BOTH the River Aire and Whinnygill Reservoir have been fishing reasonably well in the last week or so with some good catches being reported by Skipton Angling Association members.

The catch of the week was a fine chub weighing some 2,445g (5:6:0) and measuring 53.3cm (21in) in length. The captor was Malcolm Mawson and the fish was caught on red maggot fished on a size 16 hook on the length downstream of the Carleton Stone Bridge.

Weight-for-length scales show that the chub was in excellent condition and the fish put up a tremendous struggle before gradually coming to the landing net. It is the largest chub to be landed in the Skipton length for some years and is not too far off the all time record of 2,700g (5:15:4) caught in 2000 by Mr G Heath in an open match.

Whinnygill Reservoir has been producing some of the recently introduced fish for those wishing to wet a line at this popular water. Bream and roach have been providing most of the sport with most of the fish falling to the maggot fished on the float or feeder. One angler also landed one of the new gudgeon but the other species have yet to show up.

The basin on the canal at Skipton is so far failing to live up to its potential at this time of the year with none of the big perch having been caught.

The odd roach or bream has been caught but anglers have been more likely to record a blank. One angler changed from the maggot to the lobworm at the weekend and promptly had two bites and two fish - both pike weighing about 1,820g (4:0:0) each and which created some excitement for a party of school children who were passing at that time and were unaware that the canal contained such “large” fish.

The annual meeting of the Skipton AA will take place next Tuesday evening at the RAF Club on Shortbank Road, commencing at 7.30pm prompt. There is a large agenda to be put before the meeting including subscription increases and various rule changes. Members are urged to make every effort to attend this important meeting.