Bag a Barra — 26 June 2026

It's time to head to the Top End and Bag a Barra with Glenn Watty Watt, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris and uniden for the best in UHF radio communications. Explore the extract series at uniden.com.au. Well, he's our man in the Top End, and I've got to say I've made some pretty big promises on his behalf last night here, having a beer with a couple of mates of mine who are camping here with us at Blue Lagoon Beach Resort for our big winner campout weekend, and Moddy doesn't know about it yet, but he'll find out about it soon when we lock on it. What will happen is what he'll be kicking back one day up in the Top End, he'll be thinking, geez, I'll tell you what, how good is it?

Nice and peaceful day today. Then you'll hear this. Open up, Watty. And he's just going to absolutely go into a lather of sweat.

Watty, how are you, son? I'm going all right, mate. Yep, that's all. Make sure I got that electric gate happening out the front there, so there's no such thing as an uninvited knock on the door.

But it'll be good to get you back up here again and actually having a bit of downtime. That's one thing that we've perhaps been struggling for the last couple of visits, is that you're, you're always, um, you're like a bloody lizard with his tongue hanging out trying to get a drink, um, keeping up with everything. So, yeah, it'll be good to have a couple of days where we can just go and have a chill. That'll be nice.

It'll give me a... Well, that's the whole idea of it, are we? Because we finished filming. We're going to be filming in Central Australia, and then when that's finished, a couple of us are going, I got a mate, a really good mate of mine, who's on this trip with us, and I said, why don't we take some downtime and head to the Top End, and I'll take you to a few places that I've been to up there because he's never been there.

And I'll introduce you to my man, Watty, and we'll go see if he can't take us out fishing and have a bit of knockabout time. So we'll still have to do radio, but we can work around that. and we'll have a fair bit of downtime and so it'll be good to see you up there. yeah, I love it there, mate.

It's very funny, Watty, because so many people, and even this weekend, people have said, who have asked me, you know, where's your favourite part of Australia? And I say, I've got 2 favourite parts of Australia. I love outback Queensland and I love the Top End. Northern territory. I just, I reckon I could move there and I think it'd take about 30 to 45 seconds I'd become a local body.

What do you think? I mean, you're the king. You're the king. You're the king up there.

Well, mate, you've definitely got all the main characteristics we look for in a good territory locals. We look for, yeah. We've got to go through a fairly rigourous testing process, of course, and that involves surviving the 1st 1st buildup, you know, November. Sometimes it seems like it never ends.

So that's probably going to be your biggest and it's true for everyone. It's perhaps the biggest challenge is to get through your 1st buildup, um November, December, and then once it starts raining sort of happy days. But yeah, it's um, I mean, it's a pretty hard place not to like at the moment, mate. The weather we're getting up here in the last couple of weeks is just spectacular.

Of course, we got, I don't know, whether it was between or I spoke to you last weekend or not. Yeah, it must have been. We had 20 mill rain up here the other day, which was really unseasonal. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, got the grass ground.

was a couple of school camps got cancelled halfway through because everyone's just camping in swags or with tents with no fly on them and stuff. That threw a few spanners in the works for a few things, but um, really great for, um, for just keeping the joint looking a bit nice, um, for now. Does that happen often, Watty? Sorry, sorry to interrupt. Sorry to interrupt you, mate, but does that happen off an unseasonal rain like that?

Um, not often. No, I guess that's why it's called unseasonal. But, um, yeah, I guess we uh, we don't expect rain in, in June. Um, well, certainly not late June anyway, which is when it was, I suppose, early June, yeah, maybe, but um, you know, weather does funny things and we can't control it.

So, but no complaints here, mate. The joint's looking a 1000000 bucks, and of course, it's all happening, like the Berry Springs is open. I've had a heap of people telling me that that joint is just going amazing at the moment. Litchfield's all opening up and Kakadu and Arnland are fully cranked as well.

The mud crabs are running and yeah, I know some of those billabongs out in Kakadu are really starting to fire as the water drops away a little bit and the temperature stabilises into its sort of 26, 27 degree dry season temperature. So it's all looking pretty good up here, mate. And of course, we had the V8s last weekend and then, you know, like I say, every weekend, there's, you just got to try and figure out what to not go to, which is the hard thing. Yeah, I love it up there.

That's right. I mean, it's, yeah, I do. I love it. There's always something doing, and I was actually talking to my mate here last night, Gilly, and I said to me, mate, there are a couple of things we must do.

We've got to go to Mindel Beach markets. I wanted to take them on the way up or on the way back, go into Gondolm Falls in Kakadu and a few other places, but out around Dundee, It's just... I love it, mate.

It's so good. Mate, you talk about the buildup. And I have heard like Mrs. Duck actually lived up there for a while in her younger days in Darwin and she says to me, I would not handle it. The buildup is just the humidity.

