It’s a Shaw thing as Steve is left bream-ing after netting big haul

ALTHOUGH the wind and rain ruled out pole fishing for many taking part in the Two Day Open at Port Talbot Dock, there was no shortage of fish and a new match weight record was set by the overall winner, Steve Shaw.

Cardiff Nomads member Shaun Parsons was the winner on the first day. He used feeder and maggots for a 29lb 14oz bag of roach and bream.

Ron Gibbs, from Caerphilly, feeder fished his way to second place with 27lb 13oz and Steve Shaw was in third place with 24lb 14oz.

Soon after the starting signal on the second day, competitors discovered that huge shoals of fish had moved over the previous day’s groundbait and were coming to the net all along the match length.

The bigger bream were there and Steve Shaw, from Cardiff, found them so keen on his maggots and sweetcorn offerings that his catch came to 91lb 1oz and a new record.

Ron Gibbs was second again this time with 69lb 1oz and Rory Jones, who is a member of the England Under 25 team that took the silver medal in last month’s World Championship in Italy, was third with 52lb.

The total weight over the two days was the decider so Steve Shaw won with 120lb 15oz.

Gibbs finished the two days in second place with 96lb 12oz and Shaun Parsons was third with 56lb 12oz.

Every swim was taken by pairs of sponsored anglers for the annual White Springs 48 Hour Charity Competition with the result that an amazing £4,700 was raised.

The winning duo was Morgan Thomas Jones and Owen Watkins with six carp, the biggest weighing 26.25lb.

Graeme Andrews and Martin Matthews were second with 5 and Ryan Donohoe and Nick Parker third with three that included the competition’s biggest weighing 28lb.

One of the younger members, Ashley Cleaves from Newport, is making his mark with Sirhowy AS and won another club match on the New Canal at White Springs when he pole fished casters across to the island and put 80lb 2oz of carp in his keepnet.

Andrew Ford caught the second best weight of 76lb 3oz by using maggots as bait in the margins but it was a long pole to reach the island for Sean Wilson as the Trethomas angler caught 74lb 12oz for third place. By finishing fourth with 71lb 13oz Newport member Phil Weaver moved up the Club Champion points table and is 16 behind the leader Nigel Morris.

Carp to nearly 20lb were caught when Cefn Fforest AC visited Viaduct Fishery in Somerset, so it didn’t take too many fish for Rob Wiltshire, from Trethomas, to build up the winning weight of 171lb 4oz.

Howard Green, from Pontllanfraith, was runner-up with 159lb 10oz and Terry Morgan, who lives in Cefn Fforest, third with 104lb 3oz.

Roach fed well on the River Taff at Penarth Road, where in a Cardiff Nomads 2.5 hours vening match, Clive Branson used a waggler float with maggots as bait and had a busy time catching 14lb 6oz of them to win.

Clive Roberts caught 12lb 6oz the same way and Steve Thomas made it to third place with 9lb.

Six mullet to 5lb with roach all caught on pole and maggots added up to a winning 28lb 8oz for Caerphilly angler Richard Ahearne when he took part in the open match at Port Talbot Dock.

Bream and roach on pole and maggots gave Clive Roberts 25lb 2oz and second place while Steve Shaw was third with 21lb 3oz.

Rob White won the Pirates AC match at White Springs with a 104lb 13oz catch of carp from the Match Lake and was followed by Alan Godrich with 95lb 13oz and Jim Hutton with 78lb 3oz.

The fishery’s New Canal was used for the Sunday open where rain and wind made fishing difficult and 76lb 5oz from peg 27 was enough to give victory to Chris Worrell.

Chris Hall was runner up with 68lb 11oz and Andrew Rogers third with 11 ounces less.

The Wednesday entry at Redhill Fishery was pegged on Sophie’s Pond and won on peg 5 by Matt Hill with 227lb 13oz of carp to 8lb.

There was a string of big weights as Alan Davies, from Trealaw, followed up with 190lb 12oz; Tredegar angler Mike Yandle had a 180lb 3oz catch and Tony Hilditch took time off from his Pontllanfraith garden centre to claim fourth place with 160lb 2oz.

Two Ebbw Vale anglers topped the result sheet at the Wednesday match for the over 50s at Cefn Mably Lakes.

Larry Salter put himself well ahead with 122lb of carp and Dennis O’Leary weighed in 73lb 12oz.

Cardiff competitor Robert Michael was third with 69lb.

Dan Bowen doubled the weight of his nearest challenger to win the Wednesday match on the New Canal at White Springs.

His pole and pellet approach to peg 17 gave him 205lb 7oz of carp while Rob White fished the same way for 101lb 9oz and Alan Godrich was third with 98lb 15oz.

When Aberglais AC fished the Match Lake at White Springs in the rain Mark Williams, from Abertysswg, did best by pole fishing sweetcorn across to the island and catching carp with a few bream for a weight of 98lb 8oz.

Andrew Jones, from Fochriw, was on the opposite side of the pond and second with 87lb 6oz and then it was Merthyr member Gary Lewis on the next peg to the winner and weighing in a level 80lb.

Fochriw Feeder Pond raked by wind and rain tested competitors in the Rhymney AS match; but small fish