JUST under a couple of week’s remains of the coarse fishing season on rivers in the Yorkshire area of the Environment Agency and at the moment, it looks like it is going to end on a very quiet note.

Even though the weather has been reasonable dry of late and water levels have fallen to almost normal, few anglers seem to want to wet a line although an additional factor may be that temperatures have been hovering just above freezing point during the daylight hours.

On canals and still waters, anglers have also been in short supply and it looks like the the appalling wet weather experienced from mid November 2015 has effectively closed the season some four months early.

Passing along Heslaker Lane over the weekend, I thought I saw a fish rise in what remained of the floods adjacent to the River Aire.

Examining the pool a day later revealed not even a single minnow but on the river slightly downstream was a good rise of probably a dozen small fish around 75 mm (3 inches) long.

I never saw one long enough to identify what species they were but I would say they were grayling because of their delicate rise.

At the point where the little fish were rising, the river floods out onto the lane and into the fields in normal flooding so in the Boxing Day record flood it would have been a torrent.

However, these little fish survived and remained in the main river through their natural instinct, which, if they reach adulthood, will be passed down to future generations.

One angler who has been amongst the fish on the Aire is Skipton AA events secretary, Malcolm Mawson. Fishing a sprat above the railway bridge at Snaygill, Malcolm hooked and landed a pike weighing 5030g (11:1:0) and measuring some 85cm (33.5 inches) in length. The fish took some ten minutes to land but proved to be his only fish of the day.

Skipton Winter and Summer League competitors should note that the annual trophy presentation and AGM will take place at the Skipton WMC on Friday, April 1, commencing at 8pm. All competitors both past and present are invited to attend and give the organisers their support.