Narrandera Fisheries Excursion: Stage 4

23 February 2026

We went to Narrandera Fisheries on the school bus as part of our science and technology units of work. First, we watched a short film and had presentations by staff who work in fisheries, which discussed how they used coding to count and track fish. They do this by placing a little 1mm coded tag in their nose.

We had a look at the aquarium section. Agro is the big fish in the aquarium. He is a Murray Cod, however, since he’s been in captivity his whole life, he's unable to be released into the wild and if you put your hand on the glass, he will try to bite it and hit it.

There were turtles in the touch tank and they were a big hit with Megan and Autumn. We got to hold them. Then we went to the hatchery and looked at the big circular tanks where the fish are kept.

We learnt that they use bore water in some of their breeding tanks because it is safer for some fish due to pathogens and other impurities, but this did not work for all fish species. Some species require river/freshwater, as bore water damages the outer egg casing for some fish species. We talked about how they fit 1 million baby fish into all 22 tanks and the process they follow, like separating the males and females.

Then we went over to a little dam, we got our rods and cast out. We got some instructions on the worms: they have saddles, and if you hook them under the saddle, they will not die and will wriggle on the hook. I caught the first fish …it was this big (Mrs Speirs made me say that). Autumn caught 2 fish, and the other 2 got away! This was pretty special as it was her first time fishing. Garnet caught 2 fish and some salad (grass). Unfortunately, Megan’s fish is left to be caught another day after escaping from the hook.

Thank you to Ms Kitto for driving. Thank you to Mrs Speirs for organising and taking us on our excursion.

Charles Bellamy