🎣 Get the Net – Tight Lines, Loose Lips! 🎙️

William Lomas is back. Willy is the first guest ever to come on Get The Net twice. We recorded this Daiwa Quick Cast live at the NZ Boat Fish Dive Expo.

Willy grew up fishing the Manukau and the Waikato River. His family had a bach down the river, and his childhood was whitebaiting, mullet netting and duck shooting, plus winning a few fishing comps as a grommet.

About 12 years ago he moved to the Far North, and that’s when the fishing really took off. He worked on game boats after school and then started an electrician apprenticeship, which fell over when Covid hit. Out of work, he gave YouTube a crack, and people loved it.

These days Wild North Addiction is his full-time job, and brands like Daiwa, Hunting & Fishing, Honda and Garmin are on board. He still drives a 1995 Land Cruiser and keeps it simple.

In this one we get into:
🎣 Wash fishing without a trolling motor. Willy sets up a drift in 10–15 knots of wind, turns the outboard off and steers the leg to weave around the rocks. It’s quiet, it covers ground and you don’t need a sea anchor.

🎣 Big snapper in skinny water. He runs quarter and 3/8 jig heads in 2–6m of water, and 50lb braid that’s the same diameter as 30lb. He explains why you should never drive toward a hooked fish, and why so many snapper eat right on the surface.

🎣 Going deeper. In 16–30m he switches to a 5/8 or half-ounce jig head, casts ahead of the drift and lets it fall on slack line so it’s taken on the drop.

🎣 Getting outfished by his mate. On a murky day Tane landed three snapper over 75cm on a 5-inch shiny minnow while Willy couldn’t buy a bite. Willy’s colour strategy is to not have one: if you haven’t had a bite in an hour, change your soft bait.

🎣 Kings on the chew. This winter has been full of 25–30kg kings, and a 35kg king turned up as bycatch while they were dropping for Puka.

🎣 The yellowfin that stole the gaff. Willy was on his own when a 45–50kg yellowfin took off with his brand-new gaff. It came back up 45 minutes later with the gaff still in it.

🎣 Advice for young creators. Stockpile content, be consistent, do cool stuff, laugh at your own bust-ups and don’t chase followers.

Willy also runs through the Daiwa gear he relies on. The Ninja combos are exclusive to Hunting & Fishing and cost about $299 for a rod and reel ready to fish, which he reckons is a great way to get started. For serious work he picks up the Certate and Saltist, and he’s stopped some seriously big fish on a 4000.

Looking ahead to summer, he plans to spend more time chasing marlin solo, go after bigger fish, and head south for a couple of weeks of topwater yellowfin. He doesn’t plan any of it weeks out. When the weather lines up he jumps in the truck, drives through the night from the top of the country and fishes the next morning. As he says, there’s no substitute for time on the water.

We also cover releasing big snapper (and using the SnapCatch app to enter them in monthly comps), plus his favourite fish and how he likes to eat it.

Follow Willy: Wild North Addiction on YouTube | William the Fisherman on Instagram & Facebook

Tight Lines, Loose Lips.

Darren Shields has had his head underwater for 56 years. He's a 6x New Zealand spearfishing champion and a former president of Spearfishing New Zealand, has represented NZ around the world, and still holds the NZ spearfishing record for yellowfin tuna. In 2007 he and his wife Alison started Wettie in their garage. It's now a family-run spearfishing and freediving brand out of Albany, with their kids in the business and most of the gear designed in-house.

We sat down inside Wettie HQ for an honest yarn about a life spent in the ocean and how much it has changed. Darren grew up around commercial fishing and worked on cray boats, on trawlers and in fish factories. He remembers schools of 1,000+ kingfish where none were under 30kg, guts at the Mokes packed with big snapper, and tarakihi and John Dory you could count on every dive. He says he barely sees them now, and he explains the "moving baseline" that means new divers never know what's been lost.

In January 2026 Darren filmed a trawler dumping baby snapper, boarfish and porcupine fish in the Hauraki Gulf. The video went viral, made national news, and became part of the public backlash against the Fisheries Amendment Bill, which was shelved until after the election. He doesn't blame the men on the boats, having worked alongside them. His fight is with the system: bulk methods, wasted bycatch, and quota owners who never go near the water. He took the Prime Minister spearfishing to show him what's at stake, and he believes New Zealanders should be fed first.

There's plenty of adventure too: being towed 1.8 nautical miles by a striped marlin, shooting yellowfin through a meatball surrounded by 4m sharks, a mother humpback lifting her calf away from him, and real shark-bite stories from the shop. Plus his warning about shallow water blackout, advice for new spearos, and a message for boaties about dive flags.

