Hooked — Ep 5, Barefoot Fishing Safaris

Welcome to the Hook Podcast by Cuzzy Bros Fishing. This episode, we have a good chat to Glenn Watt, Barefoot Fishing Safaris. Glenn's one of those dudes that went out on a limb and is now living his dream. Hope you enjoy this episode.

Only two of us on the boat. Mayhem on just one more? om What a fish.

All right, so, uh, I've got Glenn from Barefoot Fishing Safaris's up north on the podcast. Welcome to the Hook podcast, mate. Ah, thank you. Glad to be here.

Give us a bit of background on yourself, mate. So Barefoot Fishing Safaris. How did that all start and what's what's the go? Yeah, well, I mean, I guess like starting early on.

I like a lot of us, I guess, in the sort of 90s and early 2000s and even late 80s grew up watching Rex Hunt and Starlow and Bushy and these fellas, Malcolm Douglas and the Bush Tuckerman, Albi Mangles. I was obsessed with all that sort of stuff and growing up on the farm, I had a pretty outdoorsy sort of lifestyle. So, that sort of flowed on after I finished boarding school and, and yeah, sort of, what was it? Um, might have been 15 years later, I, I ended up sort of in Darwin full time after some station work and all sorts of things all around the world. But, yeah, chased a bit of a dream, mate, and got a start, and after I did 2 years work for other blokes, sort of learning the ropes.

I went out on my own and that was, you know, 9 years ago now. Yeah, it's um, it seems, it seems like last week, but um, but yeah, time, time flies when you're having fun, as they say. Yeah, it always makes it easy when you're doing something that you love. It doesn't seem like work at all, does it?

No, that's right. Like I got out of bed at 4 this morning to go to work, like probably half of Australia did, but difference between me is I was very excited. So it's easy for me. I've got a 3 day trip starting tomorrow and and same thing, you know, I'll go through till 10 or 11 o'clock tonight getting ready for it and then I'll be up at 4 and and charging out the door to go and pick the boys up and hook in.

So give us a bit of a background then on the on on your setup and what you sort of do. So you obviously run fish and charters, but do you tailor those fish and charters for individuals or you've got a set package or what's the, what's the deal? Uh, no, it's very tailored stuff, my my stuff, mate. I, um, it ranges from, you know, uh, families and 1st timers doing half day charters in Darwin Harbour through the dry seasons, right through to the really specialised sort of week long fly fish and stuff, even potentially chasing world records and things, but, but guys that, that come up every year or a couple of times a year and, um, and vision for, you know, up to a week long packages out of, out of a mothership up to, um, you know, West Ireland or down towards the Kimberley or all these sorts of things. And, uh,

And everything in between, the majority of the stuff that I do for the interstate tourism market, which is 99% of it, is that sort of 3 to 5 day package for, you know, a group of 3 or 4 mates, um, who are keen fishermen. They might have been to Darwin once or twice. A lot of them have been out for a day trip with me before, and then I'll come back and have a go, say the following year or later that year, do it, do the runoff or whatever. So, it's really good because, you know, I've got guys now that I've taken out every year for 10 years and and they become your mates and it's something you really look forward to seeing them every year and and, you know, like that just adds the enjoyment of the job, doesn't it?

Yeah, 100%. So, obviously, it's awesome to hear that you've gone out and chased your dream and now you're living it. Not many people have the, have the guts, I suppose, to really chase a dream and, you know, let's be honest, the old fishing industry is a pretty make or break sort of industry, especially now with YouTube and the internet and all these other sort of ways of producing and doing your product. You've got to have something that stands you out from the rest of the crowd.

And if you've got people that are coming back year after year, that says a lot about your your service and your fishing business. So that's awesome, mate. Yeah, it is. Like, you're dead right.

It's not easy in Australia to make a living out of fishing. Yeah, I think we all get maybe a little bit tricked by the stuff that happens in the states where you can be a pro bass fisherman, right? Seems like half the country is. Um, as well as all the professional YouTubers and this sort of thing, but, but in Australia, you know, our markets, uh, a fraction of the, of the United States market and, and, I think the only way if you really want to make a living out of fishing in Australia is to be a guide and, and, you know, the literal terms are that that means that you don't get to go fishing much anymore. I spend 200 days a year watching people go fishing.

