Yesterday was my usual weekly day to play Mr. Mum, and it being a beautiful day if a bit windy, I piled the little grouse into his SUP (Sport Utility Pram, what did you expect?) and off we went on a ramble.

We wandered north from Grouse Park about a mile and then into a "seniors only" estate that features hundreds of semi-detached houses that all look alike. This wrinkle ranch sprouted up a few years ago on an old industrial park set-aside that was never developed.

We strolled past carefully manicured lawns and accidentally turned into a street that dead-ended in a cull-de-sac. A dead-ended for cars, that is. There was a nice crushed gravel walking path that carried on into the trees beyond. So Grouse Jr. gave the "drive on" gesture and onward we went.

At this point, I'll pause just to say the boy has an uncanny fishing instinct. Granted, considering his impeccable fieldsport pedigree, I shouldn't be surprised. I didn't expect him to be so in tune with it at such a young age.

Anyway, we'd gone no more than 100 feet and there was a bridge and I fully expected there to be nothing but a dry wash for rainwater runoff underneath it. Imagine my surprise when I peered down, and holy Moses, there's flowing water there and it looks for everything on God's Green Earth like a freaking spring creek!

It freaking can't be! Wouldn't everyone and his brother know about it already? Surely I'd have heard about this?

But everything about this little hidden stream just screams "spring creek". There's a gentle, even flow to the water, it's got that sapphire color, and there's already watercress growing in the pockets, and the gravel in the bed looks washed indicating that the flow is pretty constant.

I checked to make sure no one was looking, engaged the "off road" setting on the Grouselet's SUP, and off we went across the adjacent lawn and down to touch the water. Then it occurred to me there's no way to tell this time of year because all the water is cold right now, so we reversed course.

The Grouselet and I stood on the bridge and peered into the water both upstream and downstream. Luckily, we both had our polarized sunglasses on, but we didn't see any fish movement in the 10 yards up and down that were visible.

But still, this little gem right under my nose just begs for more investigation. Could there possibly be a population of brook trout in there? If there are, it would be an amazing win fall. Even if there isn't, it's about 95% certain there's going to be creek chub in there, and they'll provide sport on the dry fly as readily as anything in the summer.

There's only one way to find out! There's an easement where I can get my feet wet, so that means there's right of public access to the whole stream. So I'm going to rig up and find out the fun way in about a week.

It's incredible to think there could have been a spring creek running right under my nose. Just figuring out if there are any fish in it is half the fun.

Makes you wonder how many people live within a stone's throw of fishing and never even know it.

Grouse

Sounds good Mr Grouse!

Let us know how you get on.

You could be onto a good one there I live in a 20 yr old estate with nice lawns ect but 50yds from the botom of my garden theres a small burn full of great wee trout a biggie is 1/2 lb in september there is also a wee run of seatrout (my best was 6lb).I've fished it for years and never met another angler apart from one pool that runs under the main road where you see wee laddies with bubble floats.my advice is keep it a secret.

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Warning Retiree knows it all and has plenty of time to tell you about it.

''The Grouselet''

Yes, keeping it secret would be an understatement, you'll notice I didn't even name the stream in this post.

Of course you have an absolute gem in your back garden if you're catching sea trout. The best I could hope for is some remnant population of brook trout in this stream, but even if it's chub it's still a find that would offer some great fun. Keeping in mind, this is all of 10 minutes walk from my house.

It just got me thinking about how many of these places there must be out there. We have over 10,000 lakes in Minnesota, and tens of thousands of miles of rivers and streams, almost all of which are accessible to the public. This tends to produce a cherry-picking mentality whereby anglers get lazy and fish waters based only on their reputation for being "the best place to go". Therefore, I'd guess that 75% of the water in this state is for all practicle purposes, completely unfished.

Even in the UK, considering the extreme density of the population over there, how many places must there be like this? I wonder how many streams there are where the common wisdom holds that there are no fish, but nobody's seriously fished them for decades?

Grouse

Hi Grouse,

Sounds like you've got a winner there! I have fond memories of chub and the fight they can give in a small stream. My biggest one weighed around two pounds and when it hit I was SURE that I had managed to find a massive brookie as this was on a tiny stream in North East Vermont where I had hiked in with a tent it was so far out of the way. When I finally brought it to the net I was surprised to see this huge chub giving me a reproachful look but oh was that fight sweet!

As to your comment about unfished waters I think you're right on the money. I fish a very, very, very small stream down near my in-laws in Haute Saone and I've never seen anyone else on it despite a fairly high density of wild browns. It just looks too narrow so most folks must think it's only a drainage channel but what a treat they are missing!

Let us know what your explorations turn up!