First day of the river season and I decided to go to the Chubb Stream. I had walked it the previous week and knew it would be challenging but the extremely hot weather didn't help.

Besides the heat, the stream was full of streamer weed and running low and clear. Dense bank-side vegetation added to the difficulties, limiting the fishable spots, but it did give me cover when approaching the swims.

I started in what I call the pipe bridge swim. It's probably the most easily fishable swim on the stretch and has rewarded me in the past. However, not today. To be honest it hasn't produced in more recent visits, so perhaps the chub have vacated it.

Next was a favourite spot that has consistently offered up a chub. It's difficult to fish and was more so today as the bank-side growth was undisturbed and difficult to fish through. But having dropped a piece of flake under the adjacent tree, it wasn't long before a chub took the bait and wrenched my arm round as I struck into it. Quite a battle but the tackle held and I was soon netting a magnificent chub of 3lb 13oz. A PB for this stream.

If I hadn't caught anything else that chub would have made the day. But I went on to try a few more spots.

A little further along the stretch was a swim I hadn't fished before but which I had spotted during a walk along the stretch earlier in the year. Today it was overgrown with nettles but I managed to walk into them sufficiently to be able to drop a piece of flake down the inside. Once again there was a fairly quick take but the hook pulled out - curses!

I thought that the swim was probably dead after that but tried once more, this time with cheese paste. The take this time was instant and a small chublet came to the net. I was then convinced that the swim was probably fished out.

Next was the bypass swim, noisy because of the nearby traffic but quite reliable for chub. On this occasion I only managed a smaller fish, which I lost because I hadn't extended my landing net handle in readiness. I had waited quite a while for that bite so decided to move on after losing the fish.

I then tried under a raft that always looks chubby but has not in the past yielded anything. Today it was very difficult to fish and also challenging if a fish were to be hooked. Despite past disappointment a chub took. As expected it was difficult to land, becoming entangles in the branches of a tree that were dangling in the water. But the landing net reached and I managed to net the chub and at the same time disentangle it from the branches. It was a nice looking fish of perhaps around 1½lb.

After these successes I decided to walk the remainder of the stream looking for likely chub lies. It was an interesting endeavour although the temperature was now in the upper 20s and I was feeling it. I tried three or four likely looking spots but none delivered. Whether it was because there were no chub in these swims, or whether it was the bright conditions, nothing came of this exploration. The final swim was the most chub-looking but it too didn't yield anything.

I decided to walk back and perhaps drop in some of the earlier swims on the off chance of another bite. But I dropped my unhooking mat on the way back and had to return to find it, expending what little energy I had left on what was now a stifling hot day.

So, in the end I just tried one other spot that was near to one I had fished previously. I had what I think was a bite but didn't connect. At this point I decided to call it a day. Nearly 30⁰C and I was overheating. But despite the conditions it was well worth it.