Fly Fishing Fridays initiative to promote men's mental health

The new program, Fly Fishing Friday, launched yesterday at Millbrook Lakes in Gordon and builds on the success of the annual Bayer Big Fish Challenge.

Newcomers to fly fishing can learn how to cast a fly rod while also talking about some of the things that could impact on the mental health of rural communities.

The Fly Program founder and chief executive Matt Tripet conducted mental wellbeing exercises on the day with opportunities for participants to connect, open up and continue to support men's mental wellbeing.

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A friendly fishing competition rounded out the day with all funds raised going directly to helping rural Australian men in need of reprieve from the pressures of everyday life.

Mr Tripet said the program was focused on prevention and early intervention.

"We've been talking a little bit, we've been doing some values-based exercises so we've done some work also on mindfulness as well," he said.

"Using mindfulness is a wonderful tool to be able to help cope with some of the stimulus that may be coming into our minds and the way in which we do that is through a fishing rod and spending some time practicing mindfulness while we're out fishing.

"Focusing on communication, as well. Statistically, men show that there are a lot of barriers in having conversations with one another and we use recreational fishing to help us to mitigate some of those challenges."

Mr Tripet said those in rural areas did not have access to the same support services as those in metropolitan areas.

"Very often we're living in quite isolated environments so where we can bring people together in a positive social environment is a really, really important thing," he said.

Participant John Evans said along with talking about mental health, he also learnt how to fly fish for the first time.

"Country blokes, generally, are often are less likely to share or have less opportunity, or the cultural expectations or their view of cultural expectations can be different, so I think that can limit the willingness or openness to seeking help or talking," he said.

"I knew it as far as blokes being more open to talking shoulder to shoulder and fishing as an avenue for that sort of sharing but that's been pressed home.

"You can get out there and stand side by side or back to back in a boat and have a chat which I hadn't sort of thought of either."

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