River restoration, Urban rivers, Wandle, Wild Trout Trust

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 interviews with fly-fishing people on the store’s Facebook platform.

Guests have included internationally-recognised fly-fishers like Paul Procter, Charles Jardine, Pete Tyjas, Simon Gawesworth and Henry Gilbey…

… which meant it was quite a surprise (not to mention a massive honour) that he asked me to join him for a chat about urban river restoration on Friday 17 July.

That afternoon, we spent more than an hour talking about Trout in Dirty Places, the Wild Trout Trust’s Trout in the Town project, and reflecting on all the stages of restoring a stretch of urban river like the Wandle at Hackbridge.

We reckoned we got a live audience of a consistent couple of dozen at least (pretty good for furlough Friday pub time as lockdown was easing, we agreed). And of course another benefit of the Farlows LIVE format is that the recorded interview is still sitting up there on Facebook, waiting to be replayed any time that’s convenient: click here to go straight to it.

Thanks if you tuned in to take part a few days ago. And thanks in advance if you haven’t yet, but you’re just about to click that link and watch it now!