Archive for the 'Wandle' Category

Trout in the Town: South London to Somerset

Four years ago, give or take a few days, Sally and I took our final walk up the Wandle to hand over our keys to the estate agent who’d (mostly) been helping us to sell our house by the river in Carshalton. As much out of habit as conscious farewell, we stopped and peered over […]

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River restoration, Trout, Urban rivers, Wandle, Wild Trout Trust Jul 29 2021

Farlows LIVE: Reflecting on urban rivers

Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown and subsequent restrictions here in the UK, lots of brands have made a special effort to stay connected with their customers through digital channels – and fishing shops have been no exception to this trend. Early in the lockdown, Farlows’ Jonny Muir took the opportunity to start a series of in-depth […]

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River restoration, Urban rivers, Wandle, Wild Trout Trust Jul 25 2020

Trout & Salmon: Trout on the Tube

This month I’ve been absolutely thrilled to see my long-awaited article about the Wandle appearing in the January 2018 issue of Trout & Salmon, which started dropping on doormats and news-stands last week. It’s not a valedictory – the big move from south London to Somerset has happened for family reasons, and I’m still intending […]

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Fly-fishing, London, River restoration, Trout, Trout & Salmon, Urban rivers, Wandle, Writing Dec 18 2017

Fallon’s Angler, issue 9: Delayed gratification

Here in south London, trout season opens later than elsewhere, and it’s just another quirk of fishing in the 21st century that social media isn’t letting me forget it.  Starting in early March, my Instagram and Twitter feeds have steadily been filling up with photos from big trout hunters in Scotland, Eden, Derbyshire, Wales and the […]

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Fallon's Angler, Fly-fishing, London, Trout, Urban rivers, Wandle, Writing May 01 2017

Filming on the Wandle

A couple of weekends back – before, during and after the Wandle Trust‘s usual monthly community river cleanup – film maker Jeremiah Quinn came down to the Wandle with his camera to capture some new angles on this little urban chalkstream’s story, and the qualities that have kept lots of us fishing and pulling out […]

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Chalkstreams, Coarse fish on the fly, Films, Fly-fishing, London, River restoration, Trout, Urban rivers, Wandle Sep 28 2016

Eat, Sleep, Fish: Reviewing Vision’s Kalu reel

Regular readers of this blog will know how much I enjoy contributing occasional articles to Eat, Sleep, Fish, the monthly not-for-profit ezine published by my good pal Pete Tyjas from his base at the Devon School of Flyfishing. For most of the 2015 season I’ve been fishing a Vision Kalu reel, as part of a range […]

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Eat, Sleep, Fish, Grayling, London, Salmon, Tackle, Trout, Ultralight fly-fishing, Wandle, Writing Dec 11 2015

Urban river restoration: Interview for SCALE Magazine

It’s not every day you get interviewed on your home water for an international fishing ezine. So when Germany’s SCALE Magazine offered to send writer-translator Tankred Rinder (also editor of Forelle und Aesche) and photographer Veit Dresmann to south London as part of their round-the-UK road trip in September… … I jumped at the chance […]

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Chalkstreams, Fly-fishing, London, Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing, River restoration, Trout, Trout in Dirty Places, Urban rivers, Wandle Dec 01 2014

Summer writing roundup

Where has this summer gone? Between publication of my Balsam Bashing book, a few freelance copywriting gigs up in London, helping to recruit new staff for the Wandle and South East Rivers Trust and watching over the Wandle’s biggest river restoration projects yet, experimenting with a radical new approach to ultralight fly-fishing, and exploring new […]

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Environmental policy, Fallon's Angler, Fly-fishing, Freelance copywriting, London, Pocket Guide to Balsam Bashing, River restoration, Trout, Ultralight fly-fishing, Wandle, Writing Sep 30 2014

Spawning time… and new beginnings!

As I’ve recently noted over on my Urbantrout blog, this is the time of year which can show even the best angler exactly what he’s been failing to catch all season… and early winter on the Wandle is no exception to this universal law. It’s a curious fact that since we saw that first pair […]

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Chalkstreams, Flyfishing.co.uk, Freelance copywriting, River restoration, Trout, Urban rivers, Urbantrout, Wandle, Writing Dec 13 2013

The Wandle in The Angler

Thanks to Paul Sharman there’s an excellent feature about the Wandle river restoration story in the latest issue of The Angler, the Angling Trust’s new-look membership magazine, which has started dropping through letter boxes over the weekend. To conclude the feature, Paul asked me for a testimonial about the Angling Trust’s role in the Wandle’s […]

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London, Media coverage, River restoration, Urban rivers, Wandle Nov 25 2013