This episode contains footage shot by Matt Ringot (@FrenchAdrift) and remains his own content — best viewed in video mode.

Matt Ringot — known online as French Adrift — grew up fishing lakes and rivers in France with his grandparents before landing in New Zealand ten years ago and falling hard for saltwater. He's since gone from an old Cresta Craft in Wellington Harbour, to a kayak that nearly got the better of him twice, to building his fishing life almost entirely around a jetski — chasing snapper, kingfish and now game fish solo off the West Coast.

In this episode Matt breaks down his jetski jigging setup — line, leader, hook choice and the drift-speed-and-vertical-angle fundamentals that separate a good session from a skunked one — and explains why he hasn't taken bait fishing since switching to jigs. He also gets into the real safety lessons from years of solo missions: tethering to the ski, carrying three forms of communication, and never, ever going it alone on a game fishing run.

The centrepiece of the chat is Matt's first bluefin tuna — a 90-minute solo fight in building swell off the Bay of Plenty that turned into a genuine tug-of-war with a 2.5m shark trying to tear the fish off his gaff mid-fight. It's one of the wilder landings featured on the show, and Matt is refreshingly honest about the mistakes he made along the way and what he'd do differently next time.

Solo jetski missions, shark encounters, and a 100kg-plus tuna landed the hard way — full episode is on the Get The Net podcast. Watch on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

(00:00) Intro

(10:00) Why the jetski

(20:00) Jigging fundamentals

(30:00) First topwater kingfish

(40:00) Heading into the tuna trip

(50:00) The tuna fight escalates

(1:00:00) Landing it, and the shark fight

(1:10:00) Wrap-up

🌟 Links & Socials

- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz

- Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/🎣-get-the-net-–-tight-lines-loose-lips🎙️/id1824558692

✅ Follow Us

- Instagram: @getthenet_nz

- TikTok: @getthenet_nz

- Facebook: @getthenet_nz

🎵 Music Used

✅ Proctor, Topher Mohr & Alex Elena

✅ Satellites, Swello

✅ Momentum, Zplit

✅ Source (YouTube Audio Library)

🎥 Production Notes

✅ Shot on: Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics

✅ Edited in: Adobe Premiere Pro

✅ Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Helen Horrocks is a Scottish-born sailor turned game fisherman turned boating coach, now based in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. In this episode she traces her unlikely path into fishing — from scavenging tangled line off riverbanks as a kid, to kayak guiding in Paihia, to buying her own yacht so she could learn to skipper on her own terms. That same yacht became the platform for her game fishing obsession, sparked by a triple marlin strike that hooked her for good.

Helen now holds a ratified New Zealand women's record for broadbill swordfish — a 279.3kg fish landed during the Cater Marine Opua Small Boats Tournament off the Hokianga coast, after a brutal seven-hour stand-up fight that left her legs permanently scarred from the gimbal. She talks candidly about the fight itself, the physical and mental toll of chasing records on light tackle, and a separate, far scarier night targeting a ten-kilo bluefin record that nearly ended in disaster on the run home in the dark. Along the way she shares the gear, mentors and trial-and-error lessons that shaped her as an angler and skipper.

She also talks about "She's Got Game," the coaching business she runs alongside her marketing day job, built to give women hands-on, practical experience skippering and fishing rather than just theory. It's a conversation about obsession, complacency, teamwork, and why she thinks the best way for women to break into boating is simple: stop waiting for an invite and buy the boat yourself.

CHAPTERS

0:00 Meet Helen Horrocks — sailor, fisherman, boating coach, and founder of She's Got Game

9:22 The Watershed Moment — a triple marlin strike, learning from Bruce Martin, and eyeing the bluefin record

20:23 The Bluefin Scare — hooked, lost, and a dangerous ride home in the dark

29:12 The 7-Hour Swordfish Fight — hooked up, the physical toll, and wrestling the fish aboard

39:19 Gear & Advice — rods, reels, swordfish behaviour, and tips for women getting into fishing

48:55 Bluefin, TV & a Business Award — her first bluefin on camera and recognition for She's Got Game

58:38 Wrap Up — thanks and final words

FOLLOW HELEN

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/88fishes/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@88fishes

SHE'S GOT GAME

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shesgotgamenz/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shesgotgame

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shesgotgamenz

Website: https://shesgotgame.co.nz/

LINKS & SOCIALS

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1824558692

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/54DYLnjQkQLjdDz8USJgab

Music: Proctor (Topher Mohr & Alex Elena) | Satellites (Swello) | Momentum (Zplit) | Source — YouTube Audio Library

Shot on Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics | Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro | Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Andre Kassal — @Drefish, Ocean Angler pro staff — moved to New Zealand from Germany in 2011 chasing trout, and stumbled into saltwater fishing almost by accident after watching a fishing show on TV. Fifteen years later he's personally landed three snapper over 85cm — five between him and his wife Kie — from a 4.5-metre boat Kie talked him into buying, all fished in water so shallow he can see the bottom.

