Tight lines: Blackfriars old scholar Jordan Saliba reeling in the followers

When covid forced the world to slow in 2020, then-Year 12 student Jordan Saliba went fishing.

“In that covid year, we had to stay home a lot, so I found myself watching more YouTube and came across some pretty cool fishing videos,” Mr Saliba says.

“From there, once the (covid) restrictions were lifted, I just went fishing a few times. Nothing serious, I wasn’t very good at it. And then a friend … he took me squidding off Brighton Jetty and I got addicted.”

Mr Saliba has gone on to become one of South Australia’s higher-profile anglers, amassing a huge social media following on his JordanSAFishing pages.

His most popular video on TikTok – where he has almost 17,000 followers – has racked up more than 4.1 million views.

He writes for SA Angler magazine, has featured on the FIVEaa Fishing Show with Ned McHenry and Stephen (Rowey) Rowe and is an ambassador for RecFish SA, the peak body for the more than 277,000 recreational fishers in the state.

He also sells his own range of squid jigs, as well as JordanSAFishing merchandise, through his online business.

“The YouTubers that I was watching, I thought, ‘that’d be pretty cool to do it myself’,” Mr Saliba says of his initial foray into social media.

“There weren’t many people doing it in South Australia. So, I thought I’d start it for fun and if it takes off, it takes off. I got lucky with a couple TikTok videos that got me a few followers pretty fast.

“A lot of my audience are people just starting out fishing, (so) I try not to cut out all the bad stuff in the videos. If I stuff something up, more than likely the people watching have experienced the same thing. They develop that connection with you through your content.”

Mr Saliba was offered a spot in a Bachelor of Human Movement at UniSA on the back of his Year 12 results, but decided the university path was not for him.

Instead, he completed a Certificate IV in Fitness (having achieved his Certificate III while at Blackfriars) to become a personal trainer.

He then set up a business running fishing clinics for NDIS clients; a business he still runs today.

“Most of the clients, the first time I take them out, they’ve never been fishing before,” he says.

“And you can just see, them being out in nature, feeling that sense of achievement that comes when you catch something, it’s really cool.

“The mental health side of things, I think it’s really beneficial to them, too. The response is really positive.”

Going forward, Mr Saliba plans to keep taking any opportunities that come his way.

“I’d like to grow my YouTube channel a bit bigger and try and see if I can get some opportunities from that,” he says.

“Maybe one day get on an IFISH episode; that’s been on my bucket list for a long time.

“I just love going out fishing and trying to learn new things; that’s what it’s all about. And I want to visit every jetty in South Australia. I’m probably 60% there. There are a lot of them!”