THERE have been some changes to the way the Bradford City Angling Association manages its fishing on the River Aire, especially the long stretch upstream of Inghey Bridge at Niffany to nearly Gargrave, a good portion of which is double bank fishing.

On this length the requirement to obtain an annual permit in addition to the membership book has been abandoned altogether along with the maximum of 20 anglers being allowed to fish at any one time.

Members may now go and fish the river at any time without having to observe the number of fellow members already fishing. Only the fly is permitted during the period from March 25 to October 31. From November 1 worm and fly are permitted for grayling but ledgering with the worm is not allowed.

In addition, all the Bradford City AA waters are now catch and release. The only fish that may be retained are pike up to a weight of 2,270g (4:15:12). All pike above this weight must be returned alive to the water.

Since the brown trout season started there have not been many anglers fishing this length of the Aire mainly on account of the rather poor weather and catches have only been moderate.

Conditions were quite reasonable last weekend with a good number of anglers in action, many for the first time this season. One or two decent brownies came to the net but the fishing is still relatively slow and the snow during Saturday evening hardly improved the sport for Sunday.

It’s at similar story further downstream on the Skipton lengths where no particularly outstanding catches have been reported so far.

One or two extra anglers were out on Saturday but catches were only two or three fish up to around the 450g (1:0:0) mark. The Skipton AA water on the Aire is also catch and release except for small pike as per the Bradford City AA weight limit.

Skipton Summer League competitors have selected their matches for this year and the first one will be held at Swine Lane, Riddlesden near Keighley on Sunday, May 1. The draw for all eight matches will be held at 7am with fishing from 8 to 11am. Further details will be published next week.