This episode covers his shift from German freshwater lure fishing (Zander, pike, perch) to New Zealand's shallow-water snapper game, why he never fishes deeper than 20 metres even when the fish are there, and the real ecological reason big snapper matter more than most people realise — snapper and crayfish are both key predators of kina, and losing enough of either lets kina strip the kelp bare.

The centrepiece is the story of his personal-best 30-pound (13.9kg) snapper, caught on the exact day marking ten years since he arrived in New Zealand — and what happened when he spotted the same fish again, two years later, in a stranger's photo on Facebook. Kie gets her due too — her own 85cm personal best, landed solo in risky conditions, held the boat record for years.

✅ Andre Kassal @Drefish

✅ Ocean Angler

⏱️ Chapters

0:00 – Meet Andre Kassal

10:00 – From Germany to New Zealand's Shallows

20:00 – The 30-Pound Anniversary Snapper

30:00 – Overfishing, Kina Barrens, and Why Big Snapper Matter

40:00 – Gear, Ocean Angler, and the Softbait System

50:00 – Reading Conditions: Tides, Moon, and Overcast Days

1:00:00 – The Hidden Kingfish of Auckland Harbour

1:10:00 – Kie's Record-Breaking 85cm Snapper

1:20:00 – Mentors, Advice for Young Anglers

🌟 Links & Socials

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz

Instagram: @getthenet_nz | TikTok: @getthenet_nz | Facebook: @getthenet_nz

🎵 Music: Proctor (Topher Mohr & Alex Elena), Satellites (Swello), Momentum (Zplit)

🎥 Shot on Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics, edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, shot/edited/produced by Nick Hoyle

Part 2 picks up where the action is — sounder marks, Rays Bream bars, throwaway waypoints, and the discipline to ditch a predetermined plan the moment something better appears on screen. The conversation turns to the pre-fishing mission that set up the biggest result of their careers: bait stacked at Whale Rock, a fish spotted off Cuvier, and a weather window that most boats decided to sit out.

The conditions were brutal — three-and-a-half metre seas, wet weather gear purchased the morning of, and Cor (Jason's dad) calling it off the moment he saw what they were heading into. Mark and Jason went anyway. What happened next is the kind of story that gets told at prize-givings for years. A 384 kilo black marlin. Three hours on the rod. A trailer boat, two blokes, and a fish that took everything they had.

The chaos around the weigh-in is worth the price of admission alone — Scott from Rayglass tying off the bill, Cor somewhere between 8 and 16 beers deep, and Mark parking the boat and walking off it because he was completely done. Second place overall, the heaviest billfish in the competition, and $497,000 split three ways.

🎧 Watch on YouTube — Search Get The Net

📱 @getthenet_nz on Instagram, TikTok & Facebook

🎵 Music: Proctor (Topher Mohr & Alex Elena) | Satellites (Swello) | Momentum (Zplit) | Source — YouTube Audio Library

🎥 Shot on Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics | Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro | Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Mark Phillips grew up in Whitianga casting hand lines with Mum and Dad before discovering soft baiting and slowly working his way into competition fishing. Jason van Esch, a builder and tiler from Auckland, found his way back to fishing through camping trips, trailer boat comps, and a burning desire to be the guy walking away with the reels. A bromance forged on a building site and sealed somewhere out past Cuvier.

Part 1 is a front-to-back masterclass in what it takes to compete at the Kubota level — from the early trailer boat days chasing snapper prizes, to the first Kubota entry in 2021 where a tagged stripy and a stranger calling them "little bitches" at prize-giving lit a fire that's been burning ever since.

The stories you won't forget: Mark's first blue marlin on a broken rod at 500 metres. Jason's first blue, lost after an hour with no gimbal. Kylie's five-and-a-half-hour sword battle. Thirteen winds from a monster they never got. Part 1 ends with three swords tagged, $70,000 in the pocket, and a chip on their shoulder the size of a black marlin.

🎧 Watch on YouTube — Search Get The Net

📱 @getthenet_nz on Instagram, TikTok & Facebook

🎵 Music: Proctor (Topher Mohr & Alex Elena) | Satellites (Swello) | Momentum (Zplit) | Source — YouTube Audio Library

🎥 Shot on Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics | Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro | Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Matt Shuker built a business tracking the ocean so Marine Intel members never fish blind. Marine Intel started with a marlin trip to Westport and a mates group chat. Now he’s directing triple marlin strikes from a garden centre car parkMarine Intel delivers custom daily ocean reports to game fishermen across the country, decoding satellite data, sea surface temperatures, subsurface thermoclines, and chlorophyll blooms into plain English: here's where the fish should be, here's why.

