AFTER a few nights with slight frosts, the weather turned rather windy for the weekend but at least the temperature was above the average for this time of the year and the threatened heavy rain never got beyond the west coast.

One or two anglers were in action on the local waters where sport was generally good.

Simon Chenier tried his luck at Embsay Reservoir last Sunday morning where he landed a couple of decent trout, plus six perch all on waggler float tackle fished about three rod lengths out with worm as the bait. His best fish of the morning proved to be one of the perch which measured 35.5cm in length and took the scales down to exactly 1kg.

It is a pity that no one seems to specialise in fishing for the perch in this water as there must be fish there approaching or exceeding the 2kg mark.

The present record perch from the water stands at 1.42kg and was caught in 2007 by local angler, Kevin Barrett, during a fishing match.

Surely a spell of concentrated perch fishing could produce a record breaker for someone and Simon recommends fishing the worm is as good as any method.

The Skipton Angling Association’s other popular water at Skipton, Whinnygill Reservoir, probably also fished quite well due to the milder weather. Recent catches have generally been with quality roach, bream and smaller perch.

Apart from a surplus of leaves on the surface, the canal was also ideal for fishing and some reasonable catches of roach, perch and skimmer bream were landed around the Skipton area.

The centre of Skipton can be very good for big perch in winter especially around the year end with several fish to around the 1.5kg mark being caught in previous years.

The next match in the Skipton Winter League series will be fished on the Aireville Park length of the canal at Skipton this Sunday.

Hopefully, conditions will remain mild although there is the chance of windy and wet weather by the weekend.

JOHN W PRESTON