THE level of the River Aire steadily fell from the beginning of last week and for a time it looked like the match scheduled for the Snaygill length would be fished.

However, on both the Thursday and Friday nights there was some heavy rain which brought the river back to near flood conditions and the Skipton Angling Association match was a casualty of this very wet autumn.

Not to be outdone, match secretary, Simon Chenier, arranged another match at short notice on Whinnygill Reservoir for last Sunday morning, which was supported by the would-be river match anglers.

It appeared that even Whinnygill had finally been affected by all the rain of late and only the perch turned up in any number, although a single ide was also caught.

John Leatt had a good win with 550g to brother Andrew’s 310g. Chenier managed to take third place with 210g, which included the ide. All the rest of the fish were smallish perch.

Anglers fishing the Broughton Road length of the canal have also been catching large numbers of small perch on coloured lures fished near the bottom.

The perch have been very particular about the colour of the lure, which varies from day to day. Pink taking everything one day whilst on the next day, only white would attract them.

Besides the small perch, one angler landed a jack pike plus a perch approaching the 450g mark from the basin area in Skipton.

As the water level began to fall on the Aire, one or two anglers were back in action on the Heslaker Lane length and above Inghey Bridge where the fly has attracted a few grayling up to about the 400g mark.

Very few brown trout have been caught, so maybe their thoughts are on their forthcoming spawning sessions.

One thing is certain, there should be sufficient water in the streams to allow them to access their spawning grounds.

Prospects for the weekend do not appear to be all that good with a forecast of even more rain and windy but relatively mild conditions.

It could rule out the river once again, but at least the canal should be a decent alternative.