Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association

MTAA April 30th, 2009

Following on with our Canoe Access and WAG updates, the below manifesto was released by Eleanor Burnham, a Welsh Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Sport and North Wales Assembly Member.

I am very proud to say that the Welsh Liberal Democrats are committed to changing current legislation in order that Wales most diverse and valuable natural resource can be enjoyed responsibly by everyone.

After in-depth discussion with paddle sport groups, including the WCA, and key tourism representatives, we seek to alter the exemptions listed in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, so it amends and increases what people are allowed to do in or on rivers and lakes.

The current situation restricts access for many people throughout Wales, particularly paddle sport enthusiasts, and means we are missing out on a vast amount of tourism potential, as Wales has the best range and quality of waterways within the smallest area in the UK.

We want to make the most of this fantastic resource and will examine the need for statutory rights of access for everyone as is the case in Scotland.

We have clearly gone much further than any other party in committing to achieving this aim.

Until the access rights to Welsh waterways change, the potential for our most diverse and precious natural resource will continue to go untapped.

A worrying statement indeed. Ms Burnham has failed to recognise that although “Wales has the best range and quality of waterways” these are situated “within the smallest area in the UK”. Also, it is all well and nice referring to the access and facilities on Scotland’s waterways, however, Wales is neither Scotland, nor does it have the same volumes of water on offer as in our sister country.

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MTAA April 29th, 2009

- by Julian Burns

Cyfarthfa Lake

Ian Legge Fished the lake last week and had a cracking day landing 15 carp of varying sizes the largest being 15lbs in weight, he also landed two chub the biggest weighing in at 3lbs in weight all the fish were caught on boillies and pellets.

Pontsticill & Dolygaer Reservoirs

Gareth Davies landed around 50lbs of skimmer bream and perch from Dolygaer last weekend using ground bait feeder and maggots.

River Taff

Gavin Price fished the river at Quakers yard on April the 10th he landed a rainbow trout about 10 inches in length and a salmon parr on a prince nymph, he also landed a wild brownie of around 20 inches on an olive klinkhamer.

On Sunday the 19th of April Gavin ventured out again fishing from Quakers yard to the train station further upstream, this time he landed over 30 fish on nymphs and the klinkhamer. The best fish being a wild brownie of 14inches in length all the fish were returned safely.

Competitions

Merthyr angling held a competition a Cyfarthfa Lake on Sunday, 1st place was Clive Saunders with 11lb 6oz, 2nd place was David Davies with 8lb 1oz, and 3rd place was Ashley Passmore with 8lbs.

The next competition will be held at Dolygaer on the 10th May, the draw will be on Dolygaer dam at 9:00am and the competition will be fished 10:00am until 3:00pm. All are welcome.

Notifications

Members are reminded that there is a keep net ban on all our waters due to the fish kill at Penywern’s Middle Pond.

Anyone with any catch reports or wanting information please telephone Julian Burns on 07850 901 356 or contact the Association via the Contact Us page.

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MTAA April 24th, 2009

Working for the benefit of angling in Wales, the Federation of Welsh Anglers has produced it’s very first newsletter and is included here for the benefit of all members. Please enjoy.

FWA April Newsletter. CLICK HERE to read (Adobe Reader required).

If you have any queries regarding any of the information contained in the above newsletter, please do not hesitate to contact the Association via the Contact Us page.

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MTAA April 23rd, 2009

Following on from the Welsh Canoe Union’s (WCU, and now Canoe Wales) petition for open access to Welsh rivers and the Welsh Assembly Government’s ‘Petition Committee’ response, please see the WSTAA’s April Newsletter below for further information.

WSTAA April Newsletter. CLICK HERE to read (Adobe Reader required).

Also – and I believe these are very worth showing in these troubled times – the below photographs were taken by a member of the Association at the start of the month, and show canoeists using the Merthyr Tydfil town weir fish-pass as a launching point. I think you will agree that the images show a shockingly low level of respect for both property and personal safety.

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MTAA April 21st, 2009

- by Julian Burns

River Taff

John Hodgeson and John Taylor fished the river this week on the fly at Edwardsville, Taylor landed six brown trout on grey dusters and blue uprights and Hodgeson landed five on grey dusters.

Cyfarthfa Lake

Paul Thomas had a good day on the lake last week when he landed three common carp weighing 4lbs, 6lbs 2oz , 9lbs and a nice linear mirror of 10lbs 1oz, all caught on boillies.

