THE rather unsettled weather of heavy showers and occasional longer periods of rain has maintained a good flow in the River Aire without there being too much water to drastically affect angling. Consequently, there has been a reasonable number of anglers trying their luck on the length above Inghey Bridge and below Carleton Stone Bridge.

At the first location the fishing is fly only and is in the hands of the Bradford City Angling Association. In spite of the increased flow, anglers have been enjoying some good fishing mainly with brown trout which has included fish up to 900g in weight.

Grayling are also being caught but not of any great size and the occasional small chub has also been landed.

On the Skipton Angling Association’s Stone Bridge length anglers have preferred to use bait such as the red maggot on float fishing tackle.

The decent flow has facilitated downstream trotting and plenty of fish have come to the net including good brown trout, grayling, smallish chub and even the occasional gudgeon along with plenty of minnows.

Catches of upwards of 20 fish have been recorded in a short length of time.

At the Skipton Club’s other waters, namely Embsay and Whinnygill Reservoirs, fishing has continued to be reasonable with the latter water having the edge in terms of the number of fish caught. Embsay is providing good sport on both the fly and worm with decent rainbow trout and numerous small perch while the brown trout seem to prefer the worm to the fly.

Whinnygill Reservoir is fishing well with roach, perch, bream, tench, carp and rudd all turning up in catches and some good weights have been achieved.

Recent specimens have included a 2,500g mirror carp and a 2,040g common carp whilst apparently much larger specimens have been hooked and lost.

The third and penultimate match in this season’s Skipton AA’s Peter Hart Memorial Series will be fished at Embsay Reservoir on Sunday, August 13. The draw will be at 8am with fishing from 9am until noon.

Entry is for members only and the only baits allowed will be those that are normally used on the reservoir.