For the second year in a row, release day on Stronsay couldn’t have happen on a better day! A bright sun was out and the surface of the Meikle Water was more like a sheet of glass…
Mrs Denisson’s class walked down to the bank of the loch and once all the 150 or so small fish had been transferred into small poly bags, it was time to let them swim freely into their new environment which seemed very welcoming on such a gorgeous spring day!.
Our next mission was to try and find out what the newly stocked fry would be feeding on for the next few years: nets, trays and magnifying glasses came out and soon, the pupils were bringing back some very interesting tiny creatures: water beetles, fresh water shrimps, water boatmen (corixa), stone fly larvae, caddis larvae and a type of flatworm (see our photos below).
After a very enjoyable afternoon, with the calls of greylag geese and oyster-catchers in the background, it was time to catch the minibus back to school.
Well done to the Stronsay pupils for carefully looking after the small trout and once more, achieving to bring to fry stage most of the ova (around 95%) the school received back in early February!
Just a quick update on Troot in the Shed 2014 so far:
Stromness Primary: The alevins were successfuly released in the Mill Burn last week.
Sanday School: The alevins are very healthy and have suffered virtually no loss. The release date in Bea Loch is for 17/03.
Stronsay School: Same situation as on Sanday with a release in the Meikle Water planned for 12/03.
St. Andrews Primary: There isn’t much left of the alevins’ yolk-sacs and they should be swimming freely in the Burn of Quoykea by 13/03…
Papdale Halls of Residence: I’ve just received an update from Mr. Cuddihy and their alevins are doing very well but still have a substantial yolk sac, so the release into the Wideford Burn is probably still a couple of weeks away.
North Walls School: The alevins are healthy and well looked after – Thanks, Olivia, for letting us know!;-)
Dounby Primary: The release in the Burn of Hourston is scheduled for week starting 13/03.
All these dates, subject to the whims of the Orcadian weather of course…
There was a new entry this morning on the Troot in the Shed 2014 homepage by James, announcing that this morning as the pupils went for their routine “troot check”, most eggs had hatched!
This is the earliest we’ve had ova hatching on Stronsay (14/02 in 2011 – 15/02 in 2012 and 18/02 in 2013) but the mild winter has probably sped up the process.
Mortality has been kept to a minimum and so far, things are looking good!
Around 150 brown trout ova arrived by plane on Stronsay this morning and after a presentation on the trout life cycle, the Secondary 2 pupils helped to transfer the eggs into the tank.
Following a quick check, we noticed that 4 eggs were already turning opaque instead of the usual healthy clear orange and it was decided to remove them to prevent fungus from developing. They must have been shocked during their journey from the Kirbister Loch hatchery to Stronsay.
Then, the Upper Primary and the Lower Primary children also had an introduction to the project and visited the mini-hatchery where hopefully, in a few weeks, alevins will have hatched…
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!
Decision time for Keith…
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.
Thomas with his trout and... his home-made safety glasses!
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
Daniel waiting for a bite.Kevin trying his hand at dapping.More competition on the loch with a red-throated diver...
With a very late spring and strong winds battering the islands the previous week, there was no doubt that the Kirbister Loch would struggle living up to its reputation as a “beginner’s water”… From the information that could be gathered, Harray had been very cloudy lately, the competition on Hundland had been won by fishing “on the stones” where the water was just clear enough for the fish to see the flies and the near gale force winds had not spared Kirbister either.
On the Wednesday and Thursday, the Kirkwall Grammar School pupils were out on their annual angling trip, part of their end of term activities and they tackled the east shore of the loch. The going was tough and the Kirbister brownies were shunning flies and bait alike resulting in baskets which were certainly not what you would expect from this lovely little fishery at this time of year.. The shore which was chosen on the day of the competition was the west shore even though the wind direction was yet again uncertain, just like last year, and what was supposed to be a WNW ended up more like N…
At 10:30, after the 13 pupils from KGS and the Stronsay School gathered by the shore and were instructed about the rules and safety, the young fishermen started spreading along the bank; the fish were active and a few opportunistic fly-fishers made the most of it, like Craig Stout who landed two fish in the first ten minutes! However, this bonanza was to be short lived and soon after, the trout disappeared, not to be seen again for the rest of the day! It was interesting to see our young anglers using an array of different techniques: bait with bubble-floats, flies using spinning tackle and torpedo floats, flies on fly tackle, etc…
At 2:15, the whistle was blown and it was time to put away the rods and head for the weigh-in where Stuart Topp, the OTFA secretary, had set the scales. The competitors were split into 4 categories depending on age and fishing technique: Marcus Scholes was the winner of the Junior Bait section for the second time and his basket included a beautiful 1lb2 sea-trout. Logan Harcus won the Junior Fly section, Gareth Holmes won the Senior Bait section and Craig Stout was the Senior Fly section winner for the second year, with yet again a basket of 7 fish!
