After travelling on the plane in a thermos flask last Tuesday, the ova at the Sanday school are doing very well! There were 5 casualties on the first day and only another 2 since then, which leaves us with about 270 eggs to look after!
The pupils have been checking the set-up on a daily basis, making sure the pump is working and that no dead eggs are left at the bottom of the tank, to prevent any fungal growth.
Keep up the good work!
Mr.P
This is the article published in “The Orcadian” .
On Friday the 3rd of June, a small group of very enthusiastic young anglers gathered on the shores of the Kirbister Loch for the first Orkney AFYD,(Angling for Youth Development), Competition, sponsored by the OTFA. AFYD is a relatively new initiative whose aim is to encourage more young people in to angling. They have been teaching fly dressing at the schools and some of the youngsters were actually fishing with flies they had tied themselves The group included 8 anglers from Kirkwall Grammar School, and four anglers who had travelled in from Stronsay School. This was a bank fishing only competition with only wellie boots allowed. This factor and the flat calm conditions at the start provided very testing conditions, but nothing could discourage these lads as they fished along the west shores of the loch.
The young anglers were encouraged and advised by their AFYD mentors, Neil Ewing, Antoine Pietre, Simon Hall, Jim Erskine and photographer for the day, Stuart Topp. Conditions did not improve as the day went on with the bright sunshine definitely putting the fish off. There were fish caught though and at the weigh in, Official Weigher Norman Irvine had to put numerous fish on the scales. The results were as follows, Winner of the Senior Fly Section and the Scorrabrae Cup was Jason Cook with a very commendable 3 fish. Winner of the Junior Fly Section was Craig Stout also with a great effort, landing 3 trout. Junior bait section winner was Steven Newlands who managed 1 fish. There was a fantastic selection of prizes and all competitors received something to remember their day. Many thanks to the businesses and individuals who donated prizes and their time to what was a brilliant and rewarding day for all concerned, especially, W Shearer’s, Kirkwall, WS Sinclair’s, Stromness, Glasgow Angling Centre and Gilbert Archer.
The hope is to expand the net as it were in the future and include more of Orkney’s Schools and youngsters into a past time which they can enjoy for years to come, come on dads out there, take them fishing!
KK
It was on a gorgeous sunny morning that 14 pupils (4 from Stronsay JH and 10 from Kirkwall Grammar) jumped on the bus and headed for the Kirbister Loch. Kirbister wa chosen as the venue for the competition as it usually offers anglers plenty of chances to hook trout. However, with bright sunshine and lack of wind, the conditions could be very tricky…
At 10:00, flies and baits hit the water and fish were very active on the surface, feeding mostly on midges and slightly out of casting range. The young anglers persevered and after a couple of hours, it became clear that baskets would be very light and that one fish could make all the difference at the weigh-in…
When the whistle blew at 2:00 to signal the end of the competition, the weight of the baskets didn’t do justice to the anglers’ skills displayed during the day. However, technique and perseverance paid off for Craig Stout who won the Junior Fly section (3 fish), Jason Cook, winner of the Senior Fly section (3 fish) and Steven Newlands in the Junior Bait section (1 fish). Also a special mention to Keith Holland whose casting and retrieving technique has improved so much, who managed to bag a fish in the last half-hour of the competition which granted him 2nd place in the Junior Fly section. Daniel Carter was a lot more successful the day before, during practice and the same can be said for Kevin Kent who managed to catch a trout on the Harray Loch on his first cast!
Congratulations to all and a very big thank you to the OTFA volunteers who came to help the youngsters and to Norman Irvine and Ken Kennedy who organised the weigh-in.
On 2nd June, the AFYD pupils from Stronsay J.H descended on the Mainland lochs… It seemed to be quite a long time when they suggested in class, back in September that they would fancy a fishing trip and grilling their catch by the shore!
After the ferry crossing from Stronsay, we drove to the Harray Loch first where the pupils had the chance to see what a 29lbs trout looks like (the one on the wall of the Orkney Trout Fishing Association hut… Then, a few casts on Harray and Kevin was already playing a beautiful Harray trout! On his first cast! No mean achievement!
Then it was time to eat our catch and Kevin’s trout tasted lovely on the barbecue!
