on June 16 2014

Urban fly-tying: Martin’s Minnow

Martin's Minnow - Martin Smith

If there’s one fly pattern that’s taken the UK’s fishing world by storm this season, it’s this deceptively simple minnow jig pattern designed and tied by Huddersfield’s Martin Smith.

Martin’s Minnow has already notched up impressive scorelines as far afield as Scotland and the Derbyshire Dove (and a starring role in an article by Glen Pointon in Total Flyfisher) but it was on south Yorkshire’s urban rivers that this pattern was designed and tested.

Tied with 3 shades of Funky Fibre and angelina on heavy Knapek jig hooks for plenty of lifelike movement, Martin’s Minnows have already caught rainbows, pike, perch and chub as well as lots of wild browns for their creator. There’s a full step-by-step here on the Fly Forums, and Martin may even tie you up a few for a reasonable price if you ask him nicely…

“I’ve got urban trout less than two minutes from my house”, he tells us, “lots of small fish with the odd 12 incher, and it doesn’t get more urban than running under a Morrison’s car park. Just fish these Minnows between the bollards and car bonnets, and job’s a good ‘un!”

Thanks Martin… we will!

Trout on Minnow - Martin Smith

Update: Martin has now created a video showing how he ties this super-effective family of flies. Click here to watch his full step-by-step.

(Photos: Martin Smith)

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on June 6 2014

Film night: Fishing the Dodder in Dublin

The moment when we realised that good trout really were starting to return to the Wandle is vividly burned into the Urbantrout team’s collective memory here in south London.

It was April 2008: we were just getting ready for the first big Wandle Piscators’ annual club dinner, and one of us found a truly sensational photo of a Wandle trout on the internet by a bloke called Jeremiah Quinn.

(Apart from being a pioneering Alistair Stewart-style blogger, fly-fisher and photographer, he had a sense of humour too… that beautiful supermodel of a trout came from Croydon, so her name could only be Kate).

As far as we can tell, Jeremiah’s original blog is long gone (someone tell us if it’s not?) but we’re glad to see he’s still getting a little urban fishing into his schedule as an international film maker.

Grab a cold one, and settle back for some relatively rough-cut footage of rising trout on the Dodder in Dublin.

(Oh, and for posterity, here’s that shot of the Wandle trout called Kate…)

A trout called Kate - Jeremiah Quinn

(Photo: Jeremiah Quinn)

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on May 19 2014

Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 19 May

River Caen trout - Ian Firkins

(Photo: Ian Firkins)

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on May 6 2014

The Urbantrout Diaries: Taking the fight to invasive non-native species

Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing

Just in case you missed it last week, the latest instalment of the Urbantrout Diaries series went live on Thursday, revealing some of the background and thinking behind the soon-to-be-published guide to tackling invasive non-native species entitled Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing:

Even whilst relishing the totally counterintuitive wonder of urban fly-fishing, a sense of deep disquiet has been creeping up on me. So many of these rivers, so recently brought back from the dead, are now at real risk of slipping away from us again. And this time it’s not the threat of pollution that’s putting them in danger, it’s the immediate prospect of strangulation by invasive non-native species…

Today, MacNab Media’s editor Ian Welch has now also reviewed the Pocket Guide for Flyfishing.co.uk and FishingMagic: 

Empowering people to engage with and protect their environment at grassroots level is a tall order but Theo achieves it in an easy-to-read format and this is a book that should not just be in the pocket of every angler but also every gardener, rambler, birder…

It may be pocket-sized but this is a giant first step in getting the public to fight back and take responsibility for their environment.

Please click through to read the full article and reviews… and maybe we’ll see you at Farlows this Thursday (hint: look out for the bright yellow books and the Urbantrout hoodie)?

Update: Following a very successful launch day at Farlows, copies of Balsam Bashing will be available at another signing session at the Sportfish Show on Saturday 10 May. Hope to see you there!

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on May 5 2014

Bank holiday special: Trout in Dirty Places caps

Trout in Dirty Places caps

Whilst going through the Urbantrout warehouse this bank holiday weekend, we came across a small box of special edition Trout in Dirty Places caps, originally designed to celebrate the launch of the book back in 2012.

