RIVER anglers look like having to bide their time for a few days at least after all the rain that has fallen in the last week or so.

The River Aire has been running near bank top and on two occasions there has been some extensive flooding of the fields from Niffany down to Cononley.

Once the level falls to near normal the fishing should be okay for the rest of the coarse fishing season, but with yet more rain forecast in the coming days it may be quite some time before any successful fishing is possible.

All the heavy rain coupled with lower air temperatures has had an effect on still waters and put the fish off the feed.

Embsay Reservoir has been producing some trout but they have tended to be on the small side.

Tiger trout and rainbows have been the mainstay of catches with fish to just below the 1kg mark.

Whinnygill Reservoir has suffered in a similar manner to Embsay, although some decent bags of bream, ide and roach have been caught.

Both reservoirs are full to the top and Embsay has seen quite a volume of water going down the overflow.

Just prior to the wet weather, the local stretches of the canal were fishing really well with quality fish being caught.

The Broughton Road length, in particular, was producing bream up to 1.82kg and perch to just over the 1kg mark on bread and worm, respectively.

Anglers who have been considering joining the Skipton Angling Association may like to take advantage of an offer of half price membership (£50) from now until the 26 February 2020.

The offer is only for full adult membership and covers fishing on all the association’s waters which are the River Aire, Embsay and Whinnygill Reservoirs and a good length of the canal at Skipton.

Full details, including joining, are available on the association’s website. Go to Skipton Angling Association Public Groups / Facebook find the half price offer and click on freewebstore.org for full details.