Taf Fechan Pollution

The pollution incident that occurred on 13 August 2006 was bought to court by Environment Agency Wales on Monday 17^th Sept. Welsh Water and the treatment works operators at Pontsticill water treatment plant United Utilities were each fined £13000 for allowing Aluminium Sulphate to discharge into the river and £3500 for killing fish plus £4000 costs. The fines totalled £40,000 each the largest fine for this type of pollution. Since the pollution incident United Utilities have carried out a great deal of work to stop incidents like this occurring again. MTAA netted the town weir in 2006 and the fry from the large trout we captured are being reared by Environment Agency Wales at their hatchery and will be stocked in the Taf Fechan next year when they will be about 5" long. Electro fishing results have shown us that there are no trout below the Clun Bridge and above the bridge are the few small fish we stocked from the town weir. The river will take a number of years before it will be at its productive best.

River Taff

Last weekend the Welsh Fly Fishing Trials to select the rivers team to represent Wales in 2008 was held on the River Taff between Aberfan Road Bridge and the Viaduct at Quakers Yard. 14 anglers competed to represent Wales at next year’s home international on the River Tummel in Scotland. The 14 anglers started fishing at 10.30am and finished at 5.30pm with a break for lunch. They caught 132 trout all of which were measured and returned to the river. One of the participants was MTAA member 18 year old Phillip Jehu who through hard work succeeded in gaining a place in next year’s team. It will be Phillips 1^st time and he will be presented with his Welsh cap next June when the competition takes place. All members of MTAA will wish Phillip well and hopefully the Welsh team will come back with the gold medal. Moc Morgan the Secretary of the Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association praised MTAA for all the hard work done to make the day a success. He also praised the river for its excellent fishing.

The season for river fishing for brown trout comes to an end on Sunday 30^th September; this applies to the River’s Taff, Taf Fawr, Taf Fechan, Tarrell and the River Usk.

Competitions

The result of the fly fishing competition held on Sunday on Talybont Reservoir is 1^st Bob Wyn 1 trout for 2lbs 2oz and Richard Price caught 1 trout for 6oz. The reservoir fished very poorly and most anglers struggled.

Cyfarthfa Lake

Mark Moore caught 2 tench and a bream when he fished from the grass bank on Sunday Carl Edwards and Mr Szitetvera caught 3 carp between them the biggest 6lbs. Jonathan Stibbs caught a 1lb chub when fishing from peg 39 he used sweetcorn to tempt the fish Luke Shepherd was fishing for carp and landed a tench. Corry O’Conner landed a 3lb crucian carp whilst fishing from peg 29. Young David Jenkins was fishing with his father Chris David had caught 10 roach and Chris had caught 5 carp to 3lbs. Richard Morgan was catching roach on Sunday. Leon Osborne caught 2 bream when he fished on Saturday. Ross Nichols caught small skimmer bream and small carp on Sunday. Mark Jones caught crucian roach and small carp. Kevin Stibbs fished from peg 10 across to the lilies on a feeder and landed a lot of crucian carp. Nathan Greenaway was catching crucian carp and small carp Garry Price and his son Sean were competing to see who could land the most fish and for a change Garry was winning catching roach.

Upper Neaudd

Mark Osborne fished the far side of the reservoir last week and caught 2 brown trout his fishing partner also landed 2 wild brown trout and John Dee who fished from the car park side of the reservoir landed 2 stock trout

River Taff/River Usk/River Tarrell

The season for fishing for brown trout is rapidly coming to a close. The season ends in 10 days time on Sunday 30^th September. Nathan Greenaway caught a 2lbs rainbow trout at Jackson’s Bridge. Concern has been expressed about the River Taff and the poor season this year. I would like to hear if you have had a good or poor season this year whatever method you have been using. Please contact me on 01685 375526 and let me know how you have noticed a decline in the fishing.

Competitions

The final fly fishing competition will be held on Talybont on Sunday 23^rd September. Competitors will meet at the lay by and fish from 1pm until dark weigh in will be at the lay by.

40^th Anniversary

Tickets are still available for the Associations 40^th celebration evening on Friday 5th October 2007, contact a member of the Committee or call the Treasurer on 01685 723520.

Top and Middle Pond

Carl Vaughan squeezed an hours fishing on Wednesday evening and landed a 16lb 8oz common carp. Adrian James caught a 10lb carp last Sunday evening. James Dunn caught a 7lbs carp early on Sunday morning. Mick Richards caught 13 carp overnight biggest one 12lbs. Michael Giles caught a 14lbs 8oz carp Saturday evening. Jeffrey Sergeant caught 6 carp to 12lbs.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Bargoed sea angling club, Colin, Mike, Owen, young Owen, Keith, Mark, Paul, Rachael, Gypsy and young Gareth were out on tour and had found their way onto Dolygaer they were all hoping to catch bream but the perch were grabbing their bait before the bream could see it. Anglers are warned that when fishing in remote areas they should not leave anything of value in their cars and make sure everything is locked out of sight.

Upper Neaudd

An angler had left a waistcoat on the fence by the car park last Thursday and would love to have it back, if you found it ring Tony Rees 01685 723520, a small reward is offered.

Competitions

Aberglias anglers fished the old canal at White Springs fishery. Terry Jones came 1^st with 39lbs 4oz of carp and bream caught using with sweet corn hook bait. 2^nd was Terry Games with 30lbs 10oz and 3^rd Graham Davies with 29lbs 6oz.

Top Pond

Gwyn Peters landed 4 carp on Sunday the largest a 10lbs linear carp. Frank Morgan has fished the pond during the week and caught 11 carp the biggest 11lbs 6oz common carp all of Franks carp were caught using floating baits. Jonathan Casey netted 8 carp the largest 12lbs, Gavin Caviel had a 9lb mirror carp, 10lb 8oz common carp and his best carp to date 14lbs 6oz. Gareth James netted 2 carp 6lbs 2oz and 8lbs 11oz and Jeffrey Sergeant netted 9 carp the best weighed 9lbs.

Middle Pond

Andrew Powell was catching skimmer bream and roach on Sunday; Jeff Richards was also catching skimmer bream, roach and perch. Dan Galleozzie caught a 5lb bream and a 3lbs tench, Gavin Morgan was catching roach and gudgeon Liam Jones caught perch bream and gudgeon on Saturday total bag 6lbs 8oz.

Cyfarthfa Park

The pipes supplying the lake with water have been unblocked and the water is now flowing into the lake again. Ken Dominy was fishing a feeder and 6mm pellet hook bait to tempt a really good net of bream, roach, tench, small mirror carp and crucian carp, (see the web site for pictures), Kevin Stibbs was fishing nearby and he also was catching roach, tench and crucian carp. Nathan Greenaway caught crucian carp, small carp roach and bream and on Wednesday he caught skimmer bream, carp and roach. Mark Owen caught 6 carp to 8lbs and small perch using sweetcorn hookbait. Tom Jehu and Ryan Williams were catching roach.

Upper Neaudd

The reservoir is switching on and off, one day fishing well and fish rising the next day all the fish are down. There was a big hatch of flying ants last week and anglers lucky enough to be fishing that day did well. Brian Powells caught and released five fish on Friday using wet patterns and Wynford Rees caught one.

Top Pond

Phillip Fear was fishing the pond on Sunday and landed 5 carp the biggest one weighed 11lbs. Also on Sunday Morgan Jones was fishing for and catching a lot of perch using a worm hookbait. Neil Richards caught 1 carp on Sunday that weighed 5lbs and during the week he caught 7 carp the heaviest being one of 14lbs.

Middle Pond

Connor Matthews caught a 7lb carp and a 4lb carp. Brian Prothero had an excellent day during the week catching carp, roach, tench and skimmer bream. Skimmer bream and a 5lbs tench, Brian Evans caught 10 skimmer bream a 2lb tench and a 12lb carp on Wednesday. David Thomas bagged up on skimmer bream using a waggler rod and float, got snapped so using the top 2 sections of his pole just 18 inches from the bank and caught one carp 6lbs and one 9lbs and lost 6.

Dolygaer

Ken Dominy and Kevin Stibbs were fishing Dolygaer and were hoping to catch bream but were catching lots of small perch. Daniel Williams caught a 5lbs jack pike on Saturday afternoon.

Competitions

The Aberglais Anglers fished a competition at Holgan Farm on the Top Lake. 1^st was Peter Payne who bagged up with 43lbs 2oz, 2^nd was Gary Miles with 36lbs 7oz and 3^rd was Colin Rees with 35lbs 10oz, Peter used a long pole and sweetcorn hook bait for his winning weight. On Sunday 2^nd September MTAA anglers fished a competition on Cyfarthfa Park David Davies won with 10lbs 4oz of small skimmer bream and crucian carp, David used a feeder with bread crumb groundbait and sweetcorn hookbait, 2^nd was Ian Cathrew with 8lbs 2oz and 3^rd was David Thomas with 7lbs 4oz. The next competition will be held at Redhill Fishery Monmouth on Sept 30^th draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm. On Sunday 23^rd Sept there will be a fly fishing competition at Talybont Reservoir meet in the lay by and fish from 1pm until dark.

40^th Anniversary

Tickets are now available for the Associations 40^th celebration evening on Friday 5th October 2007. They are available for members only, either contact a member of the Committee or call the Treasurer on 01685 723520.

Cyfarthfa Park

David Davies fish from peg 2 last Wednesday and bagged up with 25lbs of skimmer bream, crucians, carp, tench and roach. Daniel Lewis had caught one carp when I spoke to him on Sunday and Jonathan Stibbs caught a small carp and a bream ,Nathan Greenaway was catching crucian carp and roach and Cameron Barlow was catching roach. Gareth James caught crucian carp and bream.

