Following a week indoors recovering from a virus and still coughing occasionally, I decided to try the Trout Stream as I thought recent rain would have brought the level up and created some flow. I was wrong on both counts as the level was as low as I've seen it and any flow was hardly discernible. I should have just given it a miss but having been in all week I wanted some time out in the fresh air. I knew it would be a minor miracle to tempt a chub in such conditions even assuming that I could find one. And so it proved.

As always I started at my favourite spot about half way along the stretch. Once again I was shocked by the conditions as they were worse than when I went there in July, the height of summer. I couldn't fish from the point where I would normally sit and had to make my way down to nearer where the chub often hang out, thus risking spooking any fish that might have been there. And the bank at that point is sloping and quite dangerous. So I had a couple of casts and didn't stay long.

I next made my way to a point where in winter there is a long glide, but on this occasion it was both difficult to find a point to fish from and a clear opening in the streamer weed to cast to. I tried for a while but not surprisingly didn't tempt anything. There were a few nibbles on the bread flake probably down to fry or small fish. Time to move on again.

Moving a little further downstream there was a fairly open area on the bank indicating that it was probably fished quite regularly. In the stream though it was the same story, lots of weed congestion and banks of rushes and reeds. I once again tried placing the bait between what at this stage was dying streamer, but again nothing resulted from it. I also tried a couple of upstream casts into what appeared to be clearer water but, other than one tap, there was nothing doing.

It was time to make my way back upstream and on the way I had a look at a spot where I had managed a chub in March, just before the end of the season. But it was extremely shallow in the low water conditions and looking downstream, where I had cast in March, it was congested with reeds. So I didn't even try.

This left one more spot close to the start of the stretch. It's a swim that always looks promising but I have never succeeded there, and it was no different on this occasion. But I stayed there for about twenty minutes to recuperate a bit before walking back to the car.

So it was a blank, something I would have put money on when I first arrived and saw the state of the stream. As one commenter on my YouTube channel remarked, "The stream looked terrible".

On the plus side I enjoyed being out in the fresh area after a week indoors getting over a virus, the stream looking very verdant from an aesthetic point of view but unfortunately almost impossible to fish. The session was beautifully summarised by another comment on the YouTube channel:

“He walks long distances with all his gear to fish in a jungle with almost no water.”