STUDENTS ANGLING FOR RESULTS
JOSH STREET, YEAR 9, TROPICAL NORTH LEARNING ACADEMY SMITHFIELD STATE HIGH SCHOOL
THIS term, we have participated in a program called Fishing for Life.
The program’s aim was to learn about sustainable fishing practices, fishing skills, fishing techniques, and how to care for our fishing gear.
We have also learnt about boating practices, boating safety, and navigation.
While all this knowledge and skills have been fun to learn, we have also learnt some important qualities to make us better students.
These include, persistence and determination, taking responsibility for our actions, being more resilient and empathetic towards others.
Most of all we have learnt the importance of respect. Not only have we become better fishermen but also better students and young people.
We also had the opportunity to practise our new fishing and character skills in a number of different ways.
These included working in teams, working in a variety of outdoor settings including in the community where we went of excursions to Palm Cove Jetty to help other people improve their fishing skills.
Our final activity for the Fishing for Life Program was a trip to Hook-A-Barra at Wonga Beach.
Before we undertook the excursion, we had to demonstrate appropriate fishing techniques, practices, safety and respect for ourselves and others.
At the park, we participated in a farm tour which showed us how the farm operates, cares for the fingerlings, environmental sustainability and most of all the importance of hard work to achieve success.
This also showed us the importance of character qualities to be successful in the workplace.
We then had the opportunity to wet a line which saw us hooking up to some big barramundi.
We used a number of lures to land fish up to 90cm in length. We lost more fish than we landed but that just gave us more determination to continue fishing. We also hooked a rare albino barramundi.
Overall, the program has been an awesome learning experience and we are looking forward to next term’s activities.
We would also like to thank Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for sponsoring the program through a school-based grant.
Without this grant we wouldn’t have been able to be better fishermen and better people.