WEEKLY NEWS REPORTS

WEEKLY NEWS REPORTS

2007 Reports

Weekly Report for 28th Dec

Fly Tying Classes

Gavin would like to thank everyone who has attended all the classes this year. The classes will re-start on Tuesday 2^nd January in the Ex-servicement’s club at 7pm. The next fly Gavin will be demonstrating will be the Henricks spider variant. The tying of which is hook 10 to 14 leaded, tail, pheasant tail with partridge, body pheasant tail with gold rib, and a hackle of partridge.

Grayling

What do brown trout anglers do when the season comes to an end on September 30^th, does he put all his fishing tackle away until March 3^rd or continue to fish for rainbow trout and grayling. A few continue to fish for grayling right through the depths of winter and into the spring. Where locally can grayling be found? The closest are to be found in the River Taff at Hawthorn on Ospreys water, or on the exchange ticket with Cardiff anglers from Radyr down to the Millennium stadium. Grayling are also in the River Severn at Caersws and the River Wye at Builth Wells, also in its tributary the River Irfon. Grayling are predominantly bottom feeders and a very successful method of fishing for them is by Czech nymphing whereby the angler uses heavily leaded imitation nymphs to trot the bottom of the river. When fishing this technique the angler uses a very small amount of fly line out of the top of the rod, the cast should be 8 to 10 foot long with 2 droppers. The top dropper should hold the heaviest fly such as a double tungsten bead hares ear, then a pink bug with a gold head on the middle dropper and perhaps a gold Hendricks spider on the point. The flies are cast a very short distance in front of the angler and as the flies come back towards them the rod is lifted until the flies are just below and then they are re-cast. It is easy to cover the water this way and any creases in the water should be covered first as they are very good feeding areas for fish. One thing waders should be neoprene, and layers of warm clothing are essential.

Finally

I would like to thank everyone who has given me information to put into this column during the past year. I would like especially to thank Tony Rees, Nigel Morgan, Ron Jones for helping out when news is thin, I would also like to thank Bernard Farr, Gavin Jehu, Ian Cathrew and Graham Davies for giving me the results of all the competitions. May I wish you all a very happy new year and tight lines for 2007

Weekly Report for 21st Dec

Chairman's Report

Forty years since the birth of the Merthyr Tydfil Angling Association, as with all births some are easy some are difficult and I can assure you this one was DIFFICULT. It took some hard negotiating and the assistance of the Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council who you can say acted as mid wife. Prior, the two parent clubs had always fought each other over the fishing within the borough, then the lease on the Councils waters came up for grabs and after some skulduggery the council recommended that they would only offer a lease to an Association formed by an amalgamation of the warring clubs and Hey Presto MTAA was ‘BORN’.

The make up of the new Association committee was quite unique. We had of course Chair and vice chair, T.S Sales was chair (St Tydfil’s) J H Booth vice chair (Merthyr & District) and so it was throughout the committee with officers and shadow officers either M & D AA or St Tydfil AA. This format was an excellent way to run the infant Association.

The Association in those days was poor in cash and fishing, because you must remember, the Taff below Merthyr was still in a terrible condition with industrial pollution rife, of course below Aberfan the waters were BLACK (Let us hope we do not return to those days) I think I am correct in saying that we held in the bank a total of some £400 and did not own a blade of grass. Now however, 40 years on, we own fishing on the rivers Taff, Tarrell, Taf Fechan and River Usk. We also have a very strong lease with Welsh Water and a 25 year one with our mid wife Merthyr Borough Council. I hope that the legacy of the last 40 years will lead to a far better Association in the future. May I take this opportunity to wish all our members past and present a happy Christmas and a prosperous new year.

Weekly Report 14th Dec

Middle Pond

The weekend before last Phil Fear decided that he would brave the elements and fish middle pond overnight. Saturday started off pretty good the weather was windy and wet but his bivvy was dry and well secured and Phil settled in for a good fishing session. During the afternoon and early evening he had caught 14 carp to 13lbs and a bream and then the storm hit and by 11pm he had had enough and wisely retreated to the safety of a warm bed.

Koi Herpes virus

All anglers should be aware that this devastating viral fish infection is present in waters that are not very far from our own. If you visit a fishery where facilities for dipping nets are in place, please disinfect your nets before you leave the fishery as this will stop the spread of the disease. If you can, disinfect your nets after every fishing trip.

Pontsticill

Dale Thomas and friends from Banwen were fishing caer bay on Pontsticill on Sunday and Dale landed a 10lb pike on mackerel dead bait. Greg Kendall was fishing in Dolygaer and caught a small jack pike of 4lbs.

GATES booklet "Fishy Tales"

In 2005 we organised with the Dowlais Forum an open day on Middle Pond. Members of the Gates organisation were present recording angler’s stories and making drawings of the anglers fishing which were eventually made into a booklet. We had about 2000 of the booklets printed and they proved to be a huge success with hotels, tourist offices and other organisations. We are now in the process of reproducing the booklet and to keep the booklet fresh we are now looking for new stories. Have you a funny story, a true tale of fishing prowess if so I would like to hear from you. Please ring me on 01685 723520 or get in contact with me via the web site at http://www.mtaa.co.uk my email address is on the front page.

Weekly Report for 7th Dec

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Last week Rachael Richards fished Pontsticill Reservoir and Rachael landed a hard fighting 18lbs pike. On Sunday Stuart Avery and Ashley Williams were fishing in the right hand corner of Dolygaer and sheltering under the pine trees in-between the rain squalls they were catching roach. Mike Morgan went over to the river Wye to fish and because of the recent bad weather it was over the banks, so he drove back from Monmouth to Pontsticill and fished from the car park and was doing extremely well catching roach.

Cyfarthfa Park

Jason Thomas was catching roach from peg 5 on Sunday. Young angler Lewis Thomas landed a 5lb common carp on Saturday.

Top Pond

Andrew Bailey fished Top Pond during the week and landed 2 carp 1 that weighed 10lb and 1 that weighed 11lbs 3oz.

Middle Pond

Dillwyn Sims fished the pond last week he landed roach, gudgeon, perch and skimmer bream

Morlais Brook

The brook where it enters the river at the fire station pool is often discoloured. Although the Environment Agency Wales have investigated on several occasions they have yet to discover the source of the discolouration. Any one who sees the water discoloured will they please ring the Environment Agency Wales emergency line on 0800 807060 and please ask them for a follow up report.

WSTAA

The Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association held their Annual General Meeting on Sunday 26^th November. When Moc Morgan gave his secretary’s report he complimented MTAA for allowing WSTAA members to fish a trial on the river Taff to select a team to represent Wales at next years home international rivers competition. Moc was very impressed that anglers were catching in extremely difficult conditions, the river was rising quickly was very coloured yet the competitors were all catching fish. Many of the competitors were still casting dry flies to free rising trout in coloured water.

Fly Tying Classes

The fly tying classes held on a Tuesday night at the ex-servicemen’s club have got off to a very good start. Last week we tied haul-y-gwynt which originated in Brenig and takes off a terrestrial fly. The recipe for this fly is: hook size 14 to 10 black silk, black and amber seals fur sub body, with a crow wing or black substitute feather and a pheasant church window hackle this is a very good fly for use on upland lakes and reservoirs.

Weekly Report for 30th Nov

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Jonathan Keene caught a pike of 8lbs 8oz last week, Neil Morgan caught a pike of 9lbs Leighton Ryan also caught a small pike of 6lbs.

Top Pond

The entrance gate to the pond was tied shut with barbed wire on Saturday, this entrance should be open to the public at all times, if any member finds the gate locked in any manner please report it to Nigel Morgan or Tony Rees.

Sea Fishing

The cod fishing from the shore is good at the moment from Newport to Barry Point. Most of the fish caught are between 2lbs and 5lbs and the best baits to use are black lug or squid. The boats working from Penarth are doing well when the weather allows the boats to sail. Cod between 15lbs and 18lbs are being caught and baits to use are black lug and squid. The shore fishermen who are targeting the flounders at Llangeneth are doing extremely well, 4 local fishermen fished the estuary last Monday and had 45 flounders between them all of decent size, best baits to use are small ragworms.

Salmon Coming Home Project

Once again MTAA will be involved in this project with 4 local schools. The schools will be given a talk by either members of Environment Agency Wales or MTAA on the life cycle of the salmon and its journey from the gravels in the river to the feeding grounds off Greenland and then back to the same river to spawn in the gravel yards of where it was born. All this without a compass, map or education! The schools involved this year will be Trelewis Primary School, Caedraw Roman Catholic School, Abercanaid Primary School and Ysgol-y-Graig Cefn Coed. We look forward to working with these schools, showing them round the hatchery at Cynrig and to take them all fishing on Cyfarthfa Park next year. We are also giving Caedraw Junior School trout eggs to rear. These eggs will be taken from the trout we have in the hatchery in the next few weeks and once the fry are big enough they will be re-introduced to the Taf Fechan as part of our attempts to bring back the river after the devastating pollution incident in August.

Weekly Report for 23rd Nov

Competitions

The last match of the season took place on Sunday at Redhill Farm Middle Lake. Terry Jones finally won a match taking the honours with 24lbs 3oz of fish using a swim feeder and maggot hook bait. Gary Miles will rue even taking part in the match when not only did he break his umbrella he broke 3 sections of his pole which will cost him the best part of £750 to replace. Even with all this happening to him he still managed to land 17lbs 6oz and book 2^nd place. Coming in a close 3^rd was Graham Davies with 17lbs.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Andrew Whittock caught a pike of 8lbs today Sunday and his fishing partner also landed a pike of 8lbs. Fishing Pontsticill Mr Thomas landed a very healthy and fit 11lbs 10oz pike using lamprey as bait.

