Bag a Barra — 6 March 2020

OK, let's head to the Top End to Bag a Barra. With Glenn, what he wants, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Hey, now, man, Wadi up there runs Barefoot Fishing Safaris in the Northern Territory. He is. Oh, he's our go to man.

That's what we like to call him up there in the northern territory. How's the toilet paper supply up there, mate? I was just talking to another bloke about that before, Ducker. And he said, as long as you've got a big gumtree out in your yard, you're right.

And I said, well, I got a couple of them, so I should be sweet for a while. I'll be able to subcontract out a few leaves. Yeah, it's funny we were talking a bit earlier in the NT news, which I'm sure you have thrown over the front fence every morning getting delivered, you know, as you sit out there and read that, drinking your coffee with a hangover. I noticed they've printed a lot of blank.

I saw somewhere that they printed a lot of blank pages just in case there's a shortage up there. Yeah, they're always up for a Lafey NT news. A good publication. Actually, you can sign up and read it online for a dollar a week or something, I think, and it's well worth the read in the office where all the, uh, people down south.

There's always some good yarns in it. Yeah, actually, actually, it's the only newspaper that makes the news down south. I mean, it's not too many newspapers actually make the news, but the 18 news makes the news. It's very, very, very, very clever and it just, what it is.

It's a representation of the lifestyle and the attitude and the culture up in the Top End. fantastic, mate. And it's what I call the northern territory. the real Australia.

The minute you head there, you feel more Australian. It's just one of those places, whether it's up where you are, or whether it's, you know, you know, in the southern parts of the territory, obviously around Uluru and places like Alice Springs and all the places that there are to see and do there, the minute you get out there, it's the real outback. It's just something about it. It's just one of those places. And, uh, you notice, you notice of blokes like you who call it home certainly become different as well.

That's why we are a little bit different, I suppose. Mate, you want to talk about the Mary River? Yeah, that's right. I've just done a little bit of a whirlwind tour around a few of these rivers in the last few days because we had, I don't know whether you saw.

We had a bit of a cyclone event up here, which then turned into a tropical low and dumped a heap of rain everywhere. So I went from fish in the Daly River, which was one metre over the crossing, which your driver, um, to come back the next day, and it had risen 8 metres, and um, they were virtually unfitable. So, we did 2 days fishing there for nothing and then, and we've done a bit of a drive around. So we went to Dundee to find it too rough.

So we drive another 3 hours to Shady Camp, which is the main fishing area of the, um, on the Mary River. So yeah, it's another really popular um barrow fishing destination and probably one of the, one of the sort of most um prestigious up there with the Daly as well. Yeah, absolutely. And so, again, obviously, crocs, you got to be very, very crock aware.

Yep, definitely. Mary River is actually the highest density of saltwater crocodiles anywhere in the world. In fact, David did a documentary, um on it there at one stage. There's a time in, I think it's late August around one of the mood phases when the mullet moved from the freshwater to the saltwater and vice versa to do their annual spawn.

And I actually, I've been there at a time and there is salt oil crocodiles stacked up on the bank on top of each other. There are a couple 100 metres either side of the barrage, which is where the boat ramp is, and it's about the only time in the, or, or that it's documented that they really tolerate each other in their own space. and they just wait for this big feeding situation and I turned up there in a 12 foot tinny about 15 years ago with my brother and we were quite nervous, I can tell you. I reckon you would be.

Mate, when you, when you're putting your boat in at the boat ramps up there, do you, you see them hanging around the ramps? Uh, not often, there's certain places where they do. So Daly River's are generally fairly good. Um, Shady Camp, um, which is the Mary River is pretty good.

There's a lot of activity around the ramp there. So I think they sort of, they just stay back away from it. The one that is really dodgy and people need to be careful of is the East Alligator, the crocodile deck tails crossing there over into Arnham Land, there's, there's heaps of them there and they, they sort of, a bit cheeky and they, they do come up to the back of boats, around boat trails and stuff when you're launching retrieving there at the East Alligator boat ramp. So, they're supposed to be, yeah, supposed to be aware all the time, of course, but um, yeah, there is obviously hot spots for it. I could imagine, mate.

And especially if you're going, it was a 12 foot tinny. Yeah, that's right. So my brother, Dean, who now lives in Scotland, we, we, when we were 1st moved to Darwin, we had a 12 foot tinny with an 8 horsepower on the back of it, and we used to go fishing every chance, and yeah, we, we tucked the boat in, and we were sort of out on the river floating in amongst, um, you know, what you were sort of compared to a mob of cattle just floating around in the river, all these crocodiles, and they stacked on top of each other. But they weren't there for any other reason than to wait for the mullet, so they just ignored us.

We just, we just weaved our way through them and um, by the time we got back at the end of that day, they were gone. So, yeah, it makes you wonder where they'd go and she made you... are there and you don't know. Yeah, exactly right, mate. So the Mary Rivers, so it's a good place for a fish scene, is it?

Shady Camp sounds fantastic. Yeah, that's right. So Shady Camp, it's a bit of a misnomer, actually, not a hell of a lot of shade there. There's a few big old banyan trees back up in the campground, which um, which do provide a lot of shade, but also they provide shade for all the mozzies, which are about the size of a bloody kookaburra down there.

So you tend to sort of rather sit out in the sun than in there. But yeah, it's, it's, um, it's a really famous bar of fishing river. People come up here, would have a lot of people would have gone to corroborate Billabong. It's one of the main areas we take people during the dry season, but at this time of year,

There'll be, uh, every day of the week, there'll probably be a dozen blokes out there fishing on the weekends up to 50 or 60 boats, um, and within that, there's sort of half a dozen to, to 10, um, guided boats, which are there virtually every day, uh, this time of year and through until the end of May. So very popular area. Oh, good stuff, mate. And it is, we are heading into that travel season, and it won't be long before there'll be an influx of people from all over Australia heading, heading to your part of the world, and why wouldn't they be?

The Northern territory certainly is. I think, you know, it should be the bloody capital of Australia. I mean, it's that good up there. I love it, and certainly you're very, very lucky to be up there, not only living there, but working in an industry that you love, mate.

So, well done to you. All right, mate, well, the Mary River, we'll get people to put that one on the list as well, and as we do say, when you do go launching your boat in places like that, just be crockerware, and very mindful of your surroundings, mate, it is some of those places need to be treated with a bit of respect, especially, and you need to have a fair bit of respect for your own safety as well. But a great part of the world, mate. All right, mate.

Well, you next week, eh? Good on you, Doc. No worries. All right, there he is, our man, Glenn Watt.

You can check him out on Facebook. Just look for Barefoot Fishing Safaris, and he's always got plenty on that Facebook page, and a very good business, and about to get very busy once that dry season kicks in, and if you want to go fishing up in the northern territory, and who doesn't, it certainly is. It is the, I reckon there's got to be the fishing capital of Australia up there. Everyone loves Barramundi.

So you want to get up there. That's where you want to do it up there in the northern territory and what he can sort you out there, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.