THE change to rather unseasonal temperatures and reasonably decent weather certainly brought the anglers out in force last weekend, especially on the River Aire where all the popular parking spots were occupied by vehicles.

Sport was quite good, but unfortunately it was mainly with the out of season brown trout which readily took any bait offered.

Some decent fish turned up to well over the 1000g mark, but where were the chub and grayling that should be featuring in catches at this time of the year?

Some Skipton members believe the chub are present but they are rather cagey and therefore difficult to entice.

Ground baiting does not help as it only attracts trout into the swim and once they are there they are the quickest to the hook bait every time.

It could be that there are not all that many chub around, especially big fish over the 1800g mark.

Remember, it is only three or four years ago that the chub revival started and the early fry will still be relatively small.

With regard to the grayling, it has not been a particularly good season for them with last summer’s drought followed by a wet and coolish winter.

Catches have been poor for some time and one local angler reported not catching a single fish for a month on each side of Christmas.

Last weekend could have been good for pike fishing with the river down to a decent angling level. I only saw one angler intent on fishing for pike but he had not even tackled up when I approached him.

Apparently, Embsay Reservoir has been poor for the rainbow trout and very few have been caught up to recently.

The reservoir is a cold place at this time of the year, but the water will be starting to warm up so may produce some better fishing until it closes for fishing from February 28 to March 24, both days inclusive.

Prospects for this weekend should be even better with a forecast of temperatures approaching 17 degrees Celcius, which should benefit all the local fisheries.

JOHN W PRESTON