Top Pond

Frank Morgan landed 2 carp last Sunday of 9lbs 8oz and 10lbs 8oz; he also hooked a much larger carp which he fought for 20 minutes without success. The carp picked up the bait and ran to the middle of the pond twice and each time Frank bought the fish back, it then ran along the wall and again Frank bought it back towards him. All the time that Frank was fighting the fish it stayed deep and would not come to the surface, the final time the fish ran Frank bought it back and as he was trying to bring it to the surface the hook pulled out.

Cyfarthfa Park

Lewis Thomas landed a 7lbs carp on Sunday morning and his friend Jarrad Good landed 3 roach.

Fly Tying

Free fly tying lessons are being held in the Ex-Servicemen’s club every Tuesday from 7pm until 9pm, everyone is welcome to attend, if you do not have the necessary equipment do not worry we can supply it.

This weeks joke

Fishermans wife: give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and you get rid of him for the whole weekend

Weekly Report for 16th Nov

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting was held at the Ex-Servicemen’s club on Wednesday 8^th November. A 1 minutes silence was held to remember the Association’s members who had sadly passed away during the last year. The following rules were ratified by the members present: The bag limit for trout reduced from 6 fish to 4 on all our waters except for Talybont which is a day ticket water the bag limit here stays at 6. Anyone fishing for trout before the 1^st of June on the river Usk must use a line of 4lbs breaking strain or less and a hook no larger than size 10. We would like to welcome Dillwyn Sims, Doug Hawkins, Dave Rodgers, John Hodgson, John Taylor and John Kinsey to the committee.

Competitions

Members of MTAA fished a competition at Port Talbot Docks on Saturday. The winner with 33lbs was Gary Miles, 2^nd was Terry Jones with 20lbs 8oz, 3^rd was David Davies with 20lbs. The next competition will be held at Redhill Middle pond on Sunday 19^th November, draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm all members are welcome to fish.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Carwyn Thomas from Seven Sisters caught a 6lb pike at Caer Bay. Graham Laidlaw who was fishing in Dolygaer on the right hand bank caught 2 pike of 5lbs and 19lbs both fish were caught using mackerel hook bait. Jeff Richards was fishing in his usual place on Pontsticill and catching perch and skimmer bream. Last week he told me that he struggled to catch any fish until about 2.30pm, for about 2 hours then he landed roach after roach and all of them between 1 and 2lb in weight.

Middle Pond

David Thomas caught roach, skimmers perch and gudgeon on Thursday, David used a 4mtre pole fishing from peg 2 and his net of fish weighed about 35lbs

Top Pond

On Sunday Jarred Rees landed 2 carp one 12lbs and one 15lbs and his mate Jamie Shaw also landed 2 carp one of 12lbs and one of 15lbs, they assured me that they were different fish. Frank Morgan landed 5 carp from 9lbs to 11lbs 8oz on Thursday.

Cyfarthfa Lake

On Sunday David Lewis was catching roach, bream and small carp. Michael Coombs, Dean Roberts, Ryan Periman, Danny Williams, Michael Harris and Adam Jones were all catching roach.

Membership

Anyone wishing to join the Association please ring Tony Rees on 01685 723520 and he will make sure that you have an application form.

This weeks Joke

What do you call a fish with no eye ………………FSH

Weekly Report for 9th Nov

Brian O’Hanolan a well known life time member of the Association passed away the Velindre Hospital, last Friday after a very short illness. He will be remembered by all his friends for being a thoughtful and generous person and will be missed by all who knew him. Brian was a very keen salmon, sea-trout and trout angler. The Association would like to pass on our deepest condolences to his family.

Irish Government bans Drift Netting

On Wednesday the 1^st November the Irish Government adopted a report on salmon conservation which recommends ending drift netting by next January. Ministers backed proposals from the Minister for the Marine, Noel Dempsey, which provide for a hardship fund of €30m for fishermen and a compulsory end to drift netting. This is good news for all salmon which swim past the Irish coast on the way to and from the feeding grounds in Greenland. Rivers in Wales, England, Ireland France and Spain should all benefit from the removal of the 5k long drift nets

Pendre Youth Centre

15 boys and girls from the Pendre Youth Centre enjoyed fishing Cyfarthfa Park Lake on Tuesday, they all sat there smiling and catching fish although the weather was wet and cold. Barbara Badia from Spain on a youth exchange programme caught the most fish. Once again the girls out fished the boys. A big thank you from Pendre Youth Centre to the coaches for their help and to MTAA for allowing them to fish the lake for nothing.

Competitions

Due to the lack of any local action last weekend, several MTAA members travelled to White Springs Fishery to fish the Sirhowy A/C match on the new canal. Graham Davies finished second with 72lbs of small carp fishing corn on the pole to the island on peg 35, Colin Rees was 5 with 51lbs 8oz and Brian Prothero was 6^th with 50lbs and minus a phone it fell into the water. Do we now have to be scared of the fish that rings, like the croc in Peter Pan

Cyfarthfa Park

Dominic Walters fished the park for carp for the first time for a long time and caught a 8lb common carp. Michael Coombs caught 4 carp last Tuesday which weighed 4lbs 7oz, 7lbs 8oz, 11lbs and 12lbs 2oz.

Top Pond

Frank Morgan caught a number of carp last week from 7lbs 8oz to a 15lbs leather carp.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Jeff Richards was fishing Pontsticill last week and was catching perch right under the tip of his rod, if he moved his bait either way by a foot or so he would not have bites and all the fish were between 1lbs and 2lbs in weight.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will be held in the Ex-Servicemen’s club on Wed 8^th November at 7pm for 7.30pm. Will all members please attend?

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Bill Thomas when fishing last week had a real red letter day, Bill was fishing for pike and coarse fish he had already landed pike of 5lbs and 7lbs when caught a pike of 26lbs just before he packed in for the day and as he released the pike he hooked and landed a 13lb bream going home a very happy man indeed. Can we have the pictures for the web site Bill? Last Craig Marshall landed pike of 5lbs and 11lbs 8oz fishing into Pontsticill. Jeff Richards had just started catching skimmer bream when I spoke to him on Sunday; he said that to catch coarse fish in Pontsticill there has to be a breeze otherwise the fish do not feed.

Cyfarthfa Lake

Luke Curtis was catching roach and his friend James Dobbins was also catching roach. Christopher Wray had caught 1 carp and a roach. Brian Periman caught 2 perch. Martin Davies and his son Stuart were having their usual Sunday morning competition and Stuart was winning 8 fish to 2, however, Martin said he was going for quality not quantity. Gary Miles had no competition to fish so decided to fish the park, he had dozens of carp, crucians, roach, perch, but no tench. Michael Kennedy had skimmer bream to 2lbs from the grass bank and Josh Sweet had caught roach when I spoke to him on Sunday.

Top Pond

The pond will be drained down during November to allow for the installation of a new valve on the pond side of the dam. the council are carrying out this work which should last for no longer than 2 weeks.

Middle Pond

On Sunday Ken Burgess had caught a tench of 3lbs and a carp 7lbs, I fished Sunday afternoon and caught perch and roach, I also fished on Friday for 2 hours and again it was perch and roach. Doug Hawkins fished alongside his grandson on Friday and the both caught roach. Dillwyn Simms was also fishing the pond on Friday and he was catching big roach. Whilst I was fishing on Sunday a young angler passed by with his day and told me he had caught a 7lbs carp unfortunately I did not get his name.

Fly Tying Classes

The fly tying classes will start on Tuesday 7^th November at 7pm in the Ex-servicemen’s club. The classes are free and you do not need to have your own equipment, if you register with Gavin on 722261 he will make sure we have enough equipment to start you off. Experienced fly tyers are also welcome.

Weekly Report for 22nd Oct

SE Region Boat Competition

Congratulations to Geriant John in coming 4^th in the boat competition held on Llandegfedd reservoir in cold and very wet conditions. Geriant will be in the team to compete for the Inter-Region Cup next year.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will be held in the Ex-Servicemen’s club on Wednesday 8^th November at 7pm. All members are requested to attend.

Pontsticill

Jeff Richards had just started fishing when I spoke to him on Sunday and had got the perch feeding and was hoping to entice the roach and bream. Darren Williams landed a 5lbs pike, an 8lbs pike. Scott Thomas caught a 15lbs pike on Saturday in Pontsticill

Cyfarthfa Lake

Brian Perryman caught a 2lbs bream on Sunday. Martin Davies and his son Stuart were having a Sunday morning competition and Stuart was winning 8 fish to 2. Daniel Lewis landed 3 carp on Saturday one 13lbs 8oz, one 6lbs 8oz and one 4lbs. Shaun Wojnarowicz caught a common carp weighing 5lbs on Sunday. Thomas Jehu and his friend Rhys Edwards fished from the grass bank on Saturday and caught skimmers, perch, quality roach and ducky carp using waggler and maggot.

Top Pond

Mark Dyer caught a carp of 8lbs 8oz, Mike Thomas caught 3 carp of 9lbs 8oz, 11lb 8oz and 14lbs

Fly Tying Classes

Weekly Report for 19th Oct

River Usk

The recent rain has caused the river to rise and the salmon to run up to the headwaters to the spawning beds. Sid Lloyd caught a salmon of 6lbs on a black flying C, Steve Lewis landed a salmon of 6lbs and Howard Strickland landed one of 9lbs both fish on a flying C. Alan Chapman used a hardy shrimp patterned fly to tempt his salmon of 4½lbs Pat O’Brian caught a 10lbs salmon on the Ysbytty on an orange shrimp fly. Mike Denny caught one of 6lbs on a purple shrimp fly Colin Evans caught one of 4lbs which was returned and his son James caught 2 that weighed 10lbs. Ian Evans caught 2 of 10lbs on the Kemeys beat. On the Kemeys Doctor Coleman landed and returned an 8lbs salmon, Lee Johnson was really pleased, he landed his very 1^st salmon of 8lbs, which he returned, and then he caught an even bigger fish of 12lbs, a very happy man. All the fish were caught using a flying C spinner, and Gary Davies caught a salmon of 6lbs 8oz on an Usk Grub fly whilst fishing the Varteg pool on the Mardy beat.

