FOLLOWING the freshlets a couple of weeks ago, the return to warm, sunny weather has soon seen river levels revert back to what has been the norm for most of the last three months.

A few fly fishermen took advantage of the extra water to fish the River Aire but all in all, their reward was sparse with just a few small brown trout and grayling turning up in catches.

Prospects may improve this weekend with a forecast of heavy rain overnight from Friday into Saturday but it will need to be heavy to sustain a higher water level.

Canal anglers are turning away from the local lengths at moment due to the weather conditions and the quite heavy boat traffic.

All stretches will produce fish but they are generally on the small side unless you fish early on in the morning.

Embsay Reservoir is almost full to the top due to a good flow out of the main feeder pipe from Scar House reservoir.

The third match in the series for the Peter Hart Memorial Trophy will be fished on Embsay this Sunday with draw at 8am and fishing from 9am until noon.

Competitors can expect to catch plenty of small perch but there is always the chance to get amongst the bigger fish including the odd carp that the water contains.

Skipton Angling Association’s Sunset Series of evening matches on Whinnygill Reservoir is nearing its conclusion and at the penultimate match, John Leatt enjoyed another easy win to put him almost out of reach of his nearest rivals.

All he has to do at the final match is turn up and catch a single fish to get his hands on the trophy.

At the last match, Leatt weighed in 1,200g of roach, perch, rudd and ide whilst Simon Chenior was second with 370g.

In third place was Russell Heaton with 240g and Malcolm Mawson fourth with 90g.

The league table is as follows: 1 John Leatt 72pts, 2 Russell Heaton 64, 3 Simon Chenior 62, 4 Malcolm Mawson 59, 5 Mark Bradley 37.

Pleasure anglers fishing the reservoir have enjoyed some good bags of fish with decent size roach, tench and skimmers together with rudd, perch and gudgeon.

Only carp and brown trout seem to be evading capture at the moment.