Family fun:

Fish Of The Day host Clarke Gayford (right) is proud of how well his partner, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, can fish and loves taking her out on the water. And he is just as keen to introduce his daughter Neve to fishing, as he tells Kerry Harvey.

Clarke Gayford, the Prime Minister’s partner, talks about his fishing hopes for their daughter Neve.

Clarke Gayford has been hooked on fishing for so long he can’t remember the first time he dropped a line.

“It would have been a hand-line off the end of the wharf with my dad, probably fishing for sprats,” he says, of his childhood spent growing up near the coast in Gisborne.

“I wasn’t allowed to go fishing by myself when I was young, so I’d take my sister out and I would make her stay out for hours.

“I took her one Christmas day and we stayed out so long the batteries in her new Walkman went flat. She was very upset.”

Fortunately, his partner, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, took to the sport like, well, a fish to water.

“She loves fishing and she’s pretty good at it. In fact, one of our first dates I took her out and, the first time she put her line down, she caught a 12-pound snapper,” Gayford says, adding he is now teaching her how to catch kingfish.

He is just as keen to introduce New Zealand’s first-baby, Neve, who turns one in June, to fishing as soon as possible.

“She’s already got a lifejacket and I quite enjoy the fact that everyone who has brought around a soft toy has tended to keep it marine themed so we have a lot of fishy stuffed toys in our house,” he reveals.

Meanwhile, Gayford, as Neve’s primary carer, is juggling his baby duties with filming for his fishing and lifestyle television show Fish Of The Day.

The third season debuts on Three this week and he is already under pressure to start on series four.

“Obviously I couldn’t go anywhere for the first few months of Neve’s being born and then I had to negotiate some time off with some very, very helpful grandmothers to make it all happen,” he says, of the preparations for filming.

The first series of Fish Of The Day, which won Best Lifestyle Documentary for 2016 at the world’s biggest film festival held in Houston, was picked up by National Geographic Channel and now screens in around 35 countries.

In each episode, Gayford explores a different destination in New Zealand or the Pacific, goes fishing with the locals for a specific species of sustainable table fish and hands his catch over to a chef to cook.

“Each show has something you can watch with a partner who is not into fishing and use that as a, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great to go and visit there?’ because we’ll show you what else you can do,” Gayford says.

“So much of a fishing adventure is not about the fish you catch; it’s about all the other steps on the way. It’s about the boat or the walk around the rocks or the trip planning and getting all the ingredients right.

“You might see whales or you might have a near miss with something. It adds to it, but fishing is the excuse that makes you go and do it in the first place.”

The combination of fishing, travel and food is deliberate. It not only gives the show wide appeal it also enables Gayford to combine his love of TV with his love of fishing and his keen interest in conservation.

“I kept TV and fishing quite separate for a long time,” he says, admitting he left his beach lifestyle behind when he moved to Auckland where he worked on entertainment, music and travel series as well as hosting nationwide radio shows.

“Then one day I ended up with an old family boat in Auckland and it changed everything.

“I discovered what an incredible fishery Auckland has. It’s amazing. Last year I left downtown Auckland in a boat and within half a day I had seen some 50 fish, a marlin and a manta ray and we knew that there was a whale shark in the area.

“That’s all right on our doorstep. I didn’t catch a single fish but I went out there and saw all these cool things and discovered this stuff that’s right on our doorstep.”

He hopes the show encourages people to explore.

“The fishing that we have in New Zealand is some of the best in the world when we look after it. It’s more than a sport or more than something to do. It’s actually part of who we are.

“There is almost nothing in our show that is not doable by anyone watching and we have deliberately kept it like that. There’s no reason why you couldn’t go and charter that exact same catamaran we were on and go and have a real adventure.

“If you can help make people appreciate the ocean and sea then they’ve got a much more vested interest in paying attention when it comes to looking after it.”

“She loves fishing and she’s pretty good at it. In fact, one of our first dates I took her out and, the first time she put her line down, she caught a 12-pound snapper.” – Clarke Gayford on his partner Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern