Here at the Wandle Piscators, we know that Wandle fishing isn’t just about fishing the Wandle. It’s also about showing the public that, yes, this is a great little urban chalkstream.
And yes, given half a chance and a lot of work, it’ll do pretty well.
So this weekend we took the shiny new Wands gazebo and pitched it beside the Wandle Trust‘s tent by the river in Morden Hall Park for the increasingly-popular Wandle Valley Festival:
The Trust brought a trout tank, to show the passing crowds what Trout in the Classroom is all about, while Will and Andy went kick-sampling for bugs in the Wandle:
Most of these ended up in trays for local kids to poke, prod and otherwise discover. Meanwhile, Jed arrived to show us all how to make elder-pith trotting floats the proper, traditional way…
… while Adrian set up his vise and rolled a few flies:
Finally, the real hard core arrived from the cleanup where they’d spent all day pulling out trolleys alongside Merton High Street.
At which point most of us could hear a cold one (or two) calling clearly… but we’ll be back next year!
