ABERAERON TOWN ANGLING CLUB

THE RIVER AERON’S ONLY ANGLING CLUB

News 2025

21 January - Bank maintenance

A large ash tree, one of many that fell during storm Darragh, ended up on the bank in Bevan’s, restricting access to the pool. It was unlikely to be moved by subsequent floods, due to its size and the position it ended up in, so a focused bank maintenance group took care of it earlier today. It is likely, given the extent of ash die back in ash trees along the river corridor upstream, that this will become a regular occurrence over the coming years. The Club has invested in appropriate equipment to safely and efficiently perform the work and does so against a comprehensive bank maintenance risk assessment taking all safety considerations into account.

13 January - Water quality testing

Many of you will have seen previous news on our water quality testing programme on the Aeron. Mike Lench kindly volunteers to do the testing at roughly 2 week intervals and tests for temperature, pH, conductivity, phosphate and nitrate at 3 points on the lower Aeron:

1 Llanerchaeron at the picnic area (main river sample above the Mydyr confluence)

2 Corner Pool (below the Mydyr but above the sewage treatment works)

3 Town pools (worst case taking contributions from upstream, Mydyr and sewage treatment works)

The data has been collected for several months now and a picture is emerging. Nitrate routinely fails the alert limit and phosphate is present but at low levels with spikes. Of course this is not real time monitoring but is at a frequency of one day in fourteen so we may be missing many spikes but simply don’t have the resources to test daily. Phosphate and nitrate in rivers arise from agricultural run off and from sewage treatment processes. Slurry spreading on land in the Aeron valley has been and remains a serious diffuse and acute pollution source; acute incidents can kill fish and aquatic invertebrates over many miles of river whereas diffuse and chronic sources can result in eutrophication of the water resulting in blooms of algae, something we have seen very regularly in summer months with algae coating the stones in the river bed; the Aeron is an acidic low nutrient river that should not result in these levels of algae.

The Club will continue to monitor, developing the picture as more data is accumulated. With other similar citizen scientist studies taking place in the county, the assembled data will prove useful over time in addressing the problem.
A big thank you is extended to Mike for giving up his time in all weathers to collect this valuable data.

Click on the graphs below to expand onto a larger page for ease of viewing.

19 January

Club dinner
The annual Club presentation dinner that was postponed from December due to bad weather will be rearranged for Friday 28 March, 7 for 7:30pm, at the Hive, Aberaeron. Partners are welcome and a menu will be circulated shortly to members.

Bank maintenance
There will be bank maintenance days on 21 January and 08 March, meet at the Town Pools at 9:30am.

11 February 2025 - Annual General Meeting

The Club’s 2024 AGM was held at the Sports Club, Aberaeron on 31 January 2025. The key points arising from the meeting were:

• Guest permit week will run from 09-15 June inclusive.
• A mini game fair or other similar fundraising event will be run in 2025.
• The Club will pursue increasing junior participation by running a series of junior events at Oakford Fishery.
• Membership fees for 2025 will remain unchanged from those of 2024.
• Week permits will be removed from sale and day permits will increase in price to £20 per day with the provision that day permit holders be allowed to fish below South Road bridge, including the Town Pools water.
• A Club organised trip to Rutland Water will take place in October.
• The Lake Secretary duties will revert to Conrad Jones.
• All positions on the Committee were re-filled by the incumbents with the exception that Geoff Churton stood down from the Committee after 16 years and was replaced by Mike Evans. Geoff was thanked by the Chairman for his many years of service to the Committee and Mike was welcomed in his place. Aside from sitting on the Committee, Mike would also assume the role of Bank Maintenance Coordinator.
• The rules for Club organised lake competitions will change from International Rules to ‘fishery rules’ for all Club competitions.

18 March 2025 - Bank maintenance

The Club held its first official bank maintenance day of the year on 08 March. The town pools hedge had been cut earlier in the week before the bird nesting season began but the remainder of the town pools and some pools upriver were cleared and some fallen branches taken care off. The access to Station Pool along the fenceline has been greatly improved.

