Previous Posts

A new TWIST for the Sheppey?

As I’ve recently written in the Wild Trout Trust’s autumn newsletter, this is the kind of story that many of us know… A spring, or a line of them, bubbling and gushing out of a rocky hillside. Tumbling downhill, meandering through an upland meadow where trout and bullheads dart above the gravel, and human huts […]

Nov 28 2021 No Responses yet

Fallon’s Angler and WTT’s Little Book of Riverside Moments

In the past few months I’ve been doing a fair amount of reading about geology, as well as thinking about ways of helping urban rivers now and in the future. So I guess it was slightly inevitable that these themes might emerge in some of my own current writing too… For the latest issue of […]

Oct 17 2021 No Responses yet

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 […]

Jul 29 2021 One Response so far

The Flyfishers’ Journal: Summer 2021

Late May / early June means it’s time for the summer issue of the Flyfishers’ Journal. Truth to tell, this wasn’t the easiest issue to be responsible for editing, including as it does some very poignant Appreciations for friends and fellow Members of the Flyfishers’ Club: recent past president Paddy Laverty, author and historian Tony […]

Jun 05 2021 No Responses yet

Fly Culture: Fish Where You Live

As the start of trout season creeps round again, I’m feeling incredibly proud and privileged to feature in the latest issue of the beautiful Fly Culture print magazine – this time alongside work from Richard Baker, Adrian Grose-Hodge, Henry Giles, Ben Jailler, Matt Eastham, Dan Osmond and many others. Editor Pete Tyjas asked me to […]

Apr 21 2021 No Responses yet

Fishing in Wales: My top 5 Welsh urban rivers

Mere decades ago, these were waters that still ran black with coal dust and the toxic effluent of steel mills and other industries. Today, many Welsh urban rivers still suffer from litter, drainage misconnections and misbehaving sewage treatment works, but if you look carefully, you’ll find wild fish among the remaining shopping trolleys: trout (some of them very big indeed), grayling, barbel and even salmon… Some writing projects can be a slow […]

Mar 24 2021 No Responses yet

Trout in Dirty Places: All sold out!

A few days ago I heard from my publishers Merlin Unwin Books that they’ve finally sold out of all the printed copies of my first book, Trout in Dirty Places. I’m still working out exactly how I feel about this: on one hand, of course, books are supposed to sell out, but on the other, […]

Mar 07 2021 One Response so far

Trote in Posti Sporchi…

… means Trout in Dirty Places in Italian, and this week I’ve been surprised and thrilled to find out that I’ve featured in this article about urban street fishing as an antidote to lockdown and C-19, in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. For urban and rural dwellers alike, being able to #FishWhereYouLive, or anywhere […]

Feb 05 2021 2 Responses so far

The Flyfishers’ Journal: Winter 2020

Christmas is coming… and so is the Flyfishers’ Journal. This ‘lockdown edition’ reflects the fact that it’s surely been the strangest fishing season that any of us can remember. For most Members of the Flyfishers’ Club, and that includes me, the simple prospects of getting onto the water, or just contemplating the associations of time spent […]

Dec 20 2020 No Responses yet

The Fly Fisher returns!

Way back in 2016-17, I had the immense pleasure of taking part in a project to produce a beautiful coffee table book called The Fly Fisher: The Essence and Essentials of Fly Fishing. By all accounts, it’s been hugely successful – so much so, that its publishers Gestalten have just released an updated second edition. […]

Sep 26 2020 No Responses yet

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