Last week we payed a second visit to some of the pupils at Doonfoot Primary School. With the River Doon raging an in river electrofishing demonstration unfortunately was not a possibility. Rather than let the pupils miss out on getting to see fish up close we managed to find a few trout and salmon from a local burn that we took into the classroom.

A selection of brown trout that allowed the pupils to get up close and personal with fish. Colours, camouflage and morphology of fish were all talking points and there’s nothing like being able to see the real thing to engage with a topic.

 

Muir talks the class through the salmon lifecycle, it really was a miserable afternoon and an indoor lesson was far more comfortable than being out in the pouring rain!

There were talks around the biology and ecology of trout and salmon before we had a closer inspection of what trout and salmon look like which was followed by some macro invertebrate identification. We closed out the afternoon with some casting tuition in the gym hall.

 

Stuart shows the P7 pupils how to cast a fly rod, however here he appears to be conducting!

 

It’s all about timing, I think on the whole the girls edged the boys for supremacy in the casting!

 

Indoor practice casting rods and a trot prop made for good target practice.

It’s fantastic to see the enthusiasm there is for rivers, fish and natural history.