It looks like the Environment Agency have started their annual fish survey on the River Aire as a boat and several people dressed in wetsuits were observed just above Carleton Stone Bridge on Monday morning.

Hopefully the results gathered this year will be an improvement on 2009, es-pecially for those obtained from above Silsden, where the number and type of fish were drastically down on previous surveys.

In fact, the results from Cononley were never published and can only have been a blank.

The survey site was changed to about 1,000 metres above Cononley Bridge due to access problems and this particular stretch has always looked quite barren. A survey of my own last week seemed to show the decline in the brown trout population in the upper reaches of the River Aire and its tributaries.

The first spot chosen was Eshton Beck at the Hetton road overbridge.

Not a single fish was spotted rising to the fly and minnows were also absent. The flow was quite good but then the beck at this point carries water destined for the canal, although 750,000 gallons per day should continue on to the river.

The River Aire near Farfield Hall also provided a blank but at nearby Bell Busk, just below the confluence of Otterburn Beck, a good number of small brown trout could be seen rising to the fly.

The beck itself drew a blank at several spots all the way up to Otterburn, although a few small shoals of minnows were present.

The final destination was both sides of the Broughton Road bridge at Gargrave, and here again no fish could be seen rising to the fly.

Minnows were observed and there could well have been a few trout or grayling present that had been put down by the people on the bank side.

A quick glance into the river at Coniston Cold Road Bridge showed no signs of fish rising.

At all the places visited, brown trout should have been present in good numbers, even though the fish would have been small.

In a small beck where I live there are numerous small brown trout this year wherever you care to look. In one small pool in the centre of the village I have counted 19 fish varying in size from 8cm to 25 cm (three to ten inches), happily rising to the fly when sunny conditions have made them easy to see.

Otterburn and Eshton becks should be at least the equal of my beck and until they are, the quality of the fishing on the River Aire is never going to recover.

JOHN W PRESTON