Um, but I, but I spend a lot less time actually fishing for myself now. So, it's a decision you've got to make, but, you know, at the end of the day, it's a lifestyle job for me and I just get so much enjoyment out of bringing, you know, getting even just a, just a little kid, their, their 1st little golden snapper off a rock bar, you know, or right up to, you know, we got to meet a barrel this year, of course, and um, and that sort of stuff brings that equal amount of joy to me, but, but you, you don't get into this game so that you can go fishing every day and catch more fish yourself. That's the opposite of it. Yeah, and I suppose that's that's what sets a good guide apart from, you know, an average guide too, I suppose.

Like the guys that really put the time and effort into their clients, spend that time, work really hard to get them that trophy fish, or even that, that 1st fish, uh, makes the difference. And, and obviously, You've got the, this success up there with the backing and, and the history and the time that you've been doing it. So that's that's awesome, mate. Yeah, I mean, anyone can tell when you don't. So, it's very important to care. And, um, you know, like we, we did plenty of fishing charters before I started doing this and, and you can tell in 10 seconds if someone cares if they're there to help you or not if they're just there for the money. So, you know, my guys all know that I, that I care about them and, and yeah, like it, it really is like going fishing with my mates every day.

I'm so lucky in that, but bad. Yeah, so what, what sort of, what sort of gear you're running up there? So boat wise and that? What are you fishing out of?

Yeah, so I've got the same boat that I've had for a lot since the start of the business. It's 6.7 metre south wing, so it's a banana boat style. It's long and skinny, so it goes through our chop that we're wind chop we have up here. We don't tend to get swell up here too much, but that we can get some nasty wind shop from time to time.

So to slice it through that. But it also floats in about 20 centimetres of water. So, I'm up on the flats doing sidecasting for Barrow like I was today and I will be tomorrow, in that, it's a great old fibreglass, 200 metres of fuel and a brand new, actually, um, 175 V6 mercury. So we've got plenty of range and plenty of power.

We've been pushed that big SP full of beers, and half a dozen blokes or 4 blokes around all day. As far as tackle goes, we run all Shimano gear, they've been great supporters of me throughout. Yeah, the rigs I'm running at the moment for the estry barr stuff is a, the 7 foot 2 jewel, uh, it's uh, 3 to 6 kilo, I think, um, with some £20 braid and uh, 3000 straight. Pretty hard to beat the old CI4 Stratic.

And then got half a dozen of those new SLX, Shimano, DC combos for the bait cast and stuff, 6 foot rods. They're medium action and run £30 braid, a bit heavier litre on them for when we're doing our trolling and Carson at heavy timber with bigger lures and things like that, but predominantly this time of year. Oh, actually, I guess we're getting out of the, the true x-ray fishing this time of year and going towards the um, the buildup stuff, so we'll be using the bait castles a lot more. Well, around the um, HDS 16 inch live uh, Lorant sounder.

It's an amazing bit of kit, really changes the way your fish want so you figure out how to use that structure scan and then that £80 mint coder as well. So she's got all the bells and whistles on to the old girl and it's pulled around by a 200 series of anchors, too. I'm pretty spoiled in that regard. Yeah, awesome mate.

Awesome. So, obviously, uh, it sounds like the Barra are the big, big draw card up your way. Is that is that pretty fair to say? Is that what most people are signing up to come and chase?

Yeah, that's right. We're always sort of termed Darwin as a barred destination with with the other stuff attached. There's plenty of operators out there that just do the reefishing for their dewies and snap around trout and things like this and I do plenty of that as well. But, yeah, it's always tagged along with, with a bar charter and particularly that March, April, May.

It's, for me, it's, it's pretty much all Barra, and yeah, that, you know, that can be good and bad, because they're not the easiest fish in the world to catch as we know. But when you do get them, it's a very rewarding thing. So, that's, that's great. Yeah, awesome.