Eighteen months in, it's his full-time life — and it all started because a trip to Westport didn't go the way it was supposed to.

In this episode Nick and Matt go deep on the science of finding fish. What does a game fisherman actually need to look at on a chart? Why do bluefin behave like long-haul truckers — pulling off at the same productive stops year after year? How does the green-to-blue edge rule work, and when does the biggest fish of the year completely ignore it?

Matt breaks down both winter and summer oceanography, the South Island bluefin migration window, and why checking the wind map isn't enough — you need to know what the water was doing before the window opened.

There's a full breakdown of the tools and software he uses, plus the story of directing a client onto a triple Marlin strike from a garden centre, just by pulling up charts on his phone.

There's also a safety conversation that every NZ game fisherman needs to hear. Matt was 18 miles away when a father and son's trailer boat was caught in a factory trawler's rope off Greymouth — in the middle of the night, in cold South Island water, with no coastguard and no helicopter within range. Their Mayday call was two words.

The boat sank. They survived — rescued by Valhalla, who were cooking a roast when the call came in. This episode is bluefin season listening.

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube — Search Get The Net

Matt Shucker @marinaintel_nz
Marine Intel marinaintel.co.nz

GET THE NET
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz
Instagram: @getthenet_nz
TikTok: @getthenet_nz
Facebook: @getthenet_nz

MUSIC
Proctor — Topher Mohr and Alex Elena
Satellites — Swello
Momentum — Zplit
Source: YouTube Audio Library

Shot, Edited and Produced by Nick Hoyle

Roy Pulvers is one of Auckland's most recognised charter skippers — more than a decade on the Hauraki Gulf, running Fish 'N Dips Charters and now Triton Charters, and one of the first operators in New Zealand to run lure-only charters. Originally from overseas and self-taught through sheer time on the water, Roy has built a reputation for simply finding fish. If you see his boat heading somewhere with purpose, you follow it.

In this episode, Nick and Roy cover the full picture of what it takes to fish the Gulf at the highest level — reading workups, understanding bird behaviour, using technology such as BirdRadar to cut search time and maximise action, and why slowing down sometimes means finding more. Roy breaks down his approach to lure selection, kingfish behaviour, why barometric pressure matters more than most people realise, and the art of teaching complete beginners to catch fish on lures from day one.

There are some brilliant stories along the way — a striped marlin fixated on a snapper caught inside the Gulf while jigging with 400mm jigs, wrapping itself around its bill and fins three times in a row; a 2nd kingfish of a lifetime, finally caught after years of chasing it in the same place; and a yellowfin session with clients between Rakino and the Noises that produced 21 fish in a single day. Roy also discusses the state of the Gulf, why he thinks there's more of everything out there right now, and why pelagics pushing inside the harbour is something he hasn't seen in 23 years until recently.

His worst day on the water? Any day he's stuck on land.

Listen on Spotify & Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube — Search Get The Net

Roy Pulvers @Triton_Charters (IG)
Roy Pulvers @Fishndipscharters (IG)
https://www.facebook.com/FishnDipsCharters
https://www.facebook.com/TritonChartersNZ
www.youtube.com/@fishndipschartersltd3358

Chapters:
00:00 Meet Roy
00:15 The State of the Hauraki Gulf
00:30 Finding the Fish
00:45 Kingfish — The Smart Fish
01:00 Marlin in the Gulf & The 40kg King
01:15 Gear, Lures & Teaching Beginners

Links & Socials:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/get-the-net/id1824558692
Instagram: @getthenet_nz
TikTok: @getthenet_nz
Facebook: @getthenet_nz

Music Used:
Proctor, Topher Mohr & Alex Elena
Satellites, Swello
Momentum, Zplit
Source (YouTube Audio Library)

Production Notes:
Shot on: Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics
Edited in: Adobe Premiere Pro
Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Connor Scott is a career skipper out of West Haven,Auckland, and when it comes to stray lining for trophy snapper, he's built a system that's as dialled as it gets. Growing up fishing with his dad from the rocks at a spot they called Broken Ankle Point, Connor has spent his whole lifechasing snapper — and after years on the water professionally, he's broken down exactly what separates the people who consistently find big fish from the oneswho don't.

In this episode, Nick and Connor go deep on the art of straylining — reading current, presenting bait naturally, understanding how snapper relate to structure, and why most people are fishing the wrong spots for the wrong reasons.

Connor talks through his entire system, from finding the mark to keeping fish coming once you're on them, and why the small details that most anglers overlook are actually the difference between a feed and a trophy.