Seasons end

Fishing for Salmon and Sea Trout on the River Usk stopped on the 17^th Oct. Talybont and Neaudd have both closed for trout fishing on the 17^thOctober.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Charles Manley and his friend caught 5 pike to 6lbs in Pontsticill reservoir on Saturday. Terry Jones (Snr) fished Dolygaer and landed lots of perch and a few skimmers. Richard Turner landed a pike of 4lbs, Martin Williams also landed a pike of 4lbs, Andy Whittock and Mark Thomas were also catching small pike. Nicky Giles caught a 12lbs pike on a spinner on Saturday.

Competitions

MTAA anglers fished the old canal at white springs fishery on Sunday. 1^st with a winning weight of 40lbs1oz was Colin Rees, Colin used a long pole to fish along side the island and used a soft pellet hook bait. 2^nd was Gary Miles with 33lbs 14oz, and finally back and very refreshed from his holiday in Canada was 3^rd placed man Graham Davies with 32lbs 8oz. The next match will be held at Redhill fishery on Sunday, draw at 9am fish from 10am until 3pm.

Cyfarthfa Park

David Thomas was catching lots of small roach Stuart Davies caught 3 roach and his dad Martin was catching small perch. David Corcoran was catching the bigger roach on sweetcorn.

Top Pond

Has fished well all week, Gareth Caviel caught carp of 5lb 8lb 7lb and 11lb, Mark Dyer caught 2 one of 7lbs 4oz and one of 10lbs.

Middle Pond

Ken Davies carp weighing 2lbs and of 7lbs plus a bream of 4lbs. Dillwyn Simms caught a bream of 6lbs and a tench of 5lbs and a lot of small skimmer bream.

Weekly Report for 12th Oct

River Usk

The rain has allowed the river to rise and the salmon to run up to the headwaters to the spawning beds. Last week Sid Lloyd caught a salmon of 6lbs on a black flying C, Steve Lewis landed a salmon of 6lbs and Howard Strickland landed one of 9lbs both fish on a flying C. Alan Chapman used a hardy shrimp patterned fly to tempt his salmon of 4½lbs Pat O’Brian caught a 10lbs salmon on the Ysbytty on an orange shrimp fly. Mike Denny caught one of 6lbs on a purple shrimp fly Colin Evans caught one of 4lbs which was returned and his son James caught 2 that weighed 10lbs. Ian Evans caught 2 of 10lbs on the Kemeys beat.

Seasons end

Fishing for Salmon and Sea Trout on the River Usk stops on the 17^th Oct. The fishing for trout on Talybont and Neaudd also ceases on the 17^th.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Competitions

Cyfarthfa Park

David Thomas was catching lots of small roach Stuart Davies caught 3 roach and his dad Martin was catching small perch. David Corcoran was catching the bigger roach on sweetcorn.

Top Pond

Has fished well all week, Gareth Caviel caught carp of 5lb 8lb 7lb and 11lb, Mark Dyer caught 2 one of 7lbs 4oz and one of 10lbs.

Middle Pond

Ken Davies carp weighing 2lbs and of 7lbs plus a bream of 4lbs and we saw him loose a very nice carp.

Weekly Report for 5th Oct

Dolygaer

Hooray it rained, with the rain we have had over the weekend the reservoir has started to rise. Hopefully, this will continue and we will not have to net the channel and lift the fish over into Pontsticill.

Taf Fechan

On Friday morning the Environment Agency Wales and members of MTAA worked together to net the weir pool in the middle of town. The Environment Agency Wales told us that they had spare capacity at their fish rearing unit in Brecon, and would be willing to take any fish over 10 inches to the unit. These fish will be kept until they are ready to spawn and at that point they will be stripped of eggs and milt and the eggs will be reared. We had in excess of 30 large trout, which were moved to the unit, the small fish were taken and stocked in the Taf Fechan. We are in consultation with the Environment Agency Wales regarding the electro fishing of 2 other sites and moving the fish captured to the Taf Fechan thus ensuring the integrity of the gene pool of the river.

Competitions

6 MTAA fly fishermen entered the prestigious Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association bank competition on Clywedog Reservoir. They made up one team of 6 to fish the Half Moon competition and 2 teams of 3 for the Molly Sweet competition. The team made up of John Coombs, Gavin and Phillip Jehu won the Molly Sweet with a total weight of 19lbs 7¾lbs and John landed 6 trout for a weight of 6lbs 12¾ozs, Gavin landed 6 trout for 6lbs 11oz and Phillip landed 5 trout for 5lbs. The team of 6, John Coombs, Gavin and Phillip Jehu, Geriant John, Mark Williams and David Matthews were the winners of the Half Moon Trophy with a total weight of 27lbs.

Aberglias anglers fished Staunton Court on Sunday and the top rod was Paul Bomber Lewis with 138lbs 6oz of carp caught using a long pole but fishing shallow with pellet hook bait. 2^nd was Gary Miles with 99lbs 6oz and 3^rd Terry Games with 80lbs 10oz.

Annual General Meeting

Members are advised that if they want to raise any matters at the AGM they should have the subject with the committee by the 11^th October, items will not be accepted after this date.

End of Season

The following fisheries all close for brown trout, salmon and sea trout fishing on the 17^th October. They are the Neaudd Reservoir, Talybont Reservoir and the 3 fisheries on the River Usk, Kemeys, Ysybbty and Mardy.

Weekly Report for 28th Sep

Competitions

The boys from MTAA fished Phocle Farm on Sunday; Terry Jones used a pole and sweetcorn hook bait in the margins to win the match with a weight of 117lbs. 2^nd was Gary Miles with74lbs 10oz, and 3^rd was Terry Gains with 74lbs 2oz. The next match will be held at Staunton Court on 1^st October draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm. The trout competition that was held on Talybont Reservoir on Sunday was Mark Williams with 1lbs 10oz and 2^nd was Geriant John with 1lbs 5oz.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Thank you to all the people who have offered to help net Dolygaer should the need arise. If we do not get any rain in any quantity then we will have to net it in the very near future. We have to wait for the water level to drop into the old river channel, and at that point we have about 12 hours to move the fish into Pontsticill. If you can help please let Nigel Morgan or Tony Rees have your telephone number. Mike Lewis and Darrel Holpin were both catching perch on Sunday, Bill Thomas was fishing for pike and coarse fish and had landed 2 pike the biggest one of 9lbs, he also landed 5 bream, roach and perch. Adam Toomey caught 50lbs of bream as well as roach and perch, his grandfather Clive Saunders was catching bream and perch. Martin and Stewart Davies of Pennydarren were catching lots of small perch. Jeff Morgan caught a 6lbs pike in Pontsticill and Jeff Richards was catching perch roach and hybrids.

Middle Pond

Connor Matthews caught 2 7lb carp and a 12lb common carp on Saturday as well as a 4lbs bream

Cyfarthfa Park

Dean Roberts landed a common carp of 7lb perch and 2 crucians, David Phillips caught 18 roach, Nathan Driscoll caught perch, and finally, Jordan Szyndra caught a small carp.

River Taff

On Saturday the season closes on the River Taff, River Usk and the River Tarrell for trout fishing, however, the River Usk will still be open for salmon and sea trout fishing until the 17^th October. Talybont and Upper Neaudd Reservoirs will also close for fishing on the 17^th October.

Weekly Report 21st Sept

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Help!! Could you help us to net Dolygaer, the water level is low and unless we get some heavy rain in the next week we will have to do a fish rescue. If you are able to help, then please contact either, Nigel Morgan on 01685 377848 or Tony Rees on 01685 723520. Because the water is so low the use of plug baits, jerk baits and spinning for pike has been banned. Martin James caught 2 pike to 6lb in weight. Gary Lewis and Stephen Jones were catching lots of skimmer bream and perch, they were using a waggler float and double maggot hook bait. Hugh Rees had a pike of 11lbs and 44 bream, Graham Laidlaw caught a 12lb pike and 32 bream to 7lbs. Colin Doyle (the secretary of the Sea Anglers), came ashore and was catching perch.

Top Pond

Phil Fear fished on Friday night and caught 11 carp to 15lbs using floating baits. Gareth Caviel caught a carp of 12lbs on Sunday. Young angler Callum Leith caught a 6lb common carp. Gavin Davies had a red letter day on Friday when he caught 8 carp to 10lbs 12oz and on Sunday he caught 4 carp to 11lbs 8oz. Carl Walsh netted a carp of 10lbs on Sunday and on Saturday he netted 3 to 9lbs.

Middle Pond

I have heard it is fishing well, however, the only fisherman I have spoken too, Ken Burgess landed carp to 6lb and tench to 2lbs. Gareth James landed carp to 10lbs

Cyfarthfa Park

Young angler Craig Davies caught a crucian carp that weighed 1lb plus a 3 lb common carp. Clive Saunders was catching roach and carp to 4lbs on Sunday. Father and son Martin and Stewart Davies were having their own competition and Stewart was winning 8 to 4 when I left them. John and Robert Pretty were having a carp competition and dad was winning with a carp of 5lbs. David Davies was catching tench crucians skimmers and roach all on pellet. Finally Connor Matthews caught a 7lb carp on a pineapple boillie. David Thomas netted lots of small carp plus crucians using sweetcorn as hookbait. Elliot Williams 2 carp to 3lbs Gareth James caught 2 carp to 6lbs Jamie O’Sullivan was catching perch and carp

Competitions

Terry Jones and Gary Miles entered the Red Hill open competition on Sunday Terry won with 64lbs Gary and came 2^nd with 39lbs. The final trout competition will be held on Sunday at Talybont Reservoir, start at 1pm until dark.

