Fishing on Arvos — April 2026

And it is a cast of almost 1000s today, Captain Woody, safely back from East Alligator. Rocky Edwards from down the road at the shop. And on the line, fresh from a successful trip to the Vic River, president of Affant and dad of Trent Dewitt. It is Warren DeWitt.

Hello, Warren. Hi, good afternoon, Liz. Last song you just played is the perfect song for what is about to happen with our runoff. You ain't seen nothing yet.

Ah, yeah. Very nice. And did you, what, you've already had a taste of what's to come out on the Vic River yesterday, was it? Tell us what happened and I'll get the experts to ask you some informed and sensible follow-up questions.

Yeah, well, the boat ramp only just opened on Saturday. So I took the opportunity to go out on Monday, Tuesday, just to have a look and see what the river's like and see what uh run-up was. It wasn't a lot of runoff left actually. The vic itself hasn't had a lot of rain down on that bottom section.

It has rained or has flooded the big river up top, but it certainly hasn't done too much down the bottom. So there wasn't a lot of runoff, but what runoff we did find, had a lot of barrel with them, which was really good fishing. I've thrown it over. I've thrown it over to Watty. Like, go on, ask a question about...

I'm a bit worried, actually, because it's April Fool's Day, whether Warren's actually saying it's, you know, it was like, it was good, but, you know, there's not much going on there. It's probably the old switcheroo he's trying to see. Well, here's, I'll tell you. I called him yesterday. and he was on the way back and he said he was about to go home to seek permission for another day back on the river.

So the fact that he told me this yesterday suggests to me that he's not pulling our legs. That right, Warren? No, definitely not pulling your leg. No, it was really good fishing. We caught a roughly between 60 and 70 Barra for the 2 days.

So it was really good fishing. Um, especially of an afternoon when the tide dropped out and you had the uh, moon up and we were using fizzes of an night time and I, those who have uh, used fizzes for fishing for Barrow would know just how much fun that really is and and uh, watching those Barrow smash those poppers and fizzes on the surface really is tremendous. And also using your active target, which is uh, obviously that new technology that's now available, you can actually watch the Barrow come underneath your popper, pause it, and next. Bull, you've got this mighty explosion on top of the surface. So it was really great fun. Oh, Warren, that is the sound of fish.

Haven't heard it. Talk about this. Fishing segment all year. Can you tell me, though, what a fizzer is?

Yeah, it's the surface lure that's got 2 props either end, which makes a fizzing noise basically on the surface, imitating a mullet or a baked fish fleeing across the surface and that's what attracts those bower up to the surface of that noise? A popper pops across the surface and you've sort of bloop it or stop and start it where a fizzer, you do similar thing, but it just, it has 2 props which make a lot of noise, a lot of fizzing on the surface, which really does excite those fish. And obviously the best thing to do is you, you, you stop it for a couple of seconds at the most and then you go again and that, that also entices that strike from that barrow. It's a symphony of sound out there with all the popping and the fizzing and the buffing.

I just got to tell you, 1st thing in the morning, like, we slept on the boat overnight, and it was the most fantastic 2 nights with the clear weather. It was actually 17 degrees. I was looking for a jumper. It was that cool.

I noticed a weather. an April fall. I don't remember that. that is true.

It was 17 degrees. It was really really funny. And it was absolutely great weather to sleep in our night time, but 1st thing in the morning, at about 6 o'clock, I could hear that noise that Barrow make when they're feeding just on daylight, and the whole river in that one place that we're at was just going berserk. So we jumped out of bed.

By the time we packed up, got out of Lewis, 1st 5 cars, 5 barrow in a row. So that's how many fish were going berserk here. It was really good fun, actually. Did you bring many home?

Are you, it's Good Friday on Friday. fish for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at your place, Warren. Yeah, I did bring a couple home. Obviously, we let the majority of my go, we kept one or 2 just for to bring home for dinner because you don't need to catch a lot of fish.

I just basically, if I can make an excuse, not having many bower in my house. I can go fishing more often. So if I drink too many home. I'll get locked down.

So by saying that we haven't got any fish and I've got to go fishing again. I can scoot back out there again, which I'm going to do in the next couple of well, in the next few days, I hope. Warren DeWittney is the president of AFANT, a very successful, uh, successful trip on the Vic River fishing yesterday. Warren, how do you go filling out the car with fuel?

And how much does how much petrol does a boat use? Do electric, what I want to get to is electric boats. Is that the future? No, no, that's not the future.

