Theo on October 13 2014

Pic of the day: At the sign of the Slammin’ Salmon

Time was when any self-respecting retail establishment advertised its wares with a fully three-dimensional sign hanging from its frontage or occupying the street outside.

Those days are now mostly gone (though it’s worth noting that the Flyfishers’ Club boasts a life-size wooden mannequin of a 19th-century angler in its collections, and sometimes uses that vintage angler’s silhouette as an unofficial club logo).

But this superb piece of urban art, blasting through somebody’s corner office on Salmon Street in Portland to signify the Southpark Seafood store, looks set to revive that grand old retailers’ tradition.

To whoever commissioned this magnificent salmonid signage… respect!

(Photo: via Unicoi Outfitters)

Tags: Portland, Salmon, Urban fishing, Urban regeneration

Filed under America No Comments

Theo on October 1 2014

Urban fly-fishing report: River Don, Sheffield

Professional photographer (and regular reader of Urbantrout.net, not to mention Trout in Dirty Places) Howard Sooley has generously shared this beautifully contemplative collection of shots taken recently on Sheffield’s River Don.

In these quiet, low-water weeks when urban trout-fishing shades into the hunt for inner-city grayling…

… it’s all about slowing it down with stealth, accuracy, and the very tiniest of flies.

(All photos: Howard Sooley)

Tags: Don, Fly-fishing, Grayling, Sheffield, Trout, Trout in Dirty Places, Urban fishing, Urban fly-fishing reports, Urban rivers

Filed under UK No Comments

Theo on September 22 2014

Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 22 September

Makeover for the Medlock: Paul Gaskell reports from last week’s community launch event on the notorious Red River
Fly Forums regulars mourn the passing of Gary Hyde: one of the Yorkshire Calder’s greatest guides, fly tyers and environmental advocates
URES wins 3rd place for Best Environmental Project in this year’s National Lottery Awards
Restoring the Hackbridge stretch of the Wandle: sediment and weir removal, remeandering and bank profiling, and planting with lots of native vegetation (while volunteers from the Wandle Trust and Piscators also headlined on Sky 192 – Surrey Life)
Relief all round: London’s Thames Super Sewer finally gets the go-ahead
… but crayfish plague is confirmed in Wimborne Minster’s River Allen (as featured in chapter 11 of Trout in Dirty Places)
Are forgotten landfill sites leaching nitrates and other pollutants into rivers across the UK?
Grayling city: Philippa Hake and Lisa Isles fish the Calder at Copley
World Rivers Day is almost here again!

(Photo: Manchester City Council)

Tags: Allen, Burnley, Calder, Education and engagement, Fly-fishing, Grayling, London, Manchester, Medlock, People, Pollution, Sidecasts, Trout, Trout in Dirty Places, Urban fishing, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Wandle, Wimborne

Filed under Europe,UK No Comments

Theo on August 26 2014

Pic of the day: Urban trout

Recently caught and safely released not far from all these works currently being carried out by the Wandle Trust and Cain Bio-Engineering in the Hackbridge area of the Wandle…

… with the aim of creating and rewilding lots more habitat for this stunning little salmo trutta and many more to come.

Wild trout in south London: we never cease to be amazed.

Tags: London, Trout, Urban fishing, Urban fly-fishing reports, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Wandle

Filed under Europe,UK 1 Comment

Theo on August 8 2014

Film night: What the #### was that?

Part urban fly-fishing media trailer, part post-apocalyptic zombie movie, this short film from the studio of our good friend Angelo Piller (northern Italian fishing guide and Reelvideo editor) is one you owe it to yourself to watch…

… even if we have no idea where he found this location in the otherwise-idyllic Dolomites.

(And if, like us, your Italian’s not completely up to scratch, you may find the final black-screen voiceover just that bit more spookily hair-raising…)

Tags: Films, Fly-fishing, Pollution, Urban fishing, Urban rivers

Filed under Europe,UK 1 Comment

Theo on July 28 2014

Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 28 July

Urban wildlife through the lens: south London photographer Tomos Brangwyn shoots a Wandle / Ravensbourne inner-city kingfisher story for the Daily Mail
Salford Friendly Anglers win the Angling Trust’s 2014 Fred J Taylor Award for their work on the Irwell catchment
New research from Cardiff University shows pollution-sensitive species recolonising urban rivers…
… but it’s still shaping up to be a summer of pollution: disaster narrowly averted on the upper Irwell, 6,000 litres of kerosene hit Sheffield’s Don at Kelham Island after a fire in a waste management depot, and the Fly Forums bring sad news and footage of a major fish kill on Dublin’s Tolka River
Urban invaders: why London is a gateway for invasive non-native species
Another big shout out for urban wildlife: are mating frogs using concrete culverts as megaphones?
How volunteers really can help urban river biodiversity: key balsam bashing insights from urban river restoration supremo Paul Gaskell
Summer sport on Glasgow’s Kelvin with Alistair Stewart