There's plenty of texture along the way — Connor'sbackground running charter boats and ferries, what fatigue management looks like as a professional skipper, and some cracking yarns about big sessions and the ones that nearly got away.

But the real gold in this episode is in thedetail — the kind of hard-won knowledge that only comes from putting in serious time on the water with clients who are paying to catch fish.

Bait over lures. Pan-fried snapper. No fuss. Connor's a manwho knows what works.

🎧 Listen on Spotify &Apple Podcasts | Watch on YouTube — Search Get The Net

✅ Connor Scott @new_zealand_outdoors

✅ www.youtube.com

⏱️ Chapters /Segments

📝 SHOW NOTES / CHAPTERBREAKDOWN

(00:00) Meet Connor Career skipper out of West Haven, grewup fishing with his dad from the rocks at a place they called Broken AnklePoint.

(07:00)The Professional Edge What years of putting clientson fish teaches you that recreational fishing never will.

(00:15) Reading Current & Finding the Mark How Connorlocates trophy snapper and why most people are fishing the wrong spots.

(00:30) The Straylining System Burley patience, big baits,and the details that separate a feed from a trophy.

(00:45) Staying On the Fish Why sitting on a quiet markfor hours is one of the most underrated skills in fishing.

(00:60) Bait vs Lures & The Equation Connor's take on thegreat debate — and the formula that equals big snapper every time.

🌟 Links & Socials

- YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz]

- Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/🎣-get-the-net-–-tight-lines-loose-lips🎙️/id1824558692]

✅ Follow Us

- Instagram: @getthenet_nz

- TikTok:@getthenet_nz

- Facebook @getthenet_nz

🎵 Music Used

✅ Proctor, Topher Mohr & Alex Elena

✅ Satellites, Swello

✅ Momentum, Zplit

✅ Source (YouTube Audio Library)

🎥 Production Notes

✅ Shot on: Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics

✅ Edited in: Adobe Premiere Pro

✅ Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle

Gene Bryant is New Zealand's only land-based fishing charter skipper — a Whitianga local who grew up watching his dad pioneer the land-based scene in the early '90s, and never looked back. Gene runs Strictly Land Based, taking clients to the remote rocks and ledges that most fishermen only dream about, chasing trophy snapper and kingfish with stickbaits and topwater lures off the kind of coastline that'll make your knees shake.

In this episode, Nick and Gene dive deep into what it actually takes to fish off the rocks — the big walk-ins with a pack full of gear, the boat runs to spots you can't reach any other way, and why casting when you're tired is exactly when the fish show up. Gene shares the tactics behind reading structure, rigging for kingy and snapper off the rocks, and why topwater will always be his first love.

Then there's the stories. A 20kg kingy on the second cast. A yellowfin tuna that went absolutely ballistic just around the corner from Whitianga. Six trips chasing GTs in Rarotonga — and one fish lost to the coral that still haunts him. Gene also brings out his dad's old fishing DVDs from the late '90s, proof of a land-based legacy that's been passed down through the generations — and is now being handed on to his own kids.

A land-based marlin is still on the bucket list — and when it happens, he'll be back.

✅Gene Bryant @strictlylandbased (IG)

✅YouTube  @strictlylandbased123 

✅ Book a chater +64224778157

(00:00) [The Land-Based Legacy]

Gene's dad pioneered it in the '90s — DVDs, sponsors, and all.

(00:10) [Spots Nobody Else Can Reach]

Boat runs and big walk-ins to Whitianga's most remote coastline.

(00:20) [20kg Kingy Then a Yellowfin]

A boys' trip that turned into one of Gene's best ever sessions off the rocks.

(00:30) [Six Trips Chasing Rarotonga GTs]

Why he keeps going back, and eight days of casting with absolutely nothing.

(00:40) [Rigging & Reading Structure]

The tactics Gene uses to put clients on trophy snapper and kings from remote ledges.

(00:50) [Saltiga, Lures & the Bucket List]

The rapid fire — plus the one species Gene is still hunting.

🌟 Links & Socials

- YouTube [https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz]

- Apple Podcasts: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/🎣-get-the-net-–-tight-lines-loose-lips🎙️/id1824558692]

✅ Follow Us

- Instagram: @getthenet_nz

- TikTok:@getthenet_nz

- Facebook @getthenet_nz

🎵 Music Used

✅ Proctor, Topher Mohr & Alex Elena

✅ Satellites, Swello

✅ Momentum, Zplit

✅ Source (YouTube Audio Library)

🎥 Production Notes

✅ Shot on: Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics

✅ Edited in: Adobe Premiere Pro

✅ Shot, Edited & Produced by Nick Hoyle