ANGLERS fishing the River Aire are seeing evidence that the last two years have been kind to spawning fish judging from the amount of chub and grayling that are being caught.

Up to about a week ago when some heavy rain brought quite a bit of extra water into the river, anglers were reporting some excellent sport with grayling throughout the Skipton Angling Association’s length.

The worm, maggot and fly were equally successful and fish ranged in size from 50g (0:2:0) to well over the 450g (1:0:0) mark. Most fish however tended to be on the small side and were in the order of one to two years old.

Small chub in a similar age range have also been caught but are not as numerous as or as wide spread as the grayling and have usually fallen to the maggot.

The occasional larger fish has come to the net but the 1360g or 1820g (3 or 4 pound) of old have yet to be found.

Besides the better spawning conditions and milder winters with far less bank topping floods, the absence of pike in the upper reaches has also allowed the grayling and chub to flourish and hopefully they will mature before esox lucius makes its inevitable return.

Elsewhere, Whinnygill Reservoir has been well fished lately with the perch providing most of the sport although there are reports of the capture of a roach weighing about 450g (1:0:0) and a bream of a similar size.

The water should have received a stocking of roach and bream by now but the mild weather has delayed the capture of the fish at the fish farm.

Embsay Reservoir is also fishing very well for trout due to the mild conditions and some good rainbow trout are falling to the fly and the worm.

The last restocking about a month ago introduced fish to over 1820g (4:0:0) in weight but so far nobody has reported catching one of these specimens. The advent of colder weather can only make the task more difficult.

This Sunday’s Skipton Winter League match will be the last of the series and will be fished on the Marina length at Barnoldswick where there is the chance of some outstanding weights.

The weather forecast appears to be favourable for the weekend so we will see.