Bag a Barra — 2 January 2026

It's time now to head to the Top End and Bagger Barra 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. Well, our man, Glenn, what do you want, of course, is from Barefoot Fishing Safaris up there in Darwin, and he's the guru when it comes to fishing in the Top End. He's back with us for 2026. Like he's 6th or 7th year with us.

Watty, happy New Year, son. Happy New Year, too, mate. I was just talking to a mate of mine who said he's been getting on the mid strength. I said he wouldn't get on good with you.

You ain't let her drink it before lunch and while you're working. Yeah, that's right. As long as you follow the guidelines, it's okay, but yeah, we still try and stick to them. You know, rules are made for a reason, mate.

Yeah, no, I understand that, mate. I do, I do understand that, believe it or not. Mate, so your New Year's are done and dusted. getting ready for a big 2026 of fishing, mate, what's installed this year?

I mean, there's been a bit of wet in North Queensland. What's happening in the Top End? Do you got any mail there? Because I think you're still away.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. No, we're back now. We got back a day or so ago and that's, yeah, it's been very wet.

We've got a lot of grass to mow and I was keeping an eye on the whole thing while we were away as well. And yeah, I mean, we're sort of getting rain every day up here. So that was really nice and yeah, that sets us up really well, of course, for a good runoff fishing season and then, of course, the general tourism really appreciates a bit of water in the waterfalls and swimming holes and stuff like Berry Springs, one of your favourites, mate. So it's going to be a good one.

All the bookings are in the diary now for the next 3 months, so that's all sorted. We just got to get stuck into a bit of boat maintenance over the next couple of weeks and yeah, get everything ready to go for a big runoff season starting in that 1st week of March. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, it's it's good. It's a massive system, isn't it?

The Northern Territory and North Queensland, but in particular, for around the fishing. It just all, it just all basically revolves around those weather systems all year round, doesn't it? Yeah, that's right. And it is perhaps a bit more reliable than whether you'd get sort of down home on the farm and that there where they very often will have sort of, you know, late spring or or dry winter or whatever, but yeah, it does seem to be pretty reliable.

Sometimes we don't get as much rain as we'd like or at the right time. Similar story, but it always happens enough to get, you know, to keep the systems going. So, um, yeah, I I think the, the chances of ever having a proper drought up north are pretty slim, certainly across the Top End. So that suits us.

And of course, we like a bit of steamy weather. We're all pretty dried out in the dry humidity down south, but I'm getting back up into a nice bit of steamy weather's good for the skin and getting you sweating again. So cleans out a bit of Christmas pudding, mate. Yeah, fair enough, mate.

He put a Christmas pudding. And what about, um, and also, mate, the $1000000 fish comp still going. Have you any Marley one, anyone jagged any tag fish lately or you're not sure? No, nothing in the last couple of weeks over some Christmas New Year period.

There certainly would have been plenty of fishing done, but like I've said in the past, I'm pretty sure by the amount of rain that we've had already, that they've, you know, that cyclone that came through out a couple 100 mils of rain, that spread out the fish that were in the river, certainly, and even in the harbour, they'll probably go, push right up into creeks and stuff and be a bit tricky to find for a month or 2 and then as it settles, they might, they might pop up again. And there's always a couple that get caught sort of at the end of the season which I think ends at the end of March. So, yeah, we're still in with a chance, yeah, now, mate. And I guess a 1000000 bucks are still out there.

So, um, yeah, not all hope is lost. Maybe we'll get the upgrade at some stage. All right. Well, mate, exciting news for 2026 as well is that you're old, mate, the duck will be back up there, okay?

July, I think we're there. be a big year for travel 26 So that's exciting for you, mate. And you're filming a few episodes of the show and stuff, aren't you?

But not in not around, darling. No, not in your part of the world. We're going to come. going to come up there so we can spend quality time with you.

We're going to Dundee as well. We'll have a mate, we'll have a mate with me and his wife, and of course, we'll, yeah, we're going to finish filming, I think, at Ularoo, and then make our way, or as rock, whatever you want to call it, and we'll finish, we'll finish filming there, and then we're going to take some downtime and come up there, still do radio and stuff, but we'll be up in your neck of the woods, mate. So look forward to that. Big year, mate.

All right. Well, thanks for joining us again for 2026, Watty. You're our man up there, and you haven't been for quite a few years now, mate. So I'm glad you're back into it and look forward to another big year of talking everything.

Top End, fishing, rain, everything else that goes on there. Yeah, there's plenty going on. And before you go, mate, I've got to give a quick shout out to a few of my mates from Eden. Hope they called after they listened to the show the other day or last week and said, oh, make sure you tell the duck that we've been catching a few mile away over at Kingston in Southeast, South Australia.

So there's a fishing report for you from a different part of the country.