Upper Neuadd

Mike Dennehy fished the Neuadd on 3rd April and landed three rainbow trout and one wild brown trout at the top end of the reservoir, using a sinktip lines and green lures.

Competitions

Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association held a competition at Cyfarthfa Lake on Sunday. In first was Ashley Passmore (1lb 11ozs), second place was Dai Thomas (14 1/2oz), and third place was Bernard Farr (4oz).

Notifications

The Association has suffered from substantial unexplained fish deaths on Middle Pond Penywern. All the fish found were small Roach.

As soon as we were informed on Saturday the 11th April we contacted the EA and their Environmental Officer was on the scene in less than one hour. Water samples and the PH of the water checked Immediately, there was no indication of a water quality problem. All the dead fish were collected by club members and taken by the Agency.

Sadly, during the days following, more fish were found dead and by Wednesday 15th over 1,550 roach had been found. In the meantime the Agency carried out an in depth water quality survey that has to date found no problems.

We may never find out what has caused the problem as similar fish mortalities occur from time to time in other areas. The only common factor is that it is now the spawning season for coarse fish and the problem could be related to this.

The Association is also having reports and finding Carp dying. This again does occur this time of year and the Agency do get reports of this happening in other areas.

In view of this the committee have decided to ban the use of Keepnets for one month on all our waters as a precaution, and will notify members when it is safe to use them again.

Contacts

Please telephone the environment agency with any pollution incidents on the emergency hotline 0800 80 70 60.

Catch Reports

Any catch reports please phone Julian Burns on 07850 901 356.

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MTAA April 18th, 2009

For those following the ongoing Canoe Access saga, the below might be of particular interest. Below is a short extract of a report published by the Welsh Assembly’s Petition Committee inquiring into the access along inland water. The full version of the below extract can be found via the link at the bottom of this news item.

This issue is becoming a very big deal, with reports now being mentioned in the national media. It is time we all took notice.

Access to inland water in Wales is a right of equity and social justice

The current situation regarding rights to inland water in Wales is confusing, untenable and unworkable; there should be the same right of public access as there is in Scotland, according to the National Assembly for Wales’s Petitions Committee.

“The rivers of Wales are a natural ‘gift’ that everyone should have the right to enjoy,” said Committee Chair, Val Lloyd AM.

“Access should not be based on the vagaries of permissions bestowed or ability to pay, but on the fundaments of equity and social justice.

“We believe there should be the right of non-motorised access to inland water in Wales as there is in Scotland.”

Val Lloyd made these comments as the Petitions Committee launched its report into a petition received from the Welsh Canoeing Association.

Welsh canoeists are calling for public access rights along inland water to be clarified and for there to be a statutory right of access in line with what has already happened in Scotland.

After a short inquiry, the Committee has formed the view that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act has clarified the situation in Scotland.

“We believe that the clear balance of rights in Scotland has inherently moved the access debate forward onto a more productive footing,” the Committee Chair added.

“Different parties in Scotland have been able to leave behind cul-de-sac positions concerning who has which legal rights on their side.

“We therefore suggest it provides a useful basis from which a unique Welsh model may be developed.”

The main recommendations of the Petition Committee’s report are:

• that a further more wide ranging inquiry be carried out by one of the National Assembly’s Scrutiny Committees with a view to bringing forward legislation in this area, to which all stakeholders would have the opportunity to submit evidence.
• that a full scrutiny inquiry should also consider introducing a mandatory code to accompany the legislation in order that a new right of access along inland water in Wales can be managed and regulated, including some attempt to develop an identification system for regular water users.

The Petitions Committee will now be writing to the Chairs of both the Sustainability Committee and the Communities and Culture Committee to ask whether one of them wishes to take forward the suggestion of a full scrutiny inquiry.

To view the full report please CLICK HERE.

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MTAA April 16th, 2009

The fish kill at mid pond Penywern has been a body blow to us insomuch as we have lost in excess of 1,200 small roach. Last night our Chairman, Gary Davies, visited Penywern to find a further 100 plus fish dead, the Agency collected them this morning. The question of possibly stopping fishing was raised as well as the temporary banning of keepnets, no one could give a definitive answer.

This morning and this afternoon Gary again visited the pond and found 4 dead fish 2 of which were fresh. Gary is set to visit the pond again this evening and tomorrow morning. If any quantity of dead fish is found then Association will more than likely close the pond to all fishing.

Gary was also approached by a member of the public earlier today who informed him that last Friday they witnessed an individual catch and retain a carp of approximately 6lbs, the incident happened by the overflow on top pond.

