Bag a Barra — 29 October 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.

Oh, we'd love to check out what's biting up in the Top End. Now, why do they tell me that some bloke's been shouting beers up there in one of the pubs because of another one of those $1000000 fish caught through the week? How much of the bloke win? Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, you're coming out with another 10 grand after a freaky sojourn last. Yeah, actually, he had a bit of a double in that fellow. He was actually fishing in a fishing comp and won the fishing comp as well. So he got 10 grand and 1st prize.

Oh, you got to be happy with that. Oh, mate, I might go fishing with him then, eh? Yeah, well, that's right. He's got a bit of luck floating around the moment.

I'll be the bloke to follow around on the harbour. Here you are running Barefoot Fishing Safaris. The number one tour guide in the northern territory. That bloke was probably a carpenter or a bricklayer or something.

He just got out there and just making it happen. Oh yeah, that's right. There's plenty of good fishos up here, duck. Don't worry about that.

Everyone spends a lot of time on the water, of course, it's that sort of lifestyle up here, but yeah, in the barrabin biting. So even on the, the guidance trips, even people that haven't never done any fishing um before are getting a few, so it has been really good. How good is it, mate? So they've been biting which is fantastic.

And now look, what else has been happening up there, mate? There'd be a little bit of a change in the weather now as she starts to steam up. Yeah, that's right. We're getting sort of regular enough rain now.

Everything's sort of greened up, which is really nice, some big falls and isolated storms as well. Um, yeah, and we're kept, we're kept pretty busy, um, right now, actually picked right up because the government's released some tourism vouchers for people up to take advantage of, um, well, there's not so many tourists around. Uh, so schools can use, uh, you know, for boat hire or fishing or go, uh, car hire or hotels or something. So it has been good at the 4th round.

And um, yeah, so we're just, we're just working around the afternoon storms at the moment and um, you know, enjoying that cool off, hopefully on the way home in the boat is a nice thing to get, get a bit of an afternoon share after, after we do a day's fishing. Oh sounds great. They were on, actually. I remember when I was up there with you, those vouchers.

I think it might have been the 1st round of those vouchers for the locals up there and they were enjoying the caravan parks and the like and getting out and getting booking with you and doing all that. So a great incentive. I think they're going to do that in New South Wales as well, where they've had the dining ones out to go and spend money in pubs and restaurants and the like. But I think they're going to put on some tourism ones for people to encourage, to encourage people rather to get out into the regions and, and it does work.

It's a great thing. Now, you said that they, they are biding, which is, is that normal for this time of year, Wadi, for them to be on the bite as good as they are, the barrels at the minute? Ah, yeah, it is definitely, yeah. You know, as our water temperatures start to increase.

You know, we've got overnight lows, aren't getting below, so 25 degrees at the moment. So... Yeah, that keeps the water temperature up high or warming up and that's the real trigger for the barrier to barrow particularly, but a lot of the species um to um start trigger their um breeding cycle. So yeah, they they become bit, the smaller juvenile males become a bit more aggressive in their feeding so they can get bigger and try and find a girlfriend and and the big ladies.

They'll come into the mouth of the roof, try and find those, those mail fixed and um get the whole cycle happening. So, yeah, it really does start to get better. And um, like we sort of say up here this time of year, the, the more uncomfortable we are, the better the fish in general is, you know, we'll get these glass out days where there's not a breath of wind and you'll be up a creek on low tide and just a stinking heat belting you from the mud bank and, and then sweat and you head it, sweat and you're ringing, you know, the barrel of it. So, um, yeah, sort of the more uncomfortable we are, the better for the fishing at the moment, which is probably why we don't get too many Mexicans coming up. This time of year, but it is, it's a really great time of year if you're up here, and of course, to take advantage of the tourism vouchers, if you are a local.

Thank you. Thank you. Mexicans. No, we appreciate it.

I mean, in other times of year, you're begging us to come up there. I mean, Fed, Eacam. Oh, no, yeah, yeah. I mean, you're welcome all the time, but at the moment, not many of you can get here, can you?

So that's the problem. Yeah, that's a real problem. And a lot of people can't cop that sort of heat, that humidity. Being fairly humid, like tipping, it's probably fairly steamy, eh?

Yeah, it is. I, like I'll be trying to get all my outside jobs done um by sort of 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning and then spend, spend the rest of the day in the, for organising the trips and then um come back out at 5 o'clock and do a bit more outside, but you, you know, I, I hear you get used to managing it, and most people spend most of their time inside, I suppose, unless you're a trader or someone's got to work outside, but you do get tough to it pretty quickly, and um, and I guess those guys, I remember when I 1st came in off the stations, and I was roofing in Darwin right through the wet season, you know, I could stand on the front of a boat casting all day, no worries, but the mates that were truck drivers and office workers, they crumble under the heat in the 1st hour, so it doesn't hurt to get a bit heat fit, I suppose, for sure. Yeah, absolutely.

All right, mate. Well, we will let you get out there and jag one of those 10 grand as yourself, mate. And we'll catch up with you next week, see what's biting, and see if anybody else is shouting beers at the pub this week. I know it won't be you.

Even if you won, even if you won through those fish with 10 grand on a tag, you still wouldn't be shouting, probably. No, I wouldn't shout if my arm was bitten off by a shark, you reckon? Yeah, good idea. More like you. You're a good.

Oh come on, you're kidding, aren't you? Alright, mate. I think I shouted a few while I was up there. I think you might have shouted.

good man. I think you did as well. All right, mate. Talk to you next week, eh?

Good on you, you too. There he is, mate. That's my mate, Glenn, what do you want? And of course, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.

That's his business, if you're heading to the Top End, go with the best in the business, and that, of course, is Watty. Barefoot Fishing Safaris.