Bag a Barra — 29 January 2021

It's time to head to the Top End and Bag a Barra. With Glenn Watty Watts, thanks to Shimano. Remember to buy local and fish local. visit shimanofish.com.au. As you know, we head to the Top End every week and talk to our man, Watty.

He was on the line. You'll get a bit wet up there, are you? Yeah. She's letter, right? Earl is the wet season, son.

How much rain you had, you reckon? Yeah, well, I was listening to the radio the other day yesterday and we'd had 1200 mil of rain for the wet season so far. Which, and we certainly had another 100 mil since then. So, we'd be kicking up over 1300, which is, at the time it was about 20% higher than average.

So that was about sort of 200 mil higher than average. So they're pretty big numbers we're playing with up here. When the monsoon turns up and yeah, it's not looking like going away anytime soon too. So it's all good news.

So it's just pouring rain constantly at the moment. How's the humidity? Um, yeah, it's, it's a scene about 80%, um, when it's raining, um, with, and it's sort of like a 25 degrees. It's beautiful, just beautiful weather.

Um, and then, you know, you'll get the little break in between the showers and stuff and and the humidity goes through the roof then, but, um, you know, whenever sort of more than 10 paces away from the beer fridge, so, you can deal with. Yeah, or somewhere to, you know, an air con room or car or jump in one of those waterholes. You got about 3 or 4 on your property. I know that, haven't you?

Yeah, that's right. The main one over at the drive there is about to flow over the road. It's so much water coming down today. So, it'd be interesting to see if it be tracked if I can get out tomorrow.

Yeah, well, that's right. You love a four-wheel drive track getting into your place, don't you? That's the one thing I do know. But it'd be looking fantastic your place at the moment, wouldn't it?

All the, the, the water and the rain and, and then um, you know, all that shrubbery and plants you have there. It'll be looking pretty tropical, wouldn't it? Yeah, it doesn't get more tropical than this. All the flowers are out too.

And, um, you know, it's, uh, it's a happening thing. At the moment, the bird life shot through the roof, because, uh, we've got birdie conducted nesting on the dam, and we've actually set up a aquaponics, um, set up on the barrapon. So, we're growing our veggies through the water out of the barrapon. So, I thought it was a proper old farm out here. Yeah, that's it mate. Now listen, we went out to corroborate when we were up there, as you know. Can you get out there now or you can't with the water?

Uh, no, Corroboro, probably, if it's not closed by now. it should be. They'll close the gate once it's flooded there and it won't open on a year like we're having at the moment, it probably won't open until May next till May. Sorry.

Yep. Um, and, uh, and then, um, they'll sort of clean, clean the toilets and the car park up after the floods and, and off we go again, but, um, we sort of focussed on the, on the tidal rivers a bit more than the billabongs this time of year. That's where the big fish are playing around, of course. How does that pub out there survive without you dropping in there every day? Well, I did go past it on Australia Day and had a couple of beers there too.

That was good to see Pete and the boys. It was cranking, there was probably 50 or 60 car loads there, so it was a big day. Yeah, absolutely, right. certainly Australia Day is a big day for everyone, mate, and I saw plenty of plenty of stuff happening.

Plenty of people out celebrating, mate. What about the fishing, mate? you been out? Yeah, we went out for a little flick, so that Australia day, one of our favourite things that I haven't mentioned in the past up here at this time of year is to go out and the locals we just call it flicking the culverts, so all the big drain pipes that run underneath the roads and along the side of the road and that get all flooded this time of year and the barrer and everything sort of turn up on the side of the road and you can just pull up, grabbing your rod out of the back of the Ute and have a few flicks while the cars drive by.

Yeah, yeah. What are you feeling? are you fishing on the drain covers on the side of the road? Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, there'd be, there'd probably be a, a car or 2 on every Colvert at any given time of the, of the day from now through until, you know, the end of, the runoff in, the end of May. They're catching Barra. Some big ones get caught too. Serious? big ones.

Yeah, yeah. Tarpon, Saratoga, Sooty Grunter, all the usual, catfish. But yeah, mostly a small barrow. They're the ones that are sort of pushing up on the floodplains to get up there and eat all the little frogs and tadpoles and that sort of stuff.

That's unbelievable. So you can actually literally get it, you're pulling up the side of the road, throwing a line, having a flick in the, in the culverts, the drains that run along the side of the road and you catch them Barramundi. Yeah, yeah, definitely. a bit of a trail.

you can do out the Arnham highway, a bit about the kakidoo. All those drains that you would have driven over on the way out there last year. They're all full and flowing, so you can do sort of the, the kakadoo run, or you can do the Dundee run, or you can do the Adelaide River run, and um, yeah, you catch up with the fuel, you mate down on the highway, have a beer, flick up a barrel, and then cool into each pub as you go through. a bloody good day.

Well, that'll do me. I mean, that's, I don't know where else you can do that. How good is it? Well, that's for all those strange drives.

All they're all driers are bane. When I went through them, mate. So that's a go. How good is that?

So, mate, just quickly on the, on the, on the territory now. So you talk about that the road out of corroborate and getting into corroborate and pulling, you know, the billabong out there won't open till May. That's a fair away from now. What about some of the swimming holes like Berry Springs and Litchfield and then sort of places?

They're all just closed now until what, roughly the same time? Yeah, that's right. It depends sort of how quickly the flood waters recede in all those places, um, and how long it takes the parks guys to actually be able to get in, do the tracks up, and then tidy up the campgrounds and whatever, um, they'll then go in and do crop surveys and get any crocs out of the swimming holes before they open it up, obviously. That's a good job for somebody.

Yeah. And then uh, like, um, our theory is too, that they usually get it all sweet, and then they, they just keep it to themselves for a couple of 3 weeks before they let the public in. Yeah, right, okay. Let their mates and the locals did 1st. But, um yeah, a lot of those places will be closed.

Barry Springs definitely be closed through till the end of the wet season now and robbery, Hardy's and all these other billabongy type things. But that doesn't worry too much, you know, like I say, we're all focussed on Shady Camp, the South Alligator, the East, the Daly, the Vic, the Catherine Rivers, all these big fish sort of locations at this time of year. And the side of the road, of course. All right.

End of side of the road. Very good, Watty. All right, mate. We'll let you go.

Sounds like you're having a great time up there. And mate, you try and stay dry, although I'm tipping, you don't care about, you're never too far away from that beer fridge and you probably don't mind standing in the rain and copying a bit of that anyway, do you? No, well, that's right. sort of um you can't avoid it.

If you're outside, you're getting wet and even inside, you know, we, we tend to run the windows open, so it's just humid and you just gotta, you know, you be damp. That's the way it is up here, it's time of year. Yep, great part of Australia, certainly is, love the Top End, and mate, hopefully you get back there sooner rather than later, mate. All right.

We'll catch up with you next week and see what you're up to. You might be fishing from a car park somewhere. All right, mate. There he is.

That is Glenn. What? What? Don't forget, you can check out his website, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.com.au or follow him on Facebook, Barefoot Fishing Safaris. And if you are heading to the Top End, planning a Top End getaway, in the middle of this year, and you want to go fishing with the best in the business.

Go with our man, Glenn Watty, Watt. He is the man and Barefoot Fishing Safaris, like I say, jump on the Facebook page and you'll see what he's up to. plenty up there, videos and the like. A lot of information and a lot of education on how to catch not only barren monies, but all species of fish.

He is, like I say, one of the best in the business, and of course, is our contact up there in the Top End, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.