ANOTHER chub estimated to weigh over 1500g (3:5:0) has been caught in the River Aire and there are reports of the capture of several smaller chub weighing less than 113g (0:4:0) from the upper reaches around Heslaker Lane.

Compared with only a few years ago, when chub were almost extinct in the Skipton area, this is good news and shows that they are now making a comeback.

Up to the start of the new millennium, chub were plentiful throughout the Aire and the average size was usually around 1360g (3:0:0). A match was won with an all chub catch of 51kg (113lb) at Eastburn Beck and the Skipton AA record was broken by a 2700g (5:15:4) fish on the second day of the year 2000. From then on the population gradually fell but at last it seems that it is now going in the right direction.

Six weeks remain of the present brown trout season and after a very promising start, with the capture of an almost 3640g (8:0:0) fish in the opening days of the season, no other outstanding fish has been landed. Plenty of decent ones have been caught but the sport has more or less stagnated with fewer anglers visiting the river at the moment.

Hopefully, numbers will pick up in the coming weeks and some good brownies will come to the net. The river is currently in excellent angling condition following a series of freshlets and should be well worth a visit.

Skipton AA members fished the penultimate match in this season’s PR Hart memorial series last Sunday when the venue was Embsay Reservoir. Conditions were quite reasonable and catches consisted of trout and perch. The trout were spared the keep-net and every fish caught was given a nominal 900g weight and immediately returned to the water.

The results were: 1 Graeme Waterfall 6550g (14:6:12); 2 Simon Chenior 1800g (3:15:4); 3 Russell Heaton 1260g (2:12:8); 4 Mr Mawer 1000g (2:3:4); 5 Mark Bradley 370g (0:13:0), 6 Malcolm Mawson 270g (0:7:8). Simon Chenior’s catch included a perch of 790g (1:11:12), Russell Heaton’s consisted of 30 small perch and the rest were mainly small perch and trout.