HellGAI used to use IRC about 14 years ago when the internet was just becoming popular and tape drive pc's were still a vivid memory. I met some good friends on there that I still keep in touch with. I also remember that as chat rooms filled up they used to flow a damn sight faster than I could read. I was on a per megabyte rate then so it used to cost a lot too.
There are many different genres available on IRC and I'm sure there are already NZ run fishing rooms registered. Whether or not they are controlled by a bot or not I don't know, but I know the rooms that weren't were chaos.
Not a bad idea, but I'm not sure how much support you would get. I know when I tried to set up a room I was told you need 10 people to register as users for that room before they would allow it. Not sure how it works now. I don't even have my copy of mIRC any more.