THE recent spell of excellent weather appears to have worked wonders for angling and all venues are reporting good sport with both trout and coarse fish.

Whinnygill Reservoir at Skipton has seen the level fall by about a metre recently due to work being carried out to find and repair the leak in the banking.

Sport, however has been unaffected and coupled with the higher temperatures, some very good fish have been landed, including some new species.

Skimmers have been plentiful together with perch, roach and a few ide and the odd carp. The new species are tench and rudd with both fish falling to Michael Ickringill.

The tench weighed 625g (1:6:0) and has not been stocked officially. The rudd’s weight was not recorded and is also an unofficial stocking although it may have found its way into the reservoir in one of the roach stockings.

Embsay Reservoir has also benefitted from the warmer conditions and some good trout have been landed together with perch to over the 450g (1:0:0) mark.

Tiger, rainbow, blue and brown trout have all provided some excellent sport on both the worm and the fly but no outstanding fish has been landed.

The dry weather has made its mark on the level of the River Aire which is now down to near summer conditions. Brown trout have become harder to catch although grayling are now turning up more frequently in catches, especially on the fly. Trout have been up to 1,360g (3:0:0) in weight and even a small chub has fallen for the fly.

Results from the last Craven Summer League match on the canal at Barnoldswick’s Long Ing showed that the length fished patchy with one decent weight and the remainder soon tailing off.

Some decent bream boosted the top weights together with a decent roach. One competitor hooked but lost an eel estimated to weigh over 1,360g (3:0:0).

The results were: 1 Martin Magner 2100g (4:10:0), 2 Jason Aldis 1,060g (2:5:0), 3 890g (1:15:4), 4 Richard Thornton 740g (1:10:0), 5 Richard Tordoff 650g (1:7:0), 6 Andrew Thomas 530g (1:2:8). After three matches, the leading anglers are: 1 Danny Bolland 60pts, 2 Graeme Waterfall 55, 3 Russell Heaton 51, 4 Richard Thornton 48, 5 Jason Aldis 47, 6 Martin Magner 46.

The Skipton AA will be holding its first member’s match this Sunday when the venue will be Whinnygill Reservoir. Registration and the draw will be from 8am with fishing from 9am until noon.