Bag a Barra — 28 July 2023

Remember to buy local and fish local. Visit Shimano fish.com.au. Oh, he's the man up there in the north. He's the bloke who's getting around all the bottle-os and seeing what the specials are each day.

He gets you out early, goes fishing in the dark, gets home in the dark. Watty, hello. How are you? You make it sound like a pretty tough existence, mate, actually.

Oh, no, you're doing it tough. struggling up there. I know. I know.

I know, mate. Now listen. Weather. Now, people asked me about fishing on so many.

You got to be kidding. What would I know about it? tastes all right. I don't mind a bit of snapper here and there.

But mate, the weather has a huge effect on what's happening with fish and a lot of people ask you about this stuff. So just tell me what is the guy because the weather does change the way they behave, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, well, it certainly does, and it's something that people down south particularly don't sort of expect about Darwin is that we actually do get cold weather, and I know you'll say, oh, you're kidding me, aren't you? But it actually got down earlier this week it got down to 6 degrees at my place overnight.

You serious? Yeah, for about 4 nights in a row. So that's a, it's actually a pretty late uh time of year for it to happen, but it was a pretty strong burst and it, and it was bloody windy and it makes fishing tricky. Um, but, uh, we've come out the other side of it now and last night overnight low was about 23 degrees and it's nice, warm, clear, sunny day today.

So the fish... You mentioned the people up there from, say, the people up there from, say, Melbourne up there now getting out of the cold. It gets down to 6 degrees, I would have thought, we might as well stay at home. Well, yeah, that's right.

It's amazing. I actually took a group fishing her from Wentworth and... beautiful part of the world. Yeah, exactly.

And it was a very similar overnight temperature. to where they would have been if they weren't up here. So it did make cushion for us pretty tricky that day, but the other the other part of the group got a fair few Barra, as well, um, well, they got more than us for sure. But, um, that, that's the way it goes, sometimes we get these little 4 or 5 day birth, uh, through the dry season, which is, I mean, it makes a really nice, um, nice, pleasant days for camping and and all that sort of stuff. Of course, it just means that we have to change our plans for fishing for a few days and then, I mean, this week coming, they're going to bite their heads off, all the barrel will be hungry because they've been sort of a bit sluggish and slow for the last few days. So, it'll come good really hard now.

But yeah, it's interesting that we get those cold um temperatures and I think it was actually the cold of night since 1942 in Darwin. Well, 6 degrees. I mean, unbelievable for Darwin. I mean, it is, I remember when I told you about the time I was at Mission Beach and we went out to a barrow farm and it was, and you wouldn't believe it, the day we went.

It was cold and we couldn't get anything. It was just 1000s of fish in this pond and we couldn't catch one because they were hiding in the cold. So it obviously does make a huge difference. Yeah, that's right.

I mean, it's it's just it's the same as us, you know, like I didn't want to get out of bed. It was a bit cold for me and the bar are a bit the same. They sort of go down and sit down deep in the weeds and just sort of sulk for a couple of days and then once the sun comes out, action stations again, but it won't be long now and we'll start having, we'll start poking into the buildup season, you know, by the end of August and temperatures really start getting back on the increase then and and and and we get right back into proper hot weather again. So, yeah, we do have seasonal weather up here, but most people sort of don't grasp that until they experience it.

Well, mate, we're playing on heading there next year. Yeah, that's right. Get excited. You might need to make sure you got some, what do you got, a diesel heater in the van or something? Of course. absolutely.

Absolutely. Yeah, diesel heater in the van. Reverse cycle there. You got all the bloody bells and whistles on that thing, don't you?

I'm a bit envious of that. You'll love it, wouldn't you see it, mate? You love it. You'll love it, mate.

You'll love it. I was off road, trail built, caravan. Check it out, mate. They're good.

We'll be able to run a, we'll be able to run a lead out through the front fence here and you can... Yeah, but I'm out there, out there, just, you know, disperse to the street. Yeah, that's right. I'll give you the code to the gate. You got anything goes for me?

That it? No, mate, I think I'm going fishing this week for a week, of course, and looking forward to that. We've got a group going to Dundee Beach, which will be exciting. I haven't been there much this year, so really looking forward to getting into some blue water fishing and a little bit of bar fishing on the flats in Bynoe Harbour later on that trip too, as the tides come up.

So yeah, I'll give you the full report on that one next week. Yeah, good stuff mate. All right. Well, you have fun, enjoy, and I'm telling you now about the trip up there next year to prepare yourself, okay?

That's right. Thanks for prep for that. I love security. Yeah, 0 yeah, good on you.

All right. You enjoyed. Let us know how they'll abiding next week, all right? Yeah mate.

Well, hopefully win is done for us now. We've had our 4 days of it, so I'll put the beanie and the flanolette shirt away and we'll be back into normal territory weather. Good stuff, mate. There he is.

That's our man Watty. Glenn, what do you want? You can check him out. Barefoot Fishing Safaris and angling adventures if you're going to the Top End.

And you want to go fishing with the best. In the business, we need to go with our man. Watty, and that's where you're finding Barefoot Fishing Safaris, and of course, angling, angling adventures.