It's just, it's, it can be fairly um fierce, is that right? Yeah, I mean, it does get a couple of degrees hotter, I suppose. So right now our max temperatures don't really get much more than 32 and perhaps by October, November, you might be getting 34s and 35s around Darwin. Catherine gets a lot hotter, but it also gets a lot cooler at this time of year.

But yeah, it's really just the humidity and for me, it's sort of like, well, you just got to accept that you're going to sweat as long as you keep drinking heaps of water. sweating and humidity's actually good for you can help flush out your system a bit. But yeah, a lot of it. mate of my move up there, mate of mine moved up there.

He was up in the transport game and he was up there for 3 months and I can tell you, Wadi, he lost 15 kilos. Well, yeah, through sweat, water and sweat, water and sweat. I said, mate, I need to get myself up there. I mean, I'd be coming back like an athlete.

I remember when I left Catherine. Remember that 1st trip I did up. Sorry, you know that 1st trip I did up there when I 1st met you? I mean, obviously, you contacted me begging to come on this show about 10 years ago.

Yeah, yeah, something like that. or whatever, whatever it was. I think you contacted me and you got me at the right time when we were 1st starting the camping show on my own and I said, yeah, mate, how could would that be? a fishing thing. And when I finally met you, we went up there and did some radio, if you might remember.

And on the way back, I had to do a show from Catherine. And the day I left Catherine, I left Catherine, it was in the 40s. I couldn't believe it's just how hot it was. And by the time I got home, I drove through Bathurst and Lithgow, it was snowing. So I'd seen it.

I drove through the snow in the nighttime and it was just snowing. I thought, God, it was only a, you know, about, oh, damn, well, probably about 3 or 4 days earlier, I was in Catherine and it was 40 odd degrees, but anyway, but, you know, it's a great place, a great part of the world, mate. Now, what about the fishing, mate? Are they catching some fish up there?

How you been going with it? Yeah, well, that's right. We got out for a few days and I'm out again for a few more days this coming week as well. And yeah, I mean, my sort of routine, these, um, at this time of year is to get into the harbours, Dino Harbour and Dundee, uh, and uh, Darwin Harbour and and a little bit of offshore at Dundee, if the weather's right, and yeah, like, uh, there's plenty of barrow up on the flats there, you can um, sight cast them, you know, see the fish and then throw your lure at them or you fly at them, and that's always a good challenge, and then the best thing about this time of year, I suppose, is that if the barrow don't want to play the game for whatever reason on any

There's 15 other species, you can go and have a crack at as well, which is the big difference from, say, runoff time where it's either barrel or nothing. So, as far as actually catching a few fish goes, this, this can be a more, more reliable and easier time of year to do it. And um, you know, you're, you're of course fishing in really beautiful spots as well. So, well, I mean, we're doing that every time, but um, something different than what we've been doing for the last few months during runoff.

So it's good. Yeah, mate, that's the go, isn't it? I mean, like, um, that now's the time of year, people will just be absolutely flocking up there for the fishing. How is, in regards to people, mate.

Is that looking a bit busier now or is it still a little bit quiet? what's the story there Yeah, I think they're, I think they are still down a decent chunk on that genuine drive market, you know, like we keep saying, there have been plenty of people that decided barely on in April that they just weren't going to make the big trip this year and and then sort of made other plans, but saying that, I think there has been a bit of a recovery. There was really good numbers at the V 8.

They changed their program a little bit this year to have proper racing on the Friday as well as Saturday and Sunday. So, whether that um sort of skewed the numbers or not, but it was um, they, they had really good numbers at the VH. So that's probably our 1st sort of litmus test for the, for the season to see how it's going. I mean, it's in school holidays and stuff.

So, you know, people can fly up and just have a long weekend up here as well. And I have heard from a few of the old grain home ads. Of course, they love getting out and getting a feed of mud crabs and on, and I know the mud crabs are going pretty well, um, well everywhere at the moment that I've heard. So that's a real key feature, this time of year for us as well, with our harbour fishing, and that is to grab a feed of mud crabs, which you can't do through the wet season and the runoff.

So, um yeah, that's pretty nice. As you know, good for you to muddy. pretty hard to beat. Yeah, do you love the muddies?

What's your recipe? your recipe? You got a recipe? Because everyone's got these chilli crab recipes and different recipes.

What have you got one? What's the Watty recipe? Well, yeah, you'd call it a recipe, I suppose. The, my, the favourite mud crab that I ever remember eating, and it perhaps was that it was one of the earlier ones.

I was, um, you know, I was travelling around up here with some mates and we're up at Gunpoint Beach, actually, which is a great place. You can camp up there and um, beautiful beach you can drive along as well as, um, as, as fish along and, um, we, we caught a couple of muddies and we, um, didn't really have any way to cook them. We're just going to chuck them on the fire. We found an old fridge shelf, um in the scrub there somewhere.