For good measure we’ve just added an exclusive Urbantrout looped tag to each one – and for a limited time we’re offering them right here for £18 with FREE P&P.

This offer is open until midnight on Tuesday 6 May (UK only – while stocks last): after that they’ll go into the Urbantrout shop, subject to our usual P&P.

These caps are 100% cotton, double embroidered and tagged.  As usual at Urbantrout, 10% of profits from sales will go to fund urban river restoration projects.

UPDATE: All these caps have now sold out, but we still have several other hats and caps available in the Urbantrout online shop!

Fish where you live, rock your urban fly-fishing… and wear Urbantrout gear to show your support for the urban river restoration movement!

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on April 28 2014

Urbantrout gear hits the water in Eat, Sleep, Fish

UT ESF hoodie 3 - Pete Tyjas

Recently we’ve been stoked to see our Urbantrout eco-branded fishing gear making frequent appearances in the monthly must-read Eat, Sleep, Fish ezine…

… modelled by no-one less than its hard-working editor (and Devon School of Fly Fishing pro guide and instructor) Pete Tyjas.

Pete bought a hoodie and one of our urban steelheader beanie hats at the end of January, aiming to test them out for this Good Stuff review… and maybe also add a little extra pop to other product photography and road trips.

Since then, he freely confesses, they’ve taken over as his go-to fishing gear.

At this time of year we might have placed bigger money on lime green camo, but that pro-guide-orange hoodie actually looks like it helps him creep up successfully on our own personal nemesis: spooky little trout in super-shallow, gin-clear West Country rivers.

And maybe it’s just the effect of all that ambient orange… but don’t those trout look beautifully bright and colourful too?

Thanks Pete – and we hope your Urbantrout gear continues to bring you great karma on urban and rural rivers alike!

The full Urbantrout gear range including hoodies, t-shirts and caps is available to buy right here online, with a full 10% of profits going directly to help fund urban river restoration projects.

UT ESF hoodie 4 - Pete Tyjas

UT ESF hoodie 5 - Pete Tyjas

(Photos: Eat, Sleep, Fish / Pete Tyjas)

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on April 22 2014

Urbantrout sidecasts: Tuesday 22 April

Urban fishing Slovenia - Stuart Minnikin

(Photo: Stuart Minnikin / Hardy Fly Fishing)

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on April 7 2014

Film night: Your roof is a headwater

Apart from refilling the aquifers and reservoirs, and triggering a national conversation about how we really want to manage our rivers, this winter’s record rainfall has had another tangible benefit…

… providing Trout in the Town maestro Paul Gaskell with an opportunity to track the urban runoff patterns in his native Sheffield, ahead of the city’s One Big River Week, and put together this engaging little video about the true locations of some of our urban headwaters.

It’s darkly cinematic, especially now you know where most of those gurgling gutters are still running off to… but offers the very real hope of redemption by SUDS in the end!

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on March 29 2014

Pic of the day: Woody debris is so last season…

Small hatchback debris - SharkeyP

… For the edgy Trout in Dirty Places vibe, what you need is a small hatchback!

With big thanks to Paul Shorrock aka SharkeyP for this instant-classic early season shot (not to mention great one-liner!) in a Fly Fishing Forums discussion of all the great work of the Wild Trout Trust…

(Photo: Paul Shorrock)

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on March 19 2014

The Urbantrout Diaries: Wet weather in Wincanton

Cale 3 - Steve Lee

We’re delighted to announce that the fifth episode of The Urbantrout Diaries has just been published, this time featuring an exciting new Trout in the Town project in Somerset:

Community Action to Transform the Cale Habitat (CATCH for short: never underestimate the value of a finely crafted acronym!) has enjoyed the same meteoric rise as many urban river restoration groups in recent years… 

Via phone calls, emails, Facebook pages and what may have been the very first Wild Trout Trust Advisory Visit completely filmed on an iPhone, I’ve taken great pleasure in watching this project go viral: galvanising other local people, getting the council and Environment Agency on side, developing partnerships with local businesses like Partridge Hooks, running a stand at the new Wincanton street market…

Please click through to Flyfishing.co.uk for the full story of this community river group’s impressive progress so far… and check out the CATCH website if you’d like to get involved!

(Photo: Steve Lee, CATCH)

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