(Photo: Tomos Brangwyn)

Tags: Don, Dublin, Education and engagement, Fly-fishing, Glasgow, INNS, Irwell, Kelvin, London, Manchester, Pollution, Ravensbourne, Sheffield, Sidecasts, Tolka, Trout, Trout in the Town, Urban fishing, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Volunteers, Wandle

Filed under Europe,UK No Comments

Theo on July 21 2014

Pic of the day: Urban sofa fishing

En route to this year’s CLA Game Fair (where he spent the weekend selling his new range of flies for coarse fish and signing copies of his latest book Canal Fishing)…

… our good friend Dom Garnett stopped off in Leicester to explore the Soar with local expert ‘Skateboard Dave’ Egginton…

… and found this comfy mid-stream sofa perfectly placed for a nice sit down when grappling big nasty urban trout, chub and perch all got a bit tiring and stressful.

(Separate but related note: is that a cult classic modern glass Kabuto or Butter Stick we see clutched in Skateboard Dave’s exhausted hand? If so, we like their style even more!)

(Photo: Dom Garnett)

Tags: Chub, Fishing gear, Fly-fishing, Grayling, Leicester, Soar, Trout, Urban fishing, Urban rivers

Filed under Europe,UK No Comments

Theo on July 8 2014

Vote for URES in this year’s National Lottery Awards!

Regular readers of this blog may recall that we’ve been keenly following the progress of the Ribble Rivers Trust’s HLF-funded URES project (the video above shows just a few aspects of their wide-ranging community engagement and river restoration efforts, and there are regular photo updates on the RRT’s Facebook page).

URES has already proved totally transformative for Burnley’s rivers, and it’s now been selected from more than 750 entries as a finalist for ‘Best Environment Project’ in the 2014 National Lottery Awards – an annual search for the UK’s favourite HLF projects, and a celebration of the massive benefits these projects can bring.

In addition to lots of publicity and recognition for a great cause, each winning project also receives an extra £2,000 of funding to deliver even better results (not to mention a night out for some of the key personnel at a star-studded awards ceremony!). In Burnley’s case, as Vic Woods from URES told us a couple of days ago:

Winning this award will help us to celebrate Burnley’s rich heritage with the nation, raise awareness of issues affecting rivers and show other towns how they can improve their urban rivers too. We really hope people across the North West and throughout the UK will get behind this innovative project and give us their vote.

In order to win ‘Best Environment Project’ and help give urban river restoration a real boost in the eyes of the general public, it’s estimated that URES needs (a slightly staggering) 30,000 votes before midnight on 23 July 2014. Please click here to add your vote right now!

Tags: Burnley, Education and engagement, Films, Funding, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Volunteers

Filed under UK 1 Comment

Theo on June 30 2014

Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing: Signed copies now available in the Urbantrout shop

Just a heads up to let our readers know that signed copies of the newly-published Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing are now available from the Urbantrout online store (along with lots of other great eco-branded merchandise!)

Here’s how Andrew Herd, eminent author of The Fly and many other definitive works, recently reviewed Balsam Bashing:

If ever a book was needed, this one surely must qualify and in its 96 pages the author covers everything from Himalayan balsam to signal crayﬁsh. Each species has its own identiﬁcation guide, risk evaluation, advice about how to control it, as well as sources of further information. I will warn you in advance that the contents are pretty alarming, but hopefully the publication of this excellent little guide will act as a wake-up call… A milestone of a book…

Click here to read more about the inspiration for the Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing, and here to buy your signed copy today!

Tags: INNS, Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing, Urban river restoration

Filed under Europe,UK No Comments

Theo on June 23 2014

Urban fly-fishing report: Rea Brook, Shrewsbury

Armed with his trusty Orvis Superfine one-weight (possibly the Official Favourite Ultralight Flyrod of the Urbantrout movement?) Trout in Dirty Places reader Spencer Clayton has sent us another excellent report and evocative set of photos from the Rea Brook’s hidden valley on the outskirts of Shrewsbury:

Today I arrived at the Rea at 12pm after a short train journey from Wolverhampton rail station to Shrewsbury. “Clear water and rising fish”, I thought to myself, but when I got to my starting point at White Hart Road, I found the Rea flowing strongly with a milky colour.

All day I only saw two rises, yet there were a few mayflies and yellow mays coming off the stream, also smaller upwings and gnats. I caught a few grayling (still out of season at that point), and several wild brown trout and parr – all to the nymph, in spite of expecting to fish dry only all day.

Finished fishing at 5pm, and wondered if I should stay to see if the evening brought a few rises, but homeward bound it was with the stroll back into Shrewsbury town.

By coincidence, we’ve just spotted this report over on the Fly Forums too… it’s great to hear about such lovely little urban fisheries providing challenging sport for those prepared to get out there and explore!