Club News 2007

For the 2006 Club News click the image above

A view of Cenarth from the Seventeenth Century Written in 1622 by Michael Drayton during his travels around Britain and published in his epic poem, "Poly Olbion", his impressions of the falls at Cenarth -

"And when the Salmon seeks a fresher stream to find;
(Which hither from the sea comes, yearly, by his kind,)
As he towards season grows; and stems the watry tract
Where Tivy, falling down, makes an high cataract,
Forc'd by the rising rocks that there her course oppose,
As tho' within her bounds they meant her to inclose;
Here when the labouring fish does at the foot arrive,
And finds that by his strength he does but vainly strive;
His tail takes in his mouth, and, bending like a bow
That's to full compass drawn, aloft himself doth throw,
Then springing at his height, as doth a little wand
That bended end to end, and started from man's hand,
Far off itself doth cast, so does that Salmon vault;
And if, at first, he fail, his second summersault
He instantly essays, and, from his nimble ring
Still yerking, never leaves until himself he fling
Above the opposing stream."

(sixth song, l. 45)

Invertebrate Monitoring

Five members of the TTA will be attending a course to train them to identify aquatic invertebarates in our local rivers through the Riverfly Partnership scheme. The vision is to establish a number of sampling sites that will give us a meaningful view of the health of the river through counting the abundance of the building blocks of the aquatic food chain, that is the insect life.

The club will eventually have an acredited trainer who will be able to pass on the necessary information to any other members who may wish to become involved. It's very early days but watch this space for more news of the progress of the group.Eventually we would like groups established right through the network of tributaries that feed the Teifi so that pollution can be identified and pinpointed with some degree of certainty and that looks like it's a real possibility thanks to funding from the Teifi Rivers Trust and interest from the members of the Tregaron and Llandysul angling clubs.

If you'd like to begin to identify some of the river flies I'd reccommend the Field Studies Council publication "River invertebrate monitoring for anglers" which doesn't appear on their web site ( at a glance anyway) but this one does -

"A key to the major groups of British freshwater invertebrates "

Something different.

The million dollar lure......... on for the deeper, snag free pools.

For those on a reduced budget this 14Kt. Toby set with forty diamonds might be more appropriate despite the lack of

Wet Summer

.

Here's a map showing the percentage rating of river flows for July '07,the Teifi was running at 622% of it's usual rate.

The worming and spinning at and around Cenarth has been steady this season with some good water through August.Mike Evans has sent in this photo of Matthew Crossman (L) and Mike Young with these two peas in a pod, each salmon weighed fifteen pounds, well done boys, lovely fish and a nice couple of pictures.

I've also received four nice pictures of the river in her different moods through the season from Mr Wyn Williams for which I'm very grateful. Any

more photos gratefully received whether by post or via email.

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PLEASE REMEMBER

From 1st September, all sewin caught from TTA waters are to be returned to the river.This is a far sighted conservation measure which the committee proposed and carried at the AGM in 2006, gaining the gratitude of conservation minded members and the respect of many neighbouring clubs who recognise the value of catch and release for the continuation and improvement of the migratory fish population.Sewin are far from their best at this time of year, many have survived solely on their energy reserves for months and taste pretty awful on the whole, so, in the interests of a more productive fishery, please handle all landed fish with respect and care so that they can spawn this year and maybe return to spawn again in future years.Rules such as this distinguish our club as one which will accept a small sacrifice to contribute to the well being of the river as a whole. Sewin stocks are not robust at the moment and any sensible measure which increases their abundance is more than welcome to anglers who want to see their children enjoying the sport which they enjoy today

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WELL DONE JOHN HOLT!!

A lot of the visiting anglers who I've chatted with this year have commented on the quality of the access to the river. Our wet winter 2006/7 put paid to a lot of the "in river" work normally undertaken through the close season, consequently the attention of the bank maintenance team led by John Holt focussed on the routes to the river. A lot of this work was undertaken in attrocious weather often coupled with the ragged after effects of a good Saturday but the quality of the bank team's work is plain to see now with no decline in the high standards set under Clive Shaw's direction. As a small token of the club's appreciation of all the hard work that John Holt's bank team have put in through the winter the team members will be entitled to a meal paid for by the club at the annual get together - a very modest reward for their labour and expertise when you consider that the time put in voluntarily between October and April totals up to around five hundred man hours.Keep up the good work John, the end of the season and the start of the graft is looming ever more rapidly!