Cyfarthfa Park

Gavin Morgan caught 2 carp that weighed 3lbs, crucian carp and 2 skimmer bream. Ben Jones landed a 7lb common carp. On Sunday morning Clive Saunders was fishing to the island and using worm hook bait he caught skimmer bream, crucian carp, tench, roach and carp. Ellis Evans landed a 3lb common carp and his dad caught a bream using sweetcorn. Mark Owen landed 3 bream and 2 carp. David Cousins and Fred Dickens on holiday from London caught tench carp and bream on Sunday morning. Shaun Hicks caught 2 carp and tench. Mark Moore caught 18 fish on Saturday the biggest weighed 3lbs and on Sunday morning he caught 10 carp and 6 tench and his brother Brent Moore caught a tench of 2lbs and some small carp

Litter

Our ponds and reservoirs are being left in a very poor state by unthinking anglers who are leaving line and litter on the banks. All members are reminded that if they fish from any bank where there is litter they are responsible for that litter and should collect it up and place it in the bins provided. The committee would like to thank Garren Caviel who collected a very large bag of litter around the car park at Top Pond which he took home and disposed of.

Top Pond

On Sunday Garren Caviel caught a 7lb common carp on Sunday and Phillip Fear caught 9 carp the largest was a 12lbs mirror carp. John Clegge landed 2 8lb common carp on Sunday morning. Frank Morgan has caught 12 common carp last week the largest being 10lbs 4oz.

Middle Pond

Brian Evans caught a 5lb bream when fishing with his son Ellis they also caught skimmer bream, roach and perch. Daniel Williams caught a carp 12lbs on Thursday afternoon.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

If anglers choose the days they fish the reservoirs are fishing well. Both need cloudy and breezy weather to produce the best fishing. This was the case with Jeff Richards when he fished last week he ended the day with an excellent bag of bream, roach and perch. Graham Warne, Brian Lee and his dad Gerald were fishing Dolygaer on Sunday on the exchange ticket with Glamorgan Anglers and caught a lot of bream to 6lbs, roach 1lb plus and perch.

Cyfarthfa Park

On Saturday morning Daniel Williams caught 3 carp and a golden tench the carp weighed 10lbs, 8lbs and 5lbs and the tench weighed 3lbs. Mark Moore caught tench to 1lbs 8oz, carp to 8lbs and perch, his brother Brent has been catching small carp to 2lbs. On Sunday Nathan Gwyn and Gavin Morgan were catching roach and small carp also Ellis Evans caught his very first carp that weighed 3lbs, Kevin Stibbs was catching small bream and roach, his mate Mark Jones was catching tench, roach, skimmer bream and crucian carp. Leo Mahoney caught a carp 3lbs and Daniel Galleozzie caught 2 common carp of 10lbs. Rhys Sullivan caught his 1^st carp 3lbs

Middle Pond

Steve Charleston and his son Chris landed over 70 small bream, John Coombs caught small bream, roach and a 4lb bream Rhys Sullivan caught gudgeon and roach.

Top Pond

Frank Morgan has had a good week last week catching 19 carp the biggest one a 15lbs leather carp, Frank catches all his fish using floating baits. Kerry Linahan caught a 17lbs 2oz leather carp a 7lbs mirror carp 6lbs 9oz common carp a 12lbs 3oz mirror carp and a leather carp of 8lbs. Andrew Griffiths from was catching roach to 1lbs and perch

Competitions

On Friday evening 33 young anglers took part in the final home junior coarse match of the season. Bernard would like to thank all the coaches, all the parents and grandparents who come along and support their children for making this season such a success. The winner of the under 11 competition was Callum Leith with 3lbs 15oz, 2^nd was Ben Jones with 2lbs 10oz and 3^rd was Jarred Goode with 2lbs 8oz. The winner of the over 11’s competition was Daniel Lewis with 6lbs 10oz 2^nd was Rhys Evans with 4lbs 12oz and 3^rd was Matthew Rolls with 2lbs 14oz. 4 senior members fished the competition on Sunday at Dolygaer 1^st was Jeff Richards with 3 perch and 2^nd was Ian Cathrew with 1 perch.

Pontsticill

Cyril Jones and Brian Williams from Fochriw were enjoying a competition to see who could catch the most perch and Cyril was winning.

Committee Meeting

The next committee meeting will be held at 8pm on Wednesday 22^nd August at the Ex-servicemen’s club.

40^th Anniversary

Tickets are now available for the Associations celebration evening on Friday 5th October 2007. They are available for members only, either contact a member of the Committee or call the Treasurer on 01685 723520.

River Usk

The river continues to produce salmon; Martin Humphries fished the boat pool on the mardy beat and landed a salmon of 12lbs.

Competitions

25 junior anglers competed at Cyfarthfa park lake on Saturday morning. The result of the over 11 competition is 1^st was Daniel Lewis with 4lbs 6oz, 2^nd was Stephanie Pinch with 3lb 10oz, 3^rd was Matthew Rolls with 2lbs 1oz. The under 11 competition was won by James Parker who was fishing his 1^st match he won with 5lbs 14oz, 2^nd was Ben Jones with 3lbs 3oz and 3^rd was Callum Leith with 3lbs 1oz. The next competition will be held on Cyfarthfa Park on Friday 10^th August, draw at 5.30pm fish 6pm until 8.15pm. The senior course anglers fished a match at Staunton Court on Sunday. 1^st was Peter Payne with 71lbs 14oz Peter used a pole and sweetcorn hook bait to tempt the carp. 2^nd was Brian Morgan with 65lbs Brian used a groundbait feeder and maggots for his carp and 3^rd was Graham Davies who also used pole and sweetcorn for 48lbs 12oz. The next match will be held on Sunday 12^th Aug at Dolygaer draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm.

40^th Anniversary

Tickets are now available for the Associations celebration evening on Friday 5th October 2007. They are available for members only, either contact a member of the Committee or call the Treasurer on 01685 723520.

Cyfarthfa Park

Gavin Morgan had 4 carp 2-5 lb in weight 6 tench, bream and roach. Mark Moore caught 2 carp 6-7lb one crucian and a small mirror carp. His brother Brent caught 11 carp to 6lb but most of them were crucians at around 3 lb as well as some tench. Sean Hicks caught 8 carp one of which was extremely large. Howard Trott was catching roach, Clive Saunders caught crucian carp and bream from peg 10, Declan Parker and his brother James caught 9 bream and crucian carp. Carwyn Humphries was catching baby carp roach and tench.

Dolygaer

Luke Bunce was fishing for coarse fish caught a small roach, this was taken by a pike and Luke eventually landed the pike which had been hooked in the lip by his size 16 hook, he was using 4lbs line and the pike weighed 12lbs. Ellis Evans and Brian Evans caught lots of roach and perch on Sunday. Ian Jones landed a pike of 6lbs.

Middle Pond

Craig Davies caught a bream of 4lbs last Tuesday, Daniel Howe caught a bream 4lbs on Sunday plus roach and tench, Ashley Jones caught 2 mirror carp bream and a golden tench. Tony and Paul Pedler caught roach and perch on Sunday. On Wednesday Alec McInall caught one carp of 8lbs and a small bream. Daniel Williams caught 40 roach on Saturday. 7 year old Leon Osborne was being taught to fish by his dad and caught small skimmer bream, gudgeon, tench and a large bream. Last Saturday Gavin Davies caught a 4lbs 8oz tench, 3 common carp to 8lbs 8oz and on Tuesday fished with Craig Davies and they caught 10 carp to 10lbs plus a 4lbs bream.

Top Pond

Mark Harris caught a carp of 18lbs and 14lbs 2oz on Sunday, Mark Thomas caught a carp of 8lbs 12oz and Mr. Clegg caught a 10lbs 12oz common carp.

Competition

Aberglias AC fished Redhill Bottom Lake on Sunday. Terry Jones smashed the fishery record for this lake landing 145lbs 7oz. Terry used various methods and baits to tempt his record weight. Gary Miles also smashed the record with 135.3oz again using various methods and baits, 3^rd was Colin Rees with 76lbs. The next junior competition will be fished on Saturday on Cyfarthfa Park draw at 8.30am fish from 9am until 1pm. The senior members will fish Staunton Court on Sunday draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm.

Cyfarthfa Park

The park continues to fish extremely well with all visitors landing fish. Ben Jones caught a common carp of 9lbs 3oz. Mark Wall caught 3 carp to 7lbs and 2 tench, Brent Mawle landed crucian carp a small carp and a tench weighing 1lbs, Jamie Lee Jones caught 3 roach and a 12 carp, Roger Watkins caught roach and bream and small carp, Chris Jenkins caught 8 common carp and 2 mirror carp to 8lbs plus roach and perch and Daniel Gutierrez caught bream and Gavin Morgan caught roach. On Saturday Matthew Maybank caught carp and tench and on Wednesday he caught a 11lbs 8oz carp and 9lbs. 7 year old Jack Morris was catching roach and tench ably assisted by his mother. Ken Dominy was catching small carp and roach. Mark Jones caught roach and skimmer bream, Kevin Stibbs caught tench to 3lbs, roach and crucian carp. Callum Leith was catching roach and small carp. Ross Gimmlet caught small carp and roach.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

The reservoirs are extremely full and difficult to fish because anglers have to find small open patches amongst the trees to cast. On Sunday the only two anglers fishing either reservoir were Jamie Bunce and Lee Parry who were fishing alongside the steel bridge into Dolygaer. They had both caught pike Jamie’s weighed 11lbs and Lee’s weighed 9lbs, they also caught quite a lot of small bream.

Middle Pond

Alec McInall had a nice day on Wednesday using floating dog biscuit he caught a 11lb and a 13lb common carp and on his feeder rod he landed a 3lbs8oz bream. Steve Thomas made his first cast on Sunday and before he could finish setting up his rod on its bite alarm a carp took his pineapple boillie and he landed a 5lbs carp.

Top Pond

On Sunday Mike Thomas landed an 11lbs common carp using tuttie fruittie boillie pellets.

40^th Anniversary

This year the Association has reached the ripe old age of 40. Since life begins at 40 it has been decided that a party will be held on 5th October at Dowlais Labour Club with a disco, buffet and a comedian called Kane . Any member who wishes to attend please see any committee member tickets for this bash will cost £5 and will be selling fast.

