00:01If they weren't fishing, these teens had pretty standard plans for school holidays.
00:06Just go to Westfield, just kind of sit around.
00:10Probably just sitting inside, playing video games if not for this.
00:13Racking up hours on the phone.
00:15Instead, this trio of Geelong mates are part of a new breed of anglers.
00:20It's everywhere. People just fishing, putting them on their Instagram.
00:24They think they're pretty cool, yeah.
00:26Under-18s don't need a fishing licence, making an increase in participation hard to quantify.
00:32But those in the industry say it's undeniable.
00:35We see it here every day.
00:37You know, the buses arrive back from schools and the kids are walking past in school uniforms
00:41with fishing rods in hand or sticking out of their bags.
00:43It's something that you see now wherever you go.
00:45You see teenagers fishing and it's great.
00:49Victoria's peak fishing body says one driver of this increase is the state's Little Anglers program,
00:54which handed out 180,000 free fishing rods to grade fives before being axed.
01:01We're really disappointed that the Premier didn't speak to us before cutting the program
01:04because we think it's got some long-reaching negative impacts that are yet to be seen.
01:10If you really want to know what's cool with the kids, you should probably check social media.
01:13And online, fishing content is blowing up, particularly on fish talk.
01:19Nineteen-year-old Jet Worsteling has 2.3 million followers on his TikTok.
01:24A lifelong angler, he's seeing more and more teens getting hooked.
01:28I could never have pictured it in a million years, but I think the last year and a half,
01:33two years, fishing is now one of the cool things for young people,
01:37young kids to go do when they've got free time.
01:40They might not always catch a fish, but kids are definitely catching the buzz.
01:44hunting a fish, but the average man is.
01:46And somewhere else, fishing is a good person for a fish to go do.
01:50The extra fish is a good fish.
01:50The other fish can play on fish with a fish.
01:50They might not even catch a fish.
01:50The fish can play on fish.
01:51This is an water fish is an animal fish.
