Bag a Barra — 25 October 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 shimanofish.com.au. Well, he's the mayor up there in the Top End.

In fact, he should be the chief minister of the northern territory of this bloke, man. No one knows as much about what goes on in the northern territory, any particular the Top End. No one knows more than Watty. He on the line.

What do you g'day? Good day, duck. going down there. Going all right, son.

We're doing all right. How is it up there, mate? The wet season, starting to take a bit of hold. What's the what's the go?

We're sort of in this nice true build-up pattern now, mate? You're getting a bit of to be getting rain once a week, at least. Everything's nice and green, and people are commenting when they come up that they, um, they're surprised how green it is, sort of right now. So, yeah, we had that good early rain, which is a, a good start, get everything happening, and I actually got a photo from a mate uh yesterday who, his young fellow was down at Rapid Creek. He loves going down there, scooping up fish out of the creek and he cooked, he cooked, uh, caught a barr in his little net.

It was about 3 centimetres long, so it must have been from an early spawning, which is really great to see that, you know, those, those 1st of the next generation are already growing happy and healthy, um, thanks to an early start to the wet. That's unbelievable, isn't it? good is that? And I mean, I mean, that's the thing up there.

I mean, I'm going to tell you something, right? This is a fair thing, and this is the difference between being up where you are and anywhere there, where the, you know, it's it's a cycle and it's the environment and the and the big barras, and then you, you know, you got kids that can scoop up one that's 3 centimetres in size, and it just shows that regeneration, everything's working, and the, and the, the new barrels are on the way. But down here, let me tell you what happens. Through the week, we had a, through the week, we had a bit of a, Mrs. Duck has decided that we've got to get a bit healthier here.

I think you've more talking about me, and we're going to have fish at least once or twice a week. So she went to a fish. I am not going to say where it was, but she went to a seafood fendor. And this boat sold her a, I said, look, just get, try and get me a snapper fillet. If you can't find that, just get me Barramundi.

Well, mate, you wouldn't believe it, but the bloke. She she rang me up. She goes, no, snapper Phyllis, but they've got Barramundi. I said, yeah, no drama.

So when she gets home, I said, how was it? She goes, good, yeah, the bloke said it's from the Gold Coast. Oh, fair, there you go. I went fair, Deacon.

I mean, like, seriously, I mean, look, I just know, when I was at Kurumba, I bought some bar fillets up there that were that big. You had to carry them with 2 hands. I've been up there with you and up in the Top End. I'm not sure what Barrow they catch Barrow Mundy on the Gold Coast.

They are starting to move down that way, mate. This is the warmer waters and stuff. Not particularly common, but they will survive down there now. I heard, um, actually Steve Starling was telling me that, um, they've been getting the odd one in summertime.

Was that in the Brisbane River, I think. Um but yeah, very uncommon. You can't go out and target them, but you know, climate change. Everything's warming up, mate.

So who knows, they might be down your way. We can't throw a line out here in the Hawkesbury. How good would that be, catch up back? I mean, you get a lot of bash there and a lot of Jew fish, but I'm not sure about Barry Mundy.

Hopefully, for all our sake, it's a long time before Barrel happily live in the Hawkesbury. in a lot of trouble if that was the case. Yeah, you'll be frying up there, mate. You'll be running around with an RSL team.

Oh, that's right. You've already got one of those. I'm sorry. Anyway, so anyway, but look, I know there's a lot of Barramundi Farms, maybe the farm was located on the Gold Coast.

I'm not sure, but I just, I did laugh. And I've got to say, it was, uh, They just, I don't know, up there, they just seem to be a lot better. I'm not sure whether it's just the vibe of it but they are good up there. They're like massive big stakes up there.

Yeah, well, that's right. It's a taste of the territory and and our hunty-doo barrel farm up here, which is the biggest one in the country. I heard a thing on the radio the other day. I think they're doing, they're doing 100s of tons of week of Barra out of that place and they're all saltwater grown and stuff that they do.

You know, it's, it's, it's the real deal. I mean, obviously they're, they're hand fed, but um, yeah, it's still, that's, that's top quality product there. It's a world leading facility. Yeah, absolutely.

And they'd be shipping them everywhere, which is good, good up there, good business. So that's, that's, uh, we love to hear about good businesses up in the Top End. And not only, I'm tipping that they'll be sending Barramundi not only around Australia, but probably in other parts of the world as well, which I think is a great thing. Now, the $1000000 fishes back on.

Has there been any winners yet? Yeah, we're up to 12 Fish Court. um already, which is pretty cool on the line. It's unbelievable. The last fella that got one is a bit of a yarn. I've just jumped on the Facebook page to get me back straight, but he, he, he had another one, another season that he realised it had a tag as he let it go, so he would have been spewing then.

Another year he caught one that was from a different season. So that didn't count either. So 3rd time lucky and old mate's got himself 10 grand. So, yeah, it goes to show if you keep getting out there and keep ticking those, they are off the, we'll keep checking to make you, um, I suppose the important thing.

yeah. How would you be? You've just thrown it. And as you've as it's leaving your fingers, you've spotted the tag.

Yeah, oh, yeah, devastating. It's funny because, you know, we've actually got you to appear on another radio show. I'm involved in, on Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra radio and, and, and we've often said how many people not knowing have thrown a tag fish in the, on the barbeque. It'd be absolutely.

You imagine that you'd be chewing on a going. What's that? You got the tag in your mouth. You know, you probably have to be fairly under the weather not to notice it. It goes, you're filleting the fish and that sort of thing, I think. But then we're down there a few years ago where some fellas were out fishing at night and they necked a barrow that they caught and didn't realise until the next day when they pulled it out of the esky or the fridge or something that had, um, that had a tag in it.

