exciting. And you know what the other thing doesn't hurt is to just flick a little message to any Darwin fishing guides on Facebook or Instagram as well. I mean, most of us are sitting around at the moment, not doing a hell of a lot and keen to chat a bit of fishing as well.

And, you know, anyone who's a good Darwin local would be happy to share a few sort of basic tips and tricks. But yeah, floodplains is probably the easiest one right now and culvert fishing for land base. Yeah, I heard some Colbert fishing on the Arnham Highway, a lot of rats and stuff, but the odd big ones there, they're just a little bit more elusive because they're sitting in and under the bridges. Yeah. So they're a bit harder to get to, but certainly a lot of rats around the edges there.

So that's worth a flick. It's always good fun, always. Just got to watch out for those crocodiles, don't you? The one that walks straight up past the Culverts and right up to the thirsty camel bottle shop at Humpty 2 the other day.

There was a story a few, quite a number of years ago um on that Culvert that's just, just before the South Alligator River, quite a, quite a famous cola. quite popular with the locals as well. Some guys here in a troopie were catching Barron, throwing it in the back of the troopie doors open, you know, how it is, at night, and someone heard a bang, and what it was was a crocs come up, and jumped, leapt into the troopie to get himself her feed. So they didn't hear him come up.

They didn't hear anything until he actually went banging to the back. Yeah. So they're about. You've always got to be crock wise.

That is the 1st thing that should be on your mind. You might have ended up on the barbeque too. Hey, I don't mind a bit of barbecued croc. Good afternoon to Nat in Woology who says we did our 1st overnighter at Shady over the weekend, packed the bug spray, and Nat is wondering, how is Lita's Creek looking for the weekend?

Do you guys know about? Well, yeah, I mean, leaders creek usually fishes pretty well on neap tides and it doesn't get a hell of a lot more neat than what we've got coming up on the weekend. There'll be a bit of fresh pushing out, so there perhaps won't be too many crabs in there, but there's a couple of spots where the bar and Deweys will sit down deep on those bends and stuff there, any of the collapsed banks and things. Yeah, that nice incoming tide in the morning would probably be a real good chance for that.

Now, the question that I have been want- I've been so curious to ask both of you. I've dubbed it that we're going to be talking about poetry rather than poetry, poetry, because I want to know, what do you do when you need to do a poo on a boat, but there is no loo. Huh? Poetry?

The short of it is a good sized bucket. And I say a good sized bucket. Not a collapsible bucket either. No, no, no, we've had that one.

We've tried that one. The bucket is the way to go, but look, people have often jumped onto the back of the boat onto the transom and done the, you know, the bend over. Um, and that's that can be tragic because you could slip and fall or not quite make the water. Yeah, or have it wash around your feet and ankles if you're tied up to a tree and not moving anywhere.

There used to be a thing on the tinny that was an advice guide about how fast you should be idling the boat forward depending on whether you wanted a bid A or not. So yeah, perhaps we need to dig that up somewhere. There was a famous story from one of our former Darwin fishing guides who used to drive half a dozen big blue boats around that needed to go one morning and went off the bow of the boat with his clients on the boat, which was a bit of an interesting choice. No, you're kind of forced to. Yeah, that's not a movie.

Yeah, look, I think it's really important. But look, sometimes, and I've had this where someone has taken stuff out of the boat the night before, for whatever reason, and didn't put the bucket back in, didn't think we'd need it. And one of my crewmates was quite a large man, not large, but tall and big. And he was desperate to go and had probably eaten too much the night before we could not find the bucket. So the next best thing was a plastic bag, you know, your shopping bags.

And so he does his business and then it's like, it stunk and we thought we can't have this. We didn't know what to do about it. But, um, yeah, it's tied up to a tree and get it on the way home. Well, look, yeah, we didn't know what to do.

We weren't in the right sort of boat to be able to store it anywhere. I can picture that boat. You know the boat. Yeah, and it's like, what are we going to do?

So anyway, we were, we couldn't move. We're in a competition. We're on the spot. We're on big fish, we couldn't go anywhere.

So we thought, well, look, what we'll do, just throw it into, There's some reeds on the bank until we're finished. And it got trapped in the reeds. There was a float that had been there for days trapped in the reeds, and we thought, it'll be fine.

