Theo on February 10 2021
While our longer-range urban destination fishing is still off the cards (and most of our rivers have recently been blown out by rain and snowmelt anyway) …
… here’s a little throwback to fishing the urban Calder in West Yorkshire with the Trout in Dirty Places crew in the freezing winter of 2010.
Now that was cold…
Theo on January 11 2021
Theo on November 20 2020
If you managed to attend the Wild Trout Trust’s Virtual Get Together in September this year, you might have seen this video as part of the Trout in the Town update…
… but even if you did, we reckon you’ll enjoy spending ten minutes watching it for a second time.
Back in the depths of lockdown, of course, there’s the obvious pleasure of flashing back to trout season, and seeing WTT’s Paul Gaskell expertly nymphing fish after fish from a classic high-walled northern stream.
But from a more philosophical standpoint, it’s also well worth pondering one of his final thoughts:
Far from being surprised that wild trout can now be found in many post-industrial rivers like these, shouldn’t we actually expect them to be living there happily?
And maybe start asking questions when they’re not?
To catch up with the whole programme of presentations from the Wild Trout Trust’s Virtual Get Together 2020, click here.
Theo on November 9 2020
Ever since the Wild Trout Trust’s Trout in the Town programme was launched in 2007, inspired by the success of the Wandle project, the range and scale of urban river restoration groups has been growing across the UK.
And recently, while the Trust was creating its new Trout in the Town Urban River Toolkit last year, they saw an opportunity to include a new nationwide accreditation scheme for all their urban groups.
Like so much else this year, this initiative has been held up by the Covid-19 pandemic, but accreditation forms have now been sent out to urban river projects all over the country.
So… what are the benefits for you and your urban river mending pals?
As this post on the WTT’s website says, it means that you’ll be officially recognised as part of this inspiring urban river movement.
You’ll be listed on the Trout in the Town page of WTT’s website, and you’ll be able to see how you’re progressing, compared to other similar chapters – and find out which other groups you could approach to share relevant experience and knowledge. You may also be able to access even more advice and support from WTT to help you grow and develop further.
Last but not least, you’ll receive a special Trout in the Town certificate – detailing First Contact, Bronze, Silver or Gold levels – and a matching badge to display on your website and other promotional materials.
So, if you haven’t received a form yet, but you’d like to get your group officially accredited by Trout in the Town, please get in touch with Paul or Theo via the contact details on the WTT website.
We’re reliably informed that WTT is looking forward to hearing from you, and getting your local urban group officially accredited as a Trout in the Town chapter!
(Image: Wild Trout Trust)
Theo on October 23 2020
… in this case, during a walkover survey of the River Axe for an exciting new Wild Trout Trust project in the hills around the Somerset Levels.
To be honest, we’re slightly agnostic about the main herd of dinos crammed into the ornamental gardens behind the old paper mill at Wookey Hole: that awe-inspiring limestone amphitheatre, with the stream emerging at its base, can surely speak for itself.
But this rogue sauropod with its broken arm and yellow glare, banished to a works compound full of Himalayan balsam way down the river, has a much more feral, unsettling vibe…
… of course you’re sure it’s only fibreglass, but something deep in your own reptilian brain still tells you not to look away for too long, y’know, just in case…
Theo on October 2 2020
Trout season is winding down across the northern hemisphere, but that doesn’t mean that urban fishing is over for the year…
… as this highly enjoyable video from Dominic Garnett shows us.
Dom is well known for his magazine columns and books including Flyfishing for Coarse Fish, Hooked on Lure Fishing and Crooked Lines, and this film is an excellent and entertaining addition to the canon.
(Bonus detail: that straightened-to-the-horizon stretch of river could only be the River Tone below Taunton, as featured in chapter 2 of Trout in Dirty Places… )
Grab a Friday night cold one, and be inspired to get out on your local urban rivers again this weekend!
Theo on September 23 2020
Whilst recovering from a recent operation, Lark Angling & Preservation Society river restorationist (and RRC River Champion 2018) Glenn Smithson has been out on his local river in Mildenhall, and sent us this excellent fishing report:
Tim, my restoration mate on the river, took me to a spot on the Lark for a couple of hours easy angling.
This is a very urban spot in the town of Mildenhall – a huge turning, mooring and offloading area that was once used by the big coal barges that ran the Lark, and supplied the smaller barges that then transported the coal onwards to Bury St Edmunds.
It’s still a strange place to drop a fly (or kebari!) but nature has softened some of the old industrial edges, and it now holds a variety of fish species, including some very sizeable chub. I was lucky enough to connect with a few today, and was also given a good run around by this trout.
I think it’s probably a resident fish, although due to the old canal infrastructure, this is also as far upstream as the sea-trout can get. So we do also have plans for a fish pass!
This has certainly been one of the strangest trout seasons many of us can remember – but it’s not quite over yet, and we hope this report helps to inspire some Urbantrout readers to get out for a last few casts on their local water too.
As Glenn has shown, at a time when lockdown restrictions are starting to tighten again for many of us, maybe there’s no need to travel too far for our fishing, and never a better time to #FishWhereYouLive…
(All photos: Glenn Smithson / Tim Taylor)
Theo on July 25 2020
Volunteer activities on urban rivers have certainly seen some setbacks during the Covid-19 pandemic, but forward-thinking organisations of all kinds have taken the opportunity to stay in touch with their supporters online…
… and that’s just what Farlows have done with their series of Farlows LIVE interviews on Facebook.
On Friday 17 July, this site’s very own Theo Pike joined Jonny Muir to talk about Trout in Dirty Places, the Wild Trout Trust’s Trout in the Town programme, and all things urban rivers.
Previous interviewees have included Paul Procter, Charles Jardine, Pete Tyjas, Simon Gawesworth and Henry Gilbey – so we reckon it’s quite the coup for urban river mending to appear in this kind of flyfishing hall of fame!
Click here any time to watch the whole recorded interview on Farlows’ Facebook channel.
Theo on June 29 2020
(Photo: The Guardian)
Theo on May 19 2020
As the Covid-19 lockdown tentatively lifts across different regions of the UK, #FishWhereYouLive seems to be the best first option for many flyfishers…
… including those who live within striking distance of the Wandle in south London. One of these is Tom Clinton, retail manager at Farlows fishing shop on Pall Mall, and he’s been inspiring us all with photos like this.
Life moves fast, so it’s easy to forget quite how horribly degraded this stretch of river at Hackbridge really was – until summer 2014, when the South East Rivers Trust (previously the Wandle Trust) got stuck into what was then their biggest river restoration project yet.
This spectacular work involved breaking out a total of four weirs and completely recreating a meandering river channel through what had been an impounded lagoon filled with deeply nasty thigh-deep road runoff (you could wade in, with care, but there was always the nagging risk you’d have swim out again, without your waders!)
For more photos and step-by-step details of how the project progressed, click here, here and here.
Now, less than 6 years later, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was a completely natural chalkstream somewhere expensive in Hampshire, Berkshire or Wiltshire, instead of deep south London – where anyone is free to fish for beautiful wild trout for no more than the cost of a train fare and an EA rod licence.
(But please #KeepEmWet, don’t squeeze them, and release them carefully!)
Thanks for the photo, Tom, and of course for the memories of putting these wiggles back…
(Photo: Tom Clinton)