You haven't you haven't managed to snag that $1000000 barrow that's swimming around up there. No, not for a lack of trying. No, I tell you. I know where they release a fair few of these fish, and they tend not to move too much early, so maybe this year, you know, we've got heavily booked for October and November already.

So with any luck, we might be able to snag a couple of tag fish and even get that $10,000 fish, it would be a good start. Yeah, awesome, mate. Awesome. I know you've got some internet stuff going on as well.

So you've got a subscription base thing sort of happening at the moment. What's the uh, what's the deal with that and what's the plans for that? Yeah, mate, this is a bit of a one of many hairbrain schemes that I seem to have. They change daily, but this one seems to have stuck and it's got a bit of a following now.

So I've got a membership through the charter where you can sign up to be an annual member, um, costs you about ¢70 a day, and then you can go, you'll be in the draw to win 10 3 day fishing charters a year as well as prize packs and charter discounts and all sorts of stuff. So, the job that I'm actually starting tomorrow is the, is actually the 1st of the members' charter drawers for 2 guys and then you've got the option to bring another couple if you like. So, yeah, be doing one of those every month, pre-charter, mate, and once we get enough members at, like, the more it grows, the more we can start putting into it. I've got some hotel deals cooking up and you know, we'll get we'll start paying for flights and stuff.

Hopefully by this time next year and it'll be a, you know, it should be a one stop shop. You get your name drawn out and you jump on the plane and you get 3 days fishing and accommodation for nothing. So it's a cool little thing. No one's done it in Australia before, but, you know, you got to, you got to have a bit of a go and try something different. And like I say, it's a, it's a way for me to give back to the guys who supported me for that 1st sort of 7 years of the business and, and, you know, give them the opportunity to, to get a bit of money off or, or also, you know, win a free trip.

So pretty excited about where it's going. We've got another 3 or 4 trips to do for this year, and then, of course, next year, it'll be chocolate block. Every trip's March, April, May, you know, right in that peak runoff time. So if you get your number drawn out for a March or April trip.

Yeah, that's that's a, you know, that's a Barramundi fisherman's dream to come up at that time of year. So, you know, good luck to everyone. Yeah, awesome, mate. It's really good.

Like, people like yourself, you know, obviously make a living off this, but also being able to give back to the people that have helped you, and that's, that's really awesome, mate. And it sounds like it's really growing traction and for ¢70 a day. for the chance to win, you know, a trip up there, like, what's a what's a normal trip cost? Like, what are you sort of looking at?

Yeah, so these ones, like the, this trip these guys have won 1st starting tomorrow is it's close to 6 grand worth of fishing charters. So, they'll remember for, I think, 2 months, so it'd probably cost them about 30 odd dollars and, and they've got 6.5 grand, or 6 grand worth of fishing charter out of it. So, um, it, that's, uh, you know, that's for them. it's really great. and for me, at the moment, it's not covering its bum, but eventually with enough members, it will, and and the more, the more we get, the more we can put into it.

So, it's, it's 3 days out of the month for me, but it's a, it's really rewarding way to give back to the clients that support me throughout the rest of the year. Yeah, awesome, mate. That's that's that's excellent, to be honest. Like, I haven't heard of too many other people doing that sort of stuff at all that are running charters and to sort of make yourself stand out from the crowd, that's even better, but, like I said, to be able to give back to people.

That's awesome, mate. So, um, obviously, Been talking about running your charters and and having guys turn up. So getting back to yourself now, what's the, what's the bucket list fish? Like the one that you get out of bed for, the one that you want to go on chase? If you had your, if you had your way, what was that?

