History

 A Brief Club History.

Club inception & Angling in war time

The club was formed in the late 1940’s when a group of like minded men got together to organise trips to the River Wye, and to fish the Nantgarw Road moat. The first President was Mr Curtis, who at that time was in charge of the Food Office, which was situated above the car showroom in castle Street. The original funds to start the club were as a result of donations from local farmers and butchers who were approached when applying for a licence to kill animals in the meat ration in force at the time.

Travelling in style

The original trips to the river Wye were taken in the back of a lorry to start with, but by the early 1950’s this was changed to Roberts Coaches and the club began to travel in style! In those distant days the coach was always full and on more than one occasion a stop would be made in Lower Machen to obtain stakes from hedges to place across the aisle of the coach to form benches for members to sit on. The balance sheet in 1954 showed club funds of £19 12/8d. Annual Christmas dinners were held at the old Clive Hotel where the members dined for the grand sum of seven shillings (35 pence in todays money). The local MP (Ness Edwards and Cannon Short were the guests of honour.

Floods & Devastation

The late 1950’s saw the South Lake flooded, this was followed closely by a massive fish kill due to pollution from the nearby Penrhos Tip. As a result of the pollution the club received the sum of £1500 to compensate for the loss of fishing and to provide alternate fishing on the river Wye for the members. With the South Lake now flooded and available an official lease was obtained by the club from what was then the Ministry of Ancient Monuments to enable fishing on both lakes, and to allow the membership to be increased above the previously mandatory limit of 50 under the previous agreement.

Expansion in the swinging 60’s and 70’s

Permission to fish the local rivers residing under the jurisdiction of what was then the old Caerphilly Council had been sought since the early 1950’s but it was not until the 1960’s that this was eventually granted. This was granted not long after the Taffs Well Anglers had been given permission to fish the river Taff. It is believed that Taffs Well Anglers had Councillors on their committee who had used their position to obtain the required rights. In the 1970’s a lease was signed with the owner of the stretch of the river Rhmney at Llanbradach and the first club ties were formed. The club joined, and became mebers of the WFCA in 1975 and have remained members ever since.

Club evolvement and looking to the future

In the late 1980’s the Rhmney River Association of Angling Clubs was formed to protect the fishing in our river and leases were obtained from the council for the stretch of the river. In the early 1990’s the lease on Dreathen was signed as well as the stretch of the Wye at Wyesham.
The club is now over 50 years old and going from strength to strength, the membership is on the increase which is great for the future of the sport we all love so much. The club also in 2016 took over the fishing rights of another well stocked mixed fishery in the locality, Castle View pond and it continues to look for additional waters to strengthen what the club can offer its members.