Cyfarthfa Park

Daniel Galleozzie got among the carp on when he landed 3 a 7lb, 8lb and a 10lb. Daniel Lewis fished from peg 2 and landed crucian carp and roach, Kian Beddis was catching roach. Darren Morris and Gavin Morgan were catching roach and bream. Roger Watkins was catching small bream and roach Luke Donovan caught a 6lbs common carp Ben and Sam Gibbons were both catching roach Michael Jones caught 8 crucian and a 3lbs carp and Michael Kennedy was also catching crucian carp. Miroslaw Jarosz fished with Ian Legge they caught crucian carp, bream, carp, and roach, all the carp were caught using luncheon meat.

Middle Pond

Owen Rees caught a 12lb common on Friday.

Top Pond

Joel Fletcher caught an 8lbs common carp on Saturday.

Dolygaer

7lbs pike caught on Dolygaer by Daniel Williams

River Taff

Ray Simms visiting from London caught a 6lbs rainbow trout at Aberfan whilst fishing with his brother Dillwyn, he was a bit put out because he wanted to catch brown trout. Dillwyn caught 2 trout on a pheasant tail nymph. Colin Williams caught several trout whilst the river was in flood on Tuesday and lost a very large trout he estimated at 5lbs.

River Usk

The salmon are still running and Dave Howells caught a small one of 3lbs 8oz that was returned to the river, Ken Hart caught one of 10lbs 8oz, Derrek Kerry caught 2 one of 7lbs 8oz and one 11lbs and finally Roger Reagan landed the biggest one of the week that weighed 13lbs. All of the fish were caught on the Kemeys beat.

Competitions

The senior coarse anglers fished at White Springs on the Old Canal. 1^st was Gary Miles with 69lbs 3oz, Gary used a long pole to fish very near the island and used either pellet or paste hook bait. 2^nd was David Thomas with 23lbs 6oz and 3^rd was Peter Payne with 21lbs 9oz and 16 anglers fished. The junior competition held on Friday night attracted 28 keen boys and girls who fished from 6pm until 8pm in the pouring rain. The senior winner with 2 carp for 16lbs1oz was Daniel Lewis, 2^nd Sam Whiting 9lbs 4oz 3^rd Matthew Rolls 6lbs 4oz. The under 11’s competition was won by Craig Davies with 3lbs 12oz of small roach, 2^nd Emily Thomas 2lbs 4oz and 3^rd Ben Jones 2lbs 3oz.

River Taff

Although the river has been difficult to fish during the last few weeks anglers are managing to catch trout. Colin Williams fished through the river at Abercanaid and landed 3 wild trout that he returned and a number of small rainbow trout. The rainbow trout are not stocked by the Association so they must be escapees from Llywn Onn reservoir.

Cyfarthfa Lake

The lake continues to fish very well. Dia Thomas was busy catching every fish in the lake on Monday he fished from the lower numbers on the roadside and caught bream, tench, roach, carp and crucian carp. Sam Gibbons caught roach and perch. On Sunday evening Connor Powell and Jarred Good caught 25lbs of carp between them consisting of crucian carp and common carp to 10lbs. Brenton Moore caught 6 carp on Sunday his brother Mark caught 8 carp biggest 9lbs and a tench, Mike Kennedy caught 2 carp on Sunday weighing 6lbs and 9lbs Jamie O’Sullivan caught 5 carp. Jonathan Stibbs, Nathan Greenaway and Matthew Phillips were all catching crucian carp. Ken Dominy was having a fantastic day on Sunday he was catching crucian carp, carp, tench, chub, roach and bream using pellet hook bait and groundbait feeder. Gavin Morgan caught carp and roach, Kevin Stibbs caught crucian carp, small carp roach and bream. Steve Charleston caught 7 carp to 16lbs and 3 tench and Dillwyn Simms caught roach, crucian carp and tench.

River Usk

Two irresponsible members of the Association left the gate open on the Ysbytty beat and as a result the farmer has now put a lock on the gate. The Association will ask the farmer for permission to install a stile, in the meantime would members take care when climbing over the gate. Patrick Hemmings landed a 8lbs 4oz salmon fishing the very top beat of the Mardy fishery.

Middle Pond

Shaun Wojnarowicz and his brother Ryan caught 16 carp and 3 bream between them on Saturday. Shaun landed the biggest bream 5lbs and also the biggest carp 10lbs. Calwyn Jones landed a bream and a carp.

Dolygaer

Nicky Stook landed an 8lbs pike, Ashley Passmore was landing bream and perch. On Friday the butt section of a ledger rod was found on the dam, please contact me on 01685 375526 I will then put you in touch with the angler who found it.

Competitions

The final round of the Summer League was fished last Tuesday evening on Cyfarthfa Lake. The winner with 19lbs 7oz was David Thomas, David used a waggler float and pellet hook bait to win, 2^nd was Daniel Lewis with 14lbs 15oz and Steve Crowley was 3^rd with 6lbs 3oz. the winner of the 2007 summer league is David Thomas with 36 points, 2^nd was Steve Crowley with 34 points and joint 3^rd were Daniel Lewis and Phillip Jehu with 30 points each. The next junior competition will take place on Friday evening draw at 5.30 fish 6pm until 8.15pm.

River Usk

Last week was again very wet with heavy rains bringing all the rivers into spate condition. The River Usk was no exception, whilst the weather was bad news for most people it was good news for the salmon fishermen with plenty of salmon making their way up river, a very unusual occurrence in July when normally the river is very low and just about flowing and the salmon confined to the estuaries. Howard Rubbery was attempting last Friday to catch a salmon, he had tried the previous 2 Friday’s and had hooked salmon but was unable to land them, this time however he was successful and landed a freshly run 9¾lb cock salmon on the Kemeys beat. Mr. T. Watkins landed a 7lbs salmon from our Mardy beat and Martin Humphreys was very fortunate landing a salmon of 9lbs and one of 13lbs these fish were caught at the top of the Mardy beat when Martin was fishing from the upper two groyne’s

Cyfarthfa Park

A junior competition was keenly contested on the park lake on Saturday morning. The under 11’s really got amongst the fish and Emily Thomas landed 9lbs of crucian carp and small silver fish to beat all the boys. 2^nd was Craig Davies with 6lbs 15oz of very small roach and 3^rd was Callum Leath with 2lbs 15oz of small roach All of the young anglers worked really hard to land all their fish and must also be commended for their concentration levels and their ability to keep the fish in front of them. The over 11’s competition was won again by Daniel Lewis with 2 carp for 4lbs 13oz, Daniel worked hard and had to ring the changes to tempt his carp, 2^nd was Rhys Sullivan who fished well having to cope with floating lily leaves being blown in and out of his swim he landed 2lbs 14oz of small roach, 3^rd was Luke Donovan with 1lbs 12oz. The next junior competition will be held on the lake on Friday July 20^th draw at 5.30pm fish 6pm until 8.15pm. Matthew Phillips fished the lake 3 times last week and landed 17lbs, 23lbs and 26lbs of carp and crucian carp.

Middle Pond

Matthew Phillips was fishing with Jonathan Stibbs on Sunday and they were both catching roach to 1lbs. Daniel Galleozzie and Gavin Morgan were catching roach and gudgeon.

Top Pond

Daniel Galleozzie fished the pond on Tuesday in terrible weather conditions but landed a 7lbs carp. Gavin Caviel landed a 11lbs 11oz mirror carp John Casey landed a 7lbs a 10lb and a 15lbs 10oz common carp on Sunday. Michael Kennedy and Jamie O’Sullivan were landing roach and perch. Gavin Martin landed a 9lbs common carp.

Dolygaer

Rachael Richards and Alan Richards were landing skimmers and perch whilst fishing from the roadside of Dolygaer. Gwynne Williams caught a 12lbs pike using mackerel hook bait he also landed a 10lbs pike using a spinner. Ryan Jones caught a 8lbs pike on mackerel. Adam Toomey was fishing with his grandfather Clive Saunders from the dam of Dolygaer and they were both catching roach and skimmer bream. Luke Bunce caught a 10lbs pike and Ashley Jones caught a 6lbs pike both were caught using lamprey.

Award

The Association have been recognised by the Welsh Federation of Coarse Anglers for the coaching they do with children, young men and women and the disabled. The Association work with Environment Agency Wales to deliver coaching through out the South East Region of Wales as well as local schools and community groups. A big thank you must go to all the MTAA coaches for all their enthusiasm and hard work in making these events a big success.

Summer League

The final competition was held last Tuesday 10^th July on Cyfarthfa Lake and Steve Crowley was leading the points table with 28 point followed by David Thomas and Phillip Jehu who both have 26 points any of these anglers could be crowned champion. The last match was won by Steve Crowley with 2lbs 7oz, Phillip Jehu was second with 1lbs 11oz and 3^rd was Dan Lewis with 14oz.

River Usk – Kemeys Beat

They say that one mans misfortune is another’s fortune, and this appears to be the case with the recent rains that we have had. The River Usk has been in spate now for a week and the salmon are running well. Malcolm and Colin Saunders were fortunate to be fishing the Kemeys when the salmon were passing through Malcolm landed 2 one 10lbs 2oz and one 10lb 8oz, Colin went a bit better and landed two weighing 11lbs and 9lbs. All the salmon were caught on a toby spinner.

