June 13th and 14th saw plenty of angling action along the shores of the lochs of Kirbister and Harray. This was part of the Stronsay School’s annual AFYD fishing trip to the Orkney Mainland which involved S5 pupils who had recently transferred to Kirkwall Grammar School and the S2 and S3 pupils who joined the seniors on the Friday.

The weather which had been very pleasant for the last few days had decided to take a turn for the worse and by Thursday morning, a stiff cold north-westerly breeze was sweeping across the county. Even though the original plan was to head for the Harray Loch and spend the day there, the weather conditions were not ideal and fishing the Kirbister Loch first was a tempting option which could help hook a few trout before moving to Harray in the afternoon. A quick vote took place on the minibus and trying Kirbister first gathered an overwhelming majority of 1 vote to nil (3 abstentions…)! This, however, doesn’t mean our anglers didn’t care, they were just too happy to fish either loch!

By 9:45, the flies hit the water and no long after, the first trout were caught. dark flies such as Bibios and Black Zulus seemed to be the favourites on the day. Jim Erskine, who had kindly accepted to help us for the two days and myself could not help but noticing how much more mature and confident our anglers had become; they were covering a lot more water by taking a couple of steps between each cast, they could deal with most tangles themselves, change their own flies, etc…

After a few trout had been safely landed and that everyone had grabbed a sandwich, it was time to head for the “big water”… The Bochan Skerries, situated within walking distance of the Ring O’Brodgar car-park seemed like a good idea, considering that by then, the wind had backed to a force 4 westerly. Keith and Craig managed to hook a trout each in what was very tricky conditions indeed.

Day 2 didn’t exactly run according to plan… As the minibus was on its way to pick up the junior Stronsay anglers off the pier, we received a phone call from Mr. King informing us that the ferry would be late: the Varagen was involved in the rescue operation of the Lady K off the Calf of Eday… However, the kind weather made up for the delay and by 11:00, our four senior anglers were giving the Kirbister brownies a hard time around the wee island and the younget team were casting their baits in the loch’s peaty waters. It wasn’t long before Thomas reeled in a typical Kirbister trout but it’s not so much for this angling feat that Thomas made himself noticed as for wearing the latest fashion article: a pair of home-made safety glasses using a coat-hanger and bits of clear plastic! James, Jack and Matthew gave fly-fishing a good try but the finicky fish were out of range and very difficult to lure. Daniel and Ieuan preferred to stick to bait fishing. Thanks to Jim, some of the older pupils were shown an old trout fishing method called “dapping” which consist in using a floss line and letting a big bushy fly skip across the waves: Kevin managed to master the technique and landed a nice brownie.

Everybody enjoyed the trip which wouldn’t have happened without the support of Mr. Erskine who spent both days coaching our young anglers, Mr. King who accompanied the junior on the Friday, Linda who is always so helpful when it comes to bookings and paperwork and the KGS management who agreed to release Cameron, Craig, Keith and Kevin for the two days. Finally, I want to thank all our pupils whose politeness, respect for each other and sense of humour make every school trip so enjoyable.

Mr. P