Bag a Barra — 28 January 2022

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, let's check in with our man, what are who is up there in the Top End and doing his best up there.

The wet season's happening. He loves it up there this time of year, and he's getting ready for a bumper fishing season. He's on the line. What do you do, mate?

Good day, Doc. How it going today? Oh, well, we're doing the best we can with the equipment we have, mate. You know the rules here, son.

Mate, what's happening up there? Or you'd like to check in with you every week? We know she's quiet in regards to the fishing tours and all that at the moment, but there's still plenty of locals floating about the place, throwing in the line, you being one of them? whats happening? Yeah, that's right.

I haven't been fishing for a little while now, but it's certainly still fishing well. I know that Shady Camp fished really well the last couple of days. There's always plenty of locals out there this time. I actually wonder, sometimes if any work gets done up here at this time of year.

because everyone seems to be out fishing every day, especially with all these public holidays and stuff we haven't, but that's all good. Yeah, continues to rain. I've been doing all my maintenance and stuff and time, a fair few flies, actually. I've got a heap of fly fishing chargers on this year, so I'm trying to get that all sorted out before we get too busy. I actually brought a couple of foxtails back up from Victoria when I was down for Christmas and I've been using a bit of red foxtail to make some little flies.

I've come up pretty good. Looking forward to them. Really? What do you have, does that work? Well, yeah, we used a lot of exotic materials for Thai flies.

You know, coyote fair is one of the popular ones for Thai sort of shrimp or prawn patterns. And I sort of thought, you, like, I used to skin a lot of boxes and sell them for pocket money as a young fella, so why don't we try that? And they've come up really well. It handles really similarly. Some different characteristics to it.

Uh, like a, a red fox, actually, um, it just has a normal hair, like a, uh, sort of a normal dog or human hair, but coyote hairs are actually hollow funnily enough. They do have sort of slightly different properties. They behave different in the water, but um, yeah, I don't, I don't think the fish worry too much, whether it's from a fox or a coyote, as long as it looks like a shrimp, they'll eat it, you know? That's all I'm for.

But, geez, we learned something every week on this show. Just incredible. I mean, I just had no idea that that went on. That is unbelievable now, mate.

Yeah, mate, on that, and that's why we get you on this show, Watty, because you are the guru, and there is no doubt about that. Now, mate, quickly, the big $10000 fish thing is still happening, and I haven't asked you for a couple of weeks. Any big money anywhere floating about, any one caught anything? Not recently, no.

Like I sort of keep saying each time it gets more and more into the wet season, they do tend to spread out now. It'd be something that I'd be expecting them to turn up again maybe in March when it starts to run off properly and the old official come back into the main river and we might jag a couple more then. So yeah, that's something to look forward to for sure. Oh, absolutely.

And hopefully, mate, hopefully you're the man who catches it because it'll be your shout. I've got some breaking news for you too, which I'll probably speak about you, speak to you about off air. But might be seeing you sooner rather than later, Woody, which will be great news for you, the excitement that you'll experience knowing that I could be heading back your way. And we, just quickly, we were mentioning earlier that because I drink a lot of water involved and possibly do this program and I said to my man Bunchy that if I was to drink as many beers as I do water in the 2 hour period, um, it would basically be a different program.

He said, well, how would the guests handle that? And I said, what he would love it? In fact, what he wouldn't have a problem with it. Is it agree?

Yes, no. Oh, yeah, I mean, I've always found that you made a bit more sense after you... Yes, well, that's another good point too. Probably, yeah.

I mean, yeah, you probably tolerated me a little bit more too after you had a couple. Oh, you're a good man. Barefoot Fishing Safaris. That is the place, when you want to go fishing in the Top End, you've got to go to Barefoot Fishing Safaris.com.au, you got to go to the Facebook page as well. Of the same name, Barefoot Fishing Safaris, as what he's gearing up for what will be a big year, uh, and um, we, he can't wait to get out there and show people how to catch fish and help them go home with the big food.

That's what he does. And like we say, you might even catch a fish on a foxtail hair.