Cyfarthfa Park

The park continues to fish well and this was reflected in the weights of the junior match fished on Friday 29^th June. The winner of the under 11’s competition was Craig Davies with 4lbs 8oz of small roach and rudd, 2^nd was Calum Leith 2lbs 14oz again with roach and rudd, 3^rd was Nathan Gwyn with 2lbs 3oz of small roach. The winner of the over 11’s was Mathew Maybank with 7lbs 10oz, 2^nd was Daniel Lewis with 5lbs 2oz and 3^rd was Saul Glen 4lbs 7oz. The next junior competition will be fished on the lake on Saturday 7^th July draw at 8.30 fish 9am until 1pm. Gavin Davies caught a very nice 11lb mirror carp and Malcolm Davies caught his very first common carp of 8lbs, on another fishing trip to the park Gavin Davies caught 5 carp the biggest one weighing 9lbs. On Sunday Calum Leith, Alex Wickines and Craig Davies were all fishing from the grass bank on Sunday and had caught about 30 small roach, carp and perch. Sean Hicks was catching carp and tench on Sunday. Jason Powell was catching bream, tench and carp. Ken Dominy caught 7 small carp and roach. Young angler Sam Gibbons caught roach. Hugh Jones, Matthew Maybank, Gavin Morgan, Leon Mahoney, Tony Pedler, Paul Pedler Ben Gibbons, Jack Toomey, were all catching small roach and rudd. Josh Flaherty landed a 10lbs carp.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Father and son Anthony and Rhys Broad from Caerphilly braved the wind and rain on Sunday to fish alongside the steel bridge and they were catching a bream within a few minutes of casting and when I spoke to them they had 18 bream to 6lbs and whilst I was talking to other anglers they were still catching bream. Owen Jenkins and Josh Colcombe both caught pike of 7 and 9lbs. Bob Wintle caught numerous pike to 12lbs. Graham Laidlaw started fishing early on Sunday and was catching good bream, roach and perch Ashley Pascoe was also catching perch, roach and bream. Graham Laidlaw caught 2 pike last Wednesday weighing 5 and 9lbs respectively.

Competitions

The summer league competition fished on Tuesday 26^th June was won by junior angler Daniel Lewis with 23lbs 6oz fishing from peg 26 of Cyfarthfa Park, Dans winning weight was made up of carp, crucian carp and bream caught using a method feeder and sweetcorn hook bait. 2^nd was David Thomas with 20lbs 5oz and 3^rd Mark Moore with 16lbs 4oz. The next match will be fished on 4^th July at Dolygaer. The match fished on Penywern Middle Pond was won by Jeff Richards with 14lbs 4oz of bream and roach, 2^nd was Ian Cathrew with 7lbs 13 oz and 3^rd was Bernard Farr with 7lbs 8oz.

Dolygaer

Kevin Rumble fished the roadside of Dolygaer and caught 17 bream 9 of which were over 5lbs and he also landed some nice roach. Christopher Hughes landed 3 pike to 10lbs. Ashley Jones was catching perch and pike, the pike weighed 7lbs. Sam Whiting caught 3 bream and 2 perch and Nathan Williams caught skimmer bream. Brian Williams and Cyril Jones were catching lots of perch and only one bream of 6lbs

Cyfarthfa Park

Brent and Mark Moore caught 24 carp between them the biggest being 6lbs using a waggler float and luncheon meat hook bait. Kevin Stibbs was fishing the lake on Sunday and he had a great time catching roach, tench, small carp and larger carp to 5lb and crucian carp to 3lbs. Ken Donney was catching small carp and tench. Daniel Lewis caught 4 common carp, 2 mirror carp to 8lbs plus small carp, Jason Powell had a carp 2lbs 8oz and a 1lb bream and Carl Vaughan had 4 crucians to 2lbs. Sean Toomey was catching perch, Ryan Perriman was catching perch and roach, Doug Hawkins caught roach, tench and crucian carp using a pole last week.

Middle Pond

Leon Jones caught lots of gudgeon on Sunday and a tench, Daniel Galliozzie also caught a tench of 5lbs Adrian James and Mark Rowlands. Luke Donovan caught 2 tench weighing 1lbs and 8oz. Junior angler Craig Davies caught an 11lb carp on Sunday. Dean Roberts caught a carp of 8lbs 8oz, Gareth James caught a common carp of 5lbs.

Top Pond

Daniel and Gavin Martin fished overnight on Saturday and landed 13 carp upto 13lbs 8oz.

Kemeys Beat River Usk

John Kinsey landed a 11lbs 4oz salmon on Friday and immediately after caught a sea trout of 6oz, John Matthews caught a 7lb Salmon on Friday and a 14lb 8oz salmon that he returned to the water.

Neaudd

The reservoir seems to switch on and off at the moment, Brian Powles and Wynford Rees fished last Tuesday and had a tremendous day catching trout to 2lbs, yet on a return trip both anglers struggled to catch 1 trout each.

Competitions

Next junior competition will be held on Friday evening the draw will take place at 5.30pm fish from 6pm until 8.15pm.

Penywern Event

On Saturday MTAA in conjunction with the Dowlais Forum and Glamorgan University outreach department GATES introduced 100 young anglers and 8 ladies to fishing. Although the weather was very showery none of the young anglers seemed to mind and when asked if they would like to go back to the tent until the weather improved most just wanted to carry on fishing. For the many coaches a big thank you for turning out and making this a very successful day. A special mention must be made of all the hard preparation work that was carried out by Bernard and Janice Farr. Another two young ladies that worked tirelessly to make the day a success were Hailey and Anna from the Dowlais Forum who put in a lot of work prior to the event.

Top Pond

Brent Parry and Phil Fear fished overnight on Saturday and Brent caught 11 carp between 7 and 12lbs and Phil landed 8 carp to 9lbs. Frank Morgan fished the pond during the week and caught 11 carp weighing between 5lbs and 12lbs. Daniel Martin caught a 11lb common carp on Sunday, Gavin Davies landed one of 4lbs and Gareth and Joy Creswell caught 6 carp to 8lbs a perch of 1½lbs and roach.

Summer League

The summer league began on Tuesday evening with the 1^st competition being held on Dolygaer. Young anglers are beginning to make a big impression on the Association competition scene. 17 year old Phil Jehu has kicked off the 2007 season in style by winning the 1^st round on Tuesday 5^th June. Normally the winning weights are recorded in ounces but Dolygaer fished well and Phillips winning weight was 14lbs 8oz of roach, perch and skimmer bream. Phil used a maggot hook bait under a waggler float fishing from the dam. 2^nd was Steve Crowley who used a groundbait feeder and maggot hook bait to land 10lbs 11oz of skimmer bream. 3^rd was Daniel Lewis who won the last junior competition, Daniel caught 9lbs 7oz of perch roach and skimmers. An angler who landed 2 fish for 8lbs 1oz was David Thomas; David would normally have won with this weight that comprised of a perch of 1oz and a bream of 8lbs.

Competitions

The match fished at Focle Farm near Ross on Wye was won by our competition secretary Ian Cathrew with a weight of 61lbs 1oz. Ian used a float rod, waggler float and hard pellet held onto the hook with a bait band. The fish were up near the surface and Ian fished very shallow to win the match. 2^nd was Paddy Payne who used the same methods to land 53lbs 6oz and 3^rd was Terry Games with 39lbs 3oz. 16 members fished. The next match is on Cyfarthfa Lake on the 17^th June the draw will take place at 9am fish from 10am until 3pm.

Cyfarthfa Park

The committee and members of the Association would like to thank the contractors and the Parks and Engineering Departments of Merthyr Council for all the hard work they have done in restoring the water back into the lake. A boulder had fallen into the feeder along with some trees and had blocked the feeder. To clear all this debris has taken a Herculean effort and is very much appreciated. MTAA introduced children from Gwenthllwyn junior school and Gellifylog junior school to fishing last week. Christopher Hughes caught a 2lb tench carp and bream, Shaun and Liam Toomey and Josh Sweet were all catching roach Jason Powell was catching carp to 6lbs, Sean Hicks caught carp to 4lbs, Chris Richards was catching roach.

Upper Neaudd

The reservoir is fishing well at present and Vince Hughes caught 17 trout all returned on buzzer patterns.

River Usk

Two salmon have been caught recently G. Barrett caught a 12lbs salmon and Mike Dennehy also caught a 12lb salmon on the Ysbytty beat.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Mark Jones was catching bream on Sunday fishing alongside Mark was Matthew Phillips who was catching perch.  The reservoirs are giving up good bags of bream to anglers who fish very early in the morning or into the evening.   If you fancy doing so, please remember to bring plenty of midge cream with you otherwise life is hell>

Competitions

River Taff competition to be held on 10^th June has been postponed until Sunday 17^th June. 19 young boys and girls turned up for the 1^st junior competition of the summer on Saturday. The over 12 competition was won by Daniel Lewis with 6lbs, 2^nd was Luke Donovan with 4lbs 3oz and 3^rd was Matthew Rolls with 4lbs 0½oz 4^th was Stephanie Pinch who was fishing her very first match . The under 12’s competition was won by Callum Leith with 3lbs 2^nd was Craig Davies with 2lbs and 3^rd was Emily Thomas with 1lbs 14½oz.

Aberglias anglers fished at Staunton Court Gloucestershire on Sunday and returning to the match scene after a 12 month sabbatical was David Matthews who once again proved that once a winner always a winner he came 1st with a winning weight of 118lbs 2oz of carp, David used a 4 metre pole with expander pellet hook bait for his winning weight.   2nd was that old stager Graham Davies who weighed in a very useful 104lbs 12oz of carp and joint 3rd were the two Terry's, Terry Jones (junior) and Terry Games who tied with a weight of 84lbs 8oz

Top Pond

Andrew Bailey fished the pond during the week and landed three common carp of 11lb 8oz, 13lbs 8oz and the biggest at 14lbs. Craig Davies caught a 15½lb, 11½ and a 9½ common carp last week. Brent Parry caught 2 carp one 7lbs and one 14lbs, Leighton Ryan caught one of 8lbs. Daniel Beecham caught a personal best carp of 11lbs 8oz. Michael Coombs caught 4 carp biggest one 13lbs 8oz which was also a personal best. Dean Roberts caught 5 carp to 8lbs 13oz.

Middle Pond

The pond will be closed to members on Saturday 23^rd June to allow the Penywern event to take place. The pond will be closed from 8am until 4pm to allow members of the public to be introduced to angling. Carwyn Jones was fishing for carp on Sunday and was catching bream.

Taf Fechan Nature Reserve

There will be a guided walk along the Taf Fechan Nature Reserve on Sunday 10^th June meet at the car park by the blue pool, bring stout shoes, waterproof clothing and a drink and sandwiches. Organised to celebrate biodiversity week.

Cyfarthfa Park.