Weekly Report for 31 Aug

Competitions

On Sunday 20^th MTAA anglers fished a competition of the Willow Pool at Ledbury, 1^st was Brian Prothero with 93lbs 4oz, Brian used a mix of chopped worm and caster. 2^nd was Colin Rees with 88lbs 8oz and 3^rd was Terry Jones with 71lbs 2oz. Aberglais AC fished a match on the top lake at Holgan Farm on Sunday 27^th Aug and Graham Davies, the old dog won with 64lbs of carp on a groundbait feeder and maggot. 2^nd was Brian Prothero with 53lbs 3oz and 3^rd was Colin Rees with 33lbs 12oz. The final competition of the season for trout will take place on Sunday 13^th September, meet at lines bridge and fish from 9am until 2pm, meet at the boys club Troedyrhiw and fish from 9.30am until 2.30pm.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Once again I have had to unhook a pike, because the angler who caught it was too scared to take it off the hook. If you are going pike fishing for the very 1^st time please go to the Pike Anglers of GB website and you will find the best methods of unhooking a pike without stress to yourself and the fish. Their address is http://www.pacgb.co.uk or better still go with an experienced pike angler for them to show you how it is done. Sam Phillips and Kyle Thomas fished Dolygaer for carp and Sam landed 2 one of 21lbs 8oz and 20lbs and Kyle landed one of 20lbs. Lee Williams caught a 7lbs pike using plug bait. Paul Higgins caught 2 pike on Sunday one weighed 9lbs and one 10lbs.

Top Pond

The only angler I saw fishing the pond on Sunday was Frank Morgan who had landed a 15lbs 8oz common.

Middle Pond

Michael Coombs caught 6 carp the biggest being a mirror carp of 7lbs 9oz, he also caught 2 bream one of 5lbs 6oz and one 4lbs 14oz. Dean Roberts caught carp of 10lbs 14oz and 5lbs 6oz leather carp. Gareth James caught 16 carp to 11lbs, plus a bream of 4lb 6oz. Terry Jones (snr) using a pole and feeder rod was catching skimmer bream, roach and tench. Stephen and Lewis Edwards were catching skimmer bream and roach.

Cyfarthfa Park

Pegs 1 to 40 the restrictions on the use of keepnets has been rescinded, pegs 41 to 46 are now reopened although anglers are reminded that the use of keepnets on these pegs is not allowed. Caitlin and Jamie Rees fished the park on Saturday and caught roach perch tench rudd and a bream to 1lbs. Carl McCarthy caught tench and bream and small roach. Clive Saunders caught 1 carp of 12lbs plus carp of 3lbs and skimmers. Cameron Jones caught a carp of 3lbs, Steve Leigh 2 carp to 5lbs, skimmers and tench. Mr Cousins was catching roach, skimmers and tench. Bradley Walstow caught 5 roach and a rudd, David Corcoran caught 6 roach a tench and a small carp. Thomas Phillips caught carp using luncheon meat to 10lbs plus a large tench.

River Taff

The river will be closed on Saturday 2^nd September from Quakers Yard to the road bridge at Aberfan to allow the trialist’s for the Welsh rivers team to compete for one of 5 places.

Weekly Report for 24th Aug

Dolygaer

Kelvin Rumble had a very happy day with a net of 67lbs of bream and roach and skimmers on the feeder. Terry Jones Senior had a good day on Thursday catching big bream ending his day with a net well in excess of 200lbs. Bill Thomas caught 41 bream and 9 perch biggest bream 6lbs

Middle Pond

Terry Jones senior was catching small fish and could not get through them to catch the bigger fish, so he switched his hook bait and ended up have a good day with large bream and tench.

Top Pond

Frank Morgan has worked out how to catch the double figure carp in top pond; he caught another one on Sunday of 11lbs 4oz. Garth Roberts was fishing for carp and using sweet corn for bait and landed a very nice tench of 1lbs 8oz.

Cyfarthfa

Anglers are reminded that the grass bank pegs 41 to 46, is still closed and keep nets cannot be used on pegs 1 to 40, until further notice. Steve Williams landed one carp which, weighed 7lbs and one of 12lbs plus lots of small carp. Carl McCarthy caught 4 crucians and 6 tench plus lots of little roach. Mark Giles caught a 12lb carp and Mark Harris caught one of 6lbs. Steve Lee caught lots of the small "ducky" carp plus bream and roach. Michael Jones and Ben Jones fished the lake on Sunday and Michael caught tench and Ben small carp.

Competitions

The junior anglers had the final match of the season on Redhill Farm Middle Lake. 20 anglers and their parents came away to Monmouth and all the young anglers caught fish and enjoyed themselves. The under 12’s winner was Andros Mota Reed with who used a pole and luncheon meat to win with 15lbs 10oz. 2^nd Anya Earpe with 4lbs 15oz and 3^rd was Callum Leath 4lbs 11oz, Over 12s winner was Gareth Watkins with 16lb 3oz and 2^nd was Jonathon Nichols with 12lbs 12oz and 3^rd Andrew Morgan 12lbs 9oz.

Taf Fechan

The association is still investigating how to proceed with the restocking of the river. We will be meeting with the Environment Agency Wales and other agencies to work out the most effective way of sustaining a wild trout gene pool on this stretch of the river. One thing that must be done first will be to ascertain how the pollution has affected the insect life in the river, if they have survived then we can put trout back in, however, if the insect life has been badly affected we may not be able to stock for at least a year. We will know more in 2 weeks time when the Environment Agency Wales repeat the kick sampling they did after the incident.

Weekly Report for 17th Aug

Competitions

The senior competition anglers fished at Redhill Farm Monmouth on the bottom lake on Sunday. 1^st was Gary Miles with 91lbs 5oz of small carp using a pole and pellet hook bait. 2^nd was Terry Jones with 71lbs 15oz and 3^rd was Brian Prothero with 68lbs 6oz. The next senior competition will be held on Sunday 20^th on the Willow Pool Ledbury only 4 places are left so contact Merthyr Angling Centre quickly if you wish to fish on 01685 379809.

The final home junior match was fished on Saturday on Cyfarthfa Lake and yet again we had a good turn out. We also had a very special guest at the match Alyn Davies Fisheries Advisory Officer from the Welsh Assembly Government, who was very impressed with the coaching on offer to our young anglers. The winner of the under 12 competition was Craig Davies with 2lbs 3oz, 2^nd was Anya Earpe with 1lbs 3oz and 3^rd was Rhys Sullivan with 13½oz. The winner of the over 12’s was Daniel Lewis with 15lbs 8oz, 2nd was Jonathan Nichols with 6lbs 11oz, 3^rd was Adam Prosser with 3lbs 6oz.

Cyfarthfa Park

Callum Leith caught a 6lb 4lb and 2lb carp. Andros Mota-Reed also caught a 6lbs carp.

Ysbytty

Dai Williams of Dowlias fished the ysbytty water last week on the lagoon using a feeder and maggot; he landed large dace, eels and a specimen chub of 5lbs 1oz.

Taf Fechan

On Sunday a report was received that the Taf Fechan was white, members of the Association immediately went to see what the cause of the colour was, and discovered that there had been a major pollution incident on the river. The pollutant was aluminium sulphate and it was gradually working its way down the river killing all the fish. The Environment Agency Wales were informed that a major fish kill was in process and their environmental impact assessment team quickly came out to assess the damage to the river. As of Sunday evening it was apparent that all the good work done by the association above the blue pool has been undone as all the fish are dead. This is devastating news because the river was at last beginning to support a full stock of fish and the whole of the food chain was working well. Now we have to start again with a sterile river and we have to source the stock to repopulate the river, we are now back to where we were in 2001 when a chlorine leak lead to the decimation of the river stocks. However this time the chemical is much more damaging to the fish, whereas before we had some stock left to repopulate the river this time we have none. The Association in conjunction with the parks Department of Merthyr Council took the precautionary decision to stop water from the river entering the lake at Cyfarthfa Park. This is a temporary arrangement and as soon as the Environment Agency agrees the water will be allowed to enter the lake once again.

Weekly Report for 10th Aug

Competitions

The senior coarse anglers fished at Staunton Court on Sunday with Gary Miles setting a new club record weight with 188lbs 8oz. 2^nd was Paul Lewis who just headed Terry Jones, Paul weighed in 148lbs 4oz and Terry weighed in 145lbs 4oz. The next competition will be held next Sunday at Redhill Farm on the bottom lake, if you wish to fish please put you name on the list that is in the Merthyr Angling Centre, draw 9am fish 10am until 3pm. The results of the Friday evening junior competition are Under 12’s, 1^st was Andros Mota-Reed who won his very 1^st match with a weight of 5lbs 2oz, 2^nd was Rhys Sullivan with 2lbs 7oz and joint 3^rd was Craig David and Anya Earpe with 12oz. The winner of the over 12’s was Daniel Lewis with 11lbs 15oz, 2^nd was Thomas Jehu with 6lbs 2oz and 3^rd was Ryan Morgan with 5lbs 8½ozs. The next junior match is on Saturday 12^th July draw 8.15 fish 9am until 1pm.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Last week Jeff Richards and David Thomas fished the dam at Dolygaer the water was slightly coloured after the rain and caught lots of roach and skimmers to 3lbs. They also fished the same spot this week and with clear water conditions caught perch. Nathan Smith caught 2 perch to 8oz using a spinner on Sunday. Mark John fished Dolygaer on Aug 3^rd and caught 35lbs of roach and bream the biggest bream weighed 6lbs.

