Mack’s top of the class with impressive haul at School Pool

THE cold night before the fifth round of the Newport Autumn Series was blamed for the difficulty of coaxing fish out of School Pool, but that didn’t stop Newport feeder specialist John Mack adding to his collection of wins with 21lb 6oz of carp from peg 61 in the back bay.

Another Newport angler John Kelly was on peg 59 and runner-up with 20lb 10oz and then came Pontllanfraith’s Howard Green with 18lb 12oz and Newport teenager Aidan Williams with 16lb 4oz.

The final match is on Sunday, November 19, at Woodstock Pond.

For the second week, the Tuesday silver fish match at Tri-Nant Fishery ended with two anglers sharing first place and one of them, Bob Mitchell, had been in the same position seven days earlier.

Joining him this week with 6lb 4oz of roach was fellow Cardiff angler Austin Roberts while in third place was Jim Palmer, from Rhiwbina, with 5lb.

Sirhowy AS member Rob Jones topped the weights in the Wednesday open at White Springs with 97lb 2oz of carp from the Match Lake. Adam Rogers was nearest with 68lb 6oz and Brian Prothero, from Merthyr, third with 57lb 11oz.

The Sunday match at the fishery was on the New Canal and won by Matthew Edwards with 56lb of carp. Second was Dick Brunton with 46lb and third Steve O’Mara with 37lb 12oz.

Mike Yandle, from Tredegar, has been a regular winner in the Wednesday matches at Redhill Fishery and he did it again in the latest with 86lb of carp on pole and pellets from peg 2 on Penny’s Pond. The deeper end of the pond fished best with the second best weight of 76lb taken by Tony Hilditch on peg 5. Matthew Gronow, from Cwmbran, was on peg 12 and filled third place with 72lb 6oz.

The over-50s were out in force for the Wednesday match at Cefn Mably Lakes where Carlo Bertorelli, from Cwmbran, added to his earlier wins in the series by catching 74lb of carp from his peg on the Match Lake.

The second place was shared between Andy Washington and Phil Hunt when both saw their catches turn the scales to 60lb 12oz while the silver fish pool went to the 1lb 4oz of roach that Andy Washington had in his net.

Bertorelli was back on the lake on Saturday for the Spencer Works AC match and he won the day with 43lb ahead of Barry Jones with 39lb 6oz and Adam Brown with six ounces less.

Anglers casting their baits to the island did best in the Sirhowy AS match at Cefn Mably.

Tredegar angler David Evans legered bread for his winning carp weight of 59lb 2oz; Newport member Keith Wilcox used pellets to weigh in 58lb 10oz and Craig Challinsworth, from Cwmbran, cast a float across to catch 55lb 10oz of carp.

The low, clear and cold River Wye at Boughrood gave Rhymney AS members a hard day with only the pegs in the deep glide producing fish.

Colin Whitehouse legered luncheon meat to win with three chub weighing 11lb 2oz; Jason Breen on the next peg caught a chub and a dace for 4lb 3oz and second place and Brian Rees was third with a 3lb 2oz chub.

Fishery owner Ian Heaps won the open match at his Holgan Farm Fishery for the third week; this time with 24lb 4oz of crucians, bream and small carp from the Tench Lake.

Colin Bates and Roy Melton filled the next two places with 17lb and 9lb 8oz. Mark Williams, from Abertysswg, was the winner when Aberglais AC headed for Herefordshire and a match on Pixley Pool.

His 61lb 5oz of carp beat Merthyr members Paddy Payne and Ian Cathrew who weighed in 37lb 8oz and 36lb 1oz.

Roach and perch made up Paul White’s winning 11lb 6oz in the Festival AC match at Ebbw Vale’s Festival Park Lake.

Mark Barrell was second with 9lb 3oz and Howard Scott third with 7lb 4oz. The Pontymister AC away match was on Molly’s Pond at Redhill Fishery and won by Rob Sims, from Cwmcarn, with 116lb