We don’t make stuff any more – the Chinese do it for us. What’s the upshot? Clean rivers in Britain’s cities. Overlooked and unloved, they are cheap and offer some of the best fishing in the land. Fill your boots!

Suggest an urban river you know. It must be cheap and in the British Isles.

My fantasy river would be clear-flowing, with stones on the bottom in the upper reaches smoothing to pools with flowing ranunculus lower down. It would be devoid of chub, populated by brown trout, with a salmon run and arctic char higher up to add spice. It would be a wild free river with great scenery, and obviously, inside the M25. Obviously I’d settle for less, but I’m so far from getting my wish it is a joke. Look at the other capitals of the UK. What is it with London? Why do we get the short straw? Ask at Farlows where to fish around London and they will suggest some dire pond full of distended rainbows.

I read in Where to Fish that Rickmansworth has a free stretch of The Chess. It says Brown and rainbow trout, and that the rainbows actually spawn there. The fishing is at Scots Bridge Playing Fields, behind Scots Bridge Mill pub. The walk from Rickmansworth tube station is short and untaxing. The river is pretty, the water is clean and clear, and full of chub. I caught two miserable chub. The search goes on.

Price: Free.
Price/quality ratio: You’d have to pay me.
Quality: 2/10
Chavtastic: Not at all. Posh people walking pedigree dogs.
Debris: River is pristine.
Water quality/smell: Clear, immaculate water.
Wildlife: A kingfisher, a pheasant, a mouse in open ground (would that be a field mouse?) a guy standing barefoot in the middle of the river singing beautifully. I asked him what he was doing – “Harvesting watercress”.













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