Bag a Barra — 20 August 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, have you ever seen when you open up a, you know, for people out there on the land would know, if you've got sheep in a paddock and you open the gate, they just all take off at a 100 mile an hour, my blue cattle dog used to do that here, actually. I'd open the gate and the he just take off like the shuttle. Unbelievable. He had some pace.

Not so much pace these days. In fact, he's just a sleepy outside the door of the studio at the moment. But, uh, well, the reason I'm telling you this story because through the week, Darwin opened up, well, they entered their little 3 day lockdown. And they reckon the run to the bottle, 0 was led, was just unbelievable as they took off at 150 miles an hour, and the man leading the charge, of course, was our very own.

Glenn, what he, what, the owner and operator of great, um, got to say, Great Divide 2 was there. Jesus Christ, you're not going good here, duck. Of course, Barefoot Fishing Safaris. He's on the line, Watty?

Did you win the race through the bottle, though, son, out of lockdown? Oh, well, mate. I had the pedal to the medal and the old cruiser, but yeah, no, it wasn't quite 1st there, unfortunately. No, not quite too long, though.

No, no, you would have had plenty of stock in the, in the, you know, the 48 fridges you have at aim. So I almost had you there as the owner of Great Divide Tours, but of course you are the owner of Barefoot Fishing Safaris. I mean, light of the lockdowns in New South Wales and Victoria, Watty, it's had a bit of an effect on your business. Oh, yeah, that's right.

I mean, I sort of gave up answering the phone there a couple of weeks ago, it all just, all the works of the rest of the year is all being cancelled, really, which is a real shame for, I mean, not only for me, but of course there are people who've been looking forward to their holidays. So yeah, it's a shame, but we, you know, there's, there's things to keep yourselves entertained. With and one of the things that I think a lot of people are doing. during a bit of lockdown at the moment, myself included, is um tying a few flies for all the fly fishermen out there.

There's a bit of a neck to that fly fishing, isn't there? I mean, it's, I mean, I, I, that is one type. I mean, I'm no fisherman, as you know, and I don't need you to remind me about just how bad of a fisherman I am, but fly fishing to me, it just looks like an art because I mean, I get enough tangles in my line just with a normal reel. I mean, but that fly fishing.

You've got line going, it seemed to be going everywhere. Yeah, well, you sort of do have long going everywhere to a certain extent or probably from the uneducated eye, but it's actually a pretty easy thing to teach people to do, um, compared to, say, use a bait caster or something where there's a few, fair few different things happening. It's actually, you know, as far as teaching kids goes, it's, it's actually easier to teach them to, to cast a fly. If you, if you know how to do, how to actually teach it, um, knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach something is, is obviously 2 different things, but, um, That'd be the course I'd be taking.

I'll be taking the kids one. That's the level I'd be at. Now, listen, there's a knack to fly tying. tell us a bit about that. Yeah, I mean, it's something that it's sort of, um, I guess one of the reasons why people who, um, go down the fly fishing path, um, really sort of get into it.

It gives a, it gives you the ability to, obviously, um, try and create something that you think is going to represent something that's then going to trick a fish, um, into into Biden onto your hook. So, it sort of, um, it involves you having some knowledge about, I guess, what the fish are eating, what they do like, what they don't like, and, and also then to have the skills to put, put that into, or I guess, or into a finished product onto a hook, which, there's a lot of, um, a lot of different stuff out there, and a lot of guys who, who are selling it online stores in Australia these days, which is really great, and I know they've been very busy through uh, through the COVID lockdowns in particular. Do you do a lot of fly fishing? What do you?

I know you're always out there chasing the barrers and all the other species up in your part of the world, but is fly fishing, you know, popular up there? Uh, yeah, it's very popular in Darwin amongst the locals. Oh, well, I guess when I say very popular. There's a good contingent of people who are really capable and keen at it.

Tropical fly fishing around the world is um, is, is quite uh, a big pastime is, um, a lot of, a lot of people uh, sort of travel all over the world to, to fish some of these tropical, um, locations on flying. It is something that I probably do about half of my dieted stuff these days is fly stuff. I just finished a job actually um with a guy from Melbourne who came up and did 66 days of fly fishing and um, you know, it's, it's sort of a different level of fishing where it's more, uh, it's more about the, the act as a whole than it is about, sort of going out and just catching eggs efficient. It sort of, um, takes you into a different, different, uh, you know, I, I guess, um, peace in your mind where you, you can, it's sort of ultimate relaxation and, um, really getting in touch with things rather than sort of going out there to Philiesky.

Well, you think it's a bit of a different angle. Well, you're thinking about nothing else. are you? You're concentrating on what you're doing.

I mean, imagine me on the fly fishing expedition with you, mate, you'd be standing there with lying around your head and around your neck and going, it'd be going everywhere. I noticed you didn't bring them out when I was there last year. Yeah, that's right. I mean, corroborate's a great place to go fly fishing as well.

We did a couple. Oh, we did one day in there, that last trip and, um, you know, throwing some little popper flies that I'd tied up and, um, and John brought some that heat tied up as well. And, um, just sort of figure out what, what, um, the fish were after. And in, in the end, it's really, like, we caught a lot of fish that day and it was, uh, it's really satisfying to, you know, um, I guess that one upmanship on the fish to really sort of, um, figure out their behaviours and, and then, um, then to go out and have some success with flies that you've tied yourself. So it's a great part of the challenge. Yeah, absolutely mate.

Well, it's very interesting and like you say, it is a challenge. So, mate, as we move on now, when will, how's the weather in the Top End? Is it starting to warm up a bit, starting to get a little bit humid? When do we start looking forward to that change in the weather, mate, for the wet season?

