ALTHOUGH the weather was excellent and the River Aire was in ideal angling trim, the coarse fishing season drew to close last Saturday evening on a very quiet note indeed, (writes John Preston).

A trip down the river from Carleton Stone Bridge to the Skipton AA's bottom limit, fishing the sprat for pike, failed to produce a single take and in the clear water, not one fish of any description could be seen.

Only two other fishermen were in action and they were fishing the length upstream of Inghey Bridge at Niffany. Sport was similarly poor, with just the odd small trout taking the fly.

Overall, the 2003 coarse fishing season has been very poor as far as the River Aire was concerned and around Skipton in particular. The rather wet summer and autumn did not help and prevented many anglers from wetting a line.

On the Skipton water, October saw the capture of a good 18lb pike from the railway bridge pool on Heslaker Lane and this seemed to auger well for the coming traditional pike season. This was not to be, however, and nothing of any note was caught between then and February, when a 22lb fish was caught on the Heslaker Lane straight.

Chub fishermen have enjoyed some good sport in the past, but not last year. Throughout the season the fish were hard to find and a bag of more than two fish was rarity. The Skipton lengths fished very poorly and the best chub of the season tipped the scales at 5lb.

In the Skipton water not a single dace was caught and even at Kildwick, where over 35,000 dace, roach and chub have been introduced in the last 15 months, the benefits were minimal.

Nor do prospects for the future appear promising unless the Environment Agency can discover what is wrong with this once prolific coarse fishery.

In the circumstances, there should be some added interest for anglers interested in ecology issues and best practices when an illustrated talk is given by Alan Maden, secretary of the Manchester Anglers' Club at Linton Court Gallery, Settle on Thursday at 7:30pm.

The presentation will focus on the ecology of salmon and the work that the club does to enhance conservation in the river.

There will be a charge of £1 for members of Craven Conservation Group and £2 for non-members.