The 30-Pound Snapper He Waited 10 Years to Catch — Andre Kassal
🎣 Get the Net – Tight Lines, Loose Lips! 🎙️Show Notes
Andre Kassal — @Drefish, Ocean Angler pro staff — moved to New Zealand from Germany in 2011 chasing trout, and stumbled into saltwater fishing almost by accident after watching a fishing show on TV. Fifteen years later he's personally landed three snapper over 85cm — five between him and his wife Kie — from a 4.5-metre boat Kie talked him into buying, all fished in water so shallow he can see the bottom. This episode covers his shift from German freshwater lure fishing (Zander, pike, perch) to New Zealand's shallow-water snapper game, why he never fishes deeper than 20 metres even when the fish are there, and the real ecological reason big snapper matter more than most people realise — snapper and crayfish are both key predators of kina, and losing enough of either lets kina strip the kelp bare. The centrepiece is the story of his personal-best 30-pound (13.9kg) snapper, caught on the exact day marking ten years since he arrived in New Zealand — and what happened when he spotted the same fish again, two years later, in a stranger's photo on Facebook. Kie gets her due too — her own 85cm personal best, landed solo in risky conditions, held the boat record for years.
✅ Andre Kassal @Drefish ✅ Ocean Angler
⏱️ Chapters 0:00 – Meet Andre Kassal 10:00 – From Germany to New Zealand's Shallows 20:00 – The 30-Pound Anniversary Snapper 30:00 – Overfishing, Kina Barrens, and Why Big Snapper Matter 40:00 – Gear, Ocean Angler, and the Softbait System 50:00 – Reading Conditions: Tides, Moon, and Overcast Days 1:00:00 – The Hidden Kingfish of Auckland Harbour 1:10:00 – Kie's Record-Breaking 85cm Snapper 1:20:00 – Mentors, Advice for Young Anglers
🌟 Links & Socials YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@getthenet_nz Instagram: @getthenet_nz | TikTok: @getthenet_nz | Facebook: @getthenet_nz
🎵 Music: Proctor (Topher Mohr & Alex Elena), Satellites (Swello), Momentum (Zplit) 🎥 Shot on Sony A7iii + Sennheiser Mics, edited in Adobe Premiere Pro, shot/edited/produced by Nick Hoyle
More from 🎣 Get the Net – Tight Lines, Loose Lips! 🎙️
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.
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.
Recorded on the Daiwa stand at the NZ Boat Fish Dive Expo. This Quick Cast is with Aaron Styles, founder of Just Another Fisherman.
Frank and Jane are the couple behind Beyond the Coast, a YouTube channel built around fishing, camping and exploring their own backyard. They've turned that into a lifestyle a lot of us would love to have.
A 5.8 metre trailer boat. A UFC heavyweight strapped into the harness. And a Pacific bluefin tuna that pulled the scales to 243kg bled, gutted and gilled.