Theo on July 15 2018

Now available: New ebook edition of The Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing

Perfectly timed for this summer’s balsam bashing season, Merlin Unwin Books have just released a new ebook edition of the best-selling Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing.

As many river restorationists know all too well, urban rivers and their catchments are particularly prone to invasion by non-native species like giant hogweed, Himalayan balsam, mink and signal crayfish.

So the Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing contains lots of hands-on, practical information (written in conjunction with the GB Non-Native Species Secretariat) for anyone who wants to start tackling the problems they cause.

Now easier than ever to carry in the field, this new ebook edition is available direct from Merlin Unwin Books, or via your favourite ebook retailer, for just £4.99. Click here to get yours today!

Tags: INNS, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers

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Theo on June 20 2018

Urban fly-fishing report: River Tame, Stalybridge

A few days ago, the new combined Trout in the Town team took to the rails to travel from (nearly) opposite ends of the country…

… and converged at Stalybridge for a flying visit to an urban river that’s been much in the news recently.

Paul and I both knew how the lovely little River Tame had been the subject of intense media scrutiny as the most heavily microplastic-polluted river in the world (at least among those tested so far). But we wanted to see this notorious stretch of the lower river for ourselves, and understand from local activist Woz Andrew just how much it meant to him personally.

Woz met us at the station and guided us round the corner to the river, explaining the challenges facing an almost totally urbanised (and still industrialised) waterway like the Tame, and reminding us we’d definitely be missing an opportunity if we didn’t wet a line while we were there.

Water levels were low, and the day was bright and hot, so we fanned up and downstream, fishing our favourite ultralight western and tenkara techniques. We’d all had little grabs and splashes at our flies before Woz finally hooked up solidly in the shadow of one of the bridges, and landed a beautiful trout on a dry fly.

(It’s worth mentioning at this point that catching little baby trout in urban rivers often delights us even more than bumping into big lunkers – their presence shows that habitat and water quality are both good enough to let a proper population pyramid form).

Several more fish followed for all of us, before honour was satisfied, and we raised a traditional can of Stella to this amazing river and its trout that are still surviving against all the odds, and desperately in need of all the help we can give them.

And then it was back onto our trains again, with boots still wet and heads even more packed with plans for other urban rivers that are similarly overlooked and underappreciated. (If there’s a river like the Tame in your life, and you’d like to help get it back on track, please give the Wild Trout Trust a call, or check out the new Trout in the Town Facebook page here).

The full story of our visit to Stalybridge will appear in the first issue of Pete Tyjas’s exciting new Fly Culture magazine, due out later this year… don’t miss it!

(Photo 1: Paul Gaskell, photo 8: Woz Andrew)

Tags: Fly-fishing, Manchester, Stalybridge, Tame, Trout, Trout in the Town, Urban fishing, Urban fly-fishing reports, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers

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Theo on June 1 2018

Film night: Let’s hear it for the volunteers!

Volunteers Week runs from 1 – 7 June this year, and to celebrate the vital work of volunteers who are the lifeblood of many local river groups across the UK, the Rivers Trust has just released this short film of what it’s like to volunteer with the Don Catchment Rivers Trust.

In 2018 alone, the Rivers Trust tells us, DCRT volunteers have already filled over 1000 bags of litter from the catchment’s very urbanised riversides and waterways. They’ve also been working on practical conservation tasks in the Moss Valley to restore its biodiversity and heritage value.

So, if you’ve been inspired by watching this video, why not check out some different volunteering opportunities in and around your local waterways this year?

(Hint: The Wild Trout Trust’s Trout in the Town programme is super keen to help more local people look after their urban rivers, and Rivers Trusts almost always need more volunteers too!)

Tags: Education and engagement, Films, Urban regeneration, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Volunteers

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Theo on May 17 2018

It’s a double hook-up! Urban flyfishing hits T&S and FF&FT in the same month

What’s this? Yes, you read it right: our little niche-within-a-niche of urban flyfishing has just scored (we think) a historic double hook-up…

…with big features in the pages of both Trout & Salmon and Fly Fishing & Fly Tying magazines in the very same month.