The wind was still very strong and moving to Kirbister Loch sounded like a good idea as it offers free rising fish and “usually” the guaranty of a good basket. However, the trout didn’t want to play ball and it was a struggle to hook a few fish.
What I couldn’t help noticing though, was how our pupils’ skills had improved over a few hours fishing! Here they were, casting a perfectly straight line, retrieving at the right pace and controling the line, rod tip down as if they had done it for years! They had become very comfortable with a fly-rod and their casting looked easy and fluid like any sport action properly executed!
Well done boys!
(More to come on the AFYD/OTFA Junior Competition)
On Saturday 9th April, an interesting shipment arrived to Stronsay onboard the ferry: a vivier type tank containing about 20,000 brown trout alevins!
After the rather sad end of most of the fish hatched during the “Troot in the Shed” project, when about 80% died 3 days before they were to be released, this was a golden opportunity for some of the Stronsay boys who had worked so hard, to take part in a proper stocking operation. Thanks to Mike Holland who, very kindly accepted to take delivery of the Orkney Trout Fishing Association’s tank, drive to the various locations and send back the tank to Kirkwall on the last ferry, Craig, Daniel, Keith and Kevin had the chance to release 10,000 alevins in Lea Shun, in the south of the island, and as many in Meikle Water. Let’s hope they manage to recapture some of them in 5 or 6 years, once they’ve put on a bit of weight! Again, well done to these young people who braved that cold and foggy morning to help maintain a decent head of fish in the two lochs!
To tie in with the trout hatching project, the North Walls secondary pupils looked at how to cook fish in Home Economics with Mrs. Groat. They chose dishes and made Fish Pie and Kedgeree. They used salmon and haddock to make their dishes.
Just click on the following links for the recipes:
It is on Thursday 24th March that the “peedie troot” raised at the North Walls school had to be set free into the Ore Burn. The pupils from Class 1, Class 2 and S1 walked to the burn and got each a chance to release some of the 150 odd alevins. Andrew Learmonth from Radio Orkney joined the trip and a slot on the “Troot in the Shed” project will be on air on Monday 28th March at 7:30am. Thanks again to the headteacher and teachers who helped on the trip.
This is it! After looking after our trout for the last 2 months, the time has come to release them in the wild! Unfortunately, a small disaster happened over the last week-end, when 67 alevins ready for release died. That left very few to stock Meikle Water with… However the trip to the loch was a good opportunity to look at the environment, possible ways to improve the trout habitat and also how to make “Troot in the Shed” 2012 even better!
The photographs on the left were shot on 15/03/2011 on Stronsay, where the tank water temperature has been on average 2 to 3 degrees (at around +9°C) warmer than on Hoy where the pictures on the right were taken two days later (17/03/2011). Actually, the water temperature in the Hoy shed is much more similar to the one measured in the Orkney burns at this time of year (around +6°C). Look at how the yolk-sac has been nearly used up on the Stronsay fry while the Hoy alevins still have their whole sacs.
There was a slight delay in releasing our alevins, as we were advised by Scottish Natural Heritage to apply for a permission to Marine Scotland (Scottish Government) under the Aquaculture & Fisheries (Scotland) Act 2007. The application form for “Single Introductions” (accessible on http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/Licensing/fishintros) was actually relatively straightforward to fill in; it asked for details regarding the purpose of the release, grid references of the origin of the brood stock, details about the water where the introduction is going to take place, species of fish, number, age, etc… It was dowloaded, filled in and emailed to Marine Scotland last night and we received the consents to stock unfed fry in Meikle Water and the Ore Burn by mail today before noon! A very speedy service! So, if all is well, the Stronsay fry should be released on Wednesday 23rd March and the North Walls fry on Thursday 24th.
In the meantime, we were getting worried about our alevins’ yolk-sacs which have been shrinking considerably over the last couple of weeks (especially the Stronsay ones, which hatched earlier). Fortunately, we checked them today and by the size of their yolk-sacs, it’s safe to say that our alevins have still a few days left in the tank! (excuse the pun…) The photograph above was taken today and will give you a good idea of the stage of development our “peedie troot” are at.
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