Recorded during a Drifter Trip to Los Locos, this episode features a late-night conversation with legendary guide Arno Matthee.
We talk about milkfish, giant trevally, pirate encounters, mothership expeditions, and the lessons learned from exploring fisheries with no roadmap. It’s a conversation about curiosity, patience, and why a successful day on the water isn’t about numbers—but about the feeling.
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Quotes
“Spend more time observing than fishing.”
“You never catch a fish by mistake.”
“Without the technique, the fly is useless.”
“I love guiding more than I love fishing myself.”
“A successful day isn’t about numbers—it’s about the feeling.”
“I don’t think you ever catch a fish by mistake. You did something right to catch that fish.”
“I love guiding more than I love fishing myself at this stage of my career.”
“If you’re going to do this for money, you’re on the wrong path.”
“It’s not about numbers for me. It’s about the feeling you create out there.”
“I always just want to see a new place. Once I spend a season or two somewhere, I want to understand something else.”
“There was no playbook. You just had to figure it out.”
“If you spend all your time with a rod in your hand, you get tunnel vision. You learn more by observing.”
“You’ve got to understand where the fish are coming from and where they’re going—then intercept them.”
“I stopped fishing for milkfish completely and just observed them.”
“I had a dream about catching milkfish. I woke up at four in the morning and tied three flies.”
“Without the technique, the fly is useless.”
“They won’t move up or down to eat—only side to side.”
“That fish was the uncatchable fish in the ocean to me.”
“We broke all the rods. We broke all the fly lines. We had nothing left.”
“Piracy ended our business overnight.”
“There’s no Coast Guard coming to help you out there.”
“You better hope you’ve got phone signal.”
“Those skiffs were the only flats skiffs on the entire west coast of Africa.”
“I went months without seeing a fish and thought, ‘What am I doing here?’”
“I turned around and there were eight tarpon over 200 pounds behind us.”
“That’s when I knew—this is the place.”
“Every guide should wake up knowing the tides.”
“Timing is everything.”
“Fish get smarter. That forces you to sharpen your game.”
“Pressure doesn’t kill fisheries—it changes them.”
“A successful day isn’t about numbers.”
“You learn more from the tough days than the good ones.”
“If you put too much pressure on yourself, you’re setting yourself up for a bad day.”
“I realize how fortunate we are just to be out there.”
