Stunt man vs killer fish

TV presenter Matt Watson.

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Matt Watson drew on that typical Kiwi spirit to get his big TV break.

The extreme fisherman was challenged to catch a marlin on a $25 budget. He couldn't afford a fishing rod so used an old electric fence wire and ballpoint pen to catch a tuna. He then used the tuna to lure a marlin – all out of a dinghy.

Watson, 34, wanted to prove that, "you don't have to have a lot of money or a big flash boat to catch a marlin".

Now the host of the ITM Fishing Show has been doing crazy things with mako sharks for his series Man V Fish on the Discovery Channel. He expects to reel in one billion viewers when it is screened worldwide.

One of those shows will be featured on New Zealand TV on December 9 as part of the Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

Watson tests the mako shark, said to be one of the most intelligent of its species, while steadily sinking in a child's inflatable dinghy off the New Zealand coast.

"The shark chewed [the boat] a wee bit which wasn't great for staying afloat," he said.

"Over the years I've had a lot of experience of them ripping fish off our lines, and them taking down much bigger fish by smashing their tails down on rocks so they can't swim away."

He wanted to test a theory that mako's intelligence could make them more dangerous to humans because they can figure out how to better attack us. "Unfortunately the theory got a bit muddied when a blue shark turned up," Watson said.

"The blue shark tried to have a chew on me because he was swimming erratically after I had given him a whack. The mako thought he was feeding and didn't want to miss out. He started trying to line me up and it was time to get out of the water." Watson said makos often resist the urge to feed on their prey while it is still alive.

"The mako hangs back and waits for it to almost bleed to death so there is almost no risk of them getting injured from the sword on the swordfish," he explained.

Watson puts his TV career down to his own whack on the head with a cricket bat. He was playing with his commercial fisherman uncle Ian and hit him with a tennis ball. "He smacked me over the head with the cricket bat," Watson explained. "My old man jumped in and smacked him and it was all on." But Watson added "It's the best thing he ever did for me."

Watson, a keen fisherman from childhood, had hoped to get a job on Ian's boat but the bat bashing put an end to that dream. Instead Watson worked as a roof tiler for around five years and then packed it in and moved to Keri Keri in the Bay of Islands to work on game fishing boats. "I had wanted to be like my uncles and be a commercial fisherman but somewhere along the line I thought hang on, this isn't right, we are taking a shitload of fish here.

"In my short lifetime I'd noticed the stocks being depleted, so I kind of went away from that," he said.

His crazy fishing stunts for TV led to a "nerve-wracking" appearance on The David Letterman Show.

He said the Discovery Channel has started to allow him to be "a bit more Kiwi". He added: "They were a bit apprehensive about how aUS audience would receive me, I'm just out there having a laugh.

"When I jumped in the water I had a label made up that had `fish' written on it, and one that said `not fish'." The joke got cut. "I was pretty gutted about it," he said.

"I think back home people would have got a kick out of that..

"Probably more challenging than dealing with sharks is trying to make a programme for an American audience. I'm not a television person, I'm just a dude who loves fishing."

- © Fairfax NZ News