G'day Reader,

You've either been on a boat with us or put your hand up for the intermediate and charter side of things — so this episode is squarely for you.

I just published NSP:321 with Matt Parker. Matty manages Divers World in Cairns, has been spearing for 25 years and guiding for six, and runs MBP Spearfishing Charters. He also happens to be the bloke I'm running Deep North with next March. I've wanted him on the show for ages — he came highly requested by the North Queensland crew — and he didn't hold anything back.

I asked him to boil it down to three things and he didn't hesitate:

"Number one is when you think you're closer, get closer again. And then when you think the shot's on, take two more kicks and then take your shot… A lot of times fish can look smaller from the surface or bigger from the surface, depending on the viz."

Number two was take your time — and if the shot's not there, don't take it. He's a big believer in fish karma: "If you put a bad shot in a dog tooth, we're not gonna land it anyway. So there's no point like, oh, I just had to take it. It's like — you didn't have to take it."

Number three was teamwork, and he was blunt about it. Pass the gun on when you're cooked, help on other people's fish, do the work. "Teamwork is what makes it happen… everyone wants you on the boat if you're gonna help out." There are, in his words, people on his list who aren't allowed to come back no matter what they're willing to pay.

The Dogtooth Equipment he recommends. Twenty-odd years in and he's landed back where he started — a 67 to 70 inch gun (he runs a Riffe), 130–150, three to five 16mm bands, an 8.7mm shaft with a slip tip, 23m float line, a 3-atmosphere float, a 5m short line, then a second 3-atmosphere float. Shorter float line than the old days. Far fewer fish tearing off.

And the line that should be tattooed on a few blokes I know: "Even though you've got that huge gun with all that power — that power is to go through the width of a fish. Some of them fish can be a foot and a half wide. It's not to shoot the fish from further away."

He also makes the point that your big gun should be rigged as close as possible to your everyday reef gun, so nothing feels foreign when it matters.

The scorecard.

Matty has kept a tally of fish landed versus fish lost on every trip since he started guiding. Any fish you pull the trigger on and don't land counts as a loss — misses included. "Pretty much one in three we're putting on the boat most trips." On the good ones it's closer to 50/50 — thirty-odd landed out of seventy shots. It's honest, it's humbling, and it makes for excellent banter at the end of a trip.

We also get into sharks and shark behaviour (he's got a very level-headed take), what social media has done to spearos, the pitfalls of guiding people who think money makes up for poor behaviour, and reading current and moon — where he lands on "the more you learn and think you know about that stuff, the more you realise you know nothing."

​Listen to NSP:321 → ​

Now — the trip we talk about at the end of the episode Matty and I are running together: Deep North, 13–21 March 2027, nine days aboard the Norkat II out of Half Moon Bay Marina, Yorkey's Knob, Cairns.

Yep. The GBR reef trip. So we'll head north, up to Jewel and stuff, which is kind of 40 mile north of Lizard Island." Pinnacles, pressure points, and high spots — the ground where, as he puts it, any bit of current is a good thing. Coral trout, red emperor, Maori sea perch, buffalo emperor, yellow lip emperor and mu, with wahoo and doggie country in reach for anyone who wants to put the time in.

Have a proper look at Deep North →

It's not a course. No certificate, no classroom. What you get is two guides in the water with you every single session — Matty and me — for nine days, plus the sort of trip that quietly resets your standard for what a good one looks like. $7,200 per person, $2,500 deposit to hold a spot. Ten guests maximum, and there are 4 spots left as I write this. That's not a marketing line, these are the last spots left.

Full itinerary, boat, FAQs and booking → https://spearfishingcourses.com.au/deepnorth​

Go listen to Matty first though. Even if the trip isn't for you this year, his three points will make you a better hunter on your next dive.

— Not sure whether you're ready for nine days offshore? Hit reply and tell me where you're at. I'll give you a straight answer either way.