Fishing for Your Mental Health: $120K Raised for Gumboot Friday – Aaron Styles

Recorded on the Daiwa stand at the NZ Boat Fish Dive Expo. This Quick Cast is with Aaron Styles, founder of Just Another Fisherman.

Aaron grew up a Bay of Plenty fisherman, surfcasting through the night beside a fire with his dad. Fishing was always part of his life, but his career started in fashion, where he spent six years as head of design at Huffer. During that time he noticed a gap in the market. Fishing gear was either promo-style merch from the general brands or nothing at all. Nobody was making clothing that showed what the fishing lifestyle actually feels like: party shirts with fish prints, or proper technical shorts that weren’t just a pair of stubbies.

That’s where Just Another Fisherman came from, 14 years ago. Since then it’s slowly grown into new product groups, each one built to solve a problem on the water. They’re now on their third generation of winter bibs, which get used for everything from tuna to soft baiting. The crewman shorts, with stretch, magnet closures and nothing to rust, have earned the nickname “the Toyota Hilux of shorts,” and some blokes buy four pairs at a time.

We also talk about Anglers Escape, the event Aaron started. It’s a fishing comp, but the fishing isn’t really the point. You turn up up north with a crew of mates for three to four days, all catered, and that’s your time out, rain or shine. The prize-giving finishes with auctions and raffles, and every dollar goes to Gumboot Friday. Over the last four or five years they’ve raised around $120,000 for youth mental health. The message is simple: when you ring your mate to ask how the marlin fishing’s going, ask how life’s going too. The fishing is serious as well. Last year 26 snapper over 80cm were caught across 150 anglers and only one was kept. The teams prize came down to the last hour.

We also cover his son’s first marlin, caught at age nine on a father-son overnight in the Bay of Islands, a released 42kg kingi on topwater, and an overnight off Raglan where two of them raised 11 marlin in an hour and a half. Aaron also shares what he’s learned from the best marlin crews about patience and process, and how he still makes sure fishing stays his time out.

Tight Lines, Loose Lips