With the election on Saturday 7 November, Darren's message is simple: make sure you're enrolled, look past the promises, and vote for whoever has the track record to actually look after our fish.

Tight Lines, Loose Lips.
Find Darren and the Wettie team:
Web: wettie.co.nz
Instagram: @wettie.spearfishing
Facebook: @Wettie.NZ
YouTube: @WettieNZ
TikTok: @wettie.nz

(00:00) [56 Years Underwater] From commercial boats to the NZ team, the "moving baseline" and the reality of shallow water blackout.
(10:00) [Then vs Now] 1,000-strong kingfish schools, the Gulf trawler discard, quota owners, and being towed 1.8nm by a marlin.
(20:00) [Respect the Catch] Filming released fish die, taking the PM spearfishing, the Mokes then and now, and yellowfin in a meatball.
(30:00) [Whales & Sharks] A mother humpback, Shark Eyes, real shark bites, plus getting started and boat safety.
(40:00) [Your Vote & Kiwis Fed First] Look at the track record, take personal responsibility, fix the quota system.
(50:00) [Gear, Advice & Raw Fish] His go-to speargun, advice for new spearos, his bucket list and favourite fish to eat.

🔗 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
✅ Upbeat Funk Happy by Infraction [Copyright Free Music]
✅ "Long Road" by Infraction, licensed via inaudio.org
✅ Source (YouTube Audio Library)

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

Rowan was diving behind an island in Foveaux Strait when he looked up and swore the boat had moved. His mate told him it was all in his head. A couple of crays later, there was no doubt: the anchor had lifted off a mound, and the boat was drifting away faster than he could swim. He swam flat out, towing a float, and got within arm’s reach but still couldn’t grab it. When he finally turned around, he was 600m offshore in great white territory. He tells us what happened next, what caused it and what he’d do differently.

Rowan runs Hooked On Adventures out of Invercargill, but he grew up in the Marlborough Sounds. His grandfather taught him to fish using old-school landmarks, and he caught a boat to school (with the odd line dropped on the way home). Since then he’s gone from a repowered 1997 Stabicraft to running 120km down the Fiordland coast out of Milford, deep dropping pinnacles where “it’s literally a lucky dip”.

We talk about the trick that cracked bluenose for him, why the big blue cod sit off the bottom, and the day 18 hours of nothing turned into a 30kg hāpuku on the last drop. He explains why southern bluefin now stick around for nine months of the year and why South Island game fishing is fast becoming a year-round fishery.

We also cover how Fiordland’s crays came back from the brink, and why using the whole fish matters more than ever.

Recorded live at the NZ Boat Fish Dive Expo, thanks to the legends at Daiwa.

Tight Lines, Loose Lips.

00:00 [Sounds Kid to Southlander] Grandad’s old-school marks, school by boat, and diving the deep south.
05:00 [Fiordland’s Lucky Dip] Resident bluefin, cracking bluenose, and a 30kg hāpuku on the last drop.
10:00 [The Boat Left Without Him] Big cod off the bottom, the rise of southern game fishing, and a 600m swim.
15:00 [Back to Basics] Relearning straylining in the Sounds, Daiwa gear, and fishing with the kids.
20:00 [Looking After the South] The drive into Milford, cray recovery, lower cod limits and sharks.
25:00 [Caught Out & Quick-Fire] Punching home through Foveaux Strait, then his favourite fish and feed.

In Japan, jig anglers have an unofficial benchmark. It isn’t a club with a membership card. It’s a bluefin tuna over 100 kilos, caught on the jig. You can’t plan for one or buy your way into it. You just keep dropping. Justin Corric had chased that fish for years. A little over four weeks ago, on the final morning of one of the toughest trips of his life, he finally got one.

Justin is Daiwa’s Upper North Island Territory Manager, with 26 years in the fishing industry behind him. He started out sweeping the floor of a tackle shop. When he told his dad he didn’t want to sell cars, his dad told him to find something he loved and work out how to make money from it. His dad also flew to Japan every month for 20 years, and every trip home came with lures, soft baits and jigs nobody in New Zealand had seen yet. That started a lifelong obsession with lure fishing and Japanese technique. It’s put Justin onto plenty of big snapper and serious kingfish, including a 38kg king on the jig at Ranfurly Banks, and now a 100kg+ bluefin.

In this Quick Cast, Justin tells the whole bluefin story. There were long nights on two hours’ sleep, a 100kg+ fish lost at the boat, a dead trolling motor and a last-night gamble when skipper Ben “Brownie” Brown of Built to Fish decided to punch out to where the fish actually were. Then, after an hour and 45 minutes of sleep, the alarm went off and there were bluefin everywhere. Justin dropped to 60 metres, felt that little bump, and the rest is history.