What's that one fish you're still yet to get? Oh, if I mean, if I could go and if I could hop out of bed tomorrow and go on a 3 day trip to Target, A, fish around here, I would want to be trying to catch a really big Saratoga. I've caught enough big barrow now that I've sort of scratched that itch to a large degree, but the Saratoga, you know, um, The biggest ones I've never landed on it on guided fishing is like 75 centimetres and I know I've had them on bigger myself, but they're such tenacious and dirty fighters and and they just brick you every time, you know, like I've definitely had 80s and 85s on, I reckon, but the areas that, I guess the areas that, that sort of the target would take me to profoundly beautiful and rugged and untouched, as well as the challenge of the fishing and the nature of the style of fishing that you do to catch a Saratoga.

A lot of it's surface and aggressive aerials. Yeah, that if I could go and catch a fish tomorrow, I'd want to catch a 90 plus Saratoga. I've seen a photo of one on a brag mate. It was over 90 centimetres and that's the only one I've ever seen.

Yeah, it's, I think it's a, it's a harder fish to catch, a metre Saratoga than a metre barrel, so that'd be me, but I don't know where to go and get it. land somewhere where no one else has ever been. Oh, you could be the trick. Yeah, nice mate.

That's, uh, That's awesome, obviously. So what, what is the biggest barrow that you've got so far? Uh, well, let's say the biggest one we've got for a client this year was 117.

Um, that was caught. Yeah, um, well, we were sort of, we were sight casting, but it was, it was down a bit deeper off a ledge and yeah, um, I mean, a massive fish in, in anyone's language, but to do it in an estry situation with a short cast of less than 10 metres was pretty extraordinary. The biggest one I've netted for a client is is the 121 and that was the same thing. That was a short cast, 3 metre cast to a stump, on a low tide in a lock-in creek.

And yeah, the creature that came out of the water on that 1st jump, you wouldn't think he'd fit in the river that we were in. But yeah, that anything over 75 is a good barrow, but you know, once you get over a metre, they're scary, those things. So obviously being up north, do you have the croc tax? Do you lose many of them to the wildlife up there?

Yeah, not so much crocodiles. I mean, this is something that everyone else about the crocodile. Very rarely get a fish taken by crocodiles in runoff maybe sometimes. Maybe one to twice a year, but the ones we do have trouble with the bull sharks.

certain rivers and places, tons of year. Bull sharks will be onto a barrow and snip him in half before you even know what's going on. So, um, yeah, we try and avoid that if we can, but once the sharks get a taste for them, as we all know, Barrett, pretty tasty, and once they get a taste for them, they, they lurk around and you've got to move spots pretty much to get away from them. So they're the biggest problem.

yeah. All right then. Oh, yeah. That's handy to know.

So what are the other highlights that you've got up there? So, you know, on the on the bucket list, if you if it wasn't Australia, if you could go anywhere on fish, where would you go? Oh, there's 2 that are probably equal place for me? I'd love to, and it's not out of the realms of consideration that some stages of fair, fair few blokes from up here, duck across the PNG and get stuck into the black bass.

Yep. I'd love to lure cast at Blackbass in timber. And then the next one, I guess, which is sort of following my fly fishing routes is those big tarpon over in Mexico and southern US. Well, I've got a, I've actually got a world record, tarp on in Australia, but, you know, it was 70 centimetres and 2.5 kilos or something and those things they get over in the states. They're extraordinary and I can find myself very late at night and halfway through a box of beer watching YouTube videos about both black bass and and those big oxeye tarp and they get over there. They're extraordinary, both of them.

Yeah, awesome mate. And what about the future for for the Barefoot Fishing Safaris? Like, where do you where do you see yourself and what's the what's the big plan? Yeah, well, look, I mean, the, this membership thing, I'm going to push it as far as I can and the big vision is in 10 years time we're just doing members trips.

So, and we're paying for flights and meals and accommodation and everything for members, you know, people that can that can sign up for a year and and they're in the draw. At the moment, it's 10 a year just so that we can do one a month in our good fishing season. But if we could do one a week, one, 3 or 4 day or a week, with everything included, and people, you know, coming up to do these trips for the price of a can of beer every couple of days, that would, for me, just be such a great thing, and the joy and excitement, you see on these guys' face when they, when they win something and they, and they're getting a trip of a lifetime for bugger all, like that's, that's what it's going to be for me in years to come up. Oh, you know, I don't ever plan on having more boats and have guides working for me and this, that, the other.