Any complaints about the free meal will be dealt with sympathetically.

Teifi Trout Association Dinner

It's a little early this year as we thought some of the visiting anglers might like to share a bite with us at "Coracles". For details please click here

Cenarth, summer flood, July

Wild Trout Trust

The Wild Trout Trust Advisory Visit scheduled for July was called off due to adverse conditions on the Ceri. Weather permitting - and the odds seem set against that this summer- Simon Johnson, director of the WTT plans to be down in mid August now.If you'd like to support the WTT you can of course become a member - incidentally the TTA are life members of the Trust- or you can help by buying a raffle ticket in their Annual Draw which has some very tempting prizes this year. First prize of a split bamboo rod, silver anodised reel and a silk line worth £2,625.00 . Buying a ticket online couldn't be easier.

How to Release That Fish

Now that we have the choice to kill or to retain the salmon which we catch it may be worthwhile to look at some sensible guidelines on how to do the job properly. Fishing Wales has some good advice on the subject, please click and take a moment to find the best practices for increasing the chances of the survival of your catch.

Hanging California Salmon - Samuel Marsden Brooks

From June 16th anglers on the Teifi are allowed to take salmon according to the local byelaw which is shown below -

Early season catch and release for salmon with rod and line

Limits on catch
In the West Wales Fisheries District no person shall take with rod and
line any salmon before the 16th June and no person shall take with rod
and line in excess of two salmon and four migratory trout in any period of
24 hours or in excess of five salmon during any consecutive seven day
period.”

Twm Twm , our membership secretary has had a great start to his season with the capture of a 36" sewin last night (7th June).To his great credit he released this specimen fish to spawn again, that's a desicion I'd find very difficult to make but I wouldn't mind the opportunity.These fish, born survivors, are extremely important as they hold thousands of eggs which will repopulate the river for years to come. He's only too willing to share the location of this hotspot for big fish, apparently it's between Poppit and Teifi Pools, please form an orderly queue! The sewin are widespread now, generally they're keeping a low profile,so don't be put off by lack of surface activity. Perserverance is the key.

An average day on the pools by Emlyn Rugby Club

More success for the bailiffs-

Acting on information received from club members the EA bailiffs have pulled three nets from the Newcastle Emlyn area and apprehended the (alleged) culprit. None of the several sewin caught in the nets were under four pounds,what a pity that they were taken in this unsporting way.Well done to all concerned, we can't catch all of the poachers but it does look like we're giving them a run for their money.The press release in full -

"During the early hours of Thursday morning (7 June) Enforcement Officers from Environment Agency Wales caught an individual retrieving an illegal net containing sea trout on the River Teifi at Newcastle Emlyn.

As a result of information received Environment Agency Wales Environmental Crime Officers had mounted a covert surveillance operation near the Rugby Club.

At around 5.30 am a man was seen retrieving three nets from the river. One of these contained six sea trout, weighing between four and eight pounds each. When the officers approached, the poacher attempted to run away but was caught, arrested by the officers and the police were called.

When the police arrived the Agency officers obtained sufficient details from the poacher to allow them to de-arrest him, and report him for summons. A file is now being prepared for prosecution.

Dafydd Williams, Agency Enforcement Team Leader said:

'We take this type of offence very seriously. The protection of vulnerable fish stocks is one of the Agency's key objectives. We will continue to make individuals who exploit our fisheries answerable for their crimes at every opportunity."

