Bag a Barra — 24 July 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. And, of course, Glenn, what do you want? Is the own operator of Barefoot Fishing Safaris up there in the Top End?

He's our mean, and, of course, I've got great news for him. He's getting very excited, Watty, because in a few weeks time. Not long now, and I know he's marking it off the calendar day by day. you know, hanging the old day, you had the calendar on the wall and you'd put a little cross as each day ended.

Well, he's got he's got one date circled and he can't wait to get to it because the big end of town is arriving up there. What do you get a? G'day. Is that in the day that you guys leave that I'm looking forward to?

It could be, yeah. It could be. It could be. But I've got to say to you, mate, I've talked you up, mate.

I'm telling you now, you better produce some fish today that we're going, mate, because I've talked you right up, right up. Big time. worry, isn't it? Yep, yep.

Yeah, we'll see what happens. There's no pressure on me, mate. I've caught plenty of them before. I like to throw it back onto you guys.

Yeah, no, no, no, mate. You are going to be under more pressure than my belt buckle body. I'm gonna assure you. mate.

They are looking... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, what's doing up there? I was just talking to my mate, Neil Stewart, and he mentioned a Darwin festival.

There's a lot going. It was always something happening up in the Top End, isn't there? Oh, yeah, it's going off. So we've got the Darwin Festival.

Um, yeah, it hasn't quite started, but not far away, and that's sort of 3 weeks of, um, yeah, all sorts of different entertainment, some really, really unreal stuff, and it's not usually my scene, that sort of, that sort of thing, but we make an effort to go, um, you know, to as many things as we can, and there's stuff on, um, sort of every night, spread right across Darwin and Palmerson. So, yeah, it's actually a really huge tourism draw card and some world-class axe get up here, but, um, yeah, we got that, and then Darwin Cup is coming up as well, pretty soon, it's only in a couple of weeks' time. I'll actually bear away, unfortunately, and next time I talk to you, I'll, it'll be, um, I'll be in that same place over at um, Curabas, at Christmas Island, taking a group over there. So that'll be nice.

Yeah, Viking funeral last weekend and Darwin shows this weekend. So, yeah, we're, it's all going, as I keep saying, it's hard to pick what you're actually gonna do and um, and weasel out all the other stuff that you can't do. Well, and the duck and the duck and his crew turning up there soon. Yeah, well yeah, that's right.

That's on the list. And you guys will be here at the same time as the Australia Bangladesh test, which is the 1st test cricket played in the territory for over 20 years, I think, and there's one really interesting stat that might happen that I'm looking forward to. If Travis head scores a century. in Darwin, uh, which he probably will go, um, you know, going on his current form.

He will be the 1st player to have ever scored a century in every state and territory of Australia. So there you go. That'll be a good one to be there for. would be.

Yeah. Cheat goes good. He's, he's, you know what? For a long time there, we've always had great characters in cricket, haven't we?

But for a long time there, we really didn't have any, but he's he's a bit of a character, isn't he? I mean, he's lots of fans. He's like, yeah, we need a few more of Travis Hedge in the team. Yeah, that's right.

I'm with you on that one It was pretty bland there for a while and apart from him, it's still sort of is, but yeah, I mean, you and I remember those. Oh, you, you, you're probably back in the Lily and Tommo days, but for me, it was Warren McGrath and Merv and all those big characters through the 80s and 90s. So yeah, I'd love to see a bit more of that back in the game.

Maybe when they bring it to Darwin, it'll bring it out of them, bring the best out. Well, as a kid, I mean, we had Dougie Walders, Max Walker. As you mentioned, yeah, Dennis Lilly. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, they were real. I mean, and you know what? I've got to say, I've been very, very lucky in this job. I remember doing some stuff on a summer sports show where they'd sent me out to do.

I think I went out to host a daddy daycare event once, which was like, well, mate, anyway. And anyway, but it was a radio show. They sent me out to do these things and Doug Walters was on the show. And I, you know, and it was, you pinched yourself. You know what I mean?

Like he's a bloke. Who, you know, a legend. Like, he, you know, he'd be playing cards and then go to the bedroom. They just, you know, put his smoke in the ashtray and so he just hold them cars and be back in a minute and go and get a double cent.

That's right. Yeah, yeah. There's a link to a lot of these guys for the territory, and because a lot of them play fish, go fishing as well, and you know, Andrew Simons famously got dropped from the team because you went fishing instead of going to training, and Matty Hayden comes up here a bit. I've taken him fishing and spends a lot of time out at Tiwi Island, does a lot of good stuff for the community, raising money out there.

Met Matty Hayden at a Shimano dude. Does he? Yeah, no, well, I actually met Matty... Yeah.

Yeah, I met Matty Hayden at a Shimano Du, a few years ago. Great bloke. I would love to. I would have loved to have known Andrew Simons.

I mean mate, you talk about characters. Yeah, I was a huge... I was a huge fan of him. I don't think as many were.

