THE slightly unsettled weather with spells of rain has managed to keep the level of the river Aire a bit above normal and both bait and fly anglers have continued to enjoy some good sport from Skipton to Gargrave.

Brown trout to around the 1,800g mark have been landed and at the other end of the scale, there is a significant population of fish around 15cm in length.

A good catch to the fly in the last week consisted of 22 brownies, two small jack pike and a few small chub although none of the fish exceeded 500g in weight.

Just over two weeks remains of the current brown trout season on the Aire which will close at midnight on September 30.

All the trout are in excellent condition so there is still a chance of getting a specimen before the enforced closure.

One trout has been reported at a length of 51cm which generally equates to a weight of over 2kg.

The Skipton Angling Association’s other trout fishery, Embsay Reservoir, is also fishing well with some quality tiger trout falling mainly to the fly. Rainbows and brownies are also active and a welcome capture of late has been a decent-sized blue trout.

Whinnygill Reservoir to the east of Skipton can be unpredictable at times and this seems to be the case recently.

In the final match of the Peter Hart Memorial series fished last Sunday on the reservoir, Russell Heaton enjoyed a convincing win with 1,680g against Graeme Waterfall’s 670g. Malcolm Mawson took third spot with 160g.

Russell’s win helped him retain the trophy for the second year running with 68 points from the four matches.

Graeme Waterfall was runner up with 48 points while Simon Chenier was third with 36 points.

Chenier fished the match but kept a dry net so he was determined to try again on the reservoir the day after.

He was soon into some fish and landed a couple of roach before hooking into a good bream estimated at about the 1,800g mark.

However, luck was not on his side and the fish cast the hook when being brought to the edge of the net. Chenier persevered and ended the session with a good bag of bream varying in size from 450g to 1,140g and totalling 6.5 kg.