Bag a Barra — 13 November 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, I'm not sure how much rain they've had up in the Top End, but I've been seeing videos of massive crocodiles in little creeks and waterways with people standing on a bridge and traffic and cars driving over the bridge.

It's like it looks like in suburbia. And I think it's up in the Top End. Watty? Is that right?

Well, mate, I actually haven't seen that video. So I can't confirm it, but it is the time of year when the crocodiles do move around a lot, they're starting to, the saltwater crocodiles nest through the wet season, right? So they'll be starting to pair up and fight for territory and build nests and that sort of thing as we get a bit of rain happening. But freshies, on the other hand, they nest in the opposite part of the year, in the dry season, I suppose, to avoid conflict with the soldies who tend to like to eat freshies.

So, yeah, that'll be the big soldies moving around the place, and it's a time of year of high activity in the crocs, in the harbours and stuff like that as well. They'll, they start to pop up a bit more here and there as the, perhaps those smaller males get pushed out of territory by those big dominant males, you know, as the breeding season starts. I sort of, to be honest, it's not a good thing to be a crocodile because I think I saw somewhere. It's like one in 400 or something, make it, like it's, I mean, I've seen crocodiles, obviously, so, I'll see some, like, I remember seeing some up at Owen Douglas's crock farm, and I was actually holding one in me hand, but I remember we were up at Proserpine, and there were little babies on the bank, and like these things,

I mean, I got a water dragon that lives out the front. It's bigger, you know, so, but I think the black, they were saying it's like one in 400 or something. Is that right? A couple of hundred?

Yeah, yeah. It's a very small percentage, that's for sure. And yeah, I guess that's why they have been so resilient over 1000000s of years that it's only the absolute toughest survive type thing. So, yeah, be a be a hard life being a crocodile up until you're probably, you know, a couple of metres long, you're, you're constantly getting moved on out of everyone's territory and and you've got to be looking over your shoulder because your, your uncle or your auntie might be trying to reach her at the same time.

So, yeah. Not a good, not an easy loss, you know? No, not at all, mate. And it just goes to show.

I mean, they seem to be everywhere at the moment, but just imagine if they all survived. I mean, maybe there'd be 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of the things. That'd be a huge problem. I mean, they're sort of culling themselves to some degree.

I mean, it's just, but anyway, what's happening with the fishing, mate? Because obviously now there's, I've seen some, some great videos of storms and stuff like that up there. How's all that going and what's that doing to the fishing?

Yeah, absolutely amazing. Thunder and lightning storms have been getting out in Bynoe. I've just come back from 9 days out there. camping the caravan at crab claw and doing our fishing, but some absolutely crazy storms.

So some of the loudest and brightest thunder and lightning I've ever seen. So, yeah, we're really getting into it. Now, the rain's been, sort of what it is normally this time of year, really patchy, but you, you know, you can be under a storm and get 20 mils in, in half an hour or so or does clean miss out on, on the other side of the road. So, uh everything is green though, which is awesome. So that's the end of our fire season, I suppose, largely.

There'd be plenty of lightning strikes, but they won't do too much trouble. But yeah, of course, once we get that rain happening, that really kicks everything off, mate. So, the jelly prawns, which becomes one of the major forages for all of our fish in the estrees, at this time of year, absolutely thick, I scooped the bucket out of the beside the boat in Bynoe Harbour the other day, and there would have been 400 prawns, about 15 millimetres long in there, and... What's a jelly prawn? Sorry.

Sorry. What's a jelly pork? Yeah, jelly pawns. species of prawn that we have up here.

It doesn't grow very big. Only 50 or 60 mils at its maximum size. So, um, most of the ones that we're seeing are under 20 mils long. And the Barra and Tread Finn and all the other fish that we're targeting trying to catch, they just, of course, swim around with their mouth open when there's 5000000 of them coming out of a drain. So, can be a bit tricky to catch the fish when they're really focussed on that tucker.

