WITH the opening of the brown trout season yesterday on Yorkshire Rivers, anglers can now chose to fish moving water again although river coarse fish are now enjoying their own close season which lasts until June 15.

In order to further protect river coarse fish there are restrictions on the baits that may be used whilst fishing for brown trout. Only the fly worm, minnow and spinning may be used and the use of general coarse fish baits such as maggots, bread, sweet corn and other cereal based items and ground bait are banned until the season re-opens for coarse fish on June 16.

Local prospects for the new trout season should be quite favourable following what has been another mild winter with much less heavy rain than was experienced last year. Consequently, the fish should be in a decent condition right from the start.

Last year saw the Skipton Angling Association brown trout record broken by a splendid Aire trout weighing exactly 2,500g (5:8:0) and landed by Andrew Facey of Skipton from in the vicinity of the Carleton Stone Bridge.

The previous record fish was caught in Whinnygill Reservoir in 1946 by junior member Ronnie Burton and weighed 2385g (5:4:0). Incidently, Burton is now the oldest member of the Skipton AA.

In previous years a number of trout bigger than Facey’s have been caught in the Skipton AA water on the Aire but all of them have been landed out of season and therefore ineligible to be considered for the record.

A good number of 1,820g (4:0:0) plus fish have also been caught so there is a fair chance of 2015 producing another record brownie.

The other Skipton AA waters are the reservoirs at Embsay and Whinnygill but neither is likely to produce a record brownie.

The best from Embsay is a 1,705g (3:12:0) also caught in 1946 and Whinnygill once turned up a 2,275g (5:0:0) specimen about 25 years ago.

Embsay may produce a new record rainbow trout this year as it is hoped to restock with some fish capable of beating the present best rainbow, a 2,890g (6:6:0) fish landed by Tommy Fryer of Earby in 1991.

Any angler landing a record breaker from any of the Skipton waters should get in touch with the events secretary, Malcolm Mawson on 01756 794022 to arrange verification. Fish that have been returned to the water should ideally be weighed on good scales and be witnessed by at least one independent adult.

Anyone catching a decent trout or enjoying a memorable catch of fish should also contact Malcolm or myself (01756 795435) to enable details to be published in this column.