LOCAL match anglers will readily agree that so far this season the fishing on the canal from Barnoldswick to Keighley has generally been out of sorts, judging from the results experienced up to now.

Last Sunday's Craven Summer League match on the church-pool length at East Marton certainly proved the point when there was only one decent weight among competitors, and that relied mainly on the capture of a single large perch.

Conditions were not helpful, with torrential rain for the first two hours followed by a succession of boats, one of which attempted to knock down all the bushes on the opposite bank.

Richard Thornton was an easy winner with 640g (1:5:12), which included the big perch weighing about 450g (1:0:0).

All the other weights were disappointingly low, and were as follows: 2 Andrew Thomas, Ian Parker and Bill Davenport all 70g (0:2:8), 5 Brett Young 60g (0:2:0), 6 Malcolm Mawson and Alan Wade 40g (0:1:8).

With just two matches remaining, the leading competitors for the individual championship are: 1 R Thornton 76pts, 2 S Chenior 67, 3 A Thomas 63, 4 G Waterfall 56, 5 E Ramsbotham 55, 6 M Bradley 53.

The penultimate match will be fished this Sunday on the Silentnight stretch of the canal at Barnoldswick, with the draw at 7am.

The final match will also be at Barnoldswick on the Long Ing length on Sunday, August 23.

The attendance was rather poor for the Whinnygill Reservoir evening match a week last Tuesday but at least the weights were reasonable and consisted mainly of perch and roach.

Graeme Waterfall recorded another win with 700g (1:8:8), while Simon Chenior was second with 500g (1:1:8) and Malcolm Mawson third with 380g (0:13:4).

The results did not affect the Championship Shield competition leaders, which Malcolm still leads.

The next match will be fished on Tuesday evening, with the draw at 6.30pm, with probably at least two hours of fishing depending on the weather.

Elsewhere, the continuing dry weather has kept river levels down, but on the Aire, fish are still being caught mainly on the fly.

Recent catches have included trout, grayling and chub, plus a pike that took a fancy to a grayling in the process of being brought to the net.