But, um, of course, I've got a few little tricks that I um, pull out here and there and and they work. Most of the time, I suppose, nothing's certainty and fishing, but yeah, once that happens, you know, all those fish start really fattening up and getting ready to do their spawning and that sort of stuff. So it's exciting. We're having a lot of really good fishing days right now, so I've got one more week left to do, 23 day trips, and then that's it for the season for me, and I'll get a chance to go out and have a crack with me family and friends, so I'm really looking forward to that as well.

I'll tell you what, there's some big things happening down here because you're heading this way soon. eh? Look after you. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah, yeah. I'm a bit nervous looking after you. What's going to happen to my new vehicle over the next few weeks? Yeah, anyway.

I don't know I don't know where our bloke in Darwin ends up buying a car that's even 2.5 hours away from here even longer. and the only hope that you've got is I do you a favour and go and get it. then you've got, then you've got, then you've got, I think it's fantastic because it just gives us another runaround here, you know, like, um, until you come and get it. Anyway, that's a good thing. It a year, too, coming real handy anyway. No, you'd be making your way down here and so, I mean, we're getting into the back end of the year here.

It's becoming into the into the pointy end of the year. I mean, you said it's green up there. It must be different now. I saw a video.

I think it might have been from, and I don't know, I didn't seem to watch a lot of videos, but I mean, we got to do a bit of research for this show. That's basically how we do it. We just look at stuff that's happening in our world that we're interested in. But I saw, I think it may have been the speech, the free spirit.

Look, very green, but not many vans. There was, I think there was a couple, but people batten down the hatches because of the rain and stuff like that. Have you seen, I guess, because they tell me up there that come the wet season? there's nobody there.

Yeah, that's right. Look, it's been very lonely in the caravan park at crab claw. Only one band a week usually just sort of passing through for a night or 2 on the way south. By this time of year, and same with the hotel beds, they, yeah, people might fly into a bit of fishing or go to the races or whatever it might be, special events.

But the, yeah, the general tourism is essentially done for the year. So, uh, I mean, you know, when you live in a place like that has such extreme weather as the territory, you, you got to accept largely that there's an on-season and an off-season and um, for me, I, I always have a hard stop at the end of November, gives me a chance to pull the boat apart and um, you know, get all the maintenance done. I'm busily working in the office right now, just getting all the bookings and calendar updated for next year and and then we use that wet season break just to have a bit of a chill and make sure everything's organised for a big season and as we kick off, you know, in sort of late February, I suppose. So, yeah, and if we can include a road trip down from Sydney back to Darwin in a new vehicle, it hopefully hasn't got too much damage or too many Ks on it, when I pick it up from your joint, mate.

Tread on the back tyres, tread on the back tires. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Well, luckily I know a bloke who's getting a very similar vehicle, so I might be able to pinch some tyres or some new panels off that one as well. Yeah, right, okay.

I don't know who that bloke would be. But anyway, I just can't believe the 2 blokes here we know bought the car at the same dealership in the bush. Just unbelievable. Anyway.

It is a bit random. Now, mate, all right. So, no, say you off to the, say this. I mean, obviously we're a little way out of it from yet, but I mean, obviously you get to that end of the time of the year when, I mean, Christmas will be here within the next 5 minutes.

You're back at the farm this year again, or was it up your way this year? No, that's what we're going to, we're planning on flying down your way, probably on the 20th or so, and we'll grab that vehicle and see how many pub stops and clients and mates and stuff we've got to make, call into on the way back up, and we'll probably spend Christmas up in Brisbane or the Goldie with some family there before we road trip across to the territory from the east coast, which I've never done before. It's sort of the only sort of major road sort of trip in Australia that I haven't done. So I'm pretty excited about that and especially in the wet season when there's a bit of water around and that sort of stuff.

Yeah, good run through there, mate. Now, a walk about creek pub. drive straight past it. To your bad, my mate.

Frank's not there now. Yeah, too bad my mate Frank isn't there anymore, but anyway, all good. All good, mate. All right.