We threw that on the fire and just, um, cooked those muddy straight on the, on the coals, mate, and just that smoky taste, and it sort of dries them out a bit, I suppose, and, um, you know, surrounded by mates in a, in a new and exciting place. That's, that's probably hard to beat. and I still really love it because that brings back those memories as well. But yeah, everyone's got their own special chilli crab up here. Of course, a lot of Asian influence in the cooking, but you could do it.

Um, you know, an infinite amount of ways, depending on your taste, I suppose. Yeah, I I've got to say, mate, I look, I don't mind them, but a lot of work for me. I like just getting... Yeah, you need to get a helper to do the shell cracking and stuff.

well that's right. I mean, yeah, well, I'm okay. Yeah, yeah. I'll do that for you. I mean, I asked her, she would if I asked her.

But anyway. Yeah, you'll have to get trained up a bit more. Oh, well, I'll get some lessons off you. I mean, you've obviously got the lioness trained. I mean, like, I mean, yeah, right.

I mean, mate, if you can let me know how you do that, mate, just let me know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Any tips? Any tips? What do they say?

What that saying? Happy wife, happy life. That's what they say. Is it true?

I've, mate, I can find a Barramundi any single day of the year and put you in front of him, but the other one. I don't have a full understanding of. So there's a fair in progress. Fair enough, mate.

mate, let me tell you, we'd all be buggered without them, trust me. All right, mate, you are a good man, Watty, and it's certainly you talk the lifestyle up there, mate. And I was talking it up here last night, as I say, I can't wait to get up there and get out of this cold too, which would be pretty handy. Getting a bit old, buddy.

I'm starting to get, you know, shame your age a bit here. Oh, Carl Wetherin, yeah. You've got the caravan, mate, and the mobile lifestyle. You might end up here just like the rest of the gray nomads through the middle of the year, which I could see yourself there.

I reckon, mate, I'm telling you now, my ultimate plan would be just to come up there for 4 to 6 months, and then when it gets to, when that buildup comes, go, well, the buildup comes, the duck goes, and then I head down here and cop that, and the neck, or would it be just living in the warmth all year round? I love it. Well, yeah. That's right.

And that's what a lot of people do and you can laugh. Oh no, they do. Sort of key events in your annual calendar, like, you'd be home for, say, footy finals in, um, in late September or the other thing that I know a lot of, um, my uncles do that travel around a lot is they like to be home for the 1st week of September for the start of bowls season, mate. So that's probably, you know, you're not far off.

How big is that now? Once upon a time, it was old blokes and old ladies. I've been disrespectful. So we'd be playing with the white gear on.

and bowling. mate, these days, it's young blokes, young ladies, and they've got, they've got, you know, the flash shirts on and that's a rule. I got a mate of mine who plays every week. Yeah, for sure.

It's huge. There's a, you know, the Barefoot bowl thing that happens sort of everywhere, but of course, in Darwin throughout the year. There's hardly a better thing you can do for a couple of hours with a few mates when you just want to have a bit of a laugh and a nice sort of a casual relaxing activity to do. And you get you have a look at the Australian Olympic theme for the bowls, mate.

I think at least the women's team is the jackaroos. Yeah, mate, they're all under 40. Yeah, mate, I'm not being disrespectful, but I remember as a young bloke, when you saw bowl bowling, it was always, you know, the older people with all the white, you know, the white gear on. But these days they got the flash shirts with the sponsors on them and all sorts of stuff, mate.

Why, Mars, I said about it, mate. I've got a mate of mine who plays every week and he's been trying to get me into it. I said, well, mate, have you been down and picked the ball up for me, I'll have a crack. I've got to go, Watty.

All right. I'm going to move to Darwin and you start losing. That €15 your mate did and you'll be an athlete. Yeah.

Oh, we had a bit of a game here. was a bowling club right where we went Blue Lagoon now. There's a bowling club up the road from you. We had a crack last year.

It was a very good day, actually. Barefoot bowling. Anyway, got to go, mate. Right, mate.

Good on you. Have a good one. You too. There he is.

That's my man, what are you in the Top End? Barefoot Fishing Safaris. You want to go fishing up there and catch yourself some of them big barrers and enjoy that lifestyle that he talks about here every week? You can do it by visiting Barefoot Fishing Safaris website, or of course, his social media pages, and of course, angling adventures, if you want to go for those bigger fishing trips overseas, them real serious ones.

Head to the top in there. Check out Barefoot Fishing Safaris. My man, Glenn, what do you, what? should be the chief minister up there.

He certainly is the, he should be the tourism minister at least. He talks it up, doesn't he? And he doesn't tell lies. He tells you how good it is and it's because it is that good.

I love it there. Anyway, check him out. My man, Barefoot Fishing Safaris.