Arch provides a Major success as he lands the top prize at Llantwit
A combination of warm water and very active hungry carp relying on anglers baits as part of their diet is resulting in some massive match weights as Cefn Fforest AC members demonstrated in the their match on Sophie’s Pond at Redhill.
On-form Welsh National Champion Zac Williams, from Risca, won with a staggering 429lb 2oz and after that there was a string of huge weights as Lyn Jones, from Cefn Hengoed, followed with 303lb 11oz and Bob Giles was third with 254lb 12oz.
This was the second of the two match pairs competition, won by Zac Williams and Tony Hilditch with an aggregate weight 789lb 12oz. Runners up Lyn Jones and Mike Williams had a 480lb 13oz total while Carl Roper and Steve Allen were third with 479lb 15oz.
Match anglers looking for a bit more finesse in their fishing than is required at the heavily stocked carp fisheries are swelling the entry at Port Talbot Docks where roach, bream, perch, rudd, tench and even mullet are being caught.
Ron Gibbs, from Caerphilly, won the latest match with 22lb 12oz of roach and bream; but it was runner up Richard Candy who had the surprise catch.
The long-time Cardiff Nomads member from Canton had 20 mullet along with roach and bream in the 20lb 9oz he took from the next peg for second place.
Shaun Parsons, from Cardiff, was third with 18lb 4oz and the section winners were Paul Grist with 13lb 8oz and Jim Hart with 8lb 12oz.
Roach, bream and carp all figured in the catches in the Pirates AC match on the Pleasure Lake at White Springs where Tony Wale led the way with 93lb 2oz.
Second placed Rob White weighed in 81lb 2oz and then it was Ron Shipton with 43lb 6oz.
Sirhowy AS fished the New Canal at White Springs and it was another win for Tredegar member Mike Yandle who pole fished pellets to the island and also in the margins and caught enough carp for a winning total of 189lb 9oz.
Five pegs away Phil Weaver, from Newport, baited with casters and was runner up with 157lb 15oz while sweetcorn worked for Nigel Morris who was third with 141lb and now has a 19 points lead at the top of the Club Champion table.
The Wednesday open on the New Canal was another success for Alan Godrich as he caught 140lb 4oz of carp to beat Rob White with 110lb 13oz and Neil Daniels with 96lb 15oz.
Top rod in the fishery’s Sunday open on the New Canal was Scott Thomas who was on peg 23 and pole fished pellets to the island for a 177lb 5oz carp catch.
Dan Bowen’s 115lb 6oz was second best and Chris Wells came in third with 111lb 12oz. AFTER poor weather leading up to the Llantwit Major Charity Open Competition, conditions were ideal on the day.
A gentle southerly breeze and the smooth hounds feeding so readily saw a total weigh-in for 96 anglers of 506kg and £1,420 was raised to be divided between Parkinsons UK and the Jacob Abraham Foundation.
Cardiff’s ex-World Shore Fishing Champion Joe Arch was on top form and beached nine smooth hounds from a mark in front of the beach car park to win and add 20 Garry Evans Seamaster points to his tally with a weight of 36.13kg.
He also took the £250 first prize donated by Holyhead-based Ben Price, who runs BDP Heating and Plumbing, along with another £85 to go with the Smooth Hound Festival Cup he won with his heaviest fish.
Barry angler Daniel Crump, who works in his local Holton Road Angling Centre, moved himself up to sixth place in the Garry Evans Seamaster points table by finishing a close second with 10 smooth hounds weighing 35.24kg. He fished at Boverton and together with 19 points pocketed the £150 put up by Chris Read, Sally Owen and Gareth Davies.
Richard Potts, the MD at Treforest Tiling Ltd who lives in Tylorstown, was also at Boverton and also caught 10 smooth hounds for his weight of 33.34kg that brought him 18 points and £100 donated by Maria Hughes owner of Llantwit Major Beach Cafe.
Current Seamaster Champion Rory Jenkins, from Tonyrefail, was fourth. He was at St Donats and caught eight smooth hounds, three conger eels and a bull huss giving him 30.64kg. His reward was £50 donated by Chris Davies Estate Agents while the 17 points added to his previous total now leaves him top of the Seamaster table by a margin of 32 points.
Seven smooth hounds weighing 28.09kg gave Chris Equall the £50 donated by Chris Garner and the £30 donated by local barber Ben Davies went to another Cardiff angler Roy Tapper with 25.09kg from eight smooth hounds and a conger.
The lowest weight to make the top 20 and collect points was over 10kg.
The designated species for this round was the rockling and Ieuan Jones won £85 for catching the biggest weighing 0.18kg.
The South Wales Match Men duo of Roy Tapper and Daniel Crump won the pairs trophy and £80 with their total weight of 60.49kg and Rory Jenkins and Chris Jenkins from Team Sakuma collected £40 as runners up.
The Garry Evans Seamaster final will be part of the Barry Festival on October 7 and the last chance to pick up some points and join the finalists comes on September 2 when the WFSA East Region Open takes place at Aberavon.
The Newport and District SAC evening competition at St Brides ended in wind and rain and a win for one of the club’s junior members. Nathan Guscott scooped the prize and pool money with a 2.5kg conger and to make it a good day for the family his father Rob was runner up with a conger that weighed 1.50kg. Dave Loder also had a conger for third place with 1.41kg.
The club has a Newport area roving competition from 10.30am to 4.30pm on Sunday with booking in at the Mission to Sea Farers outside the docks.
Silver eels made up the catches at Beachley where Neil Owen reeled in half a dozen to win the first of the Gwent and District SAC competitions with 1.56kg.
Five gave Martin Jones 1.01kg and second place then it was six and 0.91kg for third man Ivor Smith.
The club combined the other competition with the open at Llantwit Major and it was won by Gerald John with six smooth hounds weighing 15.76kg.
Keith Skipper’s five smooth hound 14.40kg took second prize and Darren Gregory also caught five to take third prize with 9.71kg.