No. Do you see Rocky just shaking her head so hard here in the studio, Warren? No definitely not. I mean, it, look, you do it.

you pay for it. It is what it is and you just, you know, you're going out there to go fishing and you just, you know, you just wear the costs. It's just part of a parcel of doing something you love. And that's that's the cost and you have to just do it.

You may not go as many times, maybe, if it does get too expensive, but, um, this time of year, um, is the best time for people to go out fishing. Obviously, the runoff this year is going to be sensational in all the rivers and obviously the Daly and the roper are still too high, so it's going to make a little bit harder for this weekend for people to find places to go, but definitely the vic. And obviously, Moddy will be able to tell us about the South alligator and what they were like. But, um, definitely the big river's ready to rock and roll.

Yeah. Well, what do you were out at the south and Warren, hang on there. You can throw a question at Wadi if you want. You had a good trip.

Yeah, we just, in fact, I was almost going to skip this segment today so that I could stay out there for a fish on my own, which is pretty rare for me, but it really did start to switch on those. The last couple of neap tide days just allowed the south to really drain out quite fast and it pulled a heap of bait off the flooded floodplains into the main feeder creeks and the main river. And then as the tide got bigger and started backing that water up in the last couple of days, it just really lit up and you can sit at the very 1st creek from the boat ramp and catch 40 bar in the day easily, as well as watch those crocodiles eat buffalo for breakfast, which was pretty cool. Yeah, you sent me a clip of this, Archie. We're having a look at it last night.

Archie was like, whoa, is that what really happened? What's happening? And I'm like, is this just the, that's just always what's happening? Crocs feeding on Buffalo, but that's not like every fishing trip you'd get to see.

No, you don't get to see it very often. I've seen it a few times in over the years, of course, but yeah, it's always pretty cool to watch, you know, there was at least 10 fairly big crocodiles there chewing on that small buffalo and who knows how he ended up in that sort of situation, but it's all over him now and there's some pretty hungry or pretty fat crocodiles because of it. I've seen a couple of them. I've missed one just being taken on Corrobory Billabond.

We come around the corner and a lot of boats were stopped watching and the cow was still alive being death rolled by about 3 or four, being death rolled and it's still mooing and there's tongues and ears and it was in one way it was, 0 my god. But another thing it's fascinating to watch because what we noticed was the big crocodiles are in 1st doing their thing, drowning the animal. And then there was like on each sort of circular perimeter, there'd be the next size and then the next size right down to the little ones all waiting for their little bit. But if you got too close, it can be quite aggressive and come at your boat.

So you have to keep your distance. But it's very interesting because another trip I did on Crawberry as well. We saw a lot of crocs up on, out of the, well, not out of the water, but up on top of the surface, all heading one direction, and then about, oh, probably half a K down, a cow being taken. So they're moving from a long way away, but they already know something's going on and the same in the other direction coming towards the other way.

So, you know, there's they can hear and see everything, those things. Warren, you would have seen a few buffs being eaten for dinner out and about. I've seen a lot of cattle get taken out on the Vic River at times, especially at the end of the dry season when they're going down to the water to drink and they get bulked and they're very poor themselves. So they're basically stuck in the mud. And over the years, I've tried to pull many of them out with a rope and try to drag them up and get them up to climb up on a bit of a more of a rocky ledge, but...

Just because you know what their fate will be if you don't. You come back the next day and you see they're being dragged back down and obviously floating out the middle of the river. Have you pulled many out? Do that?

Yeah, we have. Yeah, over the years, when I used to do fishing safaris out there, would be up there quite often at that buildup time, but you quite often see those poor cows very poor, getting stuck in the mud and you pull them out and manage to drag them around the corner and up onto a rocky ledge and get them up up the bank and they were okay and got away. But there is on occasions where they don't have enough strength to keep going and obviously they're at the peril of the crocodiles. Yeah, well, good on you.

Warren, Warren DeWitt, president of AFANT, joining us for a bit of Wednesday, fishing and bull is what I call the segment. I don't know if I've ever called it that out loud. I'll let you go, Warren. lovely to talk to you.

It is 23 past 3 on 1057 ABC. Darwin, you nearly missed the segment, Woody. And look what I did for you to thank you. for the effort of coming back from the actual fishing and catching a fish.

Tell the people what I've done. Well, we're leaning up against the bar here in the ABC studio today. It creates a whole different environment doesn't it? Stand up, out of my seat.

Usually I get up out of the seat if there's a good song. actually thought you were a bit taller. And I thought you were shorter. I've never actually stood up in the same room

as one another. I've actually, I had to start the segment on my tippy toes to make it work, Rocky. There's something missing. It's almost like we're leaning on the bar, but there's no...