The Wild Trout Trust

On a brighter note members fromthe TTA will be giving up their time to act as guides for an Advisory Visit from Simon Johnson, the Director of the Wild TroutTrust later this month. The visit will clarify some of the work that needs to be undertaken to restore the Afon Ceri, one of our major tributaries, to it's former glory. The visit and the report it generates is being funded by a partnership between the Wild Trout Trust and the Environment Agency as part of their Wild Trout Wales project. Only twelve rivers in Wales have been entered into this project and we're very grateful to both the EA and the WTT for giving us the funding to go ahead with this scheme. After reading the reccommendations in the report the club can then choose whether or not to become involved in any habitat restoration work that the AV suggests. I hope to be able to put the report on the site once it's been published, it should make interesting reading.

Huw Morris

With great sadness I have to announce that Huw Morris, a very popular and respected club member, has passed away after a long illness. Huw was always very keen, he gave his all to the club and served both as a committee member and on the bank maintenance team. He was good angler and fly tyer, always after a new idea for a pattern to get that fish and he caught a few. Huw was a hard worker and even when a bad back forced him to leave his job he continued to support his family by taking over a tackle stall which he managed with great success. Huw's business in Cardigan market placed him at the heart of the local angling scene and his illness left a real gap when it forced him to cease trading, it just wasn't the same. Many of us looked forward to a break from shopping in town and spending some quality time with Huw, talking fishing and relaxing in his company. It's hard to believe someone that young and happy could be taken so soon, he really was one of the good guys, a friend to many of us, we'll all miss him terribly.

Fishing and Countryside news from around Wales

Follow the latest Country and Farming news from the Western Mail's web site with coarse, sea and game angling reports from around Wales plus plenty of interesting articles on Welsh Nature and the agricultural scene- http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/farming/

TIDES

There are some high tides today, 16th May, reaching 5.1 metres. Here's a link to the tide tables for Aberystwyth,our closest tide reference point, remember, SUBTRACT 33 MINUTES FOR CARDIGAN http://www.tourism.ceredigion.gov.uk/saesneg/tides.htm

Congratulations To Our Bailiffs

Our local Environment Agency bailiffs have had another good year. Their work has resulted in several successful prosecutions for illegal netting along the river, the latest is detailed below as reported on the EA web site - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1757557 another from March 2007 http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1719624and from November 2006http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1507737 Les Roberts and his colleagues are obviously doing an excellent job, we all hope that more money will be made available to add to the local team who are seriously under-manned and under-resourced for the daunting task of policing the Teifi along with the many other lakes and rivers in West Wales which they patrol.

Snake Flies...............

Alexandra

Ian Finylas, a top fly tier from the Bridgend area has recently taken up a season ticket with the club. He has a long standing reputation for supplying first class snake flies which are gradually becoming more popular on the Teifi, particularly as an alternative to fishing a bait in coloured water when snake flies such as the "Spate Buster" come into their own. His work can be seen here - http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/finylas/slideshow?.dir=/272d&.src=ph

Spate Buster

"I only use top quality materials, AA grade jungle cock, Metz hackles, Kamasan B990 hooks etc. and tie each fly myself.
Please feel free to contact me at finylas@yahoo.co.uk to discuss any requirements/questions you may have."

This plug has got to be worth a pint.

Opening Day, April 1st 2007

Roberto Fraga opens his account for the season with a sea liced hen salmon "full of eggs", 1st April 2007 According to Pete Davies, a club member and coracle man, these late running salmon are not that rare but are certainly unusual.

Friendly Fishing Competitition at Llys Y Fran

Teams from Teifi Trout Association and Llandysul AA held a match at Llys Y Fran Reservoir on Sunday 15th April. It was a fine day to begin with and floating line tactics came out tops over Di 7's and boobys for once. It was good friendly match and those that bagged up did well to get over the difficult conditions. It didn't rain this year and the match finished in an agreeably dry and warm atmosphere, the match last year had been more of an endurance test than a day out fishing. LAA's Geoff Thompson won the top bag - 10lb.8oz - and heaviest fish - 3lb 6oz - while the TTA, led by our Chairman, Bob Bird, had the heaviest total weight which won us the match - Bob did a great job organising our team, well done that man. The final weights - TTA 60lbs.01oz, LAA 51lbs.13ozBest boat went to TTA's Eric Booth and Wayne Ratcliffe

The house martens were back at the lake, it must be Spring! Many thanks to LAA- particularly to Dewi- for their part in organising the match, it was a good day and we're looking forward to the next one. We hope to fish a match against Tregaron AA some time in June, probably up at Teifi Pools

The teams at the end of the day

There was a sparse hatch of buzzers at the lake on the day - fly tyers take not

e!