And yeah, so sadly no longer with us. But yeah, certainly you'll never be forgotten, especially in cricket circles. And of course, fishing and hunting. He was very passionate about all of that as well and good at it, apparently.

So anyway. Now, what else is happening up there, mate? What's on the bike, mate? Well, we actually had a very fun session out at your favourite spot, Corrobery Billabong the other day, mate.

I took a few mates out there and yeah, I reckon there's one little spot there. It's pretty hard to keep it secret because it's 20 metres from the boat ramp and then we sat there for 4 or 5 hours and probably caught 50 barrows as everyone was putting their boats in and driving away. So, I'd say there was a bit of a line up there the next day and I was sort of half thinking about going there at some stage the next few days, but I reckon the word would have got out there. So, yeah, it's right where the, where the Mary River um flows in from the next billabong upstream and and there's obviously a heap of bait there right now and just 100s of those sort of small barrows, those little 45 sort of centimetre jobbies. and yeah, I mean, as far as taking your kids or some, um, you know, some visitors from down south goes.

That's um, it's pretty hard to beat right there and you, you wouldn't even need to start the motor. You slide the boat off the trailer, drop the anchor and start fishing. So, yeah, pretty pretty lucky to have that so close to my place, only a half hour drive from my joint. Yeah, that's unreal, isn't it?

Yeah, we might have to go down there with you in a few weeks. Can you just tell people to stay away till we get there? Yeah, I'll put a little sign up there. I'll say reserved for for duck on.

Yeah, whatever date. Yeah, I'll have to... a bit of bunking around it or something. Yeah, you might have to make a few calls for me up there too, because we're not sure where we're winging it a bit on this one. And, you know, we want to go out to Dundee, we say we can get a spot and you might have to, you know, pull, you know, I know you're a very powerful man up there, you know. Get onto your mate, Popey at the pub, your mate, Popey at the pub.

That's right. Naomi out there, and then you got old John at Crab Claw as well. That's a pretty amazing place to stay right on the water as well out there. Where's Kreb Claw?

's that? Well, Crab Claw is off the road. It's off the side of the road in Bynoe Harbour as you're heading out to Dundee, but back, say, half an hour or so. There's a bit of a rough dirt road to get out there and you're right on the beach there.

It's a great place for me. I'll run a lot of fishing trips out of there over the years. You can just anchor anchor the boat off overnight and if you, you know, if you want to come in and have a, have a feed and a couple of beers over the timber at lunchtime when it gets a bit hot, you can just duck back in. So that's really convenient and um yeah, you can't beat that location as well.

Plenty of mud crabs going out there right now. So, yeah, I reckon all the gray nomads will be getting stuck into them and we might do if we can throw a couple of pots in and get you guys feed them as well. Yeah, that sounds fantastic, mate. That does sound good.

I do like the idea of all that. All right, mate. So it's right now, smack dab right in the middle of the little travel season. plenty of people about?

Yeah, it's chockers. Again, you wouldn't even know that it was a bit quiet there a couple months ago. So, yeah, I think fingers crossed, everyone is sort of going really well with their day trips and that sort of thing and just chatting to the few people that I do that run those sort of trips that is going really well. So that's great.

And, um, you know, we had the most amazing wet season, so all those waterfalls and swimming holes, Berry Springs, another one of your favourites, just absolutely pumping, and some of our favourite billabongs are about to open up out in Kakadu as well. I just had a mate call me this morning, actually give me the inside scoop he'd been out there with his neighbour, me old mate, Charlie, who's the TO out there. So he's got the keys to all the gates, mate. So, they went out and checked out a few of those remote billabongs and reckon they're going to open up in the next couple of weeks as well.

So, that'll be really exciting. That's they're some of those spots that just can go right off as soon as you can get into them. So yeah, if we've got time, we might even push you guys out to one of those spots and have a look out there as well. Yeah, we'll make sure we'll do something we're looking forward to catching up with you, mate.

All right. Well, we'll let you get back to whatever it is you're doing today and we'll have a yarn next week, eh? Yeah, that's right. I'm doing some admin today.

I got a heap of gear going out to clients hire, hire fishing gear off me to go over to on these new guinea trips. So, yeah, it's a real specialised gear. So, yeah, I sort of I keep a big stockpile of it. He gives me an excuse to keep going back to the tackle shop, mate, too, which I quite like.

Yep, I can imagine you in the tackle shop. A kid in a lollie shop. All right. We'll talk to you next week.

Friday, good on you. There he is. That's Barefoot Fishing Safaris if you want to go up there. Look for that name.

Yeah, man, Glenn, what do you want? He is the man up there, and of course, angling adventures, if you want to take your fishing trip to another level. Well, you can certainly do that with Watty as well. Barefoot Fishing Safaris in the Top End, our number one fishing guy, and he's been on this show now.

I think he'd be about 6 or seven, 8 years. Burn on it for a while, and he absolutely absolutely contributes here with some great yarns and everything else that's all about that Top End lifestyle. If you want to get up there and experience it yourself, get onto him. Just look for Barefoot Fishing Safaris on social media and of course the website.