There is something missing. All right, next week. But look, we're rising in levels. Hey, we've got a question from a listener.

Andrew's texted in to say, what about fishing the culverts? Is that a good idea? Andrew, I'm going to go ahead and say yes, because based on what social media has told me lately, there's been a lot of COVID fishing, Rocky. Yeah, we're hearing a bit of it. Yeah, it's been a little hit and miss sometimes.

But yes, there has been particularly a lot of smaller barra, the COVIDs that have been pulled out. You know, sort of good reports coming from those that have been on the rivers, like Adelaide River, South, and of course, Warren's Report. So, but yeah, for some people that are landlocked or land-based, they're hitting the cold, it's heavily as much as they can. But there was some footage on Facebook where someone was going through some, some sort of crossing, put the, put the lure out of the driver side window and he landed a little barrow, baby barrow.

trolling out of his windows. Oh, love it. I mean the territory. It is the long weekend coming up.

What's everyone's, what are everyone's plans? Are you heading out, Rocky? No, I'm not. I've got about 5 weeks of fishing coming up, so I'm just reserving, waiting.

So getting some things done on my boat while I'm waiting, so I'll do that. And then I'll disappear for quite a long time. I'll have a big event then. And what are you down to Victoria to catch some? I'm a bit torn because I haven't done the Watt family camp for 25 years, so I'm really looking forward to that.

And yeah, nice feet of local redfin and lamb chops from Western Vic, but at the same time, mate. If I could go back out to South Alligator tomorrow or this afternoon, I'd definitely be doing that as well. So, yeah, it's the biggest tide for the month on Saturday. So it's going to be absolute cracker tides for Barrow fishing anywhere you go across the Top End this weekend.

It is April the 1st. It is April Fool's Day. I don't know if you guys heard this one from the ABC. Social media producer Mahi Garbus.

Usually I come up to the Top End to relax, but not on this trip. Couldn't drive back in time, so I missed me and Mrs. B Day. Well, ex, Mrs. Now. Court conjunctivitis after a game of footy with the lads.

My piss turned orange from drinking so much Gatorade because I didn't have a kettle to boil my water, dropped a case of beers when I saw a crock outside the Bottolo, had to go to the Bank of Mum and Dad to cover me petrol, and I used up on manual leave. Then, driving back to Victoria, less than an hour out of Catherine, I hit a pothole. Mr. Laff didn't have reception on his phone to call for roadside assistant, so he decided to kill time by pulling out his fishing rod and practising his flip and pitch technique in the potholes surrounding his bogged four-wheel drive. I felt a pull on the rod and thought, oh, just me luck, I've lost my best lure to a smelly boot.

Catherine local Brent Withers was the 1st to spot Mr. Laff on the Stuart Highway and pulled over to assist. I saw a man jumping up and down, screaming like a banshee, holding a fish over his head. I pulled over because I thought I was hallucinating and needed a rest. Mr. Withers told the ABC.

Look, I don't expect him to split the winnings, but he can pitch in for gas, he added. When I saw he was going to spend the $1000000 prior. Mr. Laff said, oh, this is absolutely life changing. It'll cover a good chunk of me hex.

At this rate, I could have it paid off in 15 maybe even 10 years. You haven't heard that. No, I read it this morning. I was raging.

I was like, that's this can't be right. What sort of a post is this? And then I got to the bottom and I was like, ah, got me. It was Victorian man, Chester Laugh, and ABC Darwin reporter, pull your leg.

I worked visually. It's harder to say. Did you get the people on your social? What was yours?

I had even had my weekly podcast interview with another guy and he believed it on live radio this morning. I am Barefoot's transitioning into a um urban earthing and um Chai latte tour away from boats and Barramundi or something. I don't know. The robots wrote it for me.

Liz, I just copied that. I've seen Woody from the 90s and I would like it. wouldn't be totally surprised. Yeah, well, I'm quite holistic individually.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a chai latte out on the boat. Barefoot Fishing Safaris. All makes sense. Hey, have a really lovely weekend, long weekend, have fun down in Victoria with the red fin fishing and the, what is it?

What season is it? Is it a cold season? and marshmallows. Yeah, it's pretty cold down there.

be nice. Nice, nice and snuggly. Lovely to see you both. I'm going to try and stay standing up at the desk for the rest of the program.

See if I can cope. Rocky Edwards from the fishing and tackle shop just down the road. Captain Watty from Barefoot Fishing Safaris and we had Warren DeWitt as well.