Joint winners of the first national Something Fishy competition are St Joseph's National School in Sligo and St Joseph's National School in Terenure, Dublin.
In honour of this achievement, a presentation of prizes and a party will be held at the Central Fisheries Board Headquarters in Swords on Friday from noon.
The competition was aimed at fifth and sixth class national school pupils and consisted of nine doubled-sided activity cards for pupils to explore different aspects of fish life.
Suggested examples included the life cycle of salmon, fish stocks, angling, conservation of rivers and lakes, and water quality.
Participating schools were invited to produce a class project on subjects ranging from poems, stories and drawings to science experiments and field trips.
According to the judges, "the children demonstrated a huge amount of imagination and illustrated an extensive level of understanding and learning from the projects".
St Joseph's in Sligo is a small rural school with just 12 pupils, while St Joseph's in Terenure is much larger, yet the standard of entries from both schools was extremely high, to the extent that they could not be separated after many hours of adjudication.
Last spring I joined the Terenure class on a field trip at Rathfarnham Bridge on the River Dodder as the 30-strong group took part in a two-hour survey of the wildlife and fish species along the Bushy Park stretch of the riverbank.
Co-operation from the schools is of primary importance and in this regard, St Joseph's, Terenure, received full support from its principal Matt Hume.
Something Fishy is an educational resource produced by the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards in conjunction with Blackrock Educational Centre. The programme will continue next year.
Further details at www.somethingfishy. ie.
RenownedHardy Academy flyfishing instructor Andrew Ryan will be conducting a series of courses at Clonanav Fly-fishing Centre in Co Waterford in the spring of 2008.
Clonanav is one of Ireland's premier casting schools and the one- and two-day courses will provide an ideal way to get started in fly-fishing.
The centre boasts the latest technology, including a video analysis of each individual's casting performance.
For those new to the sport, the one-day course will begin in the tuition centre with advice on tackle, knots, casting theory and some fishing techniques.
Later, at the casting pond, the beginner will learn the overhead cast, roll cast, releasing line and, with a bit of luck, how to catch a fish. These courses are scheduled for March 22nd, April 19th, June 16th and July 12th from 10am to 5pm and include lunch, tea and coffee, equipment and course notebook.
The cost is €160. The two-day course will follow similar lines as the one-day course, but the second day is dedicated to improved casting techniques and learning to fish a river in fast water, slow water and with wet fly, dry fly and nymph.
Weekend dates are March 28th and May 2nd and include two nights B&B, lunch, fishing permit and equipment.
The cost is €450 per person sharing (single supplement €40 extra).
Clonanav has recently launched a new online store to browse top brands at the best prices including Hardy, Greys, Loop, Vision, Sage, Simms, Redington, Rio, Orvis, Vossler and Donegal Fly. For more information or course bookings, contact www.flyfishingireland.comor call 052-36765.
The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, has announced draft regulations for statutory consultation for salmon and sea trout for the 2008 season.
The department expects to receive scientific advice during the consultation period and this advice will be published on its website.
While the draft regulations comprise 42 pages, the distribution of salmon tags to anglers is of particular interest. There are three types of licences - ordinary, 21 day and one day.
An ordinary licence permits an angler to receive 10 tags for the entire season.
A 21-day licence, if obtained before May 11th, permits anglers to receive three tags. If the licence is received between May 12th and September 30th, the angler gets 10 tags.
If, however, the licence straddles the two periods then three tags are issued up to May 11th and seven (the balance) for use from May 12th.
A one-day licence permits an angler one tag if obtained before May 11th, three tags from May 12th to the end of August and one tag if the licence is obtained in September.