Disaster has yet again struck the lake in Cyfarthfa Park. A large boulder has fallen into the feeder smashing a wall and blocking the feeder not allowing any water into the lake. Hopefully the council will be able to employ a contractor quickly to remove this obstacle and pipe the breach allowing desperately needed water into the lake. Whilst the water is low the committee have temporarily banned keep nets, except during matches, and they have closed the grass bank and from pegs 36 to 40 on the roadside. David caught about 14lbs of roach and crucians last week and on Sunday he was catching roach, crucians, skimmer bream and tench to 3lbs. Stewart Davies was catching tench, small carp and roach. Liam Withers caught a 5lb carp. Martin Davies caught tench and roach.

Callum Leith has caught a 27½ common carp at Bryn Bach Park last week not bad for a 10 year old boy.

Dolygaer

Jeff Richards was fishing up alongside the road and was catching roach with pike attached and hybrids. Adam Toomey had a good day catching bream, roach and perch.

River Usk

The river is fishing well with mayflies and yellow may duns hatching. Anglers are reminded that they should not wade any further than the middle of the river on our Kemeys beat. Richard Brooks caught a 2lb sea trout on the Mardy beat. Ron Jones and Nigel Morgan have both caught their limits on the Kemeys. With the rain this weekend it could be worth phoning the gauge and fishing for salmon, however, anglers must return all salmon caught until the 16^th June.

Competitions

The 1^st junior competition will take place on Cyfarthfa Lake on Saturday 2^nd June draw at 8.30am fish until 1pm, all junior members are welcome. On Tuesday 5^th June the 1^st Summer League event will take place on Dolygaer reservoir draw at 5.30 fish 6pm until 9pm, members are invited to come along and have a go.

River Taff

The river is fishing extremely well after the recent rains, Dillwyn Sims caught his limit on Saturday, and he lost rainbow trout. Gerry O’Dwyer was going to go fishing with his friend Wayne Evans when he snapped the top of his fly rod, he went home and returned to the river with a spinning rod and caught his limit. John Kinsey landed 3 trout on Monday but also lost several.

Top Pond

Mike Thomas fished the pond on Sunday during all the terrible weather and landed 7 carp from 8lbs to 14lbs, worth getting wet for! On Saturday his son Scott Thomas landed 5 carp from 8lbs to 13lbs. Lewis Rees was also getting wet and catching carp on Sunday he landed one weighing 9lbs and one weighing 16lbs his friend Ryan also landed a carp of 9lb and a skimmer bream weighing 3lbs. David Prowse fished the pond on Tuesday and landed 9 carp and on Thursday he landed 14 carp to 13lbs.

Cyfarthfa Park

Sean Hicks caught a small carp and a tench of 2lbs and a common carp weighing 6lbs and one that weighed 8lbs. Jamie Evans caught a mirror carp about 3lbs Jason Powell caught an 8lbs common. Mick O’Keefe landed a 13lbs mirror carp last Thursday.

Litter Pick

On Saturday 19^th May a small group of volunteers met to pick up litter from the river bank. It was decided that the safest place to do so was by the car park at Willows Garden Centre and 18 bags of rubbish was collected from a very small stretch of bank. I would like to thank Tony Rees, Joe our Portuguese volunteer, young Ryan Walters and Kath Williams from GATES who all worked hard in the rain.

Cyfarthfa Park

The lake is fishing extremely well at the moment Bernard Farr, Dia Thomas and Ian Cathrew fished on Thursday and all of them did extremely well with Ian landing over 40lbs of fish with crucians in excess of 3lbs, tench to 2lbs, skimmer bream, roach and rudd all being caught. Gavin Davies caught a 13lb common carp last Wedesday and last Sunday Callum Leith caught 3 carp of ½lbs, 6lbs, and 8lbs, Craig Davies also caught a carp of 9lbs.

Riverfly Partnership

A free insect recognition course will be held on the 25^/26 July 2007 at the Welsh Water Facility in Cilfynydd. Spaces on this course are limited if you wish to attend please contact Tony Rees on 01685 723520.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Brian Williams caught perch on Sunday, Brian Laidlaw was catching bream and perch but action was very slow. Andrew Powell fished with Jeff Richards last week and both landed over 100lbs of bream. Jeff and Andrew did go to the reservoir the evening prior to fishing to pre-bait and it certainly paid off. Derek Goode caught 70 fish on Sunday morning getting to the reservoir at 5am and fishing until 11.30am. His best bream was one of 6lbs 14oz with many others around the 5lbs mark. Bill Thomas caught 4 bream to 5lbs on Sunday Richard Phillips caught and on Tuesday last Richard caught 4 bream and Bill Thomas caught 1 all about the 5lbs mark.

Top Pond

On Sunday Gavin Davies caught a nice carp of 11lbs 8oz on strawberry boillie. Mark Allis caught a carp of 11lbs and Derek Reeves landed a carp of 15½lbs, Jeffrey Sergeant landed an 18lbs common carp and finally Jonathan Casey landed the biggest fish of the weekend a 22lbs leather carp. Daniel Galeozzie 21lbs leather during the week

Middle Pond

Andrew Bailey caught a lot of skimmer bream and roach, Sean Murphy caught perch to 1lbs and gudgeon, Steve Williams was catching skimmers yet last week he was catching the bigger bream to 4lbs plus roach and tench to 2lbs. Ken Burgess bream to 5lbs, Dean Roberts was catching bream and carp, Martin and Steward Davies were catching skimmers and perch.

Charity Competition on Llandefedd Reservoir

A Cancer Research and Welsh Water boat competition was held on Sunday on Llandefedd Reservoir, MTAA member Mark Williams won the competition with 6 trout and a winning weight of 12lbs 14oz, and in 6^th place was Geriant John with 5 fish for 8lbs 10oz.

Cyfarthfa Lake

The competition on Cyfarthfa Lake on Sunday was won by David Thomas with 23lbs 12oz of crucians, skimmers and roach David used corn and pellet hook bait to attract his winning weight. 2^nd was Steve Crowley with 12lbs 14oz and 3^rd was Bernard Farr with 11lbs. The next competition will be on Dolygaer on Tuesday 5^th June, this is the 1^st summer league match the draw will take place at 5.30 fish from 6pm until 9pm.

Fishing Instruction

On Saturday 12^th May at Cyfarthfa Park Lake members of the Association will be present to assist newcomers to fishing. You do not have to be a member to take part please come along and improve your fishing.

Competitions

There will be a trout competition on Sunday 13^th May on the River Taff. Book in at Lines bridge and fish from 9am until 2pm, book in at the Boys Club Troedyrhiw and fish 9.30am until 2.30pm. The draw for the competition on Cyfarthfa Lake on Sunday 20^th May has been bought forward to 8.45 and the start will be at 9.30am and the finish at 2.30pm this is to allow a community event to take place.   The result of the Aberglais Match fished at Lily Pools Ledbury is as follows;-   1st Gary Miles with 57lbs 8oz of bream, carp and roach caught using pellet/paste on pole.   2nd Graham Davies 48lbs 12oz and 3rd Steve Morris 44lbs 8oz the next match will be at Holgan Farm on Sunday 13th May.

Cyfarthfa Park

Carp anglers are advised that bailiffs will be checking their weights and hooks after barbed hooks and large weights were found decorating the trees on the islands, the weights must not be larger than 1oz and hooks must be barbless. Dan Galleozie caught a carp of 8lbs Richard Thomas was catching carp and roach, Stephanie Pinch was catching lots of roach, Jamie O’Sullivan was catching roach and small carp, Christopher Cook caught 4 tench, Daniel Lewis caught 3 tench and a carp, Dillan Hurfurd caught tench, roach, bream and carp. Sean Hicks caught tench to 2lbs plus lots of roach, Daniel Lewis snr was catching crucian carp, bream and tench, Kevin Stibbs catching skimmers and carp. Everyone I spoke to on Sunday commented on how well the park lake is fishing this spring.

Top Pond

Phillip Fear fished overnight Saturday and landed 13 carp to 13lbs 8oz.    Anglers please be aware that night lines are being laid at this pond and at Middle Pond, should you see anyone laying these lines do not approach them but let a committee member know and if you see the line please pull them in and dispose of them

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Ian Jones was catching skimmers and perch on Sunday, Brian Williams and Cyril Jones had a good catch of bream last week. Stephen Williams, Luke Jones and Tony Jones were catching perch and skimmers, Graham Laidlaw caught perch and skimmer bream. Stephen Dauncey landed a 7lb bream

Upper Neaudd

The following anglers have all enjoyed catching fish John Kinsey, tom Jehu who outfished his brother and dad, David Matthews, Mark Williams and the biggest fish of all was caught by our chair Gary Davies. Malcolm Phillips started fishing early on Sunday morning and landed 7 trout and kept one, he used a Dawl Bach, Bibio and B and P spider.

Talybont

Nigel Morgan and Ron Jones have enjoyed some great fishing on the reservoir with both anglers catching and returning their limit. Lee Johnson landed 3 trout, Mark Williams was fishing with Gavin and Phillip Jehu when the water level suddenly dropped, Gavin then realised it was all in Marks waders he had fallen in! Mark still managed to catch 5 trout.

Cyfarthfa Park

On Sunday Gareth James caught 7 carp between 3 and 7lbs and a bream, Ryan Periman caught 2 skimmer bream, Steve Leigh caught tench, 2lb carp, 3lb carp and roach, Shaun Wojnarowicz caught tench, bream and large roach and a 16lb mirror carp and Nathan Lewis caught rudd and perch and finally Sean Hicks caught a 5lbs Mirror Carp. Last week Callum Leith caught 3 carp, and Gavin Davies caught 16 carp during the week. Zac Phillips and Owain Rees had a good night on the park catching carp.

Middle Pond

Gavin Davies caught a carp weighting 8lbs; Stephen Clarke caught 3 carp and a tench that weighed over 2lbs. An angler, who did not wish to be named, caught tench, bream and carp last Sunday. Luke Donovan was with a pole and catching lots of perch.

