What is remarkable about this win is that the lure he used to catch the 61.5cm Murray Cod was manufactured by the students at Lockhart Central School.

Mr Watt has been running a program at the school for the last three months in which interested students mould, paint, assemble and test spinner bait lures for their own use and to sell if they wish.

The program is part of an initiative of the Department of Education and Training called “service learning classes” where educational classroom learning is complemented by real life experiences.

“The classes provide a wide variety of learning experiences: indoor, outdoor and community based,” Mr Watt said.

“In this day and age people need to be aware that there is a need to identify innovative practices to link the curriculum with the real world. It is important to come up with something that works in the local environment and we have a lot of kids here, girls and boys, who are interested in fishing,” he added.

Mr Watt told the Eastern Riverina Chronicle it began as part of the Year 8 “service learning class” and now students from Year 5 and above are taking part. There have been over 40 students involved and many work on their lures in their lunch breaks and spare periods.

“We identified an area of interest and one on one started making fishing lures,” he said.

“Anyone can have a role in making the lures, artistic or mechanical,” Mr Watt said.

Mr Watt is now looking to the future and looking to include Marine and Agriculture Technology in the 2012 curriculum.