He also explains why the humble slider jig is more than a century old and why braid changed everything. He covers the bent-knee, short-stroke technique Japanese anglers use to stop big fish without muscling them, and the one-second stall on the drop where he reckons most bluefin bites happen. Then there are the early days of jigging, when you’d get a hit on almost every drop on the local reefs off Cuvier and Little Barrier. Justin also gives his advice for anyone chasing kingfish on topwater (pick your plan, stick to it and be ready to come home with nothing) and shares the bluefin sashimi tacos his missus makes, which he could eat all day.

Tight Lines, Loose Lips.

Guest @Justincorric

Chapters:(00:00) [Japan in a Suitcase] Dad’s monthly Japan trips, the first rod and reel, and 26 years in the industry.
(05:00) [The 100kg Club] Long nights, a lost fish at the boat, and Brownie’s last-night gamble.
(11:50) [Older Than You Think] The slider is 120-year-old Japanese tech, and braid changed everything.
(17:00) [Fight Like the Japanese] Bent knees, short strokes and keeping the pressure on.
(18:30) [The Stall Is Everything] The tiny tap on the drop most bluefin anglers miss.
(21:00) [Topwater, Patience & Tuna Tacos] The 38kg king, sticking to the plan, and Justin’s favourite feed.

Captain Rick Pollock grew up in Hollywood, the son of a doctor whose patients included movie stars, and had boated 100 billfish out of Baja Mexico by the time he was 18. He arrived in New Zealand in 1978 on what was meant to be a one-year contract skippering a charter boat out of Whakatane, fishing White Island — and never left. Rick sits down with Nick to share stories from nearly 50 years on the water, including White Island — his home away from home — plus the day his boat tied the All Tackle world record kingfish, and a career built almost entirely around the country's most obsessed-over sportfish.

The conversation is a genuine masterclass in kingfish: how to read a seasonal cycle that swings from "hibernating" fish sitting empty-stomached in 300m of winter water to explosive, angry stickbait strikes in the shallows come November. Rick breaks down the live-bait care most anglers get wrong (why handling bait with your hands kills it, and a Southern Hemisphere trick for orienting a bait tank to the Coriolis effect), the mechanics of a proper dummy drift, and exactly how to fight a fish from the first "freight train" strike through to the gaff — including the five-minute rule that tells you whether you're going to land it.

Nick and Rick trade stories from nearly fifty years at White Island, Ranfurly Bank and the Three Kings — including the day a total accident, not a plan, saw his boat tie the All Tackle world record kingfish (52kg on 24kg line) while everyone was distracted by yellowfin tuna. Rick doesn't hold back on his running war with bronze whaler sharks, which he blames for gutting the kingfish fishery in many of his favourite spots, and relives the night a 70-plus-knot blow at North Cape put his charter boat on the rocks — a story that ends with a rescue helicopter, a flooded fish hold, and a deckhand who refused to leave.

Nearly five decades, a world record kingfish and enough close calls to fill a book — this is one of the deepest dives yet into what it actually takes to become one of New Zealand's most respected charter skippers.

Guest:Rick Pollock — charter skipper, White Island / Bay of Plenty and Three Kings. Skippered the charter boat Pursuit when a 52kg kingfish on 24kg line at White Island tied the All Tackle world record.

⏱️ Chapters / Segments
(00:00) — Meet Rick Pollock. A Hollywood upbringing, and the one-year NZ contract that became a lifetime.
(08:00) — Fishing Like Taking Candy From a Baby. Arriving at White Island in 1978, dog-chain traces, and turning charter clients onto giant kingfish and tuna.
(24:00) — The Live Bait Masters. Butter-knife bait handling, the Coriolis-effect tank trick, and why a full moon ruins a night's fishing.
(36:00) — Reading the Drift. The dummy drift, leading the school, and the seasonal shift from deepwater winter kings to explosive summer stickbait bites.
(55:00) — War on Bronze Whalers. Rick's case against the sharks he blames for gutting the kingfish fishery, plus five days chasing trophy kings at the Three Kings.
(1:12:00) — The Accidental Record and the Night at North Cape. How his boat tied the All Tackle world record kingfish by mistake, and the night 70-plus-knot winds put the boat on the rocks.

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

🔗 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
✅ Upbeat Funk Happy by Infraction [Copyright Free Music]
✅ "Long Road" by Infraction, licensed via inaudio.org
✅ Source (YouTube Audio Library)

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