Top Pond

Frank Morgan had 7 carp between 7lbs and 13lbs 8oz, Mark Harrison had 2 carp one 8lbs and one 10lbs. Mark Bishop and Jeff Richards fished the pond for coarse fish and both caught perch and large roach. Mark Buckley and his dad Paul were both carp fishing and had caught 5 carp between them Paul’s biggest one was 8lbs and Mark won the match with a carp of 10lbs.

Upper Neaudd

The reservoir is fishing well with most fish coming to small black flies, Mark Powells was using a bibio and caught 2 trout on Sunday also on Sunday Lewis Bell Langford also caught 2 trout on a bibio.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Bill Lewis was fishing for bream on Sunday week and landed a 22lb carp on 4lb hook link and 6lb main line, Bills bait was worm and sweetcorn topped with a couple of maggots. This Sunday he was again fishing for bream and had caught 10 the biggest being 8lbs plus some perch. Brian Williams and Cyril Jones were catching small roach and plenty of small perch.

River Usk – Ysybbty beat

The entrance to the factory has changed during the current road upgrading, please take care and follow the temporary signs and the cones.

Talybont

A small brownie of 3lbs was caught by John Taylor using a black and peacock spider, John hooked the fish quite close to the bank and it took a long time to land it.

River Taff

Reports suggest that the river is really difficult to fish at the moment we need a few days rain to freshen it up. Dillwyn Simms is catching on Dils bug Gavin Jehu is also catching fish on bugs fished under a stimulator dry fly.

Competitions

The competition fished on the River Taff on Sunday 15^th April was won by Phillip Jehu with 2lbs 11oz Phillip caught all his fish on the dry fly. 2^nd again was Malcolm Williams with 2lbs 2oz, Malcolm caught all his fish on worm and third was Stephen Charleston with 1lbs 5oz. The junior competition fished on the same day was won by Gareth Watkins with 2lbs 7oz and 2^nd was Blethen King with 12oz. The next coarse competition will be held at White Springs on Sunday 29^th April 10am fish until 3pm draw to take place at 9am.

Cyfarthfa Park Lake

The lake continues to fish well on Tuesday evening Doug Hawkins took his grandson Liam fishing and between them they caught tench to 2lbs, carp, roach and rudd. On Sunday Carwyn Humphries was catching carp, tench and bream; Graham Leeson and Jonathan Simms were fishing together and were catching roach, tench and bream. Shaun Wojnarowicz caught crucian, 4 common carp and a ghost carp he also landed an 18lb mirror carp earlier in the week. Connor Power caught a carp. Daniel Lewis caught a 16lbs 6oz mirror carp using a boillie hookbait plus crucian carp one of 2lbs and one 1lbs 8oz.

Top Pond

On Monday 16^th April a small work party of members cleaned the east bank of the pond from the car park to the overflow and collected 20 black bags full of rubbish. This is not acceptable and any member caught will be dealt with most severely. Paul Buckley was fishing with his son on Sunday and caught 2 carp but his son caught the biggest one of the day that weighed 12lbs. Daniel Lewis caught 17 carp to 13 2ozlbs using floating dog biscuit held onto the hook using an elastic bait band.

Pontsticill

The reservoir is beginning to produce a few bream Andy Whittock landed 60lb of bream the best 2 being just over 8lbs. Jeff Richards who fishes the reservoirs regularly stated that the fish he had been catching recently have all been small roach, perch and skimmers, however in amongst them are bigger fish and he has been catching steadily every time he has been out. Bill Thomas another angler who fishes Pontsticill and Dolygaer regularly was catching perch on Sunday.

On Saturday 5^th May coaches and senior members of the Association will be present on Cyfarthfa Park Lake, to advise new junior members how to set up fishing tackle and hopefully improve their ability to catch fish. This will take place in the morning from 10 until 12.

Weekly Report for 19th Apr

River Taff

Paul Wojnarowicz and one of his sons had a good evenings fishing on the Taff. They returned all the fish except 3. This is the mark of good Sportsmen and more than in keeping with the Association rules. Jess Jones of Cefn landed a 6lb-8oz Rainbow from the Taff Fawr it was 25ins long and was in perfect condition. He is looking forward to a few excellent suppers.

Top Pond

Garren Caviell, Jonathon Cody, Jeffrey Sergeant have had some good fishing, between them they landed 10 carp over 8lbs. The largest was 14lbs with other notable fish being a 12lb Leather and two common carp of 12lbs and 13 lbs. Frank Morgan caught 2 carp on Sunday one 8lbs 8oz and one 9lbs, Ricky Broome landed one of 9lbs and Mr. Macinall on his very first visit to the pond landed an 8lbs common carp.

Middle Pond

Darren Edwards caught a carp of 16lbs 10oz on a previous visit to the pond Darren caught 2 carp weighing 7lbs 9oz and 13lbs 10oz. Andrew Morgan caught bream and a perch of 1lbs 8oz, his brother Neil was catching lots of gudgeon and roach and Dad Neil was also catching roach on maggot and caster hook bait.

Cyfarthfa Lake

The lake continues to fish well and hopefully once it re-fills after the recent work the fishing will really improve. Dominic Walters fished the lake on Sunday with Leighton Ryan, Dominic caught 11 carp the heaviest was 11lbs, Leighton caught 13 carp the heaviest one was 13lbs 10oz. Jake Jones aged 9 was catching roach.

Competitions

The coarse fishing competition held on Middle Pond on Sunday was won by Dai Thomas. Dai won this closely contested match with a bag of bream and roach that weighed 10lbs 2oz, 2^nd was Paul Lewis with a bag of 9lbs 13oz 3^rd was Colin Rees with 6lbs 10oz and 4 was Ian Cathrew with 6lbs 10oz. The next club match will be held at White Springs on Sunday 29^th April draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm.

CFF Voluntary Catch and Release scheme

The CFF and Environment Agency Wales are running a voluntary catch and release scheme for salmon and sea trout that includes all Carmarthenshire rivers, except the Teifi. They are encouraging all anglers who fish these waters to return salmon and sea trout under 69cms or 27 inches. Bronze, silver or gold badges will be awarded to any angler returning 1, 2, or 3 fish and names of participating anglers will be entered into a prize draw at the end of the season and winners will receive valuable prizes. The scheme will operate from 1^st April to 7^th Oct for sea trout and from 16^th June until 7^th Oct for salmon. Further information can be found on their web site at http://www.carmarthenshire.org.uk they have also requested that all sea trout smaller than 14 inches, 40cms are returned to the water to enable stocks to increase.

Membership

All applications for membership of the Association are by post only, for an application form please ring Tony Rees on 01685 723520.

Rod Licences

Members are reminded that their rod licences have to be renewed.  For fishing for non-migratory trout and coarse fish the cost will be £24.50, for salmon and sea trout it will cost £66.50. Any junior member who is over twelve will need to buy the concessionary licence at £5.  Blue badge holders and people over 65 also qualify for concessionary licences.

Middle Pond

Dillwyn Simms fished the pond last Friday and besides catching roach and perch caught plenty of gudgeon and amongst these small fish was a monster of 7½ inches which must be very close to the British record, Dillwyn thought he had another roach at first until he brought it to the surface, unfortunately he did not have a camera or scales with him at the time.

Upper Neaudd

During the last week the reservoir has fished quite well when the wind dropped. During such a lull Brian Powells caught several trout the best being a wild trout of 2lbs 8oz that Brian said had a tail like a spade and it took several heart stopping minutes to land and return. Brian caught all his fish on a small black spider pattern fished just under the surface.

Competitions

With no local competitions last week several members fished the Sirhowy match at Pixley Pools near Ledbury. Merthyr angler Graham Davies won the match with 33 carp for a weight of 176lbs 8oz.

Weekly Report for 29th Mar

Top Pond

Clive Roberts landed a 12lb carp Ron Broome, Frank Morgan, and Phil Jones landed carp of ten pounds.

Not many people are fishing Pontsticill but Kelvin Rumble was catching perch.  He was disappointed as he usually does better.

Cyfarthfa Lake

Clive Saunders caught some roach and a skimmer, Adrian Evans, Richard Griffiths and Ian Jones from Nantyglo had bream and carp. Brent Parry had two carp of three pounds but earlier in the week he had four chub over a pound each. This is interesting as these fish went in three years ago at three to four inches. They are not caught very often but are increasing in size. Mathew Maybank caught a carp of 12lb.

Rod Licences

Members are reminded that their rod licences will need to be renewed before Sunday 1st April.  For fishing for non-migratory trout and coarse fish the cost will be £24.50, for salmon and sea trout it will cost £66.50. Any junior member who is over twelve will need to buy the concessionary licence at £5.  You need this the day you turn twelve. Blue badge holders and people over 65 also qualify for concessionary licences however the Environment Agency Wales web site does not give the prices for these.

Competition

Junior Gareth Watkins is showing everyone else how to fish the River Taff when he weighed in 3 trout for 5lbs on Sunday. His biggest fish was just over 2lbs and was caught on a worm. 2^nd in the junior section was Tom Jehu with 3lbs 10oz. The seniors’ competition was won by Geriant John with 2lbs 4oz, 2^nd Phil Jehu with 2lbs 1oz and 3^rd Brian Carey with 12oz, both the juniors out fished their elders.

River Usk

The river Usk is proving like the Taff to be very hard to fish at the moment. Ron Jones fished the river last week and did manage to catch 8 undersize fish, Ron fished spider wet fly patterns the pheasant tail nymph and partridge and orange and during the olive hatch that occurred between 12am and 2pm he used a small olive dry fly.

Weekly Report for 22nd Mar

Cyfarthfa Lake

Ian Cathrew fished the lake on Thursday and caught tench to 2lbs 8oz, 15 crucian carp, the biggest of which weighed 3lbs, 16 skimmer bream and roach to 1lbs 6oz, Ian fished a pole at 7metres with sweetcorn hookbait to tempt his fish. Leighton Ryan was carp fishing the lake on Sunday and when I spoke to him he had landed one carp of 10lbs.

