Bag a Barra — 26 June 2020

It's time to head to the Top End, and Baga Barra, with Glenn Watty Watts, thanks to Shimano. Remember to buy local and fish local. visit shimanofish.com.au. Hey, what, you'd be getting excited, wouldn't you, mate?

Oh, yes, we've got a few good things planned. I think, Duck, everyone, we enjoy listening to a few little shenanigans we get up to in the next couple of months, huh? Oh, I know. And I mean, you won't be able to rub it into me anymore.

There's, oh, it's, you know, it's 34 here today or it's, oh, it's 22 at night. You won't be able to rub that in, son, because I'll be there, and that'll be experiencing all of that for myself. And I've got to tell you what, you've got a bit of a surprise for you here because obviously for us to take the show on the road. There's a lot of work goes into that behind the scenes by a few people, and we certainly can't wait to get up there.

But that includes a bit of production. So that means we're going to do a bit of a sneak preview here. And although we won't be playing this until we do get up there, I'll give you a bit of a test run of what you'll be hearing whilst we're up there. Here we go.

All right, Dad. Yep. You're listening to the camping and off-road radio show. Broadcasting from the Northern Territory, thanks to tourism and tea. Oh, why the heck was that sound?

You like that? Oh, that's old, um, crocodile Dundee intro. Oh, you love that. You like that, mate.

Eh? I love that one. Yeah, it's good. Oh, I just turned that song back up a bit, Nick.

How good is it? Ah, we'll be doing it all. Talk about the full experience, doing the show from the Walk about Creek Hotel, and then up into the territory, you little ripper. Yeah, that's a little bad life, you got yourself sorted then, mate.

It was hard work, Watty, don't worry about that, mate. I'm actually working, mate, I'm build up a sweaty. Don't worry, son. Yeah, mate.

Just like you are. I mean, talking about life. How were you to tell anyone they've got a good life? Yeah, fishing every day in the Top End.

That's true. pretty good. Now, listen, we want to talk about Darwin Harbour today because it's, I remember we spoke about Darwin Harbour affair while we go and some people may not have heard it. Darwin Harbour.

Was it right you told me way back then that it's actually 6 times bigger than Sydney Harbour? Yeah, that's right, actually. Um, I did figure that out and um, it really is, at the place we spend a lot of time, particularly this time of year when we've normally got our sort of the true tourist season's kicked in and we've got a lot of, I suppose, mum, dad and the kids and young couples and stuff and we spent a lot of time out there doing half day and one day charters. But people who might not be as, I guess, keener experienced, but they just, they want to experience fishing in the Top End while they're up on holidays.

So it, it's a really great place. You know, we can be catching Barry Mundy and and um, looking at crocodiles, what, and, and when you look over the other shoulder and you see the quietest jet landing in the, in the city line. So it's a very special place. Yeah, plenty of, yeah, it's unbelievable.

Plenty of fish there in the harvest. You're guaranteed, you know, a good catch in the harbour. Yeah, not so much guaranteed. It does get a bit more pressure than other areas this um because of its location, of course, but um on the right tide and with the right techniques, you can certainly go out to catch expecting to catch a couple of Barra.

But there's always something there, you know, like we've got a lot of pelagic species that come in and out of the harbour, particularly through the, I guess, the dry season months when the water's cooler. So, if the barr aren't playing the game, you can figure that out pretty quickly and then just head out into the middle of the harbour and find some, find a bit of current or a bit of um, structure and you can, it's pretty easy to find some queenfish or travelly or tuna or mackerel in there as well. So, it's a good place to have plenty of backup plans. What about if you're just fishing off the land if you're standing on the bank or something or near, you know, or some sort of a jetty or anything?

How do you go with that? Yeah, there's a couple of very popular land-based fishing spots. Anyone who's into their land-based fishing probably all over the Facebook pages and stuff for these, which I don't know the exact names, but Mandora Jetty is one on Cox Peninsula and then there's blokes catching tuna and big Spanish mackerel and stuff off that every time you get a good bit of spring tide running through. All of our rocky points and foreshore areas are, um, places you can catch Barramundi on a, on a spring low tide, and then on the neck tide is a really fun thing that we love to do is take the kids down to the beach and catch some little whiting and, and other thi- little um, sort of bread and butter fish, I suppose, and, um, yeah, there's plenty of land-based options.

Obviously, during the wet season, they'd be a bit careful of jellyfish and that sort of thing and be mindful of stingrays and charts and crocodiles, but, you know, the same old story. If you don't get in the water with them you're pretty safe. Yeah, no, exactly right. Take your common sense with you, along with your fishing gear.

