SKIPTON Angling Association members will be saddened to learn of the recent death of their longest- serving member, Ronnie Burton.

Ronnie, 85, will be best remembered for the 2,390g (5:4:0) brown trout he caught at Whinnygill Reservoir in 1946.

He was 16 at the time and used to fish in his lunch break. Needless to say, on that occasion he was late returning to work.

The fish still holds the reservoir record and was only surpassed as the overall association record in 2014 by a 2,500g (5:8:0) fish from the River Aire.

Over the years Ronnie enjoyed all methods of freshwater fishing and was particularly skilled at fly fishing which he took up in his later years.

He took an active role with the club and served in a number of positions as bailiff, committee member, vice-president and life member.

He could be found fishing the association’s waters and attending meetings into his early eighties and could always be relied upon to greet a fellow member in his usual cheerful manner.

Whinnygill Reservoir was the venue for the latest Sunset Trophy match last Tuesday evening and in the good conditions catches were reasonable.

John Leatt had 560g (1:3:8) of smallish fish to just beat Kenny Wright with 520g (1:2:8). Third place went to Andrew Leatt with 300g (0:10:8) and Russell Heaton was fourth with 150g (0:5:4).

In the open match last Sunday on the same venue, the fish were in a good feeding mood and the catches were the best they had been for some weeks and consisted of some good roach, skimmer bream and perch with the best weights coming from the west bank near the valve rods.

Simon Chenier was an easy winner with 2120g (4:10:8) whilst runner-up Andrew Leatt weighed in 1450g (3:3:0). Other leading weights were:- 3, Russell Heaton 1350g ((2:15:8); 4, Kenny Wright 1200g (2:10:0); 5, Mark Bradley 460g (1:0:0); 6, Graeme Waterfall 350g (0:12:4) and 7, Malcolm Mawson 150g (0:5:4). All the competitors managed to catch fish.

This Sunday’s Summer League match has had a change of venue due to extensive bank/tow path work at Bradley and will now be fished on the Broughton Road length of the canal at Marton Mills with the draw at 7am.