River Taff

The river is very reluctant to yield its trout to fishermen at the moment; it is low and very clear combined with very cold winds, which is making fishing extremely difficult. Anglers are struggling to make their bag limits of 4 fish. I spoke to Simon Jones on Sunday who was fishing behind the daggers, he had landed and returned one undersized fish and his friend Aaron Phillips caught a trout of 2lbs using a spinner to tempt the fish. Aaron also fished the same area on Friday and caught a trout of 12".

Competitions

On Sunday 6 Iron men from MTAA fished Cyfarthfa Park for the Hancock cup. They had to be Iron Men to fish the lake because the weather was so horrible, with sleet, icy winds, hail, rain and sunshine. Ian Cathrew won with 18lbs of small carp, some large roach, skimmers and lots of small roach, Ian used a pole with maggot hookbait for his winning weight. Peter Payne came second with 15lbs 4oz Peter was using a feeder filled with bread crumb and sweetcorn and maggot hookbait. 3^rd was David Thomas with 13lbs 8oz. the next coarse competition will be held on Middle Pond on Sunday 15^th April, the draw will take place at 9am fishing from 10am until 3pm.

The next trout competition will be held on the River Taff on Sunday 25^th March, meet at lines bridge and fish from 9am until 2pm, meet at Troedyrhiw boys club and fish from 9.30 am until 2.30pm. The senior anglers will be fishing for the Arthur Cope cup and the juniors for a club trophy.

Talybont/Upper Neaudd

Both reservoirs opened for fly fishing last Tuesday and hopefully we will have another good season on both reservoirs.

River Usk Kemeys Beat

Anglers are reminded that they can wade to the centre of the river and fish to both banks. To wade any further would be breaking the law, please respect the other owners fishing rights.

River Taff

Steve Charleston tempted a very nice 18" trout out of Pullmans pool on Tuesday, also on Tuesday John Kinsey managed to get a couple of hours fishing and chose to fish the Blue Pool he lost 4 fish and landed 2 using a worm hookbait. On Wednesday I fished at Aberfan and caught 2 trout on a pheasant tail nymph and Brian Rich has landed the biggest trout so far it was weighed by Quakers Yard Store at 3lbs 6oz. Daniel Howe fished the top end of the river on Monday caught 2 trout of 1lbs and 1lbs 8oz.

Competitions

The results of the junior competition fished on the River Taff on Sunday 11^th March for the Sherman Cup are 1^st Gareth Watkins with 3 trout for 5lbs 4oz, Gareth also caught the largest trout that weighed 3lbs 1oz, 2^nd was Connor Charleston with 4 trout for 3lbs 4oz and 3^rd was Thomas Jehu with 2 trout for 2lbs 11oz. The senior competition for the Booth Cup was Mark Williams with 3 trout for 4lbs 14oz, 2^nd with 4 trout and 4lbs 5oz was Bill Carey and 3^rd was that old stalwart Malcolm Williams with 3 trout for 4lbs 1oz. The next Trout competition will take place on Sunday 25^th March. Aberglias anglers fished Red Hill Farm Middle Lake on Sunday 11^th March 1^st was Colin Rees with 24lbs 8oz, Colin used a pole and pellet hook bait from peg 2. 2^nd was Terry Jones with 20lbs 12oz and 3^rd was Ian Cathrew with 19lbs 8oz. The next MTAA coarse fishing competition will be held on Sunday 18^th March on Cyfarthfa Lake the draw will take place at 9am competitors will fish from 10am until 3pm.

Upper Neaudd/Talybont Reservoirs

Both Reservoirs open for trout fishing on Tuesday 20^th March and both reservoirs should be fairly full, so a careful approach to the bankside is highly recommended.

Pontsticill Dolygaer Reservoirs

Both of these reservoirs are now closed for pike fishing until the 16^th June. Coarse fishing for perch, tench, roach, carp and bream is still allowed.

Cyfarthfa Park

Jarred Goode fished on Saturday with his friend they were both catching roach to 1lbs. On Saturday Leighton Ryan landed 2 carp 8lbs and 10lbs and Brent Parry landed one that weighed 8lbs. Matthew Maybank caught a common carp of 3lbs 8oz

Middle Pond

Steven Thomas caught a carp that weighed 4lbs and a bream that weighed 4lb 8oz on Friday 9^th March.

Cyfarthfa Park

Malcolm Williams and Bernard Farr fished the lake on Monday and using either maggots or sweetcorn as hook bait they landed crucian carp to 1¾lbs, bream, hybrids and roach.

Fly Tying Competition

The fly tying competition took place in the ex-service4mens club last Thursday evening. Gavin and the judges were very pleased by the high standard achieved by both the senior and junior competitors. The junior competitors tied a black and peacock spider, Montana nymph and a creative fly. The judges gave 1^st place to Carwyn Roberts and joint second to Luke Cotter and Rhys Sullivan. The senior fly tiers tied a black and peacock spider, a klinkhammer and then a fly of their choice using materials already used in the construction of the first 2 flies plus 3 others. The judges gave the 1^st prize to ex coarse angler and club champion David Matthews who tied for his creative fly a plaited detached body damsel fly. Keep reading the column and information on the continuation of the fly tying classes that will appear here?

River Taff

The first couple of days of the season have been washed out by the heavy rain although I have heard that 2 anglers who were fishing down at Aberfan landed 2 nice over wintered stockies that weighed !½lbs. Anglers are reminded that the bag limit has been reduced to 4 fish per day. Sunday afternoon saw Phil Jehu out fishing the Taf Fechan near the lido he fished the back waters and eddies as the river was too high and fast and managed to land 2 small trout that he returned. The 1^st trout competition takes place on the river Taff on Sunday 11^th March, meet at lines bridge fish from 9am until 2pm, meet at Troedyrhiw boys club and fish from 9.30 until 2.30pm.

Coarse fishing result

In absolutely atrocious weather the senior coarse anglers fished at Redhill Bottom Lake on Sunday. The winner was Paul Lewis who fished peg 18 using a pole and maggot hookbait he landed 35lbs 8oz. 2^nd was Gary Miles who landed 31lbs 6oz and 3^rd was junior member Dan Lewis with 28lbs 4oz.

Sadly we report the passing of another long serving member Reg Foley. Reg was a lake fly fisherman and sewin angler and hardly ever fished the Taff although he thought that anglers should support their local club, which he did for many years, as a member of Merthyr & District AA before Merthyr Tydfil AA. He will be sadly missed by us all. The Association is sorry to learn that another of the founder members Ernie Thompson has passed away. Ernie and his wife Margaret who passed away some years ago were at one time licence distributors for the Association. They were always on hand to give out advice to young budding anglers, and faithfully supported the Association over the years.  The Association wishes to extend its' condolences to Andrew his son and Frank his brother as well as the family

Top Pond

This pond has fished quite well all winter and continues to do so. On Wednesday Ron Broom landed a 13lbs common carp using a boillie as bait. On Sunday Leighton Ryan landed a carp of 11lbs and Phillip Fear landed 4 carp of 8lbs, 2 that weighed 10lbs and one of 11lbs.

Middle Pond

Alec McInall caught a 6lb carp on Wednesday. It has come to our notice that anglers are again fishing overnight on this pond and leaving all their rubbish in the plantation behind their bivvies. Anyone fishing overnight is expected to take their rubbish home or put it in the bins provided.

Cyfarthfa Park

Gavin Davies has been fishing the park lake regularly for carp and his efforts have paid dividends he caught 7 carp on Tuesday one on Wednesday and 2 on Friday. His biggest carp and a personal best was a common carp of 13½lbs caught on Tuesday. Nathan Gwynne fished from peg 2 on Monday and caught a mirror carp of 1½lbs and a bream. Clive Saunders fished the lake on Sunday and when I spoke to him he was catching roach and skimmers. Anglers are reminded that when fishing this lake they should be using barbless hooks, anyone who is not will be asked to leave the water and appear in front of the committee. Bailiffs will be asking all anglers to show that they are using barbless hooks.

Membership

The trout season on the Rivers’ Taff, Tarrell and our beats on the Usk begins in 10 days time the 3^rd March. Those trout fishermen who have yet to purchase their permits are reminded that they should do so now. We do not accept membership except by post. Applications forms are available from Nigel Morgan 20 James Street, Twynyrodyn, Ron Jones 28 Elm St Troedyrhiw, Quakers Yard Stores Quakers Yard, George Morgan 5 Fairview Houses Cefn Coed and Merthyr Angling Centre Cefn Coed. Permit fees for 2007 are as follows: renewing membership £50 a new member within the borough of Merthyr Tydfil and Nelson £60, junior under 11 years £15, junior 11 – 18 £25, paying senior citizen £25. We are looking again for help in stocking the river if you can help then contact either Nigel Morgan on 01685 377848 or Gary Davies on 01685 371981.

Bag Limit

At the last Annual General Meeting in November 2006 it was proposed and accepted that the bag limit for trout at any of our fisheries was reduced from 6 trout per day to 4 trout per day.

Wild Trout Trust Auction

The WTT are again raising funds by offering for auction some very nice items. The auction includes shooting, UK and Overseas fishing, fishing tackle, flies, unique Harry Potter items, clothing signed by Ferrari stars, Red Arrow limited edition items, collectables, art, literature, DVD’s, trees, roses and lots more, guide prices are from £5 to £4,500. The auction will commence on 6^th March on e-bay (charity pages) or you can link through the WTT web site at http://www.wildtrout.org . MTAA have always supported this charity who supplied us with expert advice for no charge when we first started to improve the Taf Fechan. If you do not wish to bid through e-bay you may also bid by post, contact WTT office, PO Box 120, Waterlooville, PO80WZ the WTT will then bid on your behalf, bids must reach their offices by 13^th March the bidding will close on 15^th March at 7.30pm good luck and happy bidding.

Top Pond

Lots of anglers were fishing Top Pond on Sunday including a wheel chair angler, unfortunately when I spoke to the anglers most of them had recently arrived and had, had no fish, although fish were moving on the surface.