We'll leave it in the reeds, and then when we're ready to go, then we'll retrieve it, and we'll figure it out on the way home. So um, but we forgot about it. And the next day, we've turned up to the same spot and you wouldn't believe it. The plastic bag was still there with this old float.

And of course, there was apparently corn. So it got nicknamed the corn patch. And we just used to joke about, because we, you'd never told people the real names of places that you were, but the nomads that used to come and talk to us worked out. We were talking about this place called the Corn Patch. So it's now actually known by the nomads on the Daly as the Cornback.

That's not the pub on the top of the Douglas Daily, which is colloquially known as the corn patch, is it? No, it's further downstream. Yeah, it's an interesting decision to make when there's probably several other boats around within casting distance of you as well. But yeah, you can't help it, can you?

You got to go? Yeah, well, the boat we were in that year is a Skeeter. So there is really nowhere to hide. There's no gunnels.

Nice carpet though. No strangers on a boat, is there? No, that's right. It's a very quick way to to make friends.

The ultimate relationship test. And also the ultimate test, how much do you really need to go? Yeah, some people just get gun shy. They think they want to go and they try and go and then nothing happens because, I don't know, subconsciously it's like that.

I know that I've fished all day and I drink a lot of water and I think, oh, I haven't weed. Oh God, I'm a bit worried about that because you're worried about dehydrating. And um, but you get back and I'm taking, say, scores up to the shed and the moment your foot goes on land, You're bust.

Absolutely, yeah, it's funny how your body can regulate it a bit, yeah. This was one story that fella by the name. of Steve told us a little while ago. Oh, hi, it's Steve again.

Last dry season. I was out off the bottle washer, we're hanging on the pic, and it was a bit ups and downsey, and I needed to have a poo. So I went to great lengths, to maintain my dignity, and climbed onto the rear pot of the boat, so I was squatting down next to the outboard, pulled my shorts down around my ankles, did a poo, and then a wave, just popped the poo back into my shorts. That is. Oh, Steve. is seriously unfortunate.

I was going to give a hot tip after that little grab, but I think it's pretty self-evident now, the best policy used to always leave your pants in the boat. Go down with no pants on. You don't want to not realise that and go pull them up in a rush and then you're wearing it for... That's also a trip hazard.

You're already like on your shows. Oh my god. Sorry, I've lost it. I've got the sense of humour of a 12-year-old, evidently, and talking about poo stories.

It's great. great content. Such great user engagement. Oh my God, it is indeed. Who's letting me behind the microphone?

Thank you both. I um, did you have any other poo stories that you wanted to share? I'm fishing for them Well, look, not necessarily stories, but...

Well, actually, I have a little story. I was fielding a women's team in the Bara classic and this was probably about 15 years ago and we were quite new to the comp and we're one of the only all female teams and I was driving and my crew mates were facing me. And um, as I've come around the bend, there's a boat that side on and there's somebody on the back of the boat, backing one out. And I went, oh, don't look. And of course, You can't help it.

They couldn't help. One was actually a former ABC radio broadcaster, Julia Christensen, and of course they turned and looked. And all I heard was squills and it's like... That's why you're supposed to have a horn in your boat, so you can really give them a hurry up. Yeah that's right.

Yeah, the schools is enough. I do have a little hot poo tip, actually, because I spend a couple 100 days a year on the water for the last 15 years. And the number one is to have baby wipes, compostable disposable ones, of course, in the fridge, not in the esky because they get a bit too soggy, but in the fridge, which is, of course, great for, you know, wiping a bit of sunscreen off the face if you need to, cool baby white, but also good for the number 2s off the transom as well. So a little luxurious treat.

And having a deck wash helps. A deck wash, yeah. If you can't do the 9 knots, bid A trolling speed. Once recommended on tales from the tinny here.

Oh my god. Well we've covered a lot. Just then. Thank you both for coming in and for sharing your tips on where to head out this weekend and this week, the weird tides to look out for, particularly tomorrow, and of course what to do, if you need to do a number two, but there's no loo.

Poetry. Poetry. Uh, that is Captain Glenn Watty and Rocky Edwards, uh, on for our little fishing segment this Wednesday.