A Buzzer on the fabric of a rod case, Llys Y Fran, 15th April

Anglers have launched a petition against canoeists who are campaigning for unrestricted year-round access to Britain's waterways. The link below will take you through to the Number 10 web site. Adding your name to the petition takes under a minute.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/No2Canoes/

Another petition regardingminimum sizes for taking bass may be of interest to you, the link for that is - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BassMLS/

Brook lampreys, by Newbridge, 1st April '07. These were busy moving stones in about 60cm of fast flowing water prior to to depositing their eggs .

The season has finally kicked off, several salmon and sea trout kelts were caught on opening day. Roberto Fraga, on his first trip as a full member of the TTA had an 8lb fresh run salmon on a rapala. The water is very low at the moment unfortunately as the picture below shows -

Ian Mac Donald fishing Harry's Pool on opening day

Please Note

The deadline for membership applications passed on 31st March. Applications for the 2008 season will be received from December 1st, 2007. Season tickets are available, details on the Membership page.

Many thanks to Andrew Thomas our Membership Secretary for all his hard work in processing around 300 applications, well done Twm Twm!

MORE SHEEP DIP POLLUTION

This time in the Afon Clettwr. Check this link http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1707229Cases are pending for yet more sheep dip pollution in both the Afon Ceri and the Teifi.Will there be any fly life left in the river for the juvenile fish in five years time? It's a very sad state of affairs when one of the very best rivers in Wales is steadily being poisoned year in,year out and the cause of the problem, the use of cypermethrin based dips, is being allowed to continue. This product should be banned.

Thanks to Mike Evans for these great photos of a heron at Cenarth Falls.

Click the picture to enlarge it, click the enlarged pic. to return.

NEW TACKLE SHOP IN CARDIGAN

West Wales Tackle has recently opened their third shop, it's opposite the entrance to CCF on Morgan Street, Cardigan. Their other two branches are in Carmarthen and New Quay. Daniel Beard who manages the shop is offering a 10% discount to TTA members on production of their membership cards.

The phone number for the shop is 01239 614244

PLEASE REMEMBER!!!!

The deadline for joining the club or renewing your membership is 31st March, 2007.

If you don't send in forms by this date you will lose your membership and be obliged to fish with a day ticket or season ticket through 2007. This year it's serious!For this seasons prices and a membership form click here

The Teifi Rivers Trust launch will take place at The Porth Hotel, Llandysul on March 24th. Check it out at www.teifiriverstrust.org

New Byelaws Members of the Teifi Trout Association can be proud of the policy the club has adopted in leading the way with conservation measures. Two new bylaws were voted in at the 2006 AGM to safeguard the long term viability of fish stocks in the river.

The two byelaw changes listed below have been adopted by the club -

1) "All brown trout caught on TTA waters must be returned to the water"2) "All sea trout caught on TTA waters after 31st August must be returned to the water"

The second byelaw may be lifted if the committee consider that the sewin stocks have increased signficantly.

Listed above, this season's EA licence prices. Licences can now be bought online . On completion of the transaction a unique reference number is issued which gives the right to fish from that moment in time. You can buy your licence at 10pm and fish at 4 am the next morning for example, handy if you couldn't get to the Post Office. ...... the usual licence is then despatched by post. This system worked well last year, the teething troubles experienced in 2005 now seem to be ironed out. For more details - http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/fish/399730/Licences are also available from The Telesales Service on 0870 1662 662, or from any Post Office.

The club would like to thank Viv Bradshaw and Olwen Hardwick for kindly hosting a visit from our members on the 26th January.

Members of the TTA at the hatchery.

With luck we'll have a few more fish like this absolute beauty caught and returned in mid April last season by Cenarth regular, Eric Porter.

The Teifi Trout Association President,Edward Fitzwilliams, awards a trophy to its youngest member at the 2006 AGM

Club News 2006