Other News

In the last committee meeting it was brought to the notice of the committee that drug users were frequenting the river bank near the Willows Garden Centre and that quantities of discarded needles were strewn along the bank. John Coombs was delegated to attend the PACT meeting in Merthyr; unfortunately they were unable to deal with this problem. Not to be beaten John went to the Environmental Health Department and today he could report that the department had people clearing the river bank of needles. NICE work John!

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MTAA April 15th, 2009

There was a serious fish kill on Penywern’s middle pond on Saturday 11th April resulting in approximately one thousand dead roach.

The Environment Agency have been in attendance and water quality checks are currently underway. If any more should die then a sample of live fish will be required to send to the lab.

Further updates will follow in due course.

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MTAA April 14th, 2009

- by Julian Burns

Cyfarthfa lake

Antony Davies fished the lake on Tuesday using a waggler float and maggot hook bait, and landed a mix bag of fish with a mirror carp of 7lbs. Christopher Lewis fished the lake for carp on Monday and landed two common carp and one mirror carp on boillies.

Penywern Ponds

John Taylor and John Hodgeson fished overnight at Middle Pond on Friday, Taylor landed one common carp weighing 4lb on artificial sweet corn, and Hodgeson landed seven carp up to 17lbs in weight using ledgered boillies with a running ledger.

Upper Neuadd

Ceri Thomas has been fishing this reservoir recently, last Sunday he landed a mixture of brown trout and rainbow trout up to two pound in weight.

Talybont Reservoir

Ceri Thomas fished Talybont on Wednesday 1st April and landed six wild brown trout up to 1lb 8oz in weight.

River Taff

John Hodgeson and John Taylor fished the river on Monday, Taylor landed three trout on a gold head hares ear nymph and John Hodgeson landed one fish on a muddler. Philip Jehu and Mark Williams also fished the Taff recently, Philip landed two trout and Mark continues to be in pursuit of his first Taff fish of the season.

Competitions

The competition postponed for the 08/02/09 on Cyfarthfa Lake will now be held at 19/04/09 instead. Also the match on Penywern’s top pond on 26/04/09 has been relocated to middle pond at the same time.

Notifications

David Thomas has now taken over as the new coarse match secretary. David can be contacted via 01685 386 166 for any information.

Due to the fact we are having problems with fly tippers and members not locking the barrier at Penywern’s top pond, it was decided that any member who is present on the pond when the barrier is left unlocked will suffer the consequence of having his/her license confiscated for a set period of time. If any member is identified as the person who left the barrier unlocked he/she WILL lose their permit.

Farewell

Ian Cathrew has resigned as vice chairman. The committee would like to thank him for all the hard work he has done for the club over the years, tight lines.

Catch Returns/Fishing Reports

If you would like to report a catch please telephone Julian Burns on 07850 901 356 or email the Association via the Contact Us page.

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MTAA April 7th, 2009

- by Julian Burns

Pontsticill and Dolygaer Reservoirs

Stephen Williams fished Car-bay at Pontsticill on Saturday using a ground bait feeder and maggot hook bait and netted around 50 Perch up to 3/4lb in weight.

Pike fishing is now closed on these waters until June 16th.

Penywern Ponds

Mark Lewis fished the middle pond last weekend, and after an early start landed a mixed bag of fish on a swim feeder and maggot hook bait.

Cyfarthfa Lake

Lee Evans used float fished maggot and sweet corn at the lake recently and landed a mixed bag of fish with some nice tench.

Matthew Cannon and John Hodgeson fished the lake for carp last Saturday; Matthew landing three common carp on boillies (the largest weighing 11lb), with John landing one mirror carp weighing 3lb 2oz.

Jamie Preece also fished the lake on Saturday and after a long fight putting his umbrella up, he landed a 4lb common carp on boillies.

River Taff

The fishing on the Taff has been quite difficult recently perhaps due to the low water levels and the varying weather conditions. John Taylor tried his luck last weekend, however, and landed two brown trout weighing around a pound in weight on worms.

Upper Neuadd

Brian Powles fished the top end of the Neuadd last Friday and landed three brown trout using lures and nymphs. John Taylor landed one fish at the Neuadd last Friday using sinking lines and lures.

Catch Returns/Fishing Reports

If you would like to report a catch please telephone Julian Burns on 07850 901 356 or email the Association via the Contact Us page.

Season/Day Permits

Anyone requiring season or day tickets please contact the Association via the Contact Us page. Day tickets are also available from Merthyr Tydfil Angling Center on Cefn High Street (Tel: 01685 379 809).

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