31 March 2025 - 2024 Club presentation dinner

Storm Darragh caused the postponement of the dinner scheduled to be held last December but the rearranged dinner was finally held at the Hive, Aberaeron on 28 March. The evening was well attended with a mix of Riparian owners, Committee members, Club members and other friends of the Club. The food and service was excellent and a few celebratory drinks were had. Sadly, there were no river competitions contested in 2024, a reflection of the poor fishing season, but congratulations to the lake competition winners who were:

Iorrie Lewis Lake Cup - Robin Foster
Alan Butler Spring Lake Cup - Gareth Jones

David Morgan Autumn Lake Cup - Bryan Hughes
Mike Barrs Heaviest Trout on Fly Trophy - Steven Williams

Alun Williams Memorial Lake Trophy - Mike Evans

The Clubman of the year award went to Al Davies for his valued bank maintenance support over the years, the erection of several styles and gates with Mike Lench last season and his regular commitment to and support of the lake fishing competitions.

02 April 2025 - Club marketing

The Committee has been looking at ways to market the Club with a view to increasing membership. Two very recent additions are some plastic Club QR code plates and some Club ‘business’ cards. The QR codes, when scanned with a phone, direct to the Club website and these have been located at points around the town pools - some will also be strategically placed on the Cwmmins water soon. The business cards display the Club logo on one face and QR codes to the Club’s Facebook page, the Club’s website and the Club’s map of waters on the other face. These can be given to prospective members and will be placed in pubs around town and in the tackle shop in Aberystwyth.

07 April 2025 - Water quality testing

Water testing and invertebrate kick sampling continues on the Aeron to generate data to support claims that the river is being affected by pollution arising upstream. As has been previously reported, nitrate seems to be the main contributor for the algal blooms seen on the river bed which becomes more extensive as the seasons progress and water warms up. NRW seems powerless to address this issue which is clearly affecting many rivers across the country. It takes some time for a picture to emerge but some trends are becoming apparent in the data even now after 15 months of testing. See the water quality testing page for the data.

30 May 2025 - Family Open Day

The Club held a family open evening on 20th May at Nine Oaks Fishery in Oakford near Aberaeron. The aim was to encourage anyone interested in trying fly fishing to have a go. The weather was wonderful and the event was well attended by an even mix of youngsters and adults, who were willing to try fly fishing for the first time, plus a few who had fished before. Unfortunately, not many fish were caught, probably on account of the bright, sunny and warm weather but a few did make it to the net. As fish were a bit thin on the ground, sausage and chips was made available for those who attended. All-in-all it was a great event and it was lovely to see some juniors casting well after just 30 minutes of tuition and even adults with big smiles on their faces as they became kids again for the evening as they learnt the basics of fly fishing for the first time.

The Club would like to extend a big thanks to Oakford Fishery for hosting the event and it is quite possible that the event will be repeated again so watch this space if interested.

24 May 2025 - Iorrie Lewis Memorial Lake Competition

The first lake competition of the year was held on Llyn Clywedog on 24th May. The event was sponsored by The Hive, Aberaeron and was won by Gareth Jones with 9 fish, second was Rhodri Davies with 8 fish and third was Bryan Hughes with 7 fish; the heaviest fish of the day fell to Seven Williams with a fish of 3lb 2oz. A new scoring system was adopted with points awarded for numbers of fish caught rather than the weight of the bag deciding the winner. - the benefits of the system being that all fish count (even spartic and browns) and that fish do not have to be killed to decide a winner. A heaviest fish prize was retained for any decent fish caught and killed for the weigh in and for two anglers level on numbers of fish caught, their heaviest fish weighed in would act as a differentiator for positioning. A big thank you Rhodri Davies and to the Hive for sponsoring the event.

29 May 2025 - Bank maintenance

The Club held another bank maintenance day, this time focused on the Town Pools and Station Pool. Some good work was done and a big thanks to all who helped out.

14 June 2025 - Alan Butler Spring Lake Competition

The second lake competition of the year was fished on Llyn Brenig and was kindly sponsored by Pont Steffan Dental Practice. In a reversal of first and second from the last competition, Rhodri Davies was top rod with 9 fish, second was Gareth Jones, also with 9 fish but a lower weight for his heaviest fish. Third was Mark Rickard and the heaviest fish award went to Cam Reid. Congratulations to all prize winners and a big thanks to Owain Dimmick of Pont Steffan Dental Practice for the event sponsorship.