Meet Diogo
The Story Behind Ajing Store
Ajing Store did not start with a business plan.
It started because I loved fishing, because I had some free time, because I was getting tired of one of my jobs, and because I have always enjoyed being in motion and creating things. Most importantly, it started because I felt there was a need that wasn't really being met.
My name is Diogo, I am 38 years old, and I have been fishing since I was eight.
I started fishing in Sesimbra, Portugal, with a small red fishing rod that I still remember today. The equipment was modest and the bait was simply worms bought from a local tackle shop that doesn't even exist anymore.
At that time, Sesimbra was a very different place. Before the pontoons and all the changes to the bay, there were huge numbers of fish around. I remember catching small bream and sea bass from the beach, and although I obviously didn't know it at the time, those simple sessions were the beginning of a relationship with fishing that would never really go away.
I've been fishing with artificial lures for around ten years. About six years ago I discovered LRF, and Ajing followed shortly afterwards. What immediately attracted me was not just the tackle itself, but what that tackle allowed me to do. The equipment was small, light and incredibly precise, but there was also something much more practical about it. I could go fishing for thirty or forty minutes during a lunch break and actually fish. When I was doing surfcasting, thirty or forty minutes was sometimes enough time to set everything up and I still hadn't made my first cast.
That simplicity changed the way I looked at fishing.
I could go out for a short session, experiment, learn something and still come back home feeling that I had genuinely been fishing. And the more I learned about LRF and Ajing, the more I became interested in the equipment itself.
Fishing Taught Me to Look at the Whole System
What I enjoy most about Ajing and LRF is the constant possibility of experimentation. I don't think about a rod, a reel, a line, a jighead or a soft bait as completely separate things. They are part of a system, and small changes can completely change what happens in the water.
One of the biggest things fishing has taught me is that you have to work the lure from the moment it lands in the water until the moment it comes back out. Some of the biggest surprises I've had in Ajing and LRF have happened when the lure was already very close to me, at the end of the retrieve, when I thought the most important part of the cast had already happened.
It usually hasn't.
That is one of the reasons I love this style of fishing so much. There is always another detail to understand.
My favourite fish is probably the mackerel, but not when there are mackerel everywhere. When there are hundreds of them around, catching them is easy. What I really enjoy are those strange days when there are just a few scattered fish around and nobody else seems to know they are there. You make a cast, everything looks quiet, and suddenly you get that run coming from nowhere.
That is the kind of fishing I love.
Why Ajing Store Exists
The idea for Ajing Store came from many conversations with anglers who had been sold equipment that simply didn't make sense for what they were trying to do.
I've heard people being sold 20g lures for LRF. I've heard people being sold 7g lures for Ajing.
I understand why that happens. A traditional fishing shop has stock to move and products that suppliers have put in front of them. They have to sell something. But I think there is a bigger problem with that approach. Maybe the shop makes the sale today, but in the long run they can lose a customer. And possibly lose someone who could have become completely obsessed with this type of fishing.
There was also another problem: the equipment itself was difficult to find.
Specialist Ajing and LRF tackle was not easy to get in Europe, and that was one of the things that pushed me to start Ajing Store. I wanted to create a place where people could find the equipment, but also talk to someone who actually understood what they were trying to achieve with it.
For me, that is what a specialist store means.
A specialist store isn't a place where someone knows everything about everything. It is a place where the person helping you knows enough about the subject to solve your problem. Whether that problem is a rod, a line, a jighead, a soft bait or something else.
That's the standard I try to apply to Ajing Store every day.
I Don't Want to Sell You Something Just Because I Can
I test new products all the time, and one of the most important things I've learned is that not everything deserves to be sold.
I have products in the showroom that I have tested and simply wasn't convinced by. Some of them are deliberately less visible because, quite honestly, I don't really like selling products that I wouldn't personally choose. They may look good. They may have good marketing. They may come from a good brand. But if they don't convince me on the water, I don't feel comfortable pushing them onto somebody else.
I've also learned that similar-looking tackle doesn't necessarily perform in the same way. There are plenty of products available online that look very close to the originals, but that doesn't mean they behave the same way where it matters: in the water, when you're actually trying to catch fish.
That is also why I test things myself.
I don't want to sell something just because it is popular, because it has a big margin, or because someone has told me it should sell well. I want to understand it.
When a customer comes to me and says they want to change their rod, line or setup, one of the first things I ask is:
What problem are you trying to solve?
That's the starting point.
We shouldn't change rods just because we feel like changing rods. We change because we are looking for something we haven't found yet. Maybe the rod isn't sensitive enough. Maybe the lure range isn't right. Maybe the line isn't behaving the way the angler wants. Maybe the setup simply doesn't suit the way they fish.
My job is to find the solution.
Sometimes that solution is a product I sell.
Sometimes it isn't.
I've already told customers to buy a rod from another store because the rods I sell couldn't solve what they were asking for. One of the most obvious examples is when someone wants one rod that can comfortably fish 0.4g for Ajing and also throw 12g lures properly. That rod doesn't exist. I would rather explain that honestly than sell someone a rod that doesn't actually solve their problem.
That is the philosophy of the store.
THE AJING STORE ACADEMY
The Ajing Store Academy is our way of helping anglers understand LRF and Ajing from the ground up. From choosing your first rod and reel to learning how to control jigheads, soft baits, depth, retrieve and hooksets, each lesson is designed to build practical knowledge step by step.
