Have you ever heard of the Urban Spirit concept? Most haven’t! It came about in France a few years ago with office workers working in the cities deciding to investigate potential inner city fishing they could enjoy within the time frame of their lunch break.

This saw the development of short rods for ease of carrying, small fixed spool reels, and small rucksack luggage designed for instant walkabout fishing with minimal kit.

The concept has finally made it to the UK and its been christened Free Spirit Fishing as obviously getting out of the office, shop, warehouse or factory sets your spirit free, even if only for an hour or so.

I joined the Free Spirit army about 4 years ago. I have to work away a hell of a lot and often it’s not practical for me to consider carrying full beach gear as I know I won’t get enough time, even in the evenings, to fish a proper session. Being in to catching as many species as I can, I decided to put together some gear that allows me instant fishing for smaller species that easily disappears in to the car.

My own personal tackle consists of a Berkley Ripple 6’ one-piece rod, a Mitchell Avocet 2 fixed spool reel loaded with 8lb braid, plus I carry a small box with a few hooks, swivels, links, small weights, beads and floats in. Its enough for me to target everything from small to medium sized wrasse off breakwaters and jetties, light ledger fish for flatties, bass, whiting etc, float fish for gars, mackerel, mullet and pollack, plus it doubles up as a spinning rod and I’ve had bass to close on 4lbs on it working both spinners and small plugs.

When away, all in need to do is pop in to a tackle shop for a packet of sandeel, a couple of mackerel or a 1/4lb of rag and I’m fishing. As I’ve mentioned before supermarkets have great fresh fish counters nowadays and are another source of quick bait for short sessions, plus they’re open late in the evenings, some 24hrs a day too. It makes it practical to fish at a moments notice!

A recent 50 minute session in an estuary creek with the car 10yds away saw me bag two flounders and an eel on mackerel strip. Simple fishing, but fishing non the less and maybe its just me, but going back to work after that little fishing spell I felt refreshed and no doubt my productivity was way better than it would have been if I’d worked through my lunch like I normally do.

Last year I fished Mountbatten breakwater in Plymouth with the same gear for a short two hour session and caught, ballan, corkwing, goldsinny and rock cook wrasse, tompot blenny, rock goby, black goby and shannies. All these taken dropping tiny bits of rag down the side of the inner wall. I was back at the digs for fish and chips and a pint before 9pm and got a full nights kip before work the next day!

Okay, so not everyone lives or works close to the sea, but there’s always rivers, lakes and ponds nearby, and so many city centres now have rejuvenated canals running through them packed full of roach, tench, bream and even carp. Last year I was working near the centre of Birmingham and one of the guys was telling me that one of the local urban canals can produce double figure bags of fish in little over an hour if you know what you’re doing. Study the maps and you’ll be amazed at how much fishable water is accessible within a very short drive wherever you happen to work or live.

This Free Spirit concept can go a long way to getting you much more fishing time. If you’re on holiday with your wife and kids, getting half day off for fishing is often met with scowls followed by the silent treatment, but disappear for just an hour or two every other day and you’ll get away with it. Likewise Free Spirit tackle takes up no room in the car, so again you’ll stay in the good books.

I see this Free Spirit fishing style expanding rapidly in the UK. It’s cheap to set up, is convenient with minimum preparation required, plus its diverse with potential for a wide variety of species most of which most anglers never think of targeting as they’ll be looking for bigger fish, plus the tackle lets even the little fella’s give a good fight.

All nighter’s after cod, bass and conger will always be the backbone of my fishing, but these short “Free Spirit” sessions let me wet a line at times when otherwise I couldn’t fish at all and in that they make a major contribution to my overall enjoyment of fishing.