Bag a Barra — 27 September 2019

Okay, let's head to the Top End, to Bag a Barra. With Glenn, what he wants, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Well, what are you, you've, um, you've been promoted up the order, mate. Youve come straight off the bat at the top of the show.

How are you, mate? Yeah, we've been going well. Grand final week, duck, I suppose, so you got to bring the cream to the top, don't you? Yeah, exactly right mate.

The grand final. What are you into your NRL or AFL? What's the go up there? Oh, mate, I'm a Victorian originally, so I'm AFL, but yeah, there's a bit of a mixed up here.

Um, with like uh, state of origin is really big for the NRL, but um, probably predominantly played sport is the AFL stuff, yeah. Yeah, no fair enough. I know when they take NRL games up there, it's normally pretty big. Who do people in Darwin go for in the state of origin, Queensland, I guess?

Oh, a lot of them do. Yeah, but of course there's a lot of expats from New South Wales as well. So, yeah, it's a it's always a pretty big night down the local, that's for sure. Yeah, well, I think it's a big night down the local just any night of the week anyway, isn't it?

can you still get can you still get the Darwin stubby? Remember them? Yeah, no, you can't anymore. I think we drank them all.

Yeah, no fair enough. They were big, weren't they? The old Darwin stubbies. Yeah, 2 litres.

That was the go. You can still get it on tap in a couple of places, I think. But yeah, they stopped making Darwin Stubbies about 5 or 6 years ago. Yeah, right, okay.

2 litres, were they? Yeah. I've got a new bloke working with me here behind the scenes, young Ryan nodding, nodding his head with a smile on his face. Obviously, he had the odd Darwin Stubby himself in his day.

They were pretty good. I think I've got a, I think I might have even kept a couple of empty ones in the shed as a bit of a souvenir from somewhere. I have to go and have a look for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Great for putting your home brewing too because you only have to wash half as many bottles. Good stuff, mate. You get into the home brew, do you, mate? Well, I used to a bit down south, but the conditions up here sort of don't make it easy.

So, um, no, it's hit to buy the uh pre-made stuff up here. Yeah, no, fair enough mate. Well, mate, whereabout, I know you're about to take off. Mate, you want to take us fishing to the Dali River, mate.

Tell us a bit about that spot. Yeah, that's right. So the Daly River is, it's one of the most famous. Big Barrow rivers, I suppose, up here.

It's a very long river, and it, and it really is quite unique in its, um, I suppose scenery and how it's formed. It's predominantly fresh water and flows down through, it starts way back up the Catherine River and flows out to the sea down the west coast of Darwin there and it's absolutely chock full of crocodiles and big barrow and other amazing critters like um saw sharks. There's a great big stork, sir, that we get up here, freshwater shark. Yeah.

So it's a place that is pretty special. I'm actually heading down there this weekend to do a bit of hunting to try and put a buffalo in the freezer, so that'll be good. Just mashive, isn't it? If you're going hunting to grab a buffalo.

It's a great part of the world in which you live, mate. So it's not the sort of river you'd go swimming in. No, I think there is a Daly River swimming club where you used to have to swim across the one side of the pub to the other, and I don't think there's too many in the actual club, actually. You make the 1st lap and the 2nd one when, when we, um, the adjudicators come in, and, uh, you know, as, um, crocodile turned down the bottom of the river.

Oh, mate, I mean, like you say, it's a great part of the country, but it certainly does have its risks and, mate, you don't think there's too many members in that swim club. So she's not like the Bondi icebergs or anything. No, that's right. Is there clear of that a bit these days?

Of course, the crocodile population's right up again, which is great and it's a big draw card for our fishing charter clients as well. So, most of the time, when we're down there, it's a, it's a really, really popular destination for this runoff style fishing we do in March, April, May. This is the stuff that's booking out now um to get organised for next season. So, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's really popular um, place for, for chasing the Big Barrow, and it's where 3 or 4 of our major fishing comps are held up here every year as well during that April, May time.

Yeah, right, okay. So you'll be doing that, what, in a tinny? I do that in my boat, so my boat's 6.7 metres long, 5 a glass banana boat, and um, and yeah, I mean, like we fish 4 out of that, and and we do big groups as well, um, and we bring other boats, other guys in to do that, but yeah, there's plenty of grey nomads, um, that get down there as well. um there's uh half a dozen really well-appointed caravan parks along the Daly just out of town. and um yeah, they tend to get around in sort of 3.5 metre tinnies and and have no troubles, you know, like it, it's, it's that old um thing, you know, where if you just respect the crocodiles, they definitely don't sort of come chasing after you and, and that sort of thing.

But um, yeah, you can, you can fish it in, in any vessel, and it's just a beautiful place to explore as well. There's a lot of culture down there and a lot of um history for defining and of course all the stations that still operate down there. Yeah, sounds fantastic, mate. Really does.

I mean, what a beautiful part of Australia to be there. Mate, when will it start to change in the weather? I mean, with the wet seasons is on the way. When does that sort of start to kick in and things you feel the change in the air there?

Look, it has started. I mean, yesterday was probably the 1st significant change we felt. We had rain in certain areas of Darwin yesterday, and it, and it was noticeably more steamy, and we're getting a bit more with dark cloud building up in the afternoon, which has been great. You know, the last few days has been excellent fishing.

