Here in the UK, when we think of American rivers, it’s likely to be the mighty Madison and other Montana rivers that come to mind – or maybe the spring creeks of Pennsylvania that almost mirror the geology and water chemistry of our own chalkstreams. What’s less well appreciated is that the US (and especially […]
Author Archive
November 25 2019
Pic of the day: The Mersey Mermaid
Now we know salmon are running the Mersey again, why should the Little Mermaid be far behind? The Mersey Rivers Trust‘s intrepid crew of volunteers hit the river in Stockport on a grey November Sunday… … and here’s what else they found besides a smutty-faced little Ariel… (Photo: Mersey Rivers Trust)
November 15 2019
Film night: Tackling the urban jungle
“We’ve got a river close by – it’s pretty much lined with concrete, but there’s trout in it. So we’re gonna go catch some!” After a long week of training and family duties, Tactical Fly Fisher’s Devin Olsen takes his new shop manager Connor Murphy for a quick-fire session on local water. Flicking short […]
October 9 2019
Urban fly-fishing report: Return to Winchester
It’s no secret that the Urbantrout team love the shoulder seasons. This autumn, after months of low water, a succession of storms and ex-hurricanes has finally rolled in off the Atlantic, lifting the rivers and giving us a few brief opportunities to catch a last trout or two before the season closed. On the Itchen, […]
September 30 2019
WTT Urban Conclave 2019: Launching the new Trout in the Town Urban River Toolkit
If you’ve read Trout in Dirty Places, or followed this site’s blog posts for long, you’ll likely know how much of a role Manchester’s beautiful but plastic-polluted River Tame has played in the growth of the urban flyfishing and river restoration movements (hint: quite a lot… and it’s still continuing!) Which naturally meant it was […]
August 23 2019
Pic of the day: A new sign of the times in Wincanton
Here at Urbantrout we’ve got quite accustomed to being awed by the innovative spirit shown by the team at CATCH in the Somerset town of Wincanton… … and now they’ve done it again, with a project to install a new and much improved sign on the approach to Hawker’s Bridge over the little River Cale. […]
July 29 2019
Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 29 July
Rivers of flame: memories of when the Irwell and Cuyahoga caught fire How the £3.6 million SUNRISE project (£2.1 million co-funded by the EU’s Regional Development Fund) promises to transform Staffordshire’s urban rivers Fresh outta Portland: fishing for city bass in the shadow of skyscrapers Bring up the bodies (and shopping trolleys, cafe chairs, mobile […]
July 5 2019
Pic of the day: Trout outta Colliers Wood
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. […]
June 12 2019
Trout in the Town: Rocking out in Bruton
Trout in the Town is the Wild Trout Trust’s project to help community groups look after their local rivers in towns and cities across the UK. In recent months (and off and on since 2015) the Trust has been working with the Brue CREW community group in Somerset, as part of the award-winning Hills to […]
May 9 2019
Pic of the day: Tunnel vision on the Irwell
One of the recurring bonus features of urban fishing is being able to get up close and personal with post-industrial pieces of architecture that few other people ever manage to see… This year, the Urbantrout team kicked off the trout fishing season on Manchester’s rivers, for the first time in several years. A mere few […]
