Bag a Barra — 20 June 2025

It's time now to head to the Top End and Bagabara, with Glenn Watty Watt, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris and Uniden. For the best in UHF communications, explore the extract series at Uniden.com.au. And, of course, Glenn, what is the man behind Barefoot Fishing Safaris in the Top End, and, of course, angling adventures, and you can go fishing with Watty, just by going to anglingadventures.com.au, or, of course, Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Why do you reckon you work closely with crocodiles? You need to get up here and have a crack, son. That's right.

I, mate, I did use the living room many moons ago and, and I was a frequent visitor to the original old crock farm out there. So, well, a crock parker. Oh, have we lost Watty? You there, mate?

Yeah, no, I'm here. I'm here. Oh, that's all right. I thought I just lost you.

Yeah, well, actually, it's funny because I'm here with young. You can say g'day to young Owen Douglas. Say g'day to me, mate. G'day how you going, mate?

How you going? You know, funnily enough, I've actually been watching a fair few of Malcolm's old videos on YouTube recently, you actually went up into the Fly River in New Guinea up into Lake Murray, which is where I spend a fair bit of time these days. So, um, yeah. Was that in the north New Guinea film?

That's right, yeah, from Sydney right up was the sort of 1st episode and then there was a 2nd part where they went back for a couple of months as well. So, yeah, both amazing, actually, from back in the day. Are you fishing up there for Big Bass, are you? That's right, mate.

Yeah, we send a fair few clients up to Lake Murray every year and I spend 5 weeks over there last year myself. On Rio, it's on my bucket list. A lot of the stuff in that show. Yeah.

Oh, that's, oh, that's introduce you to Watty, mate. You can go up there. Yeah, big bass sounds pretty nice. He's doing a great job here, young Owen.

He's keeping his pops legacy well and truly alive here, mate. And it's a great spot, this where they are now. It's incredible, Watty. 600 soldiers, here.

Yeah, that's right. I haven't been back to the new location, but, you know, in 2 in 1999, uh, your old man actually offered myself and me mate Richie Sutton, the job there fixing fences after the crocodiles chewed them up at Cable Beach, and I was dead keen to stay, but Richie was chased and kind of, so we continued on in the WB, but that could have been a totally different path for me. What a great story. Yeah, I'm still continuing that legacy on it in the fact I'm asking people to come do fence in all the bloody time.

Yeah, that's right. She was pretty agricultural back then, just a bit of chook wire. Oh, yeah, right. I think yeah, we've got a bit more integrity in the fencing nowadays.

I've got to say, what I turned up, he handed me a roll of wire and I actually turned up with a sword. And he goes, what are you doing with that duck? I said, oh, you're looking for a fencer. you there, mate?

I don't know. I have a tension contract. So what did you turn on? That's what I said. I turned up with the sword and he goes, what do you do with the sword? I said, I thought you were looking for a fencer.

There you go. Anyway, that one went straight over my head. Yeah, I know. That's why I repeated it.

I don't normally repeat jokes, but you are a bit slow. Mate. anyway. There's a small world, isn't it?

And I'll have to introduce you to young Alan because I reckon you 2 blokes could do some great stuff together as well. And he's doing a great job here. Now, listen, what's biting in the Top End, mate? It's actually all going pretty good. I heard some really good mud crab reports the other day, which is sort of the 1st time I've talked about crabs for a while, um, with anyone who's been out fishing, and yeah, sounds like they're going really good.

All the local sort of favourite haunts, Shoal Bay, Leaders Creek, and now Dundee, sounds like there's plenty of crabs. So that's really good. And they usually do turn up as the water temper drops a bit and that fresh water goes out of the system. So, yeah, it's a, it's a sign that they've probably had a good spawning season and they're back in, in the estuaries in numbers. So, plenty of people out there getting a pretty good, easy feed. I'd hate to buy a mug crab these days.

I think they're over 50 or 60 bucks apiece, so if you can go out and get them yourself, that's a much better option. Yeah, absolutely, just be careful pulling them up, mate. That's all. Yeah, well, that's right.

Plenty of, uh, plenty of times the old crocs go and chew up the crab pots and um, and that sort of stuff. So you've got to be a bit mindful about how you set them and of course the right tides and all that sort of stuff. It's like any sort of style of fishing. there a bit of technique involved in it.

Comes with a bit of experience or asking the right locals you might find at the caravan park. Yeah, exactly, you're right, mate. And what else, mate? and serving fishing tourists everywhere.

We've been bumping into a stack of them and I'm tipping, there'll be people up there right now just enjoying what the Darwin and the surrounding areas have to offer as Litchfield and Kakadu and all those places, all in full flight right now. And obviously the fish are biting. Yeah, absolutely. They certainly are.

And like I keep saying, the water temps and stuff. So that brings all the, um, the tuna and mackerel and things that ride in close to the smaller boat brigades in Darwin Harbour and inshore of Dundee there as, as well as sort of this time of year is when all those bit more remote billabongs in Kakadu and that sort of stuff start opening up and you can go out there and have some really beautiful camping at this time of weather as, as well as some, some great barrow fish and, especially for smaller fish, which is great for the families and that sort of stuff, of course. All right, yeah, absolutely. All right, mate.

Well, good stuff. And obviously people can still get onto you and book those big fishing trips and you've got your, obviously you've got Barefoot fishing so far, but angling adventures as well, and you can get up there and retrace some of those little places where Malcolm Douglas used to go. Oh, exactly, mate. I've got, so I, it's a bit of a story, but I took a screen recording of that video that Malcolm made, um, where they made some fish traps out of some vines in a tree that catch Saratoga in the river there.

I showed it to the one of the local guides. This was last year. I said, oh, you know anyone who can still make these? Oh yeah, Mayor said, yeah, me mother-in-law makes them.

How mean do you want? I said, oh, 10? He goes, oh, she'll bring him in tomorrow. So, you know, they still hold... And how'd they go? traditional culture out there.

I actually haven't put him in the water to be honest, mate. I'm sure they would catch fish because they're exactly the same as the ones that they've been using for 1000s of years. So, yeah, just amazing, that they are still really, you know, stay intruder, their real cultural customs, and they don't have a hell of a lot of exposure to, um, to all this sort of bad stuff that's going on in the world, which is good for them. So they're not using live scope for the Saratoga, are they?

Not yet, mate. No, I did take mine over there for a few couple months last year and yeah, geez, it's amazing what happens when you put it in the water at a place like Lake Murray or Ben's back where there's just so much abundance of all different types of fish. So, yeah, they, you know, they have, the world's best barramundi fishing is in Ben's back river in remote PNG and there's not even a single sounder in the boat, so that's a good example of just how good it is. Keeping it old school. Good stuff mate.

All right, Watty, we'll let you go, mate. Well, you're onto you next week, eh? Righto, good on you. Enjoy your time over there.

Oh, mate, young Owen's looking after us. Sorry about that. his hands full here, as you can imagine. You've been in his position before, where you've had to deal with me.

Yeah, you get a lock on that gate, mate. I reckon that's the only way to... Get me locked out. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right, mate, no dramas. I'll talk to you next week, eh? Righto. Good on you.

See you. There he is. That's what he Barefoot Fishing Safaris is, of course, angling adventures up there in the Top End.