I say, and I'm not really an expert fisherman. Hence the fact I have you on the show. All right, mate. So Darwin Harvey, you would recommend that people travelling up in the Top End, they get to Darwin.

You can get out on the harbour and you're a chance of doing your rider there. Is there a boat hire and all that stuff up there? We can go and navigate the vessel yourself. Yep, there's plenty of boat hire operators around and very easy to find on the internet as well as there's sunset cruises and all that sort of stuff as well. But, that's the beauty of Dale and Harbour is that um, and I guess like a lot of places in the territory, it's not just about the fishing.

It's, um, you know, there's plenty of, um, history from World War 2 there as well as pearling and, and you know, the, the, um, traditional owner culture sort of side of things as well as, you know, it's a fully operational working port as well. So there's a lot of cool stuff to see even on top of the fishing. Oh, that's right. the whole experience and that's what we'll be bringing to people when we are up there and I can, I can tell people now that one of the places we'll broadcast up from up there is a suggestion that actually came from you, Watty, which is a pub that was actually bombed in World War 2 and a lot of history there.

And that's the thing most travellers like their history, and they like to look into it and see what happened in some of these places. I know, and it's all over the country. We've said it here many times. You just trip over it.

But up there, it's certainly, it's a very important part of our history, the fact that we survived, that certain period in our lives when we were bombed in World War 2 and we'll get into that a little bit while we're up there and certainly the plan is to broadcast from that pub you suggested, which is on the Adelaide River, isn't it? Yeah, that's right. The 303 bar. So, there was a big airfield down there and they got heavily bombed during the bombing of Darwin campaigns.

There was, you know, there was over 200 bombing runs by the Japanese and they had a fairly good crack of getting in, but it was, you know, luck and a bit of good management, um, kept them out of the front door and and we, we're here as we are now to tell the tale. But yeah, there's a, a lot of interesting stories around World War 2 around Darwin. There's some really great tours that people should all go on, and of course, the military museum out of East Point as well, really interactive experience, and um, something that we should all be, um, probably more aware of than we are, um, just as, as strange in general. Yeah, absolutely.

I totally agree. and they look forward to doing that. That's just one of the locations we'll be broadcasting from. But they might be all from pubs, obviously, but we want to do that one because of the significance of the fact that it copped an absolute hammering during the bombing rage in World War II.

So we look forward to doing that one there. All right, mate, we'll let you get back to it. And mate, we'll talk to you next week and then the week after that, mate. I'll definitely be talking to you.

Yeah, good on you, duck. I look forward to it very much. Oh, yeah, yeah, mate, mate. Just be careful.

Just be careful. Give you a run for your money, mate. Oh, yeah, I no doubt you will. In fact, you'll probably give me more than they run for me money.

You probably send me under the table. But anyway, that's all good. But you already climatized. Up there?

Oh, there were no excuses necessary. Then listen, let me tell you something. All right, listen. Just don't put the old fella down here, you might be surprised.

You know, I know one thing. The next day, the next day when you're on your hands and knees looking for water, I'll be saying, what, what's doing, pal? Get up. Play up, back up, son. Old soldier, mate. Don't worry about that.

Old soldier, mate. Don't worry. All right. Look forward to talking to you next week, mate, and catching up with you in a couple of weeks, eh?

Good on you, mate. I'll catch you then. See you, mate. There he is, Glenn Watty, Watt, and a great bloke.

Barefoot Fishing Safaris. is his business up there in if you want to go fishing in the Top End. Mate go with the best. That's Watty, and just look out.

Google Barefoot Fishing Safaris. You got a Facebook page as well. You can jump on and give that a like. So Barefoot Fishing Safaris.

He's him. He a great bloke, what? I look forward to catching up with him. I met what he through the email.

He was listening to this show and he said, look, you know, have you got any use for a bloke like me to talk a bit of fishing in the Top End? Well, he's a big part of the show now. In fact, we're on our way up there to see him, so there you go. And that's all it took, and certainly does know his stuff, and we do appreciate Watty being a part of the program.

Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Just type that into Google and you'll know exactly what we are talking about. Does a lot of live videos on Facebook as well. certainly does know his stuff.

Now, just on the email, you can email us. you just go to bluecolarmedia.com.au. Click on email, the duck, and plenty of people do it, and we do respond to all of those emails. We received an email through the week from Chris.

I'd love you to ask Mao Leyland about other heroes that we followed, like Malcolm Douglas, Jack, Absolute, etcetera, and if he followed any of them at all.