So the fish are biting is jelly prawns, which I just excuse my ignorance because I don't know what a jelly prawn is, but I do now. Yeah, can you eat them? That's right Can you eat them?

Yeah, you could eat them in old saying. So the boys next week I might bring out... I've got, you know, a little butterfly net or sort of your bait net. I mean, they'd go through any decent holes in any other net, but you could scoop them up and I guess dry them out, maybe put them in a stir fry or turn them into a paste or something like that. be delicious.

I'm sure they're, you know, they're, they're almost translucent. They had them in the bucket and you, for a start, I could, couldn't see any. I was like, oh, where did I not get any? And then once the water settles down,

Oh, yeah, okay, there is 100s of them in there, but they're just virtually clear. So that, yeah, I reckon that'd be pretty delicious. I'll give it a run and give you some feedback next time we chat. Yeah okay.

All right, will you enjoy, mate? Enjoy those storms of a night and enjoy playing solitaire on the computer in the office because I'm tipping, that's all you're doing anyway in there. That's a great game. I used to love Pac-Man on the computer.

Can you still get Pac-Man? Mulchi, no? Mulchi? I'm sure you can.

You can probably build your own duck version of Pac-Man using AI these days in about 5 seconds too, I reckon. Call it duck mean. You chase the duck around the little thing. I love Pac-Man.

What a game. Are you there, Mulchi? Yep. Do you know what? Do you know what Pac-Man is? Yeah, I know what Pac-Man is.

Because I know you're a lot younger than us, you know what I mean? Or me? No, yeah, that's fair. That's fair.

You know, Pac-Man was a great thing. No, no, yeah, I still I still know all the, you know, all the old and goldies. Well, you want you to get the game, so you can send it to me and I can put it on my computer. all day.

Solitaire does be heady. You want to get, you want to get one of those ones that used to be in the pub duck members, looked like a little school table and you sat down on little chairs and it was a flat screen on top and you played Pac-Man and that's right. That was our favourite thing to do when we go to the pub for a cannery after local footy on Saturdays and you get ¢20 and play it for half an hour. mate of mine's got one of them in his bar.

And space and space invaders. And space invaders. Mate, I remember when it 1st came out, I think it was called, uh, some tennis game where you use the old TV and the white dot would go at a snail pace across the screen and you'd have a, like a line that was like a, like a vertical line. It was like a bat, and then you'd just bat, and you'd bat, bat, or some sort of tennis game.

What was it called? Pong. Pong. Oh, mate, it took all day.

It took half a day just to go across the screen. And we thought we were flying, well, they're a good zest. Anyway, Charmi, A, G, what did you entertain back then? Oh, mate, we were flying, mate.

We had the pie, black and white TV, 26 inch, I think, and we come out in colour. I remember when colour TV come out. We couldn't believe how good it was. Yeah, there you go.

And I still haven't got one. Yeah, you wouldn't know what a colour TV was. They're all in colour now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And that doesn't mean that it's painted in colour. It means the picture on the actual screens in colour. Yeah, right. Because the ones I've seen are all black, so I thought...

Yeah, they've come a long way. The old TV. All right, got to go. Right, yeah, good on you.

Have fun up there in the territory, mate. I know, yeah, we'll probably go onto your, you know, 40th Christmas party by now. are in November. anyway.

That, of course, was our man, Glenn, what do you want? Barefoot Fishing Safaris. You can check him out there. Why not book it?

I was talking to a fellow yesterday who was talking about going up there and say, well, get onto him. Barefoot Fishing Safaris in the Top End, get out there, drag those big barrers and of course angling adventures, but Barefoot Fishing Safaris in Darwin up there in the Top End. The best in the business hour, man, Watty, who's been appearing on this show now for a lot of years and for a good reason. He certainly knows how to catch those fish and he knows all about them up there.

If you want to catch him, you go with him. Barefoot Fishing Safaris.