Bag a Barra — 5 April 2024

It's time to head to the Top End and Bag a Barra. With Glenn Watty Watts, Thanks to Shimano. Remember to buy local and fish local. visit shamanofish.com.au.

And, of course, Glenn, Watty, what is the man behind Barefoot Fishing Safaris and angling adventures based in Darwin? And, of course, you want to go up there fishing and catch that elusive Barrett? Well, your best to go with Watty. He on the line.

What do you g'day? G'day, duck. How you going? Going all right, mate.

What's happening up there? I believe the barrer abiding and they're not the only things that are abiding at the moment. Is that right? No, it's there's a bit going on, mate.

actually. Yeah, the fishing, absolutely red hot at the moment, we're sort of getting right into that real prime time now for the barrow runoff fishing and also some of the good dew fish and snapper fishing inshore, but, um, you know, what's been grabbing the headlines up here even more than the, the catches is, is a, is a bit of drama, mate. There's been a crocodile chewing on a dog down at Dinah Beach, not Dinah Beach, Rapid Creek, and then a boat exploded on the Daly, only yesterday, the day before, I think. Yeah, yeah, big deal.

That's a huge deal. I bet the has blokes, I don't think Ian Thorpe would have beat them to the bank, would he? They would have had to swim to the bank. Imagine that.

Yeah, that would have been a real worry. So they had, they were up there fishing overnight, must have been cooking a snag or something in the boat, with a butane cooker, and the gas can exploded, which then somehow caught the boat on fire, and it sunk, and they had to swim ashore. Luckily, they had, there is a few patches up there where you get a bit of phone there, so they might have had a sat phone or a radio or something, and anyway, CareFlight ended up sitting in a chopper out and picked them up, so that would have been a bit ordinary. Oh, mate, I mean, in the Daly River.

I mean, that's one place you certainly don't want to go for a swim. Yeah, that's right. And at the moment, it's really high and flowing fast too, you know, so there's a, there's a lot of water and a lot of, you know, logs floating down and yeah, not much bank too. So, you know, that's the, that's the problem is scrambling up that muddy bank.

It's a real steep sort of banking. It would have been pretty terrifying. Right in the dark too, you know, we got dark now, so yeah. Unbelievable. It was a miracle they got out of that. I mean, how many beers you reckon they would have had the other night?

Well, they'd probably be looking forward to one once they got discharged from hospital. That's for sure. Unbelievable. Luckily, we're enjoying a nice peaceful night on the boat too, until it all went down.

Oh, mate, I got to say, they are 2 lucky blokes, that is for sure. Mate, as you said, the barrer abiding, but mate, the $1000000 fish you were telling me through the week, what, there's now 80 tagged fish to win a $1000000 Oh, mate, how good would that be? Yeah, and they've actually extended the season.

I'm just trying to find the details about that, but yeah, there's 80 of the fish that um would normally be uh $10,000 tags. They've changed them in the database, though, that if someone catches the fish with that tag, it's now worth a $1000000 So, uh, yeah, it's, it's full on, and it's, and they swear that it's going to go off this year, and uh, no one really knows how that happens, if, if someone doesn't catch another fish, but uh, it's actually a pretty good incentive to register because there is, there is other prizes, of course, um, in a lucky prize, but just for registering, you can, you can win some pretty cool prize, and if they get to the end of the season, mate, and no one's caught that $1000000 barrel, it might just be raffled out of the hat. So...

It's been running for a long time now, and no one's ever won a million, have they? No, that's right. There's been a lot of, of the $10,000 fish caught over the years and um, yeah, season 9 now. So yeah, it's generally sort of, well, here we go.

There's been 230 grand paid out to Viso's across the season and charity partners as well. Yeah, yeah. So, it's a, it's been great for the territory, just a bit of, bit more buzz around, around our barrow fishing, if, if you needed an excuse to go fishing any, any more than we need up here. But, um, yeah, it doesn't hurt to have the chance to pay for a bit of fuel or pay the house off if you, if you catch the right fish and it doesn't have to be a big one either.

A lot of the um 10 grand fish have been, you know, just those normal sort of 50s and 60s that you might catch. Unbelievable yeah. Anyone's given a chance, mate. Absolutely mate.

Here we go, go for a line in and come home, a 1000000 bucks richer. Sounds good to me. Yeah, that's right. And, and, you know, like we say, remember that one that got caught off the bloody rocks at Nightcliff jetty there on a handline from the servo?

You don't need to be all geared up with yourself to win it either, you know? Yeah, that's right, eh? How good was that story where they just bought the handline from the survey and went threw it in and jagged a 10 grand fish. You've got to be happy with that anyway.

All right, mate. I know this is a really busy time for you. So hopefully we'll try and jag you next week, eh? Yeah, that's right.

We give it a crack. Probably be out on the ward next week, I reckon. We've got to go fishing to some stages. can't sit around talking about it all the time.

Yeah, I know, you get out there more than most. All right. Talk to you next week mate. Good on you, mate.

Thank you. There he is. That's Watty, and of course, you can catching Barefoot Fishing Safaris or Angling Adventures.