Already at a canal near you.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-urban-fishing
Graffiti, discarded beer cans, shouts from drunk punters spilling out of nearby bars … Few would describe Camden Lock as an angler’s paradise. But it’s on this stretch of London canal, far from the burbling chalk streams and tranquil ponds of the British countryside, where 22-year-old Tom Lloyd likes to fish. He’s been angling all over central London since he was a teenager. He first picked up a rod on a trip with a friend to Waltham Abbey in Essex, but quickly discovered he could fish far closer to home: “You can be in the middle of this urban setting with drunk people and beer bottles, but you’re just there catching fish with your headphones on,” he says.
Street fishing, also referred to as urban fishing, lure fishing or predator fishing, is a growing sport attracting a new, younger breed of angler. It is at its biggest in mainland Europe, especially Paris where an underground culture of millennial and gen Z anglers from all backgrounds is taking over the banks of the Seine. (When one of the movement’s pioneers, Fred Miessner, died suddenly last year in a car crash, hundreds of French youth turned out for a fishing vigil.)
“In the UK it’s a smaller scene but it’s growing,” says Giacomo Francia, the founder of Streetfishing London, an online shop and blog he set up after moving to the UK from Germany a decade ago, when the British urban fishing scene was so tiny he couldn’t find the kit he needed. Unlike traditional fishing, which generally involves sitting at a pond for days at a time with a tripod, tent and flask of tea, urban fishing is nimble and active. It is generally done on canals rather than ponds, which are narrower so you move around to find the fish rather than casting in the same place too many times – if a spot doesn’t produce, you just find another one. It is more of a standup sport (unlike carp fishing which is pretty sedentary). It’s also cheap and accessible as it requires minimal kit – just a rod, lures (artificial bait) and a net. “You wander the streets with your backpack, hop on the bus or scooter and find the nearest canal,” says Francia.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...-urban-fishing
Graffiti, discarded beer cans, shouts from drunk punters spilling out of nearby bars … Few would describe Camden Lock as an angler’s paradise. But it’s on this stretch of London canal, far from the burbling chalk streams and tranquil ponds of the British countryside, where 22-year-old Tom Lloyd likes to fish. He’s been angling all over central London since he was a teenager. He first picked up a rod on a trip with a friend to Waltham Abbey in Essex, but quickly discovered he could fish far closer to home: “You can be in the middle of this urban setting with drunk people and beer bottles, but you’re just there catching fish with your headphones on,” he says.
Street fishing, also referred to as urban fishing, lure fishing or predator fishing, is a growing sport attracting a new, younger breed of angler. It is at its biggest in mainland Europe, especially Paris where an underground culture of millennial and gen Z anglers from all backgrounds is taking over the banks of the Seine. (When one of the movement’s pioneers, Fred Miessner, died suddenly last year in a car crash, hundreds of French youth turned out for a fishing vigil.)
“In the UK it’s a smaller scene but it’s growing,” says Giacomo Francia, the founder of Streetfishing London, an online shop and blog he set up after moving to the UK from Germany a decade ago, when the British urban fishing scene was so tiny he couldn’t find the kit he needed. Unlike traditional fishing, which generally involves sitting at a pond for days at a time with a tripod, tent and flask of tea, urban fishing is nimble and active. It is generally done on canals rather than ponds, which are narrower so you move around to find the fish rather than casting in the same place too many times – if a spot doesn’t produce, you just find another one. It is more of a standup sport (unlike carp fishing which is pretty sedentary). It’s also cheap and accessible as it requires minimal kit – just a rod, lures (artificial bait) and a net. “You wander the streets with your backpack, hop on the bus or scooter and find the nearest canal,” says Francia.
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