About Us

Newport AA was established in 1899 and not until the early 1980’s did the club offer the venues currently available. We presently have around 650 members enjoying these facilities.

The club’s main focus is to provide local angling in a safe and enjoyable environment at our ponds in Newport with the added benefit of offering fishing running water on one of the countries finest rivers at two further locations. We welcome well-behaved new members at senior and junior levels.

Thinking of joining? See our Membership page for more details.

The club was founded in 1899 in order to provide coarse fishing for anglers in the Newport area.

Records prior to the 1960s are a little vague, we only have details of club waters at that time. Waters then were; the canal in and around Newport; St Julians Pond aka the Brickyard pond; Lliswerry pond aka the Quarry; Reens in the Magor area, and a freshwater/brackish dock in Newport called the Timber float.

In the 1960s access to the Timber Float in Newport Docks was lost and the water was either filled in or incorporated within the rest of the docks. St. Julians pond was filled in in the early 1960s to make way for the M4 and Brynglas Tunnels. Some fish were saved and transferred to Lliswerry pond and the canals. Lliswerry pond is now managed by a local group not linked to Newport AA.

It was the loss of St Julians pond that inspired the then club officials to create their own fishery. Notable names involved at that time were Bob Small, Peter Climo and Albert Friswell. All contributed in various ways to make the dream of a new pond feasible. In 1976 on Malpas floodlands, a nine acre parcel of land was leased from Newport Council, planning for a three acre lake was granted and work commenced.

The pond was oval with a large island. It was called Woodstock pond, named after the contractor who dug it. Some five years later a four acre irregular shaped pond was created on the same parcel of land, just the other side of the Malpas brook. This second pond was called Morgans pond, also named after the contractor.

Woodstock pond was officially opened in 1978 and a BBC film crew were in attendance. One lucky angler caught one of the very large bream that had been stocked into the lake, which turned out to be a new Welsh record at that time. In 1984 we had an official visit from HRH the Prince of Wales for the official opening of Morgan’s pond and we received the Duke Of Edinburgh award for services to outdoor recreational activities.

Newport has provided several Wales International anglers over the years. When Wales initially put an international team forward in the early 1980s several club members received international honours. The late Ron Cousins who wrote for years in the angling and local press. Peter Mees, Jonny Mack, Martyn Truman, Phil Weaver, Nicky Jones, Rob Eyles, Clive Roberts , Richard Candy and world champion Clive Branson were members at this time. More recently John Harvey, Dennis O’Leary and Larry Salter have been members. Apologies for any I have missed.

In the late 1980s the club bought the fishing rights to the Symonds Yat section of the River Wye. This stretch has produced several double figure barbel and big bags of roach, chub and dace. Large pike are also present. A few years later the club negotiated a lease for the Bigsweir section of the Wye. A famous salmon water and home to big barbel and chub. The section is only open from October to March to allow for the salmon season.

Both Woodstock and Morgans ponds have been home to a few big match fishing events. They were used in a Welsh National Angling Championships in the 1980s and have been home to two Police National Angling competitions over the past 20 years.

Around 2004 the club decided to make some big changes and sectioned off an overgrown and little used section of Morgans pond to make a ‘junior’ pond, which would be well stocked so that anyone can catch a few fish. It was called School Pool due to its close proximity to the local school and was stocked with F1s and small carp to boost the existing fish stocks.

Security fencing was erected around the pond in 2018 to stop poaching and vandalism. It has allowed usto manage the ponds more successfully. The ponds are maintained daily and stock levels monitored for predation.