OVER the Christmas period the weather was quite settled with very little wind and overcast skies although the temperature hovered just above freezing point during the whole time.

One or two anglers were to be seen in action on the local waters where they found some fish were in a feeding mood.

The Skipton Angling Association’s open match on Whinnygill Reservoir attracted a reasonable entry on December 30 but once again the fish were conspicuous by their absence and only two were landed.

Kenny Wright had a 650g bream to win the match and David Fenn was runner-up with a 290g ide.

All through 2018 the results in matches on Whinnygill did not bear any resemblance to the catches enjoyed by pleasure anglers and it is hoped this pattern will not be repeated again this year.

As a result of the dry weather, the River Aire gradually dropped to normal winter level and suitable for all forms of angling.

The upper reaches on Heslaker Lane were fished on several days and the maggot attracted some smallish grayling and larger out-of-season brown trout.

Lower down the river bread flake, maggots and sweetcorn have also been successful with trout and grayling plus the occasional chub from the deeper stretches.

The Snaygill length, although suitable for pike fishing has not been visited by more than the odd angler for some time and there are no reports at the moment.

Even Embsay Reservoir has been fished recently and some decent trout have been caught.

The best was a good conditioned tiger trout that took the scales down to 1310g along with a brownie of approximately 900g that fell to the same angler.

Prospects for this weekend appear to be reasonable with mainly dry and relatively mild conditions following a short cold spell with strong northerly winds.