An Epic Hunting & Fishing Journey with Matt Watson Article

Not a lot of people know that before The ITM Fishing Show, the first season on TV was just ‘The Fishing Show’ and it was funded mostly by mortgaging our house, but we took on two sponsors in that first season. Shimano and Hunting & Fishing New Zealand.  

Whether it was the innovative underwater footage, like marlin eating lures, or that giant snapper eating a whole Kahawai, there was something that made Hunting & Fishing NZ back me, a guy that had no track record or experience in television. But as I came to learn, the very fact that I was a fisherman, and not a TV host, made me more relatable to the outdoors men and women of New Zealand, and to the Hunting & Fishing NZ owners who were hunters and fishers themselves.  

Season 20 of ITM Fishing began screening from Saturday October 7 at 7.00pm on THREE.  These days it’s a primetime show that gets all the billings and ratings that goes with it, but it will be the last season to screen on television. I never targeted 20 seasons but a couple of years ago after building my dream home by the beach I thought it was a good place to end my time on TV, concentrate on our online fishing content and work on perfecting my home brew.  

But when I came to understand what ITM Fishing meant to so many people, and what it meant to me, I had to give it a proper send off. So I rallied the team, including some mates that were around at the start of the show, and we went out to film Season 20.  It was a mix of ticking off some things I’d not yet done and revisiting some of my favourite places including Fiordland and the Cook Islands.    

Knowing it was the last time out filming an ITM Fishing TV series, I slowed down and tried to enjoy the moments while out on the water. Too many times over the years I’ve been chasing the shot or the next big fish and I’ve not fully been present in the moment. In the process of filming this final series I thought I might get an urge to make another series, but instead I felt even more certain the time was right.  

I’ve experienced some incredible moments making The ITM Fishing Show, so many I feel it’s too much for one person to fit into one lifetime. Just going through the photos for this story has stirred up so many memories, shared with some great people, and I could tell you a thing or two about some of the crazy-characters from Hunting & Fishing NZ I’ve shared so many adventures with. There’s at least two books worth or ripping yarns, so in the limited space I’ve got here hopefully the pictures will make up the shortfall in my words until I get around to writing those books. 

Series 20 of ITM Fishing is not the last new fishing content you’ll see from me, far from it. I’m not hanging up the fishing rods and putting away the cameras. I’m already filming new content for our Ultimate Fishing TV website and YouTube channel, and I’ll still be proudly repping Hunting & Fishing NZ, Shimano and all the other sponsors that have been with me for 20 years, only after this final TV series, the new stuff will no longer be on TV.  

We now have a combined 1.1 million followers and subscribers that are generating over 3.5 million views a month. And for me, the beauty of making content for our online followers is we just have to make content that they like, and that I like, not what the TV networks like. We can make it any duration, from short tips and demonstrations, to full feature length episodes, and that means more content, more often. So if you aren’t already following our social media, or haven’t yet downloaded our Ultimate Fishing App, best you get up with the play.     

I’ve been incredibly privileged to make the call to end ITM Fishing on TV on my own terms, and after fighting hard to keep the show going in some tough times it now feels right to call time, and celebrate what we’ve done, and get out and create more memories for the next chapter.   
 
Till next time – Keep ‘em tight. 
Matt.