Broader Curriculum - Fishing Day!

Our fishing team outside Ardgowan Fisheries, Loch Thom, Greenock

Today was the final day of our fishing lessons at Ardgowan Fishery. We have ben doing these as part of our new 'Broader Curriculum' afternoons in P7/S1. The block of lessons has been extremely successful and grateful thanks are due to Robert, Raymond and all at the excellent Ardgowan Trout Fishery. Thanks are also due to John for taking some great pictures!

Here were our initial targets for the series of lessons:

By the end of our fishing block, we want to be able to say:

1.'I can set up my own fishing rod'
2.'I can identify types of fish in Ardgowan Fisheries loch'
3.'I can name various pieces of fishing gear'
4.'I can cast from a safe place on the bank'
5.I can look after live bait'
6.'I can fish with bait'

For the final day we went to the loch for the whole day. We invited the parents of the children who had been fishing to come along and see how much we have been learning. It was a great day and the weather was perfect. Altogether 22 fish were caught including 3 by Nathan's dad and 3 by Mr Neilson, both of whom were fishing for the first time in a long time!
I have included the targets we set ourselves at the beginning of the block. You can see that we met our targets, acquired new skills and had a lot of fun in the process!

Here is what the boys thought themselves:

Rhys:
I enjoyed the 6 weeks of fishing that we did. I had suggested it to Mr Jewell and Mrs Speirs and it worked great. I caught 5 fish from the 6 weeks. The full day was really good and I caught two fish. I'm going up on Thursday with my teacher, Mr jewell, my maths teacher, Mr Creighton and my friends.
Kerr:
It was good fun. I'd already fished before but never caught anything. Over the 6 weeks I caught 2 fish. I have already eaten one and I gave one to my Grampa that he ate. I think I will go more often now.
Angus:
It was great! I learned a lot more about fishing. It was really good fun. I particularly learned about bait fishing which I had not done before. I'll go fishing much more often now.
Stuart:
It was good to learn about all the different types of fishing. My favourite thing about fishing is the bit when you have caught a fish on your hook and you have to reeel it in and 'fight' it! I caught 2 during the 6 weeks and I went once by myself out of school and caught one. I'm hopefully going on Thursday of the holidays!

Enjoy our pictures!


Angus with a super catch!


We smoked some of our fish on the smoker straight away and sampled some oak smoked rainbow trout for lunch - delicious!


All the boys received a medal (kindly donated by the fishery) for achieving the targets we had set.


Waiting in school before heading out to the loch.


Rhys had all the gear, he was one of our most competent fishermen!


Stuart and Nico looking for a safe place to cast.


Spreading out along the bank.


Kerr and Rhys were quick to get their rods in the water.


Oliver had a go at fly fishing with his dad. He was also the one who caught the most over the last 3 weeks!


Nathan brought his dad who hadn't fished for over 20 years - and promptly caught 3 fish before some of us had got our rods in the water! Nathan also caught in the morning.


Euan still managed to look cool in the morning sun!


Mr Neilson hadn't fished for 40 years but caught 3 lovely rainbow trout during the day.


Nico came up with the biggest catch of the day - 3.5lb! Well done!

All the boys received a brick on the wall for their house for their efforts and behaviour over the fishing block. Well done boys!

Mr J :)