The goal is not simply to tell you what to buy, but to help you understand why it works, how to use it and how to make better decisions on the water.
The Brands That Changed My View
ClearBlue was always the first brand I wanted for Ajing Store. For me, it represented what I thought specialist Ajing equipment should be: rods, soft baits, jigheads and a clear understanding of the discipline.
I am proud to have built a relationship with the brand, and I have a photograph with the founder of ClearBlue that means a lot to me because it represents how far something that started as a hobby has come.
But one of the biggest surprises for me has been Arukazik. The Namajako ST 2.4" is one of the products that has surprised me the most since I started testing new equipment, but the bigger surprise has been the brand itself.
Everyone involved in Ajing knows how highly regarded ClearBlue is, and I have enormous respect for the brand.
But when it comes to LRF, I personally put Arukazik at that same level.
Those discoveries are one of the reasons I enjoy working on Ajing Store.
There is always something new to test, and sometimes you find something that changes your opinion completely.
The Store Has Grown, But the Philosophy Hasn't Changed
When Ajing Store started, it was a hobby.
At some point I realised it was becoming something more serious because my mornings were no longer just about fishing. I was creating content for the store, packing orders, researching equipment, talking to suppliers, choosing products and deciding which models from each brand actually made sense for the catalogue.
Today, I also receive messages and emails from brands asking to be included in Ajing Store.
That gives me a huge sense of pride.
I don't take it for granted.
It means brands are starting to recognise that there is a place in Europe for a store that is genuinely focused on Ajing, LRF and ultra-light fishing, and that is something I am very proud to be building.
At the same time, I don't want Ajing Store to become the shop with the most products just for the sake of having the most products.
I want it to be the shop that solves the client's problem.
That is a much more important goal to me.
I Don't Believe There Is Only One Right Way to Fish
One thing fishing has taught me about people is that there are no wrong ways to fish.
If you're catching fish, you're doing something right, at least for that fish you just caught.
I fish with other people regularly and I genuinely enjoy that part of it. I don't expect everyone around me to fish the way I do, use the same rod, the same line or the same lure.
If someone's setup works for them, that's great.
I'm not interested in forcing my equipment onto somebody simply because I'm the person running the shop. In fact, when I go fishing with someone who already has equipment that works for them, I have no problem at all with them continuing to use it. If it solves their problem, that's what matters.
The same applies to customers.
I want people to enjoy fishing, not to feel that they have to buy the most expensive equipment or the equipment with the biggest marketing budget.
There are many brands that are famous because they have enormous marketing budgets. That doesn't automatically mean they make the best equipment.
I care much more about what happens when the lure hits the water.
From Portugal, for European Anglers
Ajing Store is based in Portugal, but the goal has always been bigger than simply serving Portugal.
A big part of the problem I wanted to solve was the difficulty of buying specialist Japanese tackle from Europe. Ordering directly from Japan can be slower, complicated and sometimes stressful. There can be customs messages, unexpected charges, long waits and, in the case of rods, even the worry of receiving something damaged.
We try to remove as much of that uncertainty as possible.
We keep stock in Portugal and work hard to have the products ready to ship. With rods in particular, we take packaging very seriously. Our rods are either delivered by hand or protected inside a 9 cm PVC tube before shipping.
It's a small detail, but it matters.
When someone has spent a lot of money on a rod, I want them to feel that we cared about getting it to them properly.
What I Want Ajing Store to Become
I don't know exactly what Ajing Store will look like in five years, and I'm actually comfortable with that.
Maybe it will become a bigger team. There are already two people in particular that I would love to see become part of the Ajing Store team one day, especially because I don't want everything to depend on me forever. I'd love to have other people testing tackle, fishing, sharing experiences and helping shape the store.
Maybe there will be a larger showroom. Maybe a community. Maybe events. Maybe fishing trips. Maybe something completely different.
I don't know yet.
The future will tell, and I'll welcome whatever comes with open arms.
What I do know is where I would like Ajing Store to be: the reference for European customers looking for Japanese Ajing and LRF tackle, and eventually the store people think about when they think about ultra-light fishing.
And personally, there is one thing I would absolutely love to do.
I'd like to organise a fishing trip to Japan where other anglers could experience this style of fishing and this equipment in the same way I have had the opportunity to experience it.
That would be something special.
A Final Word From Me
I didn't create Ajing Store because I wanted to build the biggest fishing shop in Europe.
I created it because I saw a gap, I had the time to try something different, and I love fishing enough to want to do something about it.
It started as a hobby.
It is becoming much more serious.
But I still want the same thing I wanted at the beginning: good equipment, honest price, good advice and more people discovering how much fun light-game fishing can be.
So I'll keep doing what I enjoy.
I'll keep fishing.
I'll keep testing.
I'll keep learning.
And I'll keep looking for equipment that deserves a place in Ajing Store.
What I Want Every Customer to Feel
At the end of the day, Ajing Store is still connected to the reason I started it.
I want every customer to feel that we took real care of them.
That we worked hard so they could enjoy their fishing equipment. That we thought about the order, the product, the packaging and the advice. That they weren't just another order number.
And most importantly, I want them to enjoy fishing with that equipment as much as I do.
That's the part that matters to me.
Because Ajing Store exists because there was a need.
We're slowly filling that need.
And if you want to help us keep doing that, the easiest thing you can do is share the website or our profile with another angler who might enjoy this kind of fishing.
INSIDE THE AJING STORE JOURNEY