Middle Pond

Middle pond is fishing well and bream to 5lbs are being caught. Michael Kennedy caught roach, skimmers, gudgeon and a carp of 10lbs, Mark Jenkins caught bream of 3lbs, and 4lbs, Kevin Davies caught roach, perch, skimmers and a bream of 5lbs, Carl Vaughan has caught 4 carp of 5 to 6lbs, Matthew Wrigley has caught 2 carp of 6lbs Daniel Howe caught roach, gudgeon tench and perch, Harry Broom caught skimmers to 1lbs and James Lyn has been catching perch. Andrew Bailey caught a 15lb mirror carp

Top Pond

Scotty Phillips caught 7 perch on Sunday, Anthony Webber caught 5 perch, and Ian Williams caught 20 perch and roach.

River Taff

The river is fishing well despite the very low clear water, the best times to fish are very early in the morning or late in the evening, and the fish seem to be taking most flies although in the evening the red or sherry spinner pattern seems to be very effective. Colin Williams fished for 1 hour from 9pm until 10pm last week he caught 3 stocked fish and 4 small wild brownies.

Weekly Report for 20th Jul

Competitions

On Friday evening 22 junior anglers turned up to compete for the junior challenge cup. The under 16’s competition was won by Matthew Rolls with 5lbs 6oz, 2^nd was Gareth Watkins with 4lbs 12oz and 3^rd was Tom Jehu with 3lbs 9½ozs. The under 12’s winner was Rhys Sullivan with 2lbs 4oz 2^nd was Anya Earpe with 1lbs 6oz and 3^rd was Luke Donovan with 1lbs 4oz. The points standing for the Juniors are as follows, leading the under 16’s with 13 points is Jonathan Nicholls, 2^nd is Daniel Lewis with 11 points and 3^rd is Tom Jehu with 9 points. The leader of the under 12’s is Rhys Sullivan with 16 points, 2^nd is Luke Donovan with 15 and 3^rd is Emily Thomas with 8.

Upper Neaudd

Is fishing very patchy at the moment, Doug Bayliss is catching the occasional trout on a beetle pattern of his own design and also on a Williams favourite.

River Usk

Trout are being caught but usually in the evening, when the trout are rising quite freely to spent patterns of fly. Anglers coarse fishing either the Kemeys or ysbytty are finding the dace and chub.

Cyfarthfa Park

James Horn caught 4 roach on Sunday, Doug Hawkins caught perch roach carp and crucian and a gudgeon, Sean Hicks caught a 2lbs carp and tench to 2lbs Simon Challenger caught carp to 10lbs skimmers and tench, he also jumped in the pond to rescue Sean Hicks’s reel that he dropped as he packed up, big thank you Simon.

Middle Pond

Sean Hicks caught a 10lbs carp plus a 2lbs tench and roach on Friday. Simon Challenger fished a waggler and caught carp to 12lb, bream to 6lb and tench to 3lbs. Luke Donovan caught roach perch and gudgeon, Gareth Beale caught perch, James Beale caught roach and perch, Stephen Hicks caught 4 carp to 9lbs, Liam Hicks had one carp of 11lbs, Kevin Driscoll had 6 carp to 10lbs and Christopher Morgan had 2 carp of 2lbs and 9lbs. Colin Williams caught perch and Morgan Owen caught roach, perch and skimmers and Jamie Shaw caught a 2lbs tench.

Top Pond

Garen Edwards had 2 common carp and 1 mirror carp about 7lbs each on Saturday, Michael Giles 2 common one 8lbs 1 7lbs.

Dolygaer

Despite the extremely hot weather Kelvin Rumble and his dad fished the roadside on Sunday. Kelvin used an open-ended feeder with maggot hook bait to catch bream, roach and perch; they were both catching as soon as the feeder hit the water and ended up with a bag of fish well in excess of 100lbs.

Weekly News for 13th Jul

Cyfarthfa Lake

The lake continues to fish extremely well and on Sunday almost all the pegs had a fisherman on them. Shaun landed a carp of 6lbs, Jason Greenaway caught 2 bream and a tench, Matthew Phillips had tench to 1lb bream and roach. Anthony Dunn caught 2 crucian carp of 2lbs, Sean Hicks had 2 roach tench and bream, Liam Jones was catching roach, his brother Carwyn was catching carp to 3lbs and he also caught a carp of 5lbs on Saturday. Daniel Lewis caught tench, roach and crucian carp. Adam Toomey landed 20 carp the best being a 20lb Linear, and Clive Saunders landed 6 carp to 6lbs. Goitre School fished the lake on the last two Mondays and all the pupils had a good time and all of them caught fish.

Middle Pond

Kevin Johnson caught a carp on Sunday of 5lbs and bream of 6lbs Ryan Martin caught carp 5lb and tench, Matthew Martin caught carp 12lb

Competitions

The Aberglais anglers fished Staunton court carp fishery on the weekend and after many years of trying David Matthews has finally joined the 150 club, when he landed 173lb of carp fishing a soft pellet at 3 metres. 2^nd was Terry Jones who also joined the 150 club with 158lb 12oz and 3^rd was another member of the club Mike Yandle with 152lb 6oz.

The club youth fished Cyfarthfa Park on Saturday and although the weights were down on the last competition everyone caught fish. The winner of the under 16’s was Daniel Lewis with 3lbs 14oz, 2^nd was David Atherton with 2lbs 6oz and 3^rd was Jonathan Jenkins with 2lbs 6oz. The under 12’s competition was keenly fought and 3ozs covered the 1^st 3 anglers who were 1^st with 2lbs 1oz was Luke Donovan, 2^nd was an up and coming young lady angler Emily Thomas with 1lbs 15oz and 3^rd was Rhys Sullivan with 1lbs 14oz. The next junior competition is on Friday 14^th July draw at 5.30pm fish 6pm until 8.15pm. The junior competition on the 22^nd July has been cancelled and will be fished on Saturday 29^th July.

River Usk

Mike Wagstaff caught 3 salmon of 8lbs 10lbs and 14lb on a flying c in the lagoon on the Ysbytty two of which were returned to the river,. Mike Denny had one on fly of 8lbs again in the lagoon on the ysbytty. Phillip Jehu also had an excellent night on the chub on the same beat.

Membership

Anyone needing full season permits please contact Tony Rees on 01685 723520 before Wednesday the 19^th July.

Weekly Report for 6th Jul

Rivers International Competition

3 members of MTAA, Gavin Jehu, Andrew Roynon and Paul Jenkins (Captain) fished for Wales in the recent Home International Competition on the River Wear at Durham. Conditions for the competition were difficult with low water and very bright sun but the Welsh Team succeeded in getting the silver medal. We would like to congratulate the team for the Herculean effort required to achieve this on extremely limited funding.

River Usk

After the recent rains the salmon have been seen moving through the river. Sid Lloyd fished the Mardy on Wednesday and landed a 10lbs salmon on a white flying C. James Evans landed a 3lb 4oz sea trout on Monday on the Kemeys using a black flying C. Finally Brian Walkley fished the evening rise and caught 2 large trout on a muddler pattern.

Top Pond

Despite the hot weather the pond is still fishing extremely well especially with floating baits. Andrew Bailey used floating dog biscuit to tempt a 6lb common, a 6lb mirror, a 7lb common, a 9lb common and finally his biggest fish by far to date a 18lb mirror carp. Ricky Broom caught a 21lb mirror carp and Ron Broom caught carp of 13 and 14lbs

Cyfarthfa Park

Anglers are reminded that if they park in the disabled bays at the Cefn end of the lake they must display a blue badge, also keep nets are not allowed on pegs 41 to 46 except when the pegs are used for matches. Graham Davies fished on Thursday and in 4 hours landed over 30lb of crucians, tench and bream using a pole with soft pellet and corn hook baits, Malcolm Williams also fished on Thursday and again had a good net of fish.

River Taff

Colin Williams fished the river last Thursday evening starting his fishing at 8.45pm and fished until 10.30 pm, he used a coachman and an alder fly, fishing down river he landed 5 wild fish to 1lb, a good stocked fish of about a 1lb and as he moved down river he landed 4 more wild fish and when he back tracked to get back to his car fishing the same runs he landed another stocked fish which he kept and then 2 more wild trout, 13 fish in 1½ hours is good fishing. Dillwyn Simms has also been catching wild fish up to a pound and stocked fish up to 3lbs.

Competitions

The next junior competition will take place on Cyfarthfa Lake on Saturday 8^th July, draw at 8.30 fish 9am until 1pm.

News Report for 29th Jun

Competitions

The latest summer league match was fished on Cyfarthfa Park, and Terry Jones won with 20lbs 6oz, 2^nd was Dominic Walters with 11lbs 8oz, 3^rd was junior angler Adam Toomey with 10lbs 5oz.

Aberglais Anglers fished the Willow Lake Ledbury on Sunday and 1^st was Gary Miles with 67lbs, 2^nd was Graham Davies with 64lbs 5oz and 3^rd was Paddy Payne with 55lbs 5oz. The next match will be held on Middle Pond Penywern on Sunday 2^nd July, draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm.

The 1^st junior competition took place on Friday 23 Jun and 25 young anglers took part. The under 16’s competition was won by Jonathan Nickels with 8lbs 8oz 2^nd was Thomas Phillips 6lb 15oz and 3^rd was Daniel Lewis 2lbs 12oz. 1^st in the under 12’s was Rhys Sullivan who fished a pole with sweet corn hook bait to land 11lbs 10oz 2^nd was Luke Donovan 1lb 12 and 3^rd was Andrew Cooper with 1lbs.

Cyfarthfa Park

The lake has really fished well from the start of the season on the 16^th; Terry Jones and Gary Miles fished an evening session from the grass bank and caught crucians, roach, tench, carp and skimmers. Another angler who had a very good session was Dominic Walters who used a pole and sweet corn hook bait to land 36 bream all 1lbs+, 12 tench, 7 crucians and 9 carp for a total weight in excess of 100lbs. Steven McCarthy and his brother landed 74 fish between them with tench to 2½lbs and roach to 1lb.

