Bag a Barra — 9 July 2021

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 shamanofish.com.au.

Well, as we struggle in the middle of winner in the southern parts of the country, plenty of people have headed to the northern territory, and obviously when they do that to get out of the cold, they want to go fishing. Now, the one thing about I found, and a lot of people would, one thing that would take a lot of people by surprise, would be the tides up there in the northern territory, and you can certainly get caught out, because without the title coming fairly quickly too. It goes out a long way and it certainly does make a huge difference when it comes to, you know, what you're, you know, what you're after. If you're trying to bag those barrels or whatever it is, the tides play a big part of that.

Well, our expert in the Top End when it comes to fish, all things fishing, including barrow fishing, and even all other species as well, is Glenn, Watty Watts, he is, of course, the guru and the owner operator of Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Whatdy, g'day? G'day, the duck. How you going?

Well, I'm doing the best I can with what I have, and obviously at the moment where we're situated here, although on the outskirts of Sydney on the other side of the Hawkesbury River, we're part of greater Sydney. So, mate, we're in lockdown. Yeah, yep, I feel for you down there a little bit. Oh, yeah, sure.

For about 2 seconds. Yeah, that's as much sort as I've made. Make no mistake, mate. You wouldn't give a toss. Well, things aren't all roses up here too, mate.

You know, it got down to 17 degrees. That is cold for you up there. It was funny last year when I was up there with you and I think Louise, your beautiful other half, who really needs to have a heart. look at herself.

The fact that, you know, the life partner, she's chosen, was giving us directions out to Litchfield and she says, oh, it might be a bit cool to go for a swim. I mean, we were sweating that out. I was 32. We get a bit soft up here this time.

not hard to get climatized, is it, mate? I mentioned the fact that ties play a big part in fishing. I know down here, you know, full moons and big ties are great when people want to catch those dewies on the Hawkesbury and the light. But, mate, up there, it's enormous, it can be enormous tides and people can get caught out, can't they?

Yeah, that's right. It's probably the um trickiest thing for people to accept and get their head around when they come uh up here to go fishing. Um, particularly from south, is, is the tide and how it really is the number one thing that influences all your fishing, uh, plans for a day, but not, not as much on uh, fresh water, although it does play a role. Um but certainly in the salt water when you're actually on the water that's going to rise and fall.

Um, you know, you can find yourself uh, well and truly high and dry for um, long periods of time. There's actually a yarn here a while back on the, our tales from the tinny radio show up here where a fella hit the mudbank in the Vic River, and the tide, the set of tides he was fishing were actually getting smaller, so the high tides are getting smaller. The water didn't come back to his boat for like 10 days or something. Wow.

I just had to leave it there. And there's other stories and I've seen the footage of helicopters dragging boats off mudbanks because of the same scenario. So yeah, you've got to be really careful. 10 days.

Yeah, yeah. Sitting there high and dry before the tide come back, he had water around his back. incredible. Yeah, and like in certain areas, the Vic's pretty treacherous for that.

There's shallow mudbanks and stuff all through it. So if you're going out behind, on the back of the moon phase where the high tides are getting lower, you're on the risk of, if you hit a high, hit a mudbank on the high tide, you're, yeah, next high tide is most likely not going to be high enough to float the boat. So, some to consider. Yeah.

When you got, um, you know, like we'll have, not so much throughout this time of year, they get a little bit smaller, maybe 6 metres of movement, but in the, um, sort of summertime, um, in the wet season now, tides can get up to 8 metres. Uh which is, you know, it's a massive amount of vertical water movement going, leaving a river or a harbour system, you know, it's really hard to comprehend. It's incredible mate. 10 days.

People wouldn't even know that. I mean, look, obviously some do, but for the average Joe, who heads up there, and obviously, you know, all part of the experience go fishing, you've got to be careful. I mean, you've got to be across this stuff, like you say, you've got to educate yourself and get your head around it. Which is why it's always good to go with a guide.

Don't have to worry about that stuff. Well, yeah, particularly, you know, we get a lot of guys these days who'll come up and do a couple of days on a guided trip and then hire a boat or they'll have their own boat and just want to get a bit of an idea and stuff and you can, you can go through a fair bit of theory on a, you know, on a, on a one day or a couple of days fishing with people just to get them off on the right. Actually, you make sense then, Watty. That actually makes sense.