So that was lucky that they did keep that one and not let him go. We are talking about the Northern Territory. don't mind a beer up there, do you? Well, it's bloody thirsty weather up here, mate.

He's pretty steamy here today. thirsty weather up there all year round, I reckon. I mean, even in the middle of wintertime, she's still thirsty weather. Anyway.

All right. So, all right. So anyway, what about for yourself? Angling adventures?

You got any big trips coming up or are you around for a while? Yeah, no, I'm around for a while, mate. I'm not going overseas at least until next year now, so we're actually just got a big group over at Melbourne Island Lodge there. Um, a group of 18 that comes up from Sydney for the last couple of years. So, they'll be having a good time, no doubt, and catching plenty of bar, and they might even find one with a tag in it over there.

But after that, it goes to be quiet over the wet season. you know, and all the, all the bookings will start firing up again in um that last week of February, I suppose, and, and off we go again into it after a big wet season and a good rest, and um, and yeah, back into another big year. So, it's been a great year, um, both for angling adventures and Barefoot, and, um, you know, I appreciate you having me on the show to give it a bit of a voice too. There's some cool things happening and it's great to be able to share our experiences travelling all around the world and we're on the Top End with a wider audience.

You mentioned before about how it's greening up. It must look fantastic, especially in that area where you live and around near that where that Nunamer tavern is and all that. And then when you look up around, around corroborating, say, Humpty-Doo, because every time I've been there, it's dry as chips, but geez, it must look sensational and it all greens up. Must be just a complete different a complete different outlook on things there. Yeah, no, it definitely does. And, and of course, that real early morning period is, is the best time of, of the day to be out there, sort of on the billabong or on the river experiencing it.

You know, you, you do, it does sort of smell a bit fresher. You got that bit of humidity in the air and and you can see everything burst into life, you know, all the big salty crops are starting to build their nests and um, like I say, the barrer have already spawned at least once. They probably did that last full moon in September and, and they'll get another couple of goes at it before it really starts to rain and, um, you know, we've seen the magpie geese flying over in huge numbers as well. So, yeah, I mean, it's a, we're lucky.

There is not a hell of a lot of people that live up here and we've got a lot of wilderness areas, so we're immersed in it and it's great to be part of. Oh, absolutely. Well, mate, I envy you sometimes. I love it up.

there. I wouldn't mind coming up for a couple of weeks in during the wet just to get that experience. I know it's pretty hot and I mean, as you say, we can always hydrate. We know how to do that. And, um, pick, you know, but and and just pick what days we're going out from the air con.

I just think I'd love to succeed in the wet. I just think it'd be, I'm only got what you describe to me and you talk to yourself and other locals. I remember we talking to old mate at Dundee Beach Tavern and he was saying he loves the wet too. I remember even with the boss of the raw flying doctors up there, I was talking to her one day and they just, the locals love it, don't they?

And obviously for good reason, it'd be good to get up there and have a look one time. You know, the reality of all that is too, is that it's a great time to travel from down south as far as affordability goes, because you get all sorts of offseason rates in hotels and car hire and all that sort of stuff, and, you know, if you keep an eye on the weather and you've got a spare long weekend, you can come up here, when the monsoon's pouring rain, hitting one of those hot, um, high level, um, floors on the, in the hotels in the city or at Dundee or any of these other places, and, The storm activity is absolutely spectacular, every afternoon and that the sheer volume of rain, There's something that most Australians never get to see.

And then, of course, you can, like you say, duck out for a fish for half a day in the morning or go to Berry Springs or whatever else it might be and you're really dodging the crowds too, you know? So it is great. Yeah. Berry Springs was one of the nicest places I think I've ever gone for a swim. Jesus, nice.

Beautiful. In fact, I still rate that as probably the best place I've ever had a swim. Yeah, it's unreal. There's a couple of other spots.

Oh, there's plenty of other waterfalls in that, but Barry Springs really close to Darwin. We actually took the kids last weekend down to Man and Dan with the boat and the biscuit for haunt, towing the kids behind the boat and that's another great thing to do at this time of year as well, you know. So, there's plenty of, plenty, plenty still on, even though once the waterfalls and stuff will close because of the rain, it's not all over. You can still have a really great holiday up here at this time of year.

Sounds good, mate. All right. we better let you go, mate. run out of time, but well done.

Sparkling up there, mate. And you certainly paint, you know, painting a great picture of the scene up there. And I only wish I was here with you, mate. We'll chat to you next week. Good on you, mate.

I'll battle along. We'll see you when you get there. I'm sure you will. I'm sure you will battle along.

Here he is. That's our man. Glenn, what? Glenn Watty?

What? What? Yeah, he is the number one fishing guru up there in the Top End. And of course, you can catch him at Barefoot Fishing Safaris or angling adventures. Book a fishing trip with Watty and I'm telling you now, you certainly will not regret that.

And he has been coming on the show for about 5 or 6 years. Now we love having him on and gives us that contact in the Top End and we'd love to get up there as much as we can to spend some time with Watty. He might not be too keen on me going up there twice in a year. But anyway, who cares?

I didn't tell him that we're actually going back next year. How good's that going to be? And he might have to put up with this again. But you're able to see Watty too on Ozoff Road TV.

We're about to release the little bit on YouTube now. It's to be on the 9 network later on. The 1st part of two-part episode with the outback and the northern territory, and we've just finalising the part one part of it now on part two. What do you peers? and we're out on corroborate Billabong.