A REASONABLE number of members were present last week for the 112th annual general meeting of the Skipton Angling Association at Skipton Working Mens Club.

In his annual report, secretary Graeme Waterfall said the association had enjoyed another good year with all waters fishing well although the River Aire suffered during the summer months due to the prolonged dry spell.

When fishing resumed, members were delighted to find that the chub population had continued to expand with fish up to 2250g being caught.

Whinnygill Reservoir benefitted from restocking and the hot weather and some good bags of bream, roach, perch, ide, tench and carp were recorded. A near record brown trout of just over 3 kg was also caught.

Only match anglers seemed to miss out on the sport when lower than normal weights were regular during the evening sunset series.

At Embsay Reservoir, members began to reap the benefits of the habitat management programme where the planting of numerous trees and the erection of a strong fence has managed to separate the dog walkers from the anglers along a good stretch of banking.

Other work included cleaning out the feeder streams to help brown trout spawning during the winter months. Sport was good with catches of brown, rainbow and tiger trout including a tiger weighing 1730g.

Sport on the association’s length of the canal was reasonable for most of the year and there was the bonus of less boat traffic due to the closure of the canal at Gargrave due to the shortage of feeder water.

On the financial side, the association had made a healthy profit even though there had been a reduction in mainly junior members.

Increased day ticket sales had almost made up for the subscription reduction such that there will be no increase in subscription rates this year.

Treasurer Pete Smith handed over the reins to Dan Tipling after three years at the helm during which time he successfully guided the club through the twists and turns of Paypal financial management.

Richard Tordoff took over as events and restocking manager whilst Graeme Waterfall took on a much reduced interim secretary’s position while a replacement general secretary is found.

John W Preston