THE weather has remained rather changeable during the first few days of the new trout season with spells of rain, relatively light winds and sunny periods.

The rain brought some extra water into the River Aire and the sun has gradually increased the daytime temperature up to somewhere near the norm for the time of year.

Anglers fishing the Aire have certainly increased in number from the opening day, probably encouraged by the big trout landed in the Bradford City AA water.

Sport, however, has been rather hit and miss with more than one angler experiencing their first blank day of the season.

The worm seemed to account for the most fish with the best in the Skipton length approaching the 900g (2:0:0) mark. On both the Bradford Club’s (City and No 1) water above Heslaker Lane, apart from the seven pounder, the fish have tended to be on the small side and not many have been seen fishing this stretch so far.

Embsay Reservoir tends to be a cold place early in the season and this has been the case so far with few anglers fishing for long periods even though the sport has not been bad.

The water is well stocked with fish and although none of the really large rainbows have come to the net, some decent brownies have been landed with the best being a 900g (2:0:0) fish caught on the worm. The tiger trout have been making themselves scarce in the last few days with just a few being caught.

Whinnygill Reservoir at Skipton contains some really good brown trout and the best landed in the close season was around the 2,050g (4:8:0) mark. In fact the water does not seem to hold any small fish at the moment with probably 450g (1:0:0) being about the smallest.

The reservoir has just been stocked with 600 coarse fish which comprised mainly of roach and bream around 150 mm (6 inches) in length.

A few rudd and perch also managed to sneak into the assignment together with a few bigger fish up to around 450g (1:0:0). These should settle in well as the water temperature begins to rise.