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)

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