- SUNRISE creates an urban oasis in Stoke-on-Trent
- Wandering along the Wandle: recent articles in the Guardian and Times
- How the forthcoming Sewage (Inland Waters) Bill aims to tackle sewage pollution, after water companies dumped raw sewage into Britain’s rivers 200,000 times in 2019
- Catch and kill? How city streets trap and poison fish… and what we can do about it! (Deeper dive: here’s that full toxins-in-tyre-dust-killing-Pacific-salmon story)
- Building back greener: river restoration on Manchester’s River Croal…
- … plus another £1.8m for river-related projects from the Greater Manchester Environment Fund
- Re-greening Arnhem to cope with climate change: is this a new blueprint for all our urban spaces?
- Why wood is good for rivers (yes, urban ones too!)
- Art in dirty places: Mike Duddy gets cultural on the Irwell
- Urban fishing adventures with Phillippa Hake (also coming soon via Fishing Breaks!)
- Fly casting on New York city streets is weird – but that’s why Jon Gluck loves it
Theo on January 11 2021
Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 11 January
Theo on November 20 2020
Film night: Urban trout – not surprise, but expectation?
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
Urban river restorationists: Get accredited by WTT!
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
Pic of the day: Things you see on urban rivers…
… 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
Film night: Urban chub on the fly
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
Urban fly-fishing report: River Lark, Mildenhall
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
Talking urban rivers on Farlows LIVE
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
Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 29 June
- Lockdown litter from London to Derbyshire: a shocking new source of microplastics for the environment…
- … and what about tyre fragments from the roads?
- Transforming the Darent in Dartford: how SERT is restoring another urban chalkstream
- SUNRISE on the Trent: sometimes moving a river 500m sideways is the only way to restore it!
- Don Catchment Rivers Trust slots the final piece of the jigsaw with this fish pass on Masbrough weir in Rotherham
- Not urban, but certainly industrial: how chicken farming is killing the River Wye
- Balsam bashing in and out of lockdown: here’s how to keep fighting the good fight
- It’s a London thing! Tim James goes fly-fishing around the capital
- Phillippa Hake celebrates getting out on her local urban rivers again
(Photo: The Guardian)
Theo on May 19 2020
Pic of the day: Hackbridge on the Wandle
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)
Theo on April 11 2020
Urban fly-fishing report: Velika Božna, near Ljubljana
Across the crowded little UK (as in many other parts of the world) fishing has been locked down until further notice as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
But that’s not the case everywhere, and we recently spotted this hugely morale-boosting fishing report from fishing guide Uros Kristan in Slovenia.
At this time in particular, we think it’s the perfect definition of the #FishWhereYouLive philosophy.
And best of all, he’s just offered to let us share it here on Urbantrout…
Because of the coronavirus, and due to strict lockdown, I’m only allowed to fish in the municipality I live in. Which meant I needed go exploring near home if I wanted to do any fishing on my own.
And boy, it was worth doing it as I found this sweet small stream just 15 minutes away from where I live, full of beautiful wild brown trout.
Fishing was excellent in spite of tougher low water conditions, and I caught numerous trout throughout the whole day on dries and nymphs. I was surprised by the size of the fish, too, with quite a few between 30 to 40 cm mark.
Honestly, I needed that badly in these crazy times, and I couldn’t have been more socially distancing myself any further, as I was all alone on the stream for the entire day.
What’s even sweeter, I didn’t even manage to cover the whole stretch, and there’s another stream similar to this one on the other side of the valley, which means I have some more exploring to do soon.
It’s amazing what you can find literally on your doorstep if you just look!?! Gets you thinking…
Stay well and healthy!
We can’t deny it: these photos do make us immensely jealous. But frankly they’re also exactly what we need to see at this time, so we’re incredibly grateful to Uros for allowing us to share them here.
Keep safe, everyone, and we’ll hope to fish with you again on the other side of this pandemic…
(All photos: Uros Kristan, Urko Fishing Adventures)