I mean, if I was to tow a boat up there, that's what I would do. I would go out with you and then get a fair idea of the lay of the land and then you can go out with a little bit of confidence yourself because you've been out with you and as long as you've paid attention and, you know, and gone to the right places, well, then you can go back yourself at your own leisure. Yeah, that's right. And it's something that you do need to make sure, if you are going to do that, that you tell your guy that, that's the reason you're doing it, because it, it can be a bit of a sensitive issue, I suppose, with, you know, people, like, uh, I guess, some guides would be a bit uh, worried about giving away their intellectual property and you're just going to come and pinch on me spots tomorrow type thing, but as long as you're open about it and you, and you say, look, we're, we've brought the boat up for a, for a month and and we're going to do a bit of fishing, can you get us off on the right foot, you can really

on training them so they're safe and have some success rather than that being a like an actual guided fishing day. So you can just tweak it around and it actually benefits everyone then. Yeah, absolutely, mate. And how are things? I mean, obviously now there'd be plenty of people up around the Top End.

You'd be seeing the caravan parks and the campgrounds full, wouldn't you, up there, on the top, around Darwin and the like? Yeah, absolutely. It's absolutely crazy up here at the moment. Yeah, we've got very minor restrictions on our movements.

Now, um, just with some mask wearing and that sort of thing, but it's, uh, it's just hectic. um, you know, around that cool linger area where I've uh, sort of lived um, going to the shops, everyone is there. It's amazing, really. When you look, when you compare it to...

Oh, mate, when you compare it to last year, I mean, I know, where was I? I was at the free spirit there for a while, and there were always spots pulled into the lone pine, you know, got a spot, you know, Daly Waters pub, got a spot, no problem. There was a lot of vacant spots around. I'm tipping this year, mate.

book ahead. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well and truly ahead, for any activities and any accommodation, particularly, you know, people travelling up here for certain events. We've got the Darwin Festival coming up and a lot of other big events that go for a decent amount of time, you'll find that, uh, accommodation in general in Darwin, it gets really scarce this time of year. Oh, mate, a great place and one I certainly recommend to anybody.

And anybody listening to this that wants to one day think, I'd love to go to the Northern Territory. It surprises you how many people you speak to down here that haven't been there. And you, and I am poor, they might have. So look, you've got to do it.

It's just, it's an experience all of its own. It's just the real Australia. get there, you know? And then you talk to other people that have been there half a dozen times, you'll love it.

So, you know, it's amazing. You know, if you haven't been and you're a traveller, get to the Top End, get to the northern territory as a whole, check out Central Australia as well while you're at it, and then get yourself up to the Top End. You won't regret it. It's, you know, and you'll bump into a butt like Watty.

more than likely find him. you know, most afternoons at the bottle, though. So you'll see his boat there in the car park. usually travelling through one, yeah.

Yeah, it is. I mean, it's a very accessible place these days. flights are pretty cheap up here and even though I say it's, it's um flat out and um busy as, it's still, you've got to remember, there's um, you know, there's, there's only 250,000 people in the whole of the territory as residents and it's a bloody huge area. So there's still plenty of room and open space for people.

You're not going to be on top of everyone like you might be, so east coast or somewhere where there's a bit more population. Yeah, absolutely. And of course, travelling up there. Once you cross into the territory, they really do when you're towing a camper or a caravan, they've really done a great job in regards to catering for you people, you know, I mean, they've got great rest stops, great facilities at those rest stops.

Plenty of parking, plenty of little camp areas off to the side where you can a lot of little fire and camp and all free. They really do look it's really well done. It's well done. Great roads.

They're separated from the trucks when it comes to those stops. So you're not pulling up in truck stops and thanking the spot of someone who's been working all day. You're actually pulling up with other campers and caravaners and it's, and they've done a great job. It was a real standout for me when we were on the road up there.

So, uh, obviously, we looked around, but it was great. I, they made a point. had a real big long segment on the ABC radio for you about that recently, only last week about how there's a lot of difficulties with some of the smaller towns in Queensland, having all their parking spaces taken up by caravans and stuff, and yeah, you're dead right. There's there's any amount of roadside stops.

You can pull up and light a fire and and sit around and meet some new people and you know, you end up travelling with the same cruise along as well, which can be can be pretty cool and enhance the experience again. Absolutely all for free and they were certainly on the front foot when the northern territory government designed all of that. You're a good man, Watty, we'll let you go, eh? Go catch something for us.

Yeah, that's right. No worries. I'm going to go and try and catch a bar tomorrow. I think.

Good on you mate. Why wouldn't you? Well done. All right, there he is.

That, of course, is our man in the Top End. Glenn Watty Watts. Check him out. Barefoot Fishing Safaris.

You can go to the website, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.com.au, or you can go to the Facebook page, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.