I just want to have fun with my clients and I think this is going to be the best way to do it in the long term and, and you know, if I can pay the bills at the same time or happy dates. Yeah, awesome, mate. It's, uh, it's awesome to hear, like I said, at the start. It's awesome to hear someone that's gone out chase their dream and is now really making it a reality and that's that's really good to hear.

I mean, we've got a bit of a plan of our own as well, and it's good speaking to people like yourself that have actually gone out, backed themselves and made it a reality, and now, like I said, you've been able to give back and really introduced a whole different group of people to the joys of fishing, whether it's Chase and Barra or, you know, go on chasing one of your other target species up there. So that's awesome, mate. Yeah, you live in my dream at the moment. So I'm pretty jealous.

Yeah, a lot of people say I'm living their dream. Damn, but I can tell you now, if you and me at 8 o'clock last night underneath my boat trail and fix some wheel bearings, in the mozzies and the midges up here, you probably wouldn't have been thinking that was part of the original dream. But certainly that, you know, what, where if you've got a goal and you're working towards it, you know, I'm happy to be rolling around the mud fixing wheel bearings because I, so I know that tomorrow I'm going to have fun because of it. So, yeah, I wouldn't say I'm lucky.

It's been a lot of hard work, like anyone who works for themselves, would know, but yeah, like it's so rewarding and I'm going to keep going. No, that's that's awesome, mate. You really, really are making me envious and you're giving me something to shoot for. So that's awesome.

You're going to keep me on my game, which is which is excellent. So, what's the uh, what's the best way of getting a hold of you, and getting a booking for a trip up there with uh, with the old Barefoot Fishing Safaris? Yeah, mate, the easiest way is either go straight through. I mean, Facebook page has got 10 a 1000 followers on it now.

Instagram's pretty busy as well. You can direct message me through either of them. And, you know, I may or may not get back to you straight away. I've got a really good man on the ground in the office, Mike, who answers all the emails that come through the website as well. So either uh, Mike or myself will reply to any message within within a couple of hours.

Um, through the, yeah, Barefoot fish and safari, Facebook page, Instagram, or website. If you can't get hold of us there. I don't think we're in the yellow pages, are we? But, um, I don't think that's even a thing anymore.

Yeah, I don't think it exists anymore, does it? Yellow Pages? So the other one, I suppose, Trip Advisor has been really good for us too. It, it, like it's, I always say to people to do a bit of due diligence with all, with everything you do in life, of course, but, but fish and charters is something that can really make a break a trip depending on if you're, if you're on the same wavelength as your, as your guide, um, and, you know, my guys, I think the reason I have so much fun with my clients is because they follow the Facebook page, they follow the Instagram, they know the general vibe of the things that are happening and they know what I'm going to be like.

So I tend not to get guys that don't match how I like to do things, um, which makes it great and they just go with someone else who does match it. If you're doing your DD and you want to look at, you know, what other people have said, trip advisor is always a great one as well. We use it every day for doing all other stuff. And um, you know, there's Google reviews and Facebook reviews and all that sort of thing as well.

But yeah, that that's my main, like the number one tip I always say to everyone is that you might not lock coming out fishing with me because I might play the music too loud for you or make a skull beers every time you cast a loo into a tree or something like that. But plenty of people do enjoy doing that sort of stuff. So they're the guys I end up.

We say that's great. Yeah. Any of those online things that you'll get you'll get hold of us in no time flat. Yeah, awesome mate.

And so anything else that you want to, you want to add in, anything that we should know about, anything that we should prepare for or anything that you got sort of keeping under wraps that you want to release early or? Well, there's not. I mean, there is a couple of things that I'm keeping under wraps at the moment, but I guess I could give you a clue and that's that I'm not going to be in in the old South win next year. There'll be a there'll be a different vessel floating around out in the water, which is a very exciting thing for me.