Congratulations to the young fishermen who had to show perseverance to land a few of those moody brownies! Thank you to all the helpers, volunteers and leaders: Mr. Erskine, Dr. Hall, Mrs. Heggarty, Jim Pettit and Stuart Topp. We also want to thank our sponsors for the prizes: WS Sinclair’s, Stockan’s and William Shearer’s.
Another angling trip is planned next week for 13th & 14th June on Harray and Kirbister with a group of anglers from the Stronsay School (including some S5s who recently transferred to KGS).
Here are the results of the OTFA / AFYD Junior Competition which was held on the Kirbister Loch on Friday 31st May 2013. A detailed report will be published shortly.
OTFA / AFYD Junior Angling Competition (31st May 2013)
Spring was in the air on March 28th when the time had come to release the alevins hatched at the Stronsay School. The island was bathed in sunshine and the surface of the Meikle Water was hardly broken by a gentle breeze from the east.
The 200 odd young trout hatched at the Stronsay School were carried in a basin to the edge of the loch and then transferred into plastic pouches to allow every pupil to release a dozen fish each.
It was a good opportunity to learn about the wildlife with which our trout would be sharing their new habitat: we realised that the tiny alevins would need to be extra careful as many predators such as mergansers, herons, cormorants, eels, otters and even some of the bigger trout wouldn’t mind a little fishy snack! Our alevins would have a more modest diet for the first year, consisting mainly of daphnia, midges at various stages of development, freshwater shrimps and insects.
Pupils gently released the fry in the vicinity of weed beds to provide them with enough cover from predators, after checking the loch water temperature (3⁰C) was as close as possible to the water in which the alevins had been transported (4⁰C), in order to avoid thermal shock.
A big thank you to Mrs. Evans who accompanied the children and also to Steve, our janitor who supervised the pupils’ visits to our hatchery on a daily basis over the last couple of months.
Check the video clip by copying and pasting in this link in your browser:
For the third consecutive year, the Stronsay School are running their mini-hatchery. I bet Arna and Wilma, our cordon-bleu school cooks whose freezer shed is shared with our ova, wouldn’t mind a couple of trout to spice up school dinners but unfortunately, they never get the chance to see them grow big enough…
When it comes to looking after the ova, the Stronsay school is “a well oiled machine”! and Steve, our janitor, takes the younger pupils at every break to remove casualties and monitor water quality, temperature, etc… and the older pupils keep a watchful eye and are ready to swing into action in case things don’t go according to plan! Since last Thursday, when the eggs were delivered, only 4 dead eggs have had to be removed.
It all started as a headache for the organisers… The wind forecast was very uncertain and Orkney Harbours, the BBC and Magicseaweed wouldn’t agree on a definite wind direction for Friday 1st June… NNW, NW or N? Decision had to be delayed until the very morning when the east shore was the chosen option.
The KGS and Stronsay anglers met at the hatchery and, very promptly, the rods were put together and the 18 young competitors were ready for the 10:00 start. The section of bank which was to see the action for the next four hours stretched from the Hatchery to the north end of the Loch and the anglers were split into four different sections: Junior Fly, Junior Bait (including spinning with flies), Senior Fly and Senior Bait. Very soon, it became obvious that the baskets would be a lot heavier than last year’s, as rumours of fish being caught started spreading along the bank… The bait boys were doing well but the Kirbister trout were also taking well presented flies in the slightly broken water. It was good to see 8 members of staff from KGS and Stronsay having made the trip to support their pupils in weather conditions which were not as inviting as in the previous days. Two o’clock came and the last anglers arrived at the Hatchery for the weigh-in where Norman Irvine had set his scales, helped by Ken Kennedy and Stuart Topp from the OTFA. Some very good baskets reached the scales and it was good to see that the fish were well spread into the different sections. Eventually the results were announced with Marcus Scholes winning the Junior Bait section with a basket of 8 fish for 3 ¼ (the heaviest basket on the day), Fergus McIvor in the Junior Fly section, Cameron Singh-Johnstone in the Senior Bait section and Craig Stout in the Senior Fly section.
We want to say a special thank you to Mr. Erskine who helped the Stronsay pupils hone their skills on Kirbister and Harray during the whole two previous days, to the OTFA members who helped with the organisation of the competition and attended the event and to local businesses W. Shearer’s, WS Sinclair’s and Wisebuy’s for their generosity in providing great prizes and vouchers. For more details on the results, click on the table below:
Results of the 2012 OTFA / AFYD Junior Competition.
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