Matt Price

Matt Price isn’t your everyday game fisherman. With six IGFA Royal Slams under his belt, he is, in fact, unique in the world of fishing. After meeting him abroad at a fishing competition, Pete McGregor didn’t waste any time taking Matt up on his offer of a fishing trip out of Brisbane.

Matt Price drives buses and an Uber taxi for a living, but fishing is his passion. He works hard to earn some cash, then every few weeks heads off all over the world fishing. Matt Price is a champion, the only person in the world to have six IGFA Royal Slams – that’s catching every variety of six species of fish. He is currently trying to repeat it all on fly, plus he’s working on a new inshore royal slam (13 species).

We first met at Rompin, Malaysia for the Royal Pahang International Billfish Challenge. My first impressions were of a colourfully-dressed big man with that caustic humour that Australians do so well. He’s a great yarn teller, and you soon realise that he has told each story often and the telling is polished. We hit it off in Rompin and when I mentioned that I was going to Brisbane shortly, Matt immediately said, “Okay, let’s get you a black marlin while you’re there.” How could I refuse?

The Brisbane weather wasn’t promising with 15 knots and 1.5 metre swells, but Matt is a full on fisho so he would be going out – were we still keen? I sure was and my wife Yvonne said, “Yes, I will cope.” We arranged for Matt to pick us up at our hotel at 5:15am.

Sharp on time, a wee Nissan Micra pulled up with Matt wedged behind the wheel. We squeezed in among a myriad of tackle boxes and rods and travelled to where his 6.25m Haines Hunter was stored on a pontoon. There we met Krystle Daly, a bubbly and attractive mad keen fisho/bar manager who would be filming our outing for part of a planned TV series. While the Haines was lowered into the canal, Krystle investigated a crab pot hanging off the wharf and pulled out a whopper crab with claws the size of hedge clippers. Dinner sorted.

Matt’s 6.25m Haines Hunter ready for a big day on the water.

It was choppy alright. As we banged our way out towards Moreton Island, I could tell Yvonne wasn’t happy – her head was down looking at the deck and white knuckles showed while she held on. On my boat, it would have been all over rover, but with Krystle chatting away, Yvonne coped even with the boisterous exit past the Moreton Island bar. Matt’s open top boat ensured we got a good dose of Australian salt water from time to time. We stopped often for Matt to film short live YouTube/Facebook clips where he outlined our plans for the day to his myriad of online followers.

The black marlin near Brisbane are quite small, about 50kg being a good one, but we could also encounter other species such as wahoo, Spanish mackerel, striped marlin, yellowfin tuna and sharks. Matt had set up three new rods with Tyrnos 20 reels sporting 8kg line and 80lb leaders. His Larva lures are quite different to what we see in NZ, being only about 15cm long including the skirt and fitted with single stainless steel hooks.

At about 50m depth, I steered while Matt and Krystle set three lures running – short corner, long corner and a shotgun position. His boat wasn’t fitted with outriggers.

We settled into the troll. Krystle, Yvonne and I would rotate, being the angler on a particular rod every 30 minutes. 25 minutes later, one of the tiny Shimano Tyrnos 20 reels started to wail. It was a peculiar, and very exciting sound, rather like a slot car on steroids. Weeeeeeeee! It was my rod, the shotgun. While Matt and Krystle wound in the other lures, I picked up the rod. Matt slowed the boat and I worked on the reel. An explosion of water revealed a good-sized bull mahimahi leaping behind us. Ten minutes later I had it close to the boat, and Matt hoisted it in where, in typical mahimahi fashion, it went ballistic. It’s actually quite dangerous if you are using treble hooks but Matt’s lures carry only that single hook. Presently, he calmed it down and lifted it into my arms, whereupon the fish gave me a boisterous slap in the face with its tail. Yuck! Krystle took some photos and I released my estimated 8kg catch. The colours on this fish were stunning.

After high fives, we re-set the lures and trolled on. Just before lunch we had another strike. The slot car whine came again from the shotgun rod. This time Krystle was on the rod and with a huge grin of delight she landed her first yellowfin tuna. While we were taking photos, the small fish gave a wriggle for freedom and jumped out of her hands about 30cm into the air before she managed to deftly re-catch it. I’m not sure who was the most surprised, Krystle or the fish! Luckily, I was able to capture that moment on my new Canon which has a multi-shot sport mode.

Krystle juggling her yellowfin tuna.

Moreton Island had so far been productive for us, but no black marlin as of yet. Lunch was served, Yvonne having brought along delicious salads. Matt declared that she was a keeper. A reel squealed again but whatever had been hooked chopped right through the doubled line at the hook. Matt called it for a Spanish mackerel. It was certainly something with razor sharp teeth.

Things went quiet then for quite a while. The girls started to snooze. This gave Matt and I a chance to have a chat about his life, his challenges and how he got to be a royal slammer.

When Matt targets a particular variety of fish, he researches where in the world they are prolific and relatively easy to catch. He then contacts local charter operators and keen fishos in the area to set up a couple of dates to fish. Charter operators often erroneously assume that he wants a big one. Wrong – he just wants to tick off a fish of that species/variety and size is not relevant. Small is good. Also, once he has caught the fish, that’s it – he jumps in his hire car and travels to his next port of call for the next challenge species. It’s all done on a shoestring budget, and it is common for Matt to sleep in his car if he arrives late and has an early call.

Matt is an inspirational guy, coming from humble beginnings and working a humble job. But he believes that anything he can conceive, he can achieve. For example, each year he takes three Australian war veterans to the USA for a fishing competition that he has organised. He pays their expenses himself, including travel, accommodation, meals and fishing. He also pays for three USA veterans as competition. Not bad for a bus driver.

Matt has around 4500 Facebook friends. He keeps in contact with his followers mainly via live video conversations. He is working on an upcoming TV show, mainly collecting material at this stage.

Matt has helped a lot of people with his endless enthusiasm, drive and inspiration. A mate suggested that Matt write a book about his life and his fishing. Matt was sceptical. He didn’t know how to write a book and anyhow, it’s only about fishing. “No,” said his mate, “it’s about an average guy living his dream by just doing it.” So, Matt wrote Chasing Royal Slams (available on Amazon). Matt says several people have contacted him to say how much they were inspired after reading the book – and not necessarily inspired to go fishing; rather, inspired to achieve their dreams.

By mid-afternoon, Matt and I had reached the conclusion that we had probably done our dash for the day. But you never know with fishing. It’s not over until the vicar is shaking your hand outside the church. Bang weeeeeeeeeeee! The long corner reel squealed. Yvonne was on point. This was a good one. We strapped Yvonne into a belt and pulled in the remaining lures. Matt backed up while Yvonne struggled with the fish. A 15-minute battle took place and then we finally could see colour beside the boat. It was another yellowfin tuna. Bugger, I wanted one of those! Matt did the leadering, photos were taken and the fish was released. As Matt would say, we strived, we achieved… Pergo et perago.

February 2022 - Pete McGregor
New Zealand Fishing News Magazine.
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