It's going to be absolutely custom built to how I like to fish and how my guys like to fish when they're with me. So that's going to be good. But the big, the big thing that I encourage people to think about now, like listening to this in, in the next couple of months and is, is that right now, September, October, November is when we're taking bookings for March, April, May. So, you've got to get the best tides to suit what you want to do, because I can tailor it to old guys that want to troll for Barrow on rock bars, or I can tailor it to guys that want to throw a backpack on and go walk them for 3 days.

You need to get in early. Sign up to be a member and you get 10% discount on your extended jarter bookings for a start, so you're making money as well as being in a chance to win all these prizes. They get it done early. Whoever you're going to go out with, whether it's me or someone else, get it booked in early, and then you have the very best chance of success.

So that's the main thing I'll try and get across to people this time of year. Yeah, and it's a good point that you bring up their booking early. If you are chasing that record fish or a specific targeted fish, you need to do the research for the best time and and obviously charters, you know, aren't cheap and you're paying a guide to put you on the spot, which is always putting the pressure on yourself and and making things a bit harder, but if you do your research, you're going to give yourself the best chance as well, not only just having that guide that's, you know, all over his job and what what you're doing. Um, but it'll help yourself with that chance of nailing that fish of a lifetime.

Yeah, absolutely mate. Look, the, the more I know about my clients, the, the better I can tailor the trips to them. So, I really love having to talk on the phone to them for an hour at a time, getting to know them, how much they fish, what they want to do, what they don't want to do, and then, you know, like your money's well spent. If you, if you just book a trip without having a yarn to someone, you may or may not get sort of what you want and what you deserve and and the best out of your guide because, you know, it's a bit of a team effort out there on the water, so everyone needs to be on the same page.

So it's very important. Awesome, mate. Well, it's uh, it's been really good having a chat to you. I've got to be honest.

Uh, we don't, the barrow fishing has never really been, uh, something that I've, I've thought about or really, to be honest, really being interested in. But I've got a lot of mates that love doing it and they're always talking about the metre barrow and I suppose that's the bucket list for a lot of them and, you know, for us, it's marlin, tuna, all that sort of stuff, but a lot of people really target that metre barrow and that's the dream fish and it sounds like you're definitely the bloke up that way that it's going to get those people the best chance to get onto one of those fish. Yeah, well, I hope so, mate. I've certainly been around the traps long enough to now to know how to give people the best opportunity as long as long as we're.

You know, we have that conversation about how we can best figure out the trip together and, and yeah, I mean, there's, there's any amount of good operators up here and if I'm booked out, I'm more than happy to put people onto, onto some other good guys as well. And the other side of that. I guess, too, is we get plenty of groups of fellas that are, you know, six, eight, nine, 12 guys and corporate groups around Darwin Cup and race days and things that are up to 40 blokes. So we can handle any group size.

We work together, even though we're all individual businesses up here. We drink beers at the pub together, we work on the water together, we share groups and we share booking, so we, you know, if you've got more numbers or if I'm busy, I can certainly put you onto another good, good operators, no worries about that. No, awesome, mate. Well, look, really a appreciate your time and jumping on the hook podcast.

I hope, I hope we can help you and hope, dear people in your direction. I look forward to I'm going to keep an eye on your Facebook page now because I really want to see what your new toy is, the big boat. So I'll definitely, uh, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out on that.

But, um, I'll definitely be, if people are chasing that Barra, and they're going to be up your way. We'll definitely point them in your direction and I look forward to hearing the success and seeing some more Facebook photos up on the old Facebook page. Yeah, mate, thank you. I appreciate it.

I love listening to the show and um, yeah, if we can all work together. Everyone has a bit more fun and we can share our knowledge and and, you know, next time I'm down south, again, I'll I'll come and knock on your door and you can take me down to Portland, try and catch a tuna with me. Sounds like a plan, mate. More than welcome anytime.

Just let us know and I can't guarantee it, but you know, we'll definitely give it a red hot crack for you anyway. We all know there's no guarantees in Fisher, mate, but you'll guarantee me the best opportunity, won't you?