After last week's reasonably successful outing I returned today to the stream.

I started in the spot where last week I lost a fish (the bypass swim). Once again the take was immediate but this time I kept its head up and, although it was still a bit of a tussle, I managed to land a nice 2lb 10oz chub on luncheon meat. Once again it was in fine condition.

I then moved on to the more open swim (the road swim) where I took my first chub last week. This time there was no quick take but after a couple of casts I struck on a fidgety bite and thought I was into a good chub. But no, it was an eel. I remember catching little eels as a youngster but this was bigger. I also remember how difficult it was to unhook them, and nothing has changed there!

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After all the commotion I moved on to the 'tree swim', which I described last week. Just like last week the take was instant and after a difficult battle I nearly lost the fish when it got tangled in the weeds at the edge of the water - which was about three feet below me. I managed to scoop it out using the landing net. A beautifully conditioned fish of 2½lb.

At this point I wondered whether it was the same fish I caught last week, the weight being about the same. I am beginning to think that in this small stream individual fish stay in one spot, causing me to wonder whether the first fish today might also have been the same one that I lost last week!

Perhaps this stream is just too small for the larger chub to group together. If so, it's a bit disappointing as it would suggest that I'm always going to get the same fish from any one spot!

After this I wandered back to the pipe swim hoping that things might have settled. But like last week there was no action. This sort of supports my theory of a single fish that, once caught, isn't going to take again the same day.

It was now becoming very warm and I decided to have one more attempt in the tree swim. I wasn't too hopeful because of my 'one fish' theory but decided to try cheese paste in the hope that a different bait might do the trick. There was no immediate take but after a while a started to get knocks and struck onto what seemed to be a nice chub. But guess what? It was another eel, probably a bit bigger the first one.

Once again it was a trial to unhook but at least this time the hook was in the lip. It left my hands and the landing net covered in slime.

I had one more go in the pipe swim, this time with cheese paste but by now it was very hot and I didn't get a touch. I decided, therefore, to call it a day.

I'll probably give the stream another try but if I only catch from the 'hot' spots that I've so far identified and if there's a chance that I'm actually recatching the same fish, then it will take away some of the joy of the place. We'll have to see.