THE local match fishing programme is now in full swing with Tuesday evening and Sunday matches available from now until the end of August.

This Sunday will see the first match in the Skipton Angling Association’s Peter Hart Memorial series of four fixtures at Whinnygill Reservoir with the draw at 8am and fishing from 9am until noon.

The first match in the Sunset Series of evening matches was fished on Tuesday and they will run through until late August on a fortnightly basis with the draw initially at 6.15pm with fishing of approximately 2½ hours.

Last Sunday saw the third match of the Skipton Summer League fished on the swing bridge length of the canal at Bradley in fine, settled conditions.

Catches were reasonable with plenty of smallish roach, the odd decent skimmer and a few perch.

Russell Heaton consolidated his league position by winning the match with 850g whilst Wayne Eason was runner-up with 730g.

Other leading weights were 3 Andy Wharton 620g, 4 Kenny Wright 390g, 5 Mark Bradley 190g and 6 Jason Aldis 170g.

Leading league positions are: 1 Russell Heaton 8pts, 2 Jason Aldis 10, 3 Wayne Eason 12, 4 Andrew Thomas 13, 5 Andy Wharton 16, 6 Simon Chenier 21.

The next match will be fished on the coal bunker length at West Marton on the 17th of June with the draw at 7.00 am and fishing from 8.00 am until 11.00 am.

Fishing locally has benefitted from the warm and generally settled weather with the just the odd isolated thunderstorm putting a bit of colour into the river Aire where fly fishermen have enjoyed the best sport with trout and grayling. Embsay and Whinnygill Reservoirs are fishing well and will continue to improve as the water warms up. No exceptional fish have been reported from either water.

The river Wharfe at Bolton Abbey produced a specimen grayling to a local member last weekend when fishing with the river banks literally swarming with people. The fish was not weighed accurately but was estimated to be about 1700g. Besides the grayling, the angler also landed a couple of brownies approaching the 900g mark in the space of just over an hour.