No, not that far away really. Yeah, that's right. Certainly the buildup not far away. We, uh, we had a fortnight there a while back um, or a couple of weeks ago that was hot and steamy and flat and we sort of thought, oh, right, this might be the end of the dry season, but it has come back too windy for the last, uh, I guess 10 days or fortnight uh, again. And, um, I'd expect this to be probably the last of, of the proper dry season weather where we get that cool southeasterly pushed up off the desert, um, and we'll go into that.

It certainly has started to warm up inland and um we'll go into that buildup pattern pretty soon, I'd say, it has been probably a windy-ish July, August, um we're sort of frustrated a few of us up here because we're not used to having to deal with too much wind and when we get more than 3 days in a row at a noise us. So, Top End fish, I in particular, really look forward to the buildup, so, um, flatten the seas off again and um, bring those big bar on the bike. Yeah, absolutely, mate. Yeah, like you say, yeah.

Well, at the end of the day, the buildup won't be far away, the way time's flying these days, because, you know, it'll be here. So now, look, I noticed too, what, you've got a bit more professional up there. Now, do you have like phone call waiting on your phone? So if we were to ring your phone now.

Will we go straight to your voicemail? Well, it depends who the caller ID is that comes up. Usually you get sent. Right, now, what I want you to do, Bunchy, now, my man, Bunchy, who we found out, Bunchy, who puts the show together for us and pushes all the right buttons, who we found out today is the is the king of the karaoke bars in Sydney, Bunchy, can you just dial Watty's number again?

And let's just see what happens on the voicemail. Can we do that? Yeah, give us one second. Let's just go here.

I mean, because I was quite impressed, actually, when I tried to call you earlier. Let's just dial his number and see what happens. Just got to make sure we punch another line in there. All right, here we go, yeah.

Righto. So we're dialling now. So we'll just let this ring out. Let's let that ring out, Watty.

I don't want you to answer me again. Drone's ringing. This is what happens now. Just what happens when you're in Watty now on his mobile?

Here we go. Thanks for calling Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Please send us a text message and we'll get back to you as soon as possible. Yeah, g'day.

Wady, don't worry about ringing me back. I've already got you on the line, son. Now, what? Now, now, now, look, I just wish we had the old one because this was the old message.

It sounded something like this. Oh, yeah, get over there, folks. It's Glenn, what, here, eh? Just leave your number and I might ring you back if I'm sober.

I mean, you have become very, very professional. I'm tipping, that's the lovely Louise, is it on me? Yeah, that's right. She got hold of me phone here a while back, actually, and did that.

I think it stemmed from me getting sick of answering the phone and having to cancel all these jobs from you New South Wales, mob, cancelling all your fishing charges. So I was just saying, no, just send us a text message, mate. Don't worry about it. You say now it just, now it sounds like you've got one of your people on the job, but it's actually, it's actually Louise, the long suffering Louise, I will add, who has done that.

Very professional, buddy. I impressed. Oh, yeah, well, you know, when you're in the big time, you got to... You're a good man, mate.

I only wish I was up there with you, son. We could have a few cold ones, mate, and just kick back and talk about something other than what's going on down here, I can assure you, mate. And I've got a mate of mine up there at the moment, who's gone out of Brisbane, who's actually gone up there to work. And I think he's going to move up there full time. I'm going to introduce you to him when he gets up there, mate.

You and him will get on well. Yeah, that sounds good. It'd be good, mate. I think he's not going to be.

I think he's looking at a property around near you there somewhere as well. So you might have to, he knows his way around up that part of the world pretty much, but you probably wouldn't be a bad bloke for him to know, get out and go fishing and get on the cans and check out some of those watering holes that not the watering holes that have fish in them either. Yeah, I'll lead him astray for you, mate. And then you'll be able to fix it up and you come up here.

Yeah, exactly mate. Don't worry about that. All right, Watty, you're a good man. I didn't want to mention his name just in case he's, you know, his current boss is listening.

But anyway. All right, mate, we'll leave you up there to do what you're doing and enjoy the fact that they're well done. The fact that you got out of lockdown through the week, which is fantastic. And mate, we'll leave you with what you are up to and we'll catch up with you next week, eh?

Yeah, mate, no worries at all, and congratulations, everyone in Top End and Catherine, who did do a good job of, you know, following the rules and getting through it as quickly as we could. It's really great. Yeah, absolutely. We actually broadcast all the way through the territory, including Catherine, which was also in lockdown, and of course, we're on 2 stations in Darwin now, which you probably didn't even know that, did you?

No, we had you on kicks there on the country radio station. That's right, we'll tell you. Yeah, on Kicks Country Radio in Darwin, and we're also broadcast through the Karma radio network right through Central Australia, which is also in Darwin, mate. So there you go.

Yeah, great. All righty. I'll see if I can find it. Yeah, you'll be right, mate.

All right. Well, we'll let you back to what you're up to and we'll catch you next week, mate. Good on you, mate. Thanks for the call.

There he is. And of course, is Glenn, what do you want? The owner operator of Barefoot Fishing Safaris, and if you want to get up there and book a trip in the Top End and go fishing, he is the guru, and our man, when it comes to fishing up there, and he mentioned corroborate. That's Corrobory Billabong, and that's where he took me, and I've got to tell you, that's an experience I'll never, ever forget. It was, I loved it.

I loved every 2nd of it and had a fantastic, and it was, we made a day of it and stopped at the, you know, the tavern on the way home. I think we stopped at 2 actually, which was probably less than what my body normally stops at. But geez, it was fantastic. Talk about the real deal, corrobory billabong.

That's the sort of places you can take you to up there. So Barefoot Fishing Safaris. You can go to the website, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.com.au, or check out the Facebook page and he's a good man, Watty, and we are grateful that he comes on each week.