Bag a Barra — 24 August 2019

You're listening to the camping and offroad radio show. Thanks to Oscar, Shimano, Spigwater and Ram Trucks. Now. Before we head up to the Top End, let me tell you about your next adventure, because it's waiting for you at the Sydney 4 Wheel Drive and Adventure Show.

I mentioned this earlier, 3 huge days. It's on for Eastern Creek. It will be the home to everything great for the great outdoors, camping, boating, fishing, four-wheel drive accessories, and a whole lot more. Experience the thrill of the stunt drivers from the Izuzu team D-Max, and tough dog ultimate rock sports, or get behind the wheel yourself on the four-wheel drive test track.

You can hear the experts. Check out the awesome exhibits like the JK super display, and the brand new caravan and camper trailer expo, or just share a yarn in their very own pub. How good's that? Plus, you can win the ultimate Kimberly experience, which I did talk to you about earlier.

Inspiration, discovery adventure. You'll find it all at the Sydney forward driving adventure show. So September 6 till 8 at Sydney Dragway Eastern Creek. Just Google, Sydney four-wheel drive show.

That's it, and you'll find all the info there. We'll be broadcasting from the terrain tamer stand as well. In the meantime, I did say that we go to the Top End and talk to a new mate of ours here on the show. What about this business?

How good does it sound? Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Glenn, what is the man who owns and operates that is going to be a regular on this program, and I thought we'd just introduce him to you this week. Watty g'day.

How are you, the duck? Mate, going all right? What's it like in the Top End today? Oh, mate, we're battling through another glorious dry season day, I suppose. It's about 31 with just a light breeze.

So yeah, we'll get through it. 30 odd degrees is a light breeze. It doesn't get much better than that. So, mate, just quickly tell us about Barefoot Fishing Safaris.

Yeah, mate, I thought, like you say, it is a bit of a boyhood dream of mine. I've been going for 9 years now and um, yeah, like it seems like yesterday that I started, it's uh, when you, when you can wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning, every morning, looking forward to going to work. You know, you're in a good place, I think. So, I'm, uh, yeah, every day, I'm probably spending about 200 days a year on the water. Uh taking um clients, mostly interstate um tourists um out fishing, yeah, for up to sort of one to 7 days. So, um, yeah, get to meet a lot of these sort of people that are hopefully going to be listening to us over the next coming time.

Yeah, so that's all right, isn't it? So there are actually safaris. It just not a day fishing, is it? They're full on, like you say, up to 8 days away, out there, and obviously after 9 years, you know where all the barras are.

Some of them, I reckon I've got named for them. They seem to be sitting on the same stick every time we go past there. So they're good for the backup when we're having a bit of a tough day. But yeah, we do, we start off with the um half day stuff for people who have just got to want to have a bit, dip the tow in the water, I suppose, so we do a 4 hour trip around Darwin Harbour, um, crabbing and fishing and things like that, and then, you know, we tend to find that a lot of people will come back for, for an extended charter, you know, yeah, like up to 7 days, let's say the following year or a couple of years later.

So it's good. Oh, mate, how good does that sound? Unbelievable, got me already. Fan Inca, man.

What is it? Mate, look at you, see, you've been at it for 9 years. Look, just a bit of a side question. Have you seen an increase in the number of crocs?

Uh, well, probably. yep, without sort of paying too much attention. I think it's definitely something that's inevitable to happen. They're probably going to.

get back up to their normal level that they were at um before we sort of came in and shot the hell out of them for years. So, um, you know, look, I actually think it's a good thing, uh, until they start interacting with people in the wrong way, and then obviously it becomes an issue, but, you know, there's, um, the tourism dollar, and just to be able to see such a, uh, prehistoric critter in the wild up here. Um, you know, very, you know, you can even do it in Darwin Harbour. We could see the Aquantas jets flying over the top here, you know, so we're really lucky up here.

very close to wilderness. Yeah, exactly mate. And like you say, I mean, a lot of the dramas with crocs, they can, I mean, look, they can get a bit of a bad rap and it's usually people that aren't educated around that.

I mean, you see people go swimming at the most ridiculous times and in the ridiculous, ridiculous places and forcibly it ends bad, it ends badly for them. And it's a shame and we certainly don't want, you know, people doing that. But that was just a bit of a side question. Mate, look, it's going to be great to have you on the show, and obviously we'll talk about fishing, fishing spots, and if people are heading to the territory, where they should go if they want to catch themselves at Barramundi, because obviously it's not the sort of fish you can just catch, you know, especially in the southern states. You need to get up there.

and get in their natural environment to get the big ones. I've had a look at your website. People need to check it out for themselves, Barefoot Fishing Safaris, and you'll see that some of the photos there and the size of those barrels, mate. They come in, they can come in a fairly, you know, they're fairly big, aren't they?

Some of them? Yeah, that's right. They get a bit intimidating at that big slide too. You know, we had a trip recently up to West Arnham land there on the partnership, we use Tropic Paradise, and yeah, for the week, uh, the 8 clients called 4 barrow over a metre with the, that one that sort of graces the front page of my Facebook there at the moment is a metre 17.

you know, it's a pretty scary fish at that side. Yeah, that's huge. I've seen that photo. All right, mate.

Well, we're only, we're short on time this week, but like I said, we'll get you on the program each week and we'll talk fishing in the Top End, and I certainly do look forward to doing that, and I can tell you now if you get certainly going to encourage me to get there. And it's been a while since I've been up the territory, mate, and I reckon after talking to you each week. It won't be too long before we get ourselves back up there and you'd be happy to know that actually the desk photo on my computer at home is a photo of the Northern Territory border at up near Camerwheel and I look at it every day thinking if only I was back there. So mate, we'll get ourselves up.

We'll get ourselves, we'll get ourselves up there and you can take us around and take us fishing, mate, but we'll do that every week anyway. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. should be a great thing. Good on you, mate.

And that was Anne Watty. what we're going to call him. Glenn Watt, who owns and operates Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Check him out online as well as social media, Barefoot Fishing Safaris, and he'll be a great addition to this program.