Top Pond

The pond continues to fish well for carp and Frank Morgan caught 4 carp to 8lbs last Sunday and Dominic Walters took 9 carp to 12lbs.

Middle Pond Event

The open event that took place on Middle Pond on Saturday 24^th was an unqualified success. 100 boys and girls were introduced to angling and also 10 mums had a go. Under 16’s winner was 1^st Michael Kennedy 14½oz, 2^nd was Sam Jones 9oz and 3^rd was Kurt Barrett 6½oz, under 12’s winner was Nathan Gwyn 1lbs 12oz 2^nd was Adam Bowen with 11oz and joint 3^rd was David Oliver and Charles Lewis with 10oz each and the winner of the ladies competition was Lesley Hodgeson. A big thank you must go to all the members of MTAA who turned up on the day to help, especially Janice Farr who booked everyone in. Some members could only stay for a short period but their help was invaluable. We would also like to thank the members of Dowlias Forum, who supplied the children’s entertainer, the bouncy castle and the other games, also the barbeque. Not only did we assist people with their course fishing but also everyone could have a go casting a fly, and trying to cast a double-handed salmon rod.

News Report for 15th Jun

Middle Pond

Malcolm Williams had a good session when fishing the 1^st bank, he landed tench, roach and perch using either maggot or sweet corn hook bait. Michael Sullivan landed a 10lb carp. Shaun Wojnarowicz caught a 3lb Bream; Craig Davies was catching some nice Gudgeon

Luke Donovan had a good net of Perch Roach and Gudgeon; Michael Kennedy landed 4 carp from 8-15lb on Saturday and a Carp of 10lb on Sunday.

Top Pond

Phil Fear had 5 Carp from 8-14lb, Craig Birch had 5 Carp 3-12lb, Gavin Daly had a common Carp 7lb, Ron Broom had one of 4lb, the star catch however was Brent Parry with 15 Carp from 4- 14lb Dominic Walters had a Nil return..

Pontsticill

Luke Donovan has also fished Pontsticill and caught a good quantity of Perch.

Neuadd Reservoir.

Wayne Evans had 2 good brown trout which weighed 3½lbs

It has come to our attention that members are abusing the privilege of having a key to this water and camping on the lake. This is against the terms of our lease and anyone found camping would be asked to return their key.

Cyfarthfa Park

The park opens on Friday 16^th June, and should fish well. The association had permission from Merthyr Borough Council last Friday to allow Caedraw School to fish the lake. The day was a great success and all of the children caught fish, with small carp, good tench and bream being caught.

Permits

Permits are available from Tony Rees and any person who wishes to purchase one should give Tony a call on 01685723520.

Competitions

There were 3 competitions this week, one trout and 2 coarse. The trout competition was fished on the River Taff on Sunday and the winner of the junior competition was Thomas Phillips who fished a worm to tempt 6 trout for 5lbs 7oz his biggest trout was 1lbs 8oz. 2^nd was Matthew Rolls with 4 fish for 3lbs 3oz and 3^rd was Andrew Morgan with 1lbs 15oz. The winner of the senior competition was fly fisherman Geriant John who landed 3 trout for 2lbs 1oz, 2^nd also using a fly was Phillip Jehu with 1lbs 12oz and 3^rd was Neil Morgan with 1lbs 5oz.

Summer League,

Only 6 anglers turned up to fish the first match of the summer league on Dolygaer and 1^st with 9oz was Terry Jones, 2^nd with 5½ozs was Phil Jehu, and 3^rd with 1oz was Paul Lewis.

On Sunday the MTAA anglers fished Phocle Farm. Gary Miles used a pole and sweetcorn bait to landed 84lbs 8oz of small carp. 2^nd was Ian Cathrew with 51lbs 12oz and 3^rd was David Matthews with 50lbs 14oz. The next match will be on Sunday 18^th June on Cyfarthfa Lake draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm and the lake will be closed to pleasure anglers whilst the match is taking place.

Weekly Report for 8th Jun

Top Pond

The pond is fishing really well for carp with fish being caught using boilies, sweet corn, worm, bread or dog biscuits. It doesn’t seem to matter whether they are fished on the surface, bottom or popped up. David Williams from Aberdare caught one of 7½lbs, Clive Roberts landed a common carp of 8lbs, and Frank Morgan caught a 10½lb mirror carp. Chris Morgan has an absolutely fantastic weekend on the pond, he caught and landed 27 carp, 5 of which were leather carp and his biggest was 12lbs. Gavin Bailey caught 4, a 7lb, 7½, 9½ and 10lb Andrew Bailey, who was fishing with his wrist in plaster, caught 1 of 7½lbs nothing must get in the way of fishing. George Jones had a 10lb 10oz and an 9lb 4oz carp and George Dingle had an 8lb and one of 10lb 6oz. Nigel Birch caught a 10lb carp and his son James caught lots of small perch, and Luke Giles caught a 3lb 12oz perch.

Middle Pond

Terry Jones (senior) fished Middle Pond instead of going on the match in Staunton Court and used a pole and sweet corn to land carp to 10lbs, bream to 4lbs, lots of roach and tench. Jarred Rees landed a 10lb carp. Dominic Walters Phillip Fear Leighton Ryan had all caught carp on Sunday. Steven Williams and his son Sean were competing and Sean caught the most fish small skimmers and gudgeon whereas Steven caught the biggest a carp of 8lbs.

Competitions

Aberglais AC fished at Staunton Court on Sunday and Terry Jones (junior) ran away with the competition. Terry used pole and sweet corn hook bait fished close to the margins to land a fantastic 219lbs 6oz of carp. This weight beats the previous Aberglais club record by 43lbs 3oz a tremendous feat. An extremely poor second was David Matthews with 77lbs 4oz, 3^rd was Terry Gaimes with 70lbs 10oz and 4^th was Colin Rees with 70lbs 4oz. The next coarse fishing competition is at Phocle Farm on Sunday 11^th June draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm everyone welcome. On this Sunday there is also a trout competition on the River Taff meet lines bridge fish from 9am until 2pm meet at the Boys Club Troedyrhiw fish from 9.30am until 2.30pm.

River Taff

Dillwyn Simms fished the Taff last week and caught trout on a green nymph, greenwells glory fished dry and a hares ear fished just in the surface. He told me that it did not matter which of the 3 flies he used they all caught trout. Tony Rees fished the Taf Fechan on Monday whilst it was still in flood and caught lots of small trout on a small gold head hares ear, and I fished the Taf Fechan on Thursday evening and caught 6 trout on a CDC shuttlecock greenwells and a dry winged greenwells.

River Usk

Graham Davies fished below the weir on the Kemeys last Tuesday and landed a freshly run 20lb salmon, because the fish was caught before the 16^th of June he carefully returned it, it was caught on a stoats tail double.

Weekly Report for 1st June

River Taff Clean Up

The river Taff clean up event is taking place this Saturday meet at Rhydycar Leisure centre. Please come along and support this event, besides the clean up there will be an opportunity to create your own heron under the supervision of a local artist.

Dolygaer/Pontsticill

Gareth Spargo fished Dolygaer Friday morning despite the weather and had a good catch of bream and perch. The biggest perch went to 1lb and the best bream was just under 6lb. Gareth fished both the worm and maggot to catch his fish. Kevin and Steve Rumble fished on Sunday in a bitterly cold wind, it was more like February than May, and they used an open-ended feeder and sensus ground bait and caught skimmer bream to 3lbs, small roach and small perch.

Talybont

The reservoir continues to fish well and it is giving up quite a few fish of 1lb 8oz to 2lbs. Ron Jones fished the reservoir last Thursday evening with Nigel Morgan and Ron landed 4 fish one of 1lbs 9oz and one of 2lbs he caught his fish on a viva and a Alexandra. Nigel fished a claret buzzer and landed his limit landing trout up to 2lbs.

Top Pond

The pond has fished extremely well this past week, however, with the current northerly wind fishing will be harder. Phil Fear and Brian both caught fish to 10lbs Neil Morgan fished overnight last weekend and landed 8 carp between 9lbs and 11lbs.

River Taff

Tony Rees managed to get away for 4 hours on Monday and caught a number of trout on a gold head, Phillip Jehu also had a good evening last Thursday fishing the taf fechan and landed several trout on a worm and a very small silver spinner.

Competitions

The next MTAA coarse competition is the first match of the summer league, which will be held on Dolygaer Reservoir on Tuesday 6^th June. The draw for the match takes place at 5.30pm anglers fish from 6pm until 9pm. On June 11^th there is a match on the river taff meet lines bridge 9am fish 9am until 2pm, meet Troedyrhiw Boys club fish 9.30am until 2.30pm. On the same day the coarse anglers have a competition at Phocle farm draw 9am fish 10am until 3pm.

Weekly Report for 25th May

River Taff Clean Up

The clean up scheduled for last Saturday had to be cancelled because of the inclement weather. It is re-scheduled for either Saturday 3rd or Saturday 10^th June, I will confirm date ASAP, please if you can help come along; the meeting point is behind Rhydycar Leisure Centre at 10am.

Ducky Pond Heolgerrig

The pond in Heolgerrig called the Ducky Pond has had to be drained. The earth works being carried out have made the banks unstable and the contractors were concerned that the weight of the water would breach the banks and cause serious flooding problems on and off the site. The Environment Agency Wales netting team netted the pond some weeks ago to send fish away for a health check and then netted the pond last Wednesday. They managed to get most of the fish that were in the pond and they were transferred to Cyfarthfa. A sump has been dug in one corner of the pond and the Environment Agency Wales will electro fish in the near future to complete the fish rescue. Talking about the Environment Agency Wales they will be out checking rod licences this weekend.