The June issue of T&S goes bold with a beautifully-crafted piece by ‘the writer formerly known as North Country Angler’ Matt Eastham, who visits fly-tyer Phillippa Hake on her home water on the Yorkshire Calder before heading higher into the hills above Hebden Bridge (and a deep, green, bouldery shot of Hebden Water gets the front cover too!)

Meanwhile, over in FF&FT, long-time Sheffield river restorationist John Blewitt writes about the renaissance of the Don, complete with photos of historic paintings of the bad old days of massive industrial pollution, and the river’s heroic efforts to rebraid its own mid-channel islands after those notorious dredging works at Malin Bridge in 2009.

Both June magazine issues should be available from good newsagents very shortly. So whatever else you do this month, don’t miss out on this opportunity for your double-hookup urban flyfishing fix…

Tags: Calder, Don, Fly-fishing, Hebden Bridge, Hebden Water, Sheffield, Sowerby Bridge, Urban fishing

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Theo on April 30 2018

Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 30 April

Streamers on the Irwell: Martin’s Minnow strikes again for David James Bendle
Getting the green light: new hope for a bottle and can deposit scheme in England and Wales (as well as mutant plastic-munching enzymes to break down PET)
Plastic pollution again: we all know the value of river clean-ups, so maybe now’s the time to take our fight to the beaches too?
Unintentional dye tracing with curry spices in Bradford’s becks
What’s it Worth? If you’re in Keighley on 11 May, put this date in your diary… and come to hear Phil Sheridan at the Wild Trout Trust’s Get Together on 18 May too
Don’t feed the fatberg after midnight (or, actually, any other time!)
Kristof Reuther fishes Munich’s Isar River (urban fly-fishing… it’s an international game)
Theo Pike joins the Wild Trout Trust to develop the Trout in the Town project across the south of England and Wales

(Photo: David James Bendle)

Tags: Bradford Beck, Fly-fishing, Irwell, Isar, Keighley, London, Manchester, Marine plastic, Munich, Plastic pollution, Pollution, Sidecasts, Trout, Trout in the Town, Urban fishing, Wandle, Worth

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Theo on April 17 2018

In the Telegraph: River guardians of the Tame

I’m knee-deep in the river Tame in Stalybridge, 15 miles east of Manchester. Beside me is Woz Andrew, a local fly-fishing guide. After climbing down a flight of stone steps from road level – hollowed by a century of boots and a remnant of this river’s industrial past – we have made our way slowly across, careful not to trap our ankles between the slippery boulders of the riverbed.

This river has been in the news a lot recently. Research by Manchester University’s department of geography revealed last month that it has the highest recorded concentration of microplastic waste not only in the UK, but in the entire world. With 517,000 particles per square metre, the Tame outscored the Incheon-Gyeonggi beaches in South Korea, Lake Chiusi in Italy and the Pearl river estuary in Hong Kong. The story went everywhere…

As any urban angler knows, pollution problems in city streams are nothing new, but there’s been a more-than-usually-horrible kind of can’t-look-away-from-a-car-crash fascination about the microplastics crisis on Manchester’s magical little River Tame – part of the mighty Mersey system that’s very dear to the hearts of many readers of Urbantrout.

Andrew Griffiths is one of these, and his follow-up investigation with local river restorationists Woz Andrew and Mike Duddy is a hugely valuable contribution to this still-unfolding global story. Click here to read it in full.

(Photo: Paul Cooper, the Telegraph)

Tags: Fly-fishing, Manchester, Mersey, People, Pollution, Tame, Trout, Urban fishing, Urban regeneration, Urban river restoration, Urban rivers, Volunteers

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Theo on March 19 2018

Trout & Salmon says: Meet the London rods

After December’s and January’s articles on urban fishing in Holmfirth and South London, Trout & Salmon has only gone and done it again…

… with a feature in the April 2018 issue on London-based fly-fishers (and the London Flyfishing Fair on 23-24 March).