Pontsticill

Jeff Richards has been fishing the yacht club bank for the last 2 weeks into 60’ of water and catching small bream, roach and perch. Bill Thomas caught 4 pike to 9lbs in Caer Bay which proves you can catch fish in the snow.

Cyfarthfa Park

Gavin Davies caught 6 carp from ½lb to 8lb plus a chub of 1lb on Friday.

Weekly Report for 15 Feb

Trout Bag Limit

The trout bag limit has been reduced from 6 trout over 10" per day to 4 trout over 10" per day, this rule applies to all members fishing our waters.   The only water the rule does not affect is Talybont that is controlled by Welsh Water and the limit for this water remains at 6 fish per day over 10".

Competitions

Sportsfish of Reading is holding their annual fly fishing competition at Haywards Farm Trout Fishery on Saturday 24^th February entry is on a 1^st come 1^st served basis and the fee is £35 per angler.

Presentation Night

The presentation night went exceptionally well last Wednesday evening. Our guest speakers were Councillor Ray Thomas who gave a short talk and announced that the Cabinet had authorised the funds for the fish pass on the town weir to be constructed this year. Our other speaker from Cancer Aid was Tracey Burke, who was presented with a cheque for £1000 by Garry Davies Chairman and Tony Rees MBE Treasurer. Tracey thanked the committee and members of MTAA for their generous donation. The winners of the over 12 junior competitions were Stirling cup winner Daniel Lewis, club trophy winner Daniel Lewis, junior comp winner Daniel Lewis, club trophy winner Daniel Lewis, Rhymney brewers cup winner Jonathon Nichols, junior challenge cup winner Matthew Rolls, Bob Morgan cup winner Gareth Watkins. The over 12 club champion for 2006 is Daniel Lewis. The winners of the under 12’s competitions were Rhymney Brewers cup Rhys Sullivan, Club trophy winner Rhys Sullivan Junior challenge cup Rhys Sullivan, Stirling cup winner Luke Donovan, Club trophy winner Andros Mota-Reed, Junior comp winner Craig Davies, Bob Morgan cup winner Andros Mota-reed. The club under 12’s champion 2006 is Rhys Sullivan. During the year Bernard in consultation with other coaches watches and selects the angler he thinks has improved the most and this year the award went to Callum Leath. The winner of the junior trout competitions and 2006 club champion is Thomas Phillips, Emily Thomas won 2 club trophies, Shane Williams won one club trophy and Gareth Watkins also won one trophy. Geriant John is the 2006 club senior trout champion with 3 wins, Phillip Jehu won 2 trophies, Andrew Stephens won the 1^st Talybont Shield and Mark Williams won the 2^nd Talybont Shield, Robert Dickey won the Neaudd Shield. Mark Williams won the 2006 fly tying competition and everyone would like to thank Mark for the very interesting DVD he supplied; everyone now knows how to tie the detached body mayfly. Gavin Jehu, Phillip Jehu, John Coombs, Mark Williams, Geriant John and David Matthews were winners of the Molly Sweet and Half Moon WSTAA Trophies. The 2006 coarse fishing champion is Gary Miles who won 7 competitions, Collin Rees won 3 trophies, Ian Cathrew, Phillip Jehu, Peter Payne, David Matthews, Dominic Walters, David Thomas, Terry Jones and Paul Lewis all won one trophy each. After a very keenly fought contest the winner of the summer league 2006 was Terry Jones.

Weekly Report for 8th Feb

Competitions

Aberglias anglers have fished 2 competitions recently. The first held at Port Talbot Docks was won by Steve Crowley with 18lbs 2oz, 2^nd was Terry Jones with 14lbs and 3^rd was Ian Cathrew with 10lbs. The 2^nd competition was fished last Sunday at White Springs fishery 1st was Terry Jones with 55lbs 6oz, 2^nd was Brian Prothero with 43lbs 4oz and 3^rd was Graham Davies with 31lbs 4oz. The anglers from http://cym.fishing.co.uk fished their match at Cyfarthfa Park on Sunday, unfortunately at the time of going to press I have had no results, but when I spoke to them on Sunday they were all catching roach and chub.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Membership Permits

Members are reminded that their 2006 permit runs out on the 25th January 2007. No one is allowed to fish Association waters without a current permit. They are available by post and you should have all received a letter with an application form enclosed as well as a reply paid envelope. Any problems contact Tony Rees on 01685 723520.

Cyfarthfa Lake

The lake has fished very well for the last couple of weeks. Peter Payne fished peg 4 last week and again on Sunday he caught skimmer bream, perch and roach using a waggler cast halfway across and maggot hook bait over a bed of maggots. Leighton Ryan caught 7 carp to 11lbs on Saturday. Callum Leith caught a 9lb carp last week, and a 10lb common carp on Sunday. Gavin Davies caught 5 carp last weekend to 10lbs 8oz and a 12lb carp on Sunday.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Bill Thomas fished near the magic trees last weekend and caught perch. Mark Thomas from Quakers Yard landed a small pike of 4lbs. Jeff Richards fished Aber Cribben bay and started his session catching roach to 1lbs and then the skimmer bream moved into his swim and he ended up with a good net of fish.

Fly Tying Competition

The fly tying competition will be held in the Ex-Servicemen’s club on Thursday evening the 1^st March at 7pm. A lot of members do not attend the fly tying classes on a Tuesday but tie lovely patterns, so here is your challenge come along and win the fly tying cup. The patterns to be tied are a simple one to start the black and peacock spider, black silk, peacock herl body, black hackle. The 2^nd fly is a Klinkhammer which is a dubbed fur body (your choice of colour) antron post, hackle (again your choice of colour) and peacock thorax. The final fly will be one of your choice. You will have 2 hours to tie the 3 flies. The judges will be looking at the composition of the fly, materials used and neatness.

Salmon Fishing in Ireland

As a direct result of the banning of the drift nets, salmon fishing in Ireland with rod and line is also being curtailed. There are now 100 rivers in Ireland where fishing for salmon or sea trout by any method has been curtailed and a further 7 rivers where anglers can continue to fish for salmon and sea trout but only on flies dressed on a single barbless hook and on a strictly catch and release basis. Angling can continue on the remaining 45 rivers but the bag limit for maximum number of fish that may be killed may be reduced when the allocation of the allowable harvest between the nets and the rods has been calculated. These laws take effect from the 1^st January 2007. If you are contemplating a fishing trip to Ireland during the coming season, contact the local tourist board who should be able to advise which rivers in the area you are holidaying in are open to salmon and sea trout fishing. None of the above affects brown trout fishing.

2007 Permits

Permits are now available by post from our treasurer Tony Rees MBE. If you require an application form they are available from Nigel Morgan 20 James Street, Twynyrodyn, Ron Jones 28 Elm St Troedyrhiw, Quakers Yard Stores Quakers Yard, George Morgan 5 Fairview Houses Cefn Coed and Merthyr Angling Centre Cefn Coed. Permit fees for 2007 are as follows: renewing membership £50 a new member within the borough of Merthyr Tydfil and Nelson £60, junior under 11 years £15, junior 11 – 18 £25, paying senior citizen £25

Rod and reel found

A rod and reel were recovered from Cyfarthfa Park just before Christmas, would the angler who lost it please contact either myself on 01685 375526 or Graham Davies on 01685 373242.

Fishy Tales Booklet

I am still looking for stories about fishing for the booklet. Have you a story about how you fell in or better still your mate fell in, how fishing has developed friendships, how you started fishing or have you a terrible fishing joke, if so contact me on 01685 375526.

Top Pond

Nathan Parry fished the pond on Tuesday and landed a 5lb carp.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Adrian Moore from Treharris braved the wind and rain on Sunday to land 2 pike one 6lbs and one 9lbs Adrian caught both fish on ledgered mackerel.

Aberglias

The Aberglias anglers finished off their year with a match at which was won by Terry Jones with Steve Crowley 2^nd and 3^rd was Paul Lewis. Terry’s winning weight was 27lbs 10oz. The Aberglias league was won by Gary Miles.   Question?   Will Gary do a Pasty, now that he has won everything in the past year, will he slowly retire from fishing and take up drinking and hanging around strange bars???

Weekly Report for 4th Jan

Top Pond

We would like information on small carp catches, if you catch a very small carp can you report it too me so that I may inform the committee, I can be contacted on 07885272138.

Presentation Night

The presentation night will take place at the ex-servicemen’s club Merthyr Tydfil on Wednesday 7^th February 2007. We will start at 7pm, please be prompt and all members are welcome.

Taf Fechan

At last we have had some hard frosts that have dropped the temperature of the river water. Normally brown trout have spawned by the middle of November, but this year because of the unseasonable warm weather they have hung on and on. In fact the staff at the hatchery in Cynrig was getting very concerned and worried because like the rest of us they like Christmas at home with the family. However, on the Thursday before Christmas the hen trout became gravid and likewise the cock trout. They were all stripped and the eggs were put in the trays with a steady stream of water over them and hopefully in February we will have some alevins. Normally in a river the hen trout cuts a redd, by turning on her side and flapping her tail this causes a shallow depression in the gravel of the river, whilst she is doing this the cock fish is fighting off other male trout and when the hen is ready both fish will sink into the depression and the male fish will vibrate very rapidly thereby exciting the female to drop her eggs as she does so, he fertilises the eggs, the hen fish will then cover the eggs by moving forward and lying on her side she will flap her tail thus moving the gravel and the current will wash it down to cover the redd. She will then move again and repeat the whole cycle again until she has laid all her eggs, then if she does not die she will drop down river and begin to feed again to regain her strength, the male meanwhile will either die, stay to mate with another hen or drop down river. Studies have shown that if 800 eggs are fertilised 94% will survive to become fry, of the 750 fry only 2.7% will survive to become 1 year old fish then 50% will survive each year until they are mature enough to spawn again. The massive natural mortality rate from fry to yearling stage is because the fry do not feed and/or the high predation by fish/birds/mammals etc. in the wild. The hatchery overcomes this high natural mortality rate by eliminating the high predation rate and encouraging the fry to feed after the egg sac has been absorbed