WHINNYGILL Reservoir benefitted from a restocking last Sunday when a mixed bag of good quality coarse fish was introduced into the water in what was fortunately a very quiet weather interlude for those who assisted with the stocking.

During the exercise 177 crucian carp, 270 rudd of both the silver and golden varieties, 104 bream, 175 tench and 100 gudgeon were introduced.

A further consignment of 20-25 centimetre (8 to 10 inch) roach will be introduced in the not too distant future.

With the weather being far from settled at the moment and generally tending to be on the cold side, it is unlikely that any of these fish will soon be caught, but they certainly will have become acclimatised by the time the temperature begins to rise next spring.

Recent spells of sleet, snow and heavy rain raised the level on the River Aire to near bank top by the weekend and not a single angler was to be seen. Further very heavy rain in a gale force easterly wind on Monday evening put down 12 mm of rain in about an hour and coupled with melting snow above Malham, no doubt caused some flooding into the fields.

One good thing is that all the leaves have finally fallen and have been carried away in the flood conditions. This will clear and ease the way for brown trout to ascend the becks for spawning which usually takes place locally in the first two weeks of December, but may vary depending on the temperature.

Hopefully, settled conditions in the near future will contribute to a successful spawning session.

Results are not to hand for the match on the canal last Sunday on the top side of the Aireville Park swing-bridge. This will be the venue for this Sunday’s Skipton Winter League match along with the length towards Dewhirst’s Mill and competitors will be hoping for some settled weather conditions.

In both the Individual and Pairs competitions, the leading anglers are reasonably close together and another bout of poor sport could bring about some changes at the top.