The Tourism, Recreation and Youth Initiative (TRY) was established to help introduce young people in the Western Isles to the wealth of freshwater angling opportunities in their local area. As part of this initiative a number youngsters in the 15- to 25 age range are also receiving training to internationally recognised standards as ‘angling guides’.
This exciting venture was the brainchild of the Western Isles Fisheries Trust (WIFT), a body constituted around ten years ago to promote and generally to enhance the area’s fishery potential and to raise awareness to this resource among its young people. A recent study undertaken for WIFT revealed that freshwater angling is a much more important activity in the area than many people realised, with probably around 250 full time equivalent posts being supported by the industry. Add to that the 2,300 residents who get involved in freshwater angling and 7500 or so who visit the Western Isles each year for that purpose, spending close on £4 million, then the picture is of a substantial industry which contributes much to the local economy.

However, scrutiny of participants’ age profile reveals involvement by older people in the main. The TRY project’s objective is to redress the balance somewhat by encouraging young people to discover the benefits and pleasures associated with freshwater angling. It focuses on two age groups – those aged between 8 and 15 years old and between 15 and 25. In the former age group efforts are made to develop their appreciation of and enthusiasm for the range of different types of fishing the area offers. For the older group, a more concentrated input has been devised and this leads towards their recognition as ‘angling guides’ under the WIFT Fishing Guide Accreditation scheme. This is achieved through a series of local workshops coupled with international exchange trips to Sweden. The trans-national aspect of this initiative arose from a visit made to Blekinge by the TRY Steering group, which culminated in a tri-partite agreement between this area of Sweden, the Western Isles and the Northern Isles.
Donnie Maciver, the Trust’s Angling Promotion Officer commented, “The Trust is delighted that, with the help LEADER + and other agencies have given us, we have been able to initiate and carry through a variety of exciting projects as well as helping to promote community access and youth development. Without this, the health and profile of fishing in the Western Isles would not be what it is today”.

LEADER+ was able to help fund the TRY initiative because of its trans-national aspect, in which an association with other LEADER+ areas, namely Blekinge in Sweden and the Northern Isles has been established. Such trans-national co-operation is a key criterion for LEADER+ in assessing the relative merits of potential projects. The project also fits with a range of other LEADER+ criteria, particularly through its focus on young people, its impact on social inclusion, culture, environment and peripherality and because the project itself is inherently innovative.