Bag a Barra — 7 February 2020

OK, let's head to the Top End to Bag a Barra. With Glenn, what he watts, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris. And now me, Glenn, Watts is up there in the Top End, and it's great to catch up with her. We missed him last week, couldn't find him.

He went MIA on a tinny, I think. Watty, how are you, mate? Yeah, that's right. It actually, that is dead, dead right.

I was out fishing when you tried to call me, I think, unfortunately. Yeah, we need to put some towers out there on some barges or something, mate. That'd be nice. Anyway, then again, that's half the fun of going fishing, your phone doesn't work.

You don't have to be answering the phone while you're reeling in those big ones. Mate, this week. I mean, just before we get into it, the wet season, mate, we're getting our own little wet season down here at the moment, how's it going up there? Yeah, I'll be watching that with a bit of envy.

Actually, we're we're into a bit of a dry period at the moment for the last, um, sort of 10 days or so. We just, we're still getting our afternoon storms, but uh, we're actually looking for a um decent dump of rain over the weekend, so fingers cross that comes through and just tops up all the systems. The river levels are fluctuating nicely with every rain. Now, we just, we like one more big one just to fill them up and get them, get them high for a while and flood it up onto those floodplains properly just to keep that life cycle going and and kick everything into gear for us there sort of in a couple of weeks time.

Yeah, that's what you want. Yeah, well, we're getting, we're getting it in some places where they definitely need it uh around New South Wales and Queensland, which is good. So, um, I mean, there's probably, probably plenty of other places still dry, but it's good to see some rain falling around the place and there's a heap of it happening right now as we speak. Mate, you want to talk about preparations.

So preparing to go on that to get out there and catch those big barras. Yeah, that's right. Like, I've been reflecting on this a little bit since that trip we did last week. Obviously, I've spent the last 3 months really preparing for my next, uh, sort of 4 months, I suppose.

Um, and, and it's the big stuff, but it also comes down to the little stuff, um, to the point where, you know, last Thursday, and myself and a mate, we, we'd wash the tides, we'd wash the river heights and everything, and, and we're tied up to a tree, and I said to Fuzzy, this is when it's going to happen, mate. Get ready to throw that rope if we get a big one, you know, showed him how I tied it onto the bow of the boat, and he looked at me a bit stupid, looking thinking I was full of, but, um, you know, 5 minutes later, he was throwing the rope and were chasing a metre barr down the river. So there you go. Yeah, unbelievable.

Don't think you'd have a mate named Fuzzy. Yeah, yeah, but he's a good deckhand and he saved that fish for me. He's a good deck end. So, mate, because there is a bit of prep, and I'm tipping that you'd be, you'd always be replacing gear and upgrading your gear and stuff like that, but there is a bit of preparation, especially if you're going for some of those, those big, you know, big fishing expeditions.

You got to really profess, like anything, when you do a trip in a caravan or a camper or you take it off on a four-wheel drive, you prepare for that trip. So, mate, preparing for a fishing trip would be no different. No, absolutely right. It comes down to very small details for me and luckily I've got a bit of time to prepare for it.

Um, you know, down, down to showing someone how to untie, not if we need to in a hurry, but, yeah, people look at the big picture and make sure the tyres are right on the car, but, you know, if you, if you haven't done the small things right, you're, you're looking for just as much trouble, I think. Yeah, that's exactly right, mate. When you do go out, what do you how much gear do you take? Have you one of these blokes that take a whole hoop of rods or you just take one or two?

Yeah, no, I take plenty of gear, always, always try and have um contingency plans, uh, you know, back to plan C sort of thing. Um, but it's to a large degree. I've got it figured out a bit now where I can predict what's going to happen and I do have those plans in place. But yeah, I mean, that's all, that's a big part of it as well, doing your research and figuring out exactly what you might need to do if plan A doesn't go to plan.

Well, I'd be on the plane, Z. I mean, I got all the gear, Watty, but no idea, son. Yeah, that's, that's how I feel sometimes too every now and then when, when you find yourself a plan dead, but you know, that happens to us all, mate, even the best. Yeah, exactly mate.

How did you go last week anyway? Did you get any? Yeah, so we got a, we got a few um sort of legal sized Barrow, those sort of good fun sized fish and then that one big one and then we pretty much, after that, um, tried to empty the SQ as fast as I could and see what else was going on in the river. I wasn't too worried about it after I got that meat bar in the boat, mate.

Yeah, straight to the pub. All right, mate. Well, sounds good. Well, I guess it'll all start getting busy for you soon.

So you just need that one more big heap of rain and then and then things might drop off a bit and then you can start getting back into it. Yeah, that's the one. fingers crossed. All right, mate.

Well, we'll let you go because I know you're busy and I know you're probably sitting in the car park at the pub, so you'll need to get in, you'll need to, you'll need to get in there. It'll open soon. Don't worry. And you get in there and wash down the, you know, the day and the night or whatever it is you do up there.

All right, you're a good man, Watty, take it easy, mate. and we'll catch you next week. We might start telling people about some spots. Yeah, mate, good on you.

No worries at all. Have a good weekend. Good on you. And that was our man, Watty.

and don't forget, you can check him out on Facebook. Just look for Barefoot Fishing Safaris. He's a good man. And I mean, he goes out for a casual fish and just comes home with a heap of barramundi.

I mean, how good is it up there? Anyway, he certainly got his finger on the pulse. And like you said, you've got to prepare for all these things and it would be no different either. I mean, you prepare for everything, you do.

Especially, you know, especially when you get out there and have a bit of a crack, a bit of an adventure. And I mean, all your trips you do and all those weekends away and things like that, we all prepare and I'm tipping when you go fishing, especially for some of the big things that he goes for, you've got to prepare for that as well.