Talybont

Hywell Jones had 3 trout to 1lbs 12oz that he caught on a ke-he pattern, Len Wilding enjoyed an evening rise on the reservoir and caught several trout on a black and peacock spider the best one weighing 2lbs 8oz. Tony Rees caught 2 trout on a black and peacock spider both fish weighed 2lbs. It seems that the black and peacock is the fly to use on this water, other anglers are also reporting good catches.

Competitions

MTAA anglers fished the middle lake at redhill farm on Sunday. The weather conditions were absolutely horrendous and Brian Morgan and Stan Grey are both looking for new umbrellas after the wind blew them apart. The winner of the competition was Garry Miles who used a pole with pellet ground bait and a paste hook bait to land 36lbs 14oz. 2^nd with 34lbs 15oz was Terry Jones and 3^rd was Graham Davies who landed 23lbs 12oz. The next MTAA competition is the 1^st match of the summer league to be fished on Dolygaer on Tuesday 6^th June.

Membership

With the 16^th of June fast approaching and the park reopening, people who wish to join the association are recommended to get in touch with Tony Rees quickly on 01685 723520 and Tony will send out an application form to you.

Neaudd

Fishing very well at present, Wynford Rees landed 3 good trout and Brian Powles also landed 3 and missed a good many more.

Weekly Report for 18th May

Clean Up of the River Taff

Have you a couple of hours to help us clean up the river Taff in the town area and Troedyrhiw. If you can give us a hand we are meeting behind Rhydycar Leisure Centre at 10am on Saturday and at the Afon Taf parking area in Troedyrhiw, we need all the help we can get so please come even if it is for only 1 hour.

River Taff

Christopher Charleston landed a 3¼lb brown trout, Christopher used a worm as bait, his dad Steve caught 2 trout and Rhys Roberts landed his limit of 6 fish.

Middle Pond

Andrew Bailey caught 68 bream roach and gudgeon on Saturday. Christian Cooper caught a 2lbs tench on Sunday. Jarred Rees and Jamie Shaw were fishing peg 1 and catching skimmer bream, roach to 1lbs and a 2lbs tench. 2 carp to 6lbs and 2 bream Father and son John and Stephen Clegg landed to carp to 6lbs and 2 bream to 3lbs

Top Pond

The lock on the barrier should be reinstated this coming week, please check with Tony Rees for confirmation and regarding your key exchange. On Wednesday Ron Broom landed 3 carp one of 12lbs, one of 13 and one of 16lbs, Frank Morgan also fished the pond on Wednesday and caught a 15lb common carp. Mark Bishop caught 8 carp in 4 hours on Monday 3 of 10lbs 3 of 8lbs, 1 of 6lbs and one about 4lbs; he also caught one of 6lbs on Sunday. On Thursday George Jones landed 8 carp to 15lbs, he also landed one on Sunday of 7lb. On Friday Darren Edwards fished between 2.30 and 9pm and caught 15 carp to 9lbs 15oz all caught on boillie and on Saturday David Sturgess caught one of 15lbs and Phil Fear caught 20 to 16lbs 8oz.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Dominic Walters could only get away for a couple of hours that proved to be very rewarding he landed lots of bream including 3 of 8lbs plus a 17lb common carp all caught using a method feeder and red maggot. Fred Davies was fishing for bream and using 2 sweet corn when he had a bite and reeled in a 5lb pike.

Upper Neaudd

Mark Williams landed and returned 7 trout and his fishing partner Phillip Jehu landed and returned 5, all the fish were caught on a mix of dries and buzzers, they would have caught a lot more but a sudden thunderstorm had them running to the car, carbon rods are an excellent conductor of electricity.

Weekly Report for 11th May

Competitions

On Sunday a joint junior and senior competition was fished on the River Taff with bright sun and a very clear river the conditions were very difficult. However Emilie Thomas caught 3 trout to soundly trounce the boys when she weighed in the winning junior weight of 2lbs 13oz, 2^nd was Shane Matthews who caught 2 trout for 1lbs 8oz and 3^rd was Thomas Phillips who caught 1 trout of 9oz. Phillip Jehu who landed 3 trout for 3lbs 7oz won the senior competition, he also landed the biggest trout of the competition with one of 1lbs 7oz. Phillip fly-fished using bugs in the deeper water and dry fly in the runs. 2^nd was Neil Morgan who caught 2 trout for a weight of 1lbs 7oz and Steve Charleston was 3^rd with 1 fish of 14oz. When Thomas Phillips was pleasure fishing the river on Thursday he landed a 2lb eel, the second one to be reported this year.

The senior coarse anglers fished a match on Sunday at the Lily Pools in Ledbury. 1^st was Gary Miles with 89lbs 6oz, Gary used a long pole and paste hook bait which it transpires he borrowed from David Matthews to catch his winning weight, apparently the paste contained a special ingredient marzipan!!!! 2^nd yet again was David Matthews for 84lbs 11oz, David used the same method and bait as Gary, but he seems by recent results to be the bridesmaid and not the bride. 3^rd was Terry (seen any swans about) Jones with 71lbs 10oz. A special mention must be made of junior angler Daniel Miles who landed 29lbs 14oz, Dan had a very frustrating day, had he landed all the fish he lost he could have easily been the winner.

Top Pond

Both top and middle ponds are fishing very well, with plenty of carp being caught. Frank Morgan landed 2 10lb common carp, Ron Broom landed a 10lb mirror carp all on Friday night. John Clegg landed 2 common carp of 10lbs each on Saturday night. Mike Thomas had an 8lbs and a 10lb carp and Scott Thomas landed a 10lb common carp and a 11lb mirror carp. On middle pond Leighton Ryan had 2 carp on Saturday of 7lb 8oz and 8lbs, on Sunday when I spoke to him he landed 2 carp of 8lbs each, both fish were caught within minutes of each other. Gareth Dunn was course fishing he pond on Sunday and landing plenty of very fat gudgeon and good quality roach.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

Andy Whittock fished the reservoir on Saturday and landed over 150lbs of bream and roach, Mark fished alongside him and also landed a very heavy net of bream and roach. Steve Davey from Aberdare fished in Pontsticill and again landed a very good net of skimmer bream, roach and perch. It looks as if these reservoirs are waking up from a long hard and very cold winter. Reports also suggest that the bream are getting ready to spawn so maybe the bigger bream will be caught.

Upper Neaudd

The reservoir is fishing quite well with people reporting good catches. Flies in current vogue are black and peacock, black pennel, black gnat patterns williams favourite. Geriant John caught 17 trout on Saturday morning and returned them all, he says give him a bit of cod any day.

Weekly Report for 4th May

Neaudd

The lock on the gate of the Neaudd reservoir is broken and will be repaired on Tuesday. Someone has broken off a key in the lock and we will have to change the lock, and weld the chain. The key for the new lock will be the same as the one exchanged at the beginning of the year.

River Taff

Steve Charleston fished the river on Tuesday and caught a trout 1ft 5" long that weighed 2lbs 6oz. Brian Evans in the town area caught a 2lb trout in very shallow rough water.

Middle Pond

Terry Jones fished the pond last Thursday and landed 5 carp to 10lbs on floating baits, he also fished the pond again using the same method on Monday and landed 7 carp to 10lbs. Gary Miles also fished on Monday and netted lots of roach to 10oz and plenty of gudgeon, using a pole and maggot. Neil Jenkins had a bream of 6lbs and a carp of 7lbs, Jason Fear had a bream of 5lbs, Roger Evans had a 7lb common carp. Robert Burke was landing roach and gudgeon and Emily Thomas had a mixed bag of 46 roach and gudgeon.

Top Pond

Terry Jones Senior caught lots of roach and a carp of 12lbs on pole and maggot hook bait. On Sunday Phil Jones landed 2 carp one of 9lbs and one of 10lbs, Mike Thomas also landed a carp of 8lbs and he also followed that up with one of 8lbs 8oz. on Sunday. We are going to replace the lock on the club car park barrier in the very near future, I will put a report when we have done it in the paper and on the web site.

Pontsticill

David Davies landed a really good bag of fish last week he used maggot and feeder to tempt 40lb of bream to 2lb 8oz, roach to 1lbs and perch to 1lbs. Peter Payne also fished the reservoir last week and had a good bag of mixed fish to 3lbs using maggot and feeder. John Willsted caught 3 bream on Thursday night to 4lbs 8oz. M. Thomas fishing Pontsticill on Sunday caught perch and roach. Jeff Richards caught roach to 1lb, and good size perch, and up to Sunday he had caught more skimmers than roach.

Kemeys

Ron Jones and Nigel Morgan fished the Kemeys beat last Sunday and found the fishing quite hard although Ron did land and return 10 trout; Nigel landed 4 both anglers caught fish over a pound. Ron said that the grannom hatch was like fishing in a snowstorm, and when the grannom were hatching off the fish stopped rising because they were feeding on the hatching nymphs below the surface. Anglers are advised to have a floating and a nymph pattern with them when they fish the Usk at the moment, the hatch only lasts a few weeks so we could be coming to the end it until next year.

Competitions

MTAA fished a competition at White Springs on the match canal. Venue expert Colin Rees just managed to beat last week’s winner David Matthews by a mere 12oz. Colin fished a 16-metre pole and pellet hook bait all day to land a mixed bag of fish that weighed 26lbs 12oz, David used the same method to land 26lbs and 3^rd with 16lbs 8oz was our match secretary Ian Cathrew. I did hear a rumour that Terry Jones was chased off the water by some geese that took a fancy to his bait and in the ensuing argument about who should have it, the geese won.

