Our Rivers
Settle Anglers have waters on the Ribble both North and South of Settle, a still-water at Winterburn and a couple of miles of river fishing on the Wenning near Clapham.
The Ribble at Settle is a good river for brown trout, sea trout, grayling and salmon. Downstream of Settle in Rathmel Deeps, there are chub and grayling and the occasional barbel which seem to make its way there.
Upstream the club’s waters end at Stainforth Packhorse Bridge and downstream the waters end just above Rathmell Beck though there is another stretch of water about 1.5 miles in the club’s possession at Arnford near Long Preston.
No stocking takes place in the rivers and we have adopted a wild trout policy along with riverine habitat improvement.
The wild trout are wily and test the anglers’ expertise, on the other hand, the grayling has prospered and we have now created an excellent grayling and trout fishery catching similar numbers of both species in a season.
The reservoir at Winterburn is an excellent addition to our waters, being situated in a wild environment on Malham / Winterburn Moor and stocked with good-sized brown trout. It is a 28-acre body of water used primarily for maintaining the water levels on the Leeds/Liverpool canal. There are a good number of wild brown trout maintaining their numbers by breeding in the feeder streams, we also introduce a good number of triploid trout during the fishing season and these are primarily table fish for members as it is hoped the wild fish are left to maintain their own kind. Plenty of wild trout seem to have survived well and established a breeding population in the feeder stream.
The Wenning is probably better known for its sea trout. At one time the Wenning was a great sea-trout river; in recent years numbers have varied, but there are habitat schemes and fencing to limit farm animal’s access to the river, good numbers of wild brown trout inhabit the waters and again offer challenging sport to the discerning angler, a pretty river where solitude can be found.