THE Skipton Summer match fishing league got off to a flying start when the first match was fished on the marina length of the canal at Barnoldswick in ideal conditions.

Jason Aldis took the top honours with 1,730g while Simon Chenier was second with 1,370g.

Other leading weights were: 3 Andrew Thomas 1,260g, 4 Wayne Eason 1,160g, 5 Sam McIlroy 1,120g.

All these competitors had at least one good bream in their catch while the remaining angler’s weights were 350g or less and consisted of small roach or perch.

In the second match fished last Sunday on the stick-ups length of the canal at Barnoldswick and again in good weather conditions, the big bream were conspicuous by their absence and all weights consisted entirely of small roach or perch with the odd small skimmer bream.

Russell Heaton managed to record a first win of the series with 530g and Andrew Thomas was only 30g behind in second spot.

Jason Aldis was third with 340g, Andy Wharton fourth with 280g and Graeme Waterfall fifth with 260g whilst the other weights tailed off down to only 10g.

The next match will be fished on the Bradley swing bridge length of the canal on Sunday, June 3.

The warm weather has brought about improved sport on Whinnygill Reservoir where roach and bream have provided most of the sport. Russell Heaton appears to have had the best catch of late when he landed 3,100g of roach and skimmers plus a solitary small perch in an evening session.

As the water continues to warm up, anglers should begin to see more of the carp, rudd and tench that the water holds.

Embsay Reservoir is providing decent sport with tiger, rainbow and brown trout on both the fly and the worm.

Perch are also showing up in increasing numbers mainly on the road side of the water.

On the Skipton lengths of the River Aire the water is getting close to summer level and the weed growth is now affecting bait fishing except on the shallower stretches.

Fly fishermen are enjoying good sport with brown trout and grayling but the size of the fish caught are generally small.

Sport higher up the river towards Gargrave is similar with small fish predominant.