Weekly Report for 27th April

Competitions

The Aberglais coarse anglers fished a competition on Saturday at Port Talbot Docks. 1^st was David Matthews a venue expert who used a pole and sweet corn hook bait to land bream and roach for his 42lbs 2oz winning weight, 2^nd and a good 9lbs behind was Gary Miles with 32lbs 15oz and 3^rd was our esteemed competition secretary Ian Cathrew with 17lbs 13oz. David always relishes fishing this venue and seems to be amongst the fish every time he competes here.

Middle Pond

Kevin Driscoll fished the pond on Saturday evening along with Craig Birch. Kevin caught 8 carp averaging 9 to 10 lbs and Craig caught 7 carp averaging 9 to 10 lbs.

River Taff

Colin Williams from Abercanaid fished the river Taff last week and caught 16 trout, returning 12 all the fish were between ¾lb and 1lb. A trout competition was fished on the Taff on Sunday 4 junior members entered and 8 senior. The winner of the junior competition for the Cyfarthfa Cup was Shane Matthews whose winning weight was 2lbs 11oz. The winner of the senior competition for the Terry Adams Cup was Phillip Jehu with a winning weight of 4lbs 10oz. The biggest trout caught on the day was a fish of 1lbs 5oz caught by Mark Williams.

River Usk

Ron Jones and Nigel Morgan fished the Kemeys beat of the River Usk twice over the Easter holiday period. Whilst the number of fish caught were low, the size and quality was very good, they landed several fish averaging 1lb and Ron had 2 both weighing 1lbs 12oz. There were prolific hatches of the grannom sedge along with spasmodic hatches of the large dark olive and all the trout were returned bar 1 that revealed that the fish were feeding on dark olives, small cased caddis, grannom nymphs and snails. Most of the fish were caught on a dry pheasant tail tied parachute style.

Weekly Report for April 20th

Top Pond

On Friday Darren Holpin caught a carp of 16lbs and Mark Dyer caught an 8lb common Kieran Evans from Aberdare fished the pond on Sunday on a day ticket and caught a 7lb common just after arriving. Dean Evans fished from early morning on Sunday and landed a 9lbs common carp. On Monday Phillip Jones landed 2 carp one weighing 7lbs and the other 9lbs. Ros Needle landed a 6lbs carp using a boilie hook bait

Middle Pond

Joel Rees caught a 7lb carp on Wednesday. Terry Jones practiced for the match on Sunday and fished peg 3 on the gabion baskets, he caught one carp of 8lbs and two bream of 5lbs and 6lbs

River Taff

It has been a busy week with lots of people fishing the river. Last Tuesday Thomas Hughes caught 4 trout, Jake Hurley caught 2 and Josh Powell caught 2, Josh also fished on Wednesday and caught 1. On Friday Dillwyn Simms caught his biggest fish to date a brown trout 22 inches long. Rhys Evans fished the river on Sunday and caught 4 trout the biggest was 14 inches long and weighed just over a pound.

Competitions

Darren Lewis one of the under 16 competition fishermen fished with the senior team on Middle Pond on Sunday and unfortunately I cannot report that he won, he did however fish extremely well. The results of the match are 1^st David Matthews who landed 6 carp for 25lbs 5oz using either corn or pellet hook bait. 2^nd was Graham Davies with 14lbs 6oz which included a bream of 5½lbs and 3^rd was Terry Jones with 10lbs 8oz made up of bream and carp. Gary Miles only caught one fish but it was a carp of 8lbs 14oz. The next match will be held at White Springs on Sunday 30th April draw at 9am fish 10am until 3pm. The next trout competition on the River Taff will be held on Sunday 23 April meet a lines bridge and fish from 9am until 2pm, meet at the Boys Club Troedyrhiw and fish from 9.30am until 2.30pm.

Dolygaer/Pontsticill

Andy Whittock fished the reservoir for bream on Sunday and caught one of 6lbs, which was one better than Saturday.

Kemeys

Ron Jones fished the Kemeys beat on Friday and caught 6 nice trout and he reports that the grannom are on the wing.

Weekly Report for April 13th

Middle Pond

Neil Morgan fished the pond overnight on Saturday and it paid off he caught 3 bream and 7 common carp to 11lbs. Chris Morgan fished the pond on Sunday and landed 3 carp to 8lbs

River Taff

The river continues to be very hard to fish with bright sun and clear water the fish are very shy. However, on Tuesday Steve Charleston landed 4 trout and Alan Hancocks landed 2. 9-year-old Arwell Thomas landed an 11inch brown trout on Sunday using a worm. Junior member Luke Donovan caught 2 trout of 1lbs 7oz and 1lbs 2oz using a worm when he fished the river at Troedyrhiw. Dillwyn Sims caught a 1lbs 6oz trout when he fished the Aberfan stretch of the river.

Upper Neaudd

The reservoir is reluctantly giving up its trout, but with the cold weather and cold water entering the reservoir the fish are fairly torpid. However, last Thursday Doug Bayliss did manage to tempt two.

Competitions

The Aberglais anglers fished Phocle Farm on Sunday and the result was much better than the match fished on Dolygaer. Gary Miles won with 51lbs 14oz; Gary used a long pole for precision fishing and sweet corn hook bait to tempt the carp. 2^nd using the same method was David Matthews who just scraped ahead of 3^rd place man Terry Jones. David landed 42lbs 5oz of carp and Terry was just 2oz behind him with 42lbs 3oz just one more fish.

Rod Licences

It is that time of year again when all fishermen over the age of 12 have to pay their tax. Your rod licence is now due, for an adult it is £24 for trout and coarse fish, £64.50p for salmon and sea trout, for disabled anglers £12 for trout and coarse, £32.25 for salmon and sea trout. If you are over 12 and under 16 the licence is £5.

Club Permits

Permits are still available from Tony Rees contact him on 01685 723520 and he will send you out an application form.

Weekly Report for 6th April

Salmon Coming Home Project

The Alvin’s were collected on Tuesday from Gwenllyn, Caedraw and Goitre schools and taken over to the hatchery at Cynrig. Chris Rees the Environment Agency Wales officer in charge of the project was very impressed by the way that the children in the schools had reared the eggs. The children from the schools will be visiting the hatchery in May or June and bringing back salmon par to stock the river.

River Taff

Phil Jehu made the most of his day off school last Tuesday and fished the top end of the river. Although the river was in flood Phil fished the slack water and the back eddies to land 6 wild trout that he returned. Dillwyn Sims fished below Troedyrhiw and landed 5 trout. 8 years old Adam Jones had a 13" trout on Saturday using a worm hook bait and Jamie Collins landed a 1lb 10oz trout using a spinner.

Rod Licences

Club Permits

Permits are still available contact Tony Rees on 01685 723520 for more information.

Heads of the Valley Spring Clean

Members of MTAA assisted in the spring-clean by helping to clean up the rubbish between Rhydycar and the Fire Station.

Gurnos Community Workshop

The Gurnos Community workshop has assisted MTAA by collecting rubbish from around Pontsticill Reservoir. The have made 2 forays and collected a great deal of litter. The committee would like to thank the lads to took part in the litter picks for their help and assistance.

Pontsticill

David Davies fished Pontsticill last week and landed perch and 10 bream, it looks like they have started feeding again.

Competitions

MTAA anglers fished a competition on Dolygaer on Sunday in appalling weather conditions. 1^st was Paul Lewis who fished feeder and maggot to land 2lbs 14ozs of skimmer bream, roach and perch 2^nd was Gary Miles with 1lb 6oz and 3^rd was David Matthews with 1lbs 2oz. The next competition is next Sunday at Phocle Farm; list up in Merthyr Angling Centre for names.

Weekly Report for 23rd Feb

River Taff/River Usk

Both of these rivers open for trout fishing on the 3^rd March, a week on Friday. Anglers are reminded when fishing the Usk for trout with a worm recent rule changes require a maximum hook size of 10 and a maximum line breaking strain of 4lbs. When fishing the Usk waters anglers are required to book in even though they are not fishing for salmon.

Competitions

The latest competition was held at Port Talbot Docks on Saturday 18^th Feb. The match was won by Phillip Jehu with 26lbs 12oz of bream, this was Phil’s 1^st match with the senior members of MTAA and he beat ex-club champion David (Pasty) Matthews into 2^nd place by a mere 3ozs, David landed 26lbs 9oz. 3^rd was Steve Crowley with 25lbs 1oz, who was fishing a good peg, plus it had been drawn as the golden peg. So Steve really did fancy his chances, as did Graham Davies who thought he was doing exceptionally well and sat on his box singing away all match. Terry "the Tantrum" Jones snagged up twice and after re-plumbing the depth and tackling up a couple of times lost his olivette and in a fit of rage snapped his pole across his knee.

Not only did Phil beat one ex-club champion he also beat the team that came 3^rd in the Welsh Championships, so the older senior members better watch out. Phil found that using the conventional method of feeder and maggot hook bait was not bringing him fish, so with the wisdom of youth, he tried the unconventional (for this fishery) a waggler float and single red maggot and this alternative thinking gave him the win. It seems that we have 2 up and coming young anglers who are willing to take on the senior members of the Association and beat them, Adam Toomey came 3^rd in a recent match and he is still only 15.

Pontsticill/Dolygaer

The changeable weather conditions are making things very hard for the dedicated pike anglers who are fishing these waters. Last week saw some hard frosts followed by heavy rain and temperatures that fluctuated quite a lot. This of course affects the feeding habits of the pike making them extremely difficult to catch. Andy Whittock did land one of 11lbs on Saturday and Neil ??? landed one of 6lbs. This last one had bite marks along its flank where a bigger pike had tried to eat it!!

Cyfarthfa Lake

Joseph Pires and his grandson 12 years old Ashley White from Chippenham fished Cyfarthfa Lake last Wednesday. Between them they landed 40 fish. Ashley landed over 15 bream to 4lbs as well as good quality roach, and Joseph landed roach and bream plus a 6lbs carp that he caught using a worm hook bait.

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