Bag a Barra — 23 January 2026

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. Well, this week with VM and Watty, we're not actually heading to the Top End. We're crossing the ditch to New Zealand, then, because he's been over there fishing. Watty?

Did you find a friend in the fridge? Yeah, mate. Yeah, we found a lot of that sort of stuff. We had a great trip.

We just about to jump on the plane on the way back from Queenstown to Melbourne. So yeah, it's been great. So you've been over there fishing? Yeah, we came over and had to look around Auckland for a couple of days and went to Ed Sheeran concert there for Louise's birthday.

That was pretty great. And then flew down to Queensstown and did a couple of days fishing at a lodge that were going to help with their bookings through angling adventures. So yeah, it's been a big, big trip. Well, so fishing like there, because obviously it's a long way from what you're used to up in the Top End where, you know, you're, you know, you're very familiar, you're probably one of the, you know, Australia's leading experts, really, when it comes to catching Barramundi and, you know, how the tides work and the weather works.

What was the difference in New Zealand? What did you find there? Yeah, well, I mean, I guess the big difference is the water's very cold and there's no crocodiles in it. Um, but it can,

Yeah, I mean, there's just as much local knowledge required to have consistent results over here. In fact, it's probably, perhaps even a bit more technical than our stuff for our barramundi fishing, particularly the fly fishing that we're doing down here for um brown trout in the rivers. So, yeah, they um, they get really fussy on what they eat throughout the day and throughout the season. So, yeah, I mean, that's why you go with these really knowledgable guides who have been doing it for a long time and makes all the difference.

Yeah, and that's and that's the thing. I mean, you've hooked up with a couple of guides down there? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we, we, um, we're connected up with Hurley's fly fishing down in Lumsden, just an hour south of Queenstown and and Gavin's been, he's actually from um, Australia and he's been running guided fishing trips over here for 20 years. So, he's got a couple of houses in town there and a lodge where all his clients stay as well as a fly fishing shop.

So he's all really well set up and really established there. He's got 3 guides that work for him, and yeah, you um go out and have experienced some of the best trout fishing probably in the world, down here, and it's only like, you know, we're just about jump on the plane to Melbourne. It only a couple of hours to Melbourne and and you can be fishing that afternoon sort of thing if you're coming from Australia, so it's um really quite easy to get to and um they run a really good show here, so it's it's going to be a good partnership. You mentioned the trout fish.

You know, like in your part of the world, everybody goes for the barrow. What's the sword after fish there? Is it trout or what other species? What it is you go?

Yeah, definitely trout as far as the inland stuff goes. and the fly fishing. So it's the brown trout. There is a few rainbow trout further north, um, on the South Island, um, down here, but mate, yeah, the big, the premier species sort of equivalent to a barrow is the, is the brown trout, and they, and they get pretty big down here, so they have those sort of trophy fish, which is that over £10 mark. Um, but there's really abundant numbers of the sort of 3 to £5 which is what we were mostly catching last few days.

All right. Well, mate, well done, and I know you're in for a massive shock when you get off the plane back in Darwin, once you've been in New Zealand. I think the weather would be completely different, mate, just quickly, happy birthday to the lioness. Did she enjoy Ed Sheeran?

Yeah, she did. It was on her birthday too, so it was really special. Oh, man, you are the man. You are the man.

Yeah, yeah, it was a glamour night in Auckland that night too, mate. So, and he goes right off. It was good. I don't get to go to many big concerts like that, but it was a real experience.

Really good. How long do you reckon you'll be in the good books for for that? Because I know you can get in the bad books fairly quickly. at least until the end of the week. I mean, mate, seriously, I mean, you'd be in the good books right now, but I know you.

It'll let it be something and you'll be straight back where you belong in the bed. self-inflicted. Yeah that's right. All right, I know you're about to get on a plane, mate.

So thanks for having a yarn with us and that's very interesting. So we'll tell people about that too, if you're going to hook up with them people over there and through angling adventures, and as you say, within a couple of hours, you could be over in New Zealand fishing and in a completely different environment.