One important aspect of the Environment Agency’s regular fisheries work involves electrofishing to monitor fish populations, and their schedule this year has just brought them back to the River Wandle at Colliers Wood.
And among more than 600 fish including barbel, chub, dace, roach, gudgeon and eels, they’ve reported catching this awesome little wild trout.
It’s not quite the smallest ever caught in the Wandle (that prize probably still goes to this even tinier trout that echoed round the world).
But it’s still a sight that never gets old for us: a trout so small and cute, yet clearly so full of badass gangsta attitude, healthy and happy, in the mean streets of south London and an urban chalkstream that was still an open sewer within living memory.
(And, of course, it’s proof that the original home of Trout in the Town is still thriving too!)
If you’d like to be part of the ongoing efforts to restore south London’s rivers (and maybe get trout swimming again in the Hogsmill and Beverley Brook as well as the Wandle) the South East Rivers Trust is currently recruiting a London Rivers Officer as a new face for the Trust in this area.
They’re also looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join their River Rangers Team, to help map and monitor invasive non-native species. Please do get in touch if either of these roles sounds like you…
(Photo: via Tim Sykes, Environment Agency)