I had a group of 4, a couple of days ago and um, between them. There was 22 blokes and 2 chicks and the girls won, I think, with 8 barrier out of the 12, so, um, they had a really great day. I went out for a half day yesterday on my day off to have a fish myself and try a few new techniques and we got 3 or 4 quick ones as well. So, it really brings, it starts kicking that um breeding cycle in, the change of weather and um, and you know, like I was mentioning about Dundee Beach last time.

The um, the C flaps off and it becomes, you know, the world becomes your oyster again. You don't have to worry too much about the wind. So, it's exciting time for um Darwinians because the crowds do dwindle a bit. We've got the $1000000 fish competition, which starts in the 1st of October, and um, and yeah, that we can get out there and have a fish away from, well, with not so many numbers of tourists, so it's actually good for us.

Did you have a crack in that? A crack at that, the women dollar fish comp? Yeah, so I register every year, and um, I haven't been lucky enough to come across one of the red tags yet, but there's, there's been sort of on average 10 to, say, 15 um, fish court each year, which have had the tags in them, and they're $10,000 tags, that, there hasn't been a $1000000 one court yet. But yeah, they've given away, you know, a couple of $100,000 in the last few years. Um, some blokes have caught 3 tags um, down the Daly River, actually, a couple of local blokes have caught 2 or 3 each. Yeah, incredible, mate, eh?

You're not one of them, mate. Who knows? You never know. You could be just a 1000000 bucks away, mate.

You never know. You might just jag. Yeah, you only one cast away from a 1000000 bucks up here. Yeah, how good is it?

Mate, just on your Barefoot Fishing Safaris business and people that want to head to the Top End and go out with an expert, there's your go, just Google Barefoot Fishing Safaris, what do you look after you? But with that, you obviously, you know, you talk about the tourists. Obviously, you get a lot of tourists. You get people who travel from, you know, just come up to go fishing and and will go out with you.

Yeah, absolutely. So, there's sort of, there's 2 or 3 distinct sort of phases we get throughout the year and that's a, this runoff time, which I'll talk about the Daly River, and when it's in full flood, throughout January, February, and it sort of stops raining around March, generally, the river starts to recede, and all those barrow come back off the floodplains, and the huge billbongs that, that sort of line the banks of it. And those guys that we're getting to do those trips, March, April, May, I don't really get any days off, um, do sort of 90 days straight and they're 3 to 5 day trips. And they're all the really keen guys, you know, that have been up for a day or 2 beforehand, say the year before, or a lot of them come back every year.

Once we leave that uh and get into June, July, August, September, we're really in the tourist market, so that's, that's when we, we're doing the, just one day trips and half day trips, as, as well as, as well as extended charters, but usually only a couple of months depending on the groups. And then, and then, say, 1st week of October, through to middle of December, we go back into those really keen guys, again, that want to do 3 or 4 days, and, and chase these fish that, uh, you know, congregating again at the mouths of the rivers to spawn, and that's when we really get access to the big fish again. So, that's what's happening now. We're getting ready for, I'm off on a mothership trip next week for a week up to Arnhem Land.

And then, yeah, it goes on and on and on till Christmas and then we knock off and have a rest. How good is it? Main up around Arnim Land as well. So we will struggle to get you on that, probably, on the phone.

Yeah, we might have to arrange that um previously. I can, we've got a light phone connection up there or um we knew I might be able to send you some smoke signals or something. Yeah, all right. All right.

Well, it sounds great, mate. And I'm tipping the Daly Waters pub would be part of the little tour as well, wouldn't it, for you? Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

Usually, um, when we're doing the Daly River stuff, we, I do mix in a bit of land-based fishing as well because it, it's, um, it's probably the best land-based fishing for barrier in the country down there. And um, yeah, you know, you just have to drive past the pub and I think it's actually illegal to drive past it without calling in. Yeah, good stuff. You don't want to be knocked off for, you know, it'll be fine for driving past the pub, do you, really?

No, that's what it was. You want to do is that typical salary. All right, good stuff. Okay, mate.

Well, it sounds, it sounds fantastic, mate. And you certainly do have one hell of a lifestyle made up there. And mate, I'm looking forward to getting up there and not only having a bit of a fish with you, but even a few beers would be good. Yeah, that'd be great mate. And look, like the thing that I really sort of try and get across to all that clients and these sort of things is that, that I really do love getting out of bed every day and going to work. So, for me, for me, I've never worked a day in the last 10 years because I do, I genuinely love it.

I love teaching people how to catch their 1st fish or, or if, you know, there's plenty of guys that want to just target the big ones as well, and we can certainly do that. So, yeah, I'm really fortunate in the way things have evolved for me that I get to, um, you know, spend time with awesome people throughout the year and and meet everyone from all over the track. So, you know, every time I drive south for Christmas, I call into all the clients' places and they take me for a fish too. So it really goes around, comes around. Yeah, well, no, I'll have to bring the shop there, mate.

We'll do the show from up there, I reckon that'll be the game. We'll talk to a sponsor, getting, get them involved and we'll bring up our gear and we'll do the show from up there. That'll be tops. I reckon you're right too.

good idea. Yeah, we might do that. All right, Watty, will you enjoy, mate? Enjoy your time on the mothership, our Farnham land as well.

I'm tipping that'll be hard to take. And we'll try and catch up with you next week and we'll see if we can't make some sort of contact with you. Otherwise, we'll catch up with you. tell us how good it was.

Yeah, we'll get that then, mate. No worries. Thanks for the call. Good on you, Watty.

and that was Glenn Watson. You can check him out. Barefoot Fishing Safaris.