Sowerby Bridge might be familiar to you as the the setting for the BBC’s Happy Valley crime drama. It’s also the hometown of Phillippa Hake… one of the new generation of fly-fishers who has taken full advantage of the information age, rapidly ascending the learning curve to become an excellent angler in a relatively short […]
Archive for the tag 'Urban river restoration'
October 11 2021
Urbantrout sidecasts: Monday 11 October
Trout in Dirty Places sells out… but not before featuring in Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera! Wandle trout: Matthew Wright goes fishing in Hackbridge Redressing past mistakes: ambitious plans for High Wycombe’s River Wye Sewage, chemicals, microplastics… how dirty are Britain’s rivers, and what can be done? Daylighting the Medlock in Manchester’s Mayfield Park Time […]
August 5 2021
Pic of the day: Riverfly monitoring with a TWIST
Thanks to lots of enthusiasm from local volunteers, Somerset’s urban rivers now have a new cohort of qualified riverfly monitors to look after them. Click through to this report on the Wild Trout Trust website to find out more, and how to get involved in the exciting new TWIST (Transforming Waterways In Somerset Towns) project…
June 25 2021
Film night: River Trent transformation
The SUNRISE project has featured on Urbantrout before… but not for a while, so we’re pretty stoked to see this update from the studio of Dr Paul Gaskell (himself involved in the project as the Wild Trout Trust’s Trout in the Town officer for the north of England). Funded by the EU’s European Regional Development […]
March 19 2021
The Wild Trout Trust charity auction 2021: It’s on!
OK boys and girls, we think you know the drill… this year’s Wild Trout Trust auction has just gone live, from today until the evening of Sunday 28 March. Which means it’s time to start planning some highlights of your fishing season around this carefully-assembled selection of fishing-related opportunities (including the urban ones which we’ve […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
March 20 2020
The Wild Trout Trust charity auction 2020: Urban lots to fish where you live
In these uncertain times, maybe there’s never been a better opportunity to explore more local waters. And if you live in town, this could mean literally fishing where you live – maybe even within walking distance of your own front door… The Wild Trout Trust’s annual auction is an incredibly important fundraising event for this […]



