HOPEFULLY the temperatures will continue to rise and the weather will finally settle down following last week’s final fling of winter.

The snow, followed by a good spell of heavy rain, brought the River Aire over its banking and created some extensive flooding down the Aire Valley.

The water level soon fell to allow some angling to take place although not many anglers have been seen in action so far this season.

The upper reaches on Heslaker Lane are popular with Ovenden angler, Darryl Benn landing a couple of specimen brownies in no time at all when fishing the worm.

The first fish came from the Funkirk Farm length and measured 48cm in length and weighed 1350g.

Fishing higher up the river, Darryl at first thought he was stuck on the bottom as the fish did not want to move until it shot off downstream removing many metres of line from his reel.

Eventually the fish was successfully brought to the net where it was found to be a trout in excellent condition measuring 53cm in length and weighing 1,880g.

Simon Chenier has been among the trout again at Embsay Reservoir using worm and wagler tackle to fish on the bottom.

In one session he had over a dozen tiger and rainbow trout to 900g plus a good perch of 680g.

Coarse fish are beginning to move at Whinnygill Reservoir following some warmer rain and higher day time temperatures.

Dave Fenn has enjoyed taking a good bag of roach, skimmers and even a small perch on the pole at the rate of one fish to every three bites. Mark Bradley has caught roach and rudd but was smashed by a very big unknown species.

Last Sunday’s clean-up on the Aire below Carleton Stone Bridge and on the roadside to the cemetery yielded some 40 bags of rubbish plus an assortment of heavier items ranging from a vacuum cleaner, mop head and handle, fence pressure sprayer and even a whole caravan panel.

In that small area the number of plastic items gathered was unbelievable. No wonder the scourge of plastic is presently the top of the agenda for environmentalists around the world.