By now, of course, most readers of Urbantrout won’t need much convincing that“urban fly-fishing is fashionable, healthy and inspiring”. But it’s still yet another excuse to visit the newsagents… so here’s our quick run-down of who’s involved and where they fish (and otherwise while away downtime in the Big Smoke):

Damon Valentine: the Wandle and Walthamstow
Simon Allen: Wiltshire, Berkshire, Hampshire, Dukinfield, Stalybridge and the bar of the Flyfishers’ Club
Steven Macklow-Smith: the Kennet at Avington, Farlows and Orvis
Ruaridh Nicoll: Walthamstow, Thornwood Springs and Caught by the River‘s literary events
Marie Cheong-Thong: Putney Common, the Albury estate lakes, Orvis, Farlows and the Tillingbourne

Pick up your copy today, and see how other “city-dwellers get their fishing fix among the skyscrapers and sprawl…”

Tags: London, Manchester, Mersey, Tame, Wandle

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Theo on March 9 2018

The Wild Trout Trust charity auction 2018: Your chance to do good and go fishing!

Over the past few years, urban fishing has become such a fixture in the Wild Trout Trust’s annual charity auction that it’s hard to remember when it wasn’t – and when it was a novel kind of idea for us to list all the urban lots in one place for our readers’ bidding convenience.

Still, it seems like just as much of a good idea now as it did then, so here’s this year’s listing (our 6th in succession).

Once again, of course, we’d highly recommend reading through the Trust’s whole auction catalogue of 313 lots, if only to glimpse how some of the other (more rural) half live… and how you could, too, if your bid is a winner. Then, whatever looks good to you, please bid generously to help this amazing charity carry on their work to make rivers and lakes all over the UK and Ireland better places for wild trout and countless other species.

As Kris Kent also explains in this recent article for Eat Sleep Fish, it’s the single most important fundraising event of the WTT’s year. And of course it’s more than likely to benefit your own fishing in years to come, too.

Lots 62 and 63: 2 chances to win a week’s permit for 1 rod on the Town Waters of the River Ness in Inverness, presented by the Inverness Angling Club. This beat runs right through the Scottish Highland capital, and is best fished for salmon with a fly.

Lot 98: Presented by Ffynnon Taff Angling Club and Nicholas Steedman: 1 day for 1 rod on the legendary River Taff guided by Nick Steedman. The Taff is a big post-industrial river with some difficult wading, but hit this one right, and you may find huge trout and grayling rising freely to exceptional hatches…

Lot 113: A full season permit to fish the waters of Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association, which controls not just the Taf Fechan and urban upper Taff, but also beats on the Tarrell and Usk. (Whisper it softly, but some of the best wild trout we’ve seen on social media this year so far have apparently come from Merthyr’s upper Taff beats… )

Lots 119 and 120: 2 opportunities to bid for 2 days for 2 rods on the waters of Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association, as above.

Lot 223: Wander up the Wandle for the day with pro guide Damon Valentine, who’s taking over hosting this lot for the first time in 2018. You’ll get all the latest news on this inner-city chalkstream’s rollercoaster recovery – not to mention a chance to meet other Wandle Piscators and hook a trophy dace, chub, barbel or trout somewhere in south London.

So, as we say every year… Bid early, bid often, and we’ll see you out there on one of our urban rivers!

Tags: Inverness, London, Merthyr Tydfil, Ness, Taff, Wandle

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Theo on February 20 2018

Film night: Glen Pointon takes us to the hell-hole

It’s interesting to see how the idea of vlogging has come back round the loop again: maybe it never quite went away, but we’re sure there was some kind of hiatus between the old-skool DSLR / point-and-shoot cameras, and the new wave of smartphone streaming, Instagram stories and, well, you get the picture…

Anyway, vlogging looks like it’s back again, with a new generation of edgy urban fly-fishing faces like Damon Valentine (aka LondonFlyfisher) and Glen Pointon, who’s gearing up his new series of vlogs with this introduction to his ‘hell-hole’ home stretch of the urban Trent in Stoke.

(Fair warning from Glen himself: it’s rough, raw and depending on your day job maybe NSFW, but you surely won’t want to miss footage of one of the spots where ‘horse hunting’ first entered our very own Urban Flyfishers’ Dictionary…)

Tags: Films, People, Stoke-on-Trent, Trent, Trout, Urban fishing, Urban rivers

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Theo on February 5 2018