A new Fallon’s Angler film sees musician Adam Chetwood stalk feral carp on the North Kent Marshes.
Thirty miles from the bustle and stress of London, overlooked by the cranes and glare of the Gateway docks, lie the North Kent Marshes.
Wild and windswept, land stolen from the grasp of the sea, this is a network of saltmarsh and rough pasture, floodplain and fleet. Inspiration to writers such as Charles Dickens, Nicola Barker and Carol Donaldson, a vital winter haven for 300,000 migrant birds, stalked by wildfowlers and quartered by marsh harriers and short-eared owls.
It might seem an unlikely place to find a carp fisherman, but for musician Adam Chetwood this landscape presented an opportunity to escape the pressures of the past eighteen months. A place to stalk feral carp—Wildies—an ancient strain of fish appropriate to the inhospitable environment.
For six months, film-maker Nick Fallowfield-Cooper joined Adam in his immersion, meeting the people who work and live in this place and discovering the stark, salt-edged beauty of the marshland.
Wildie, the resulting Fallon’s Angler film, is released in conjunction with Issue 23 of the magazine. Both celebrate the wilder, more remote places of abandon. The magazine features writing from Adam himself, alongside contributions from Luke Turner who turns his hand to fly-fishing, Chris Yates who searches for lost ponds, John Andrews who uncovers an extraordinary angling secret, Kevin Parr who ventures deep into the Somerset Levels, Will Millard who seeks the doctor fish, and many more.
To order the latest copy head to www.fallonsangler.net/shop. Watch Wildie below.