Two men from Caerphilly have been caught fishing out of season on the River Rhymney by Environment Agency Wales officers.
The men, a 22-year-old and a 49-year-old, were caught near Draethen, at around 4.30pm on Thursday, 19 January, after they were reported by a member of the public.
The officers seized one salmon which had been taken by the men, along with a rod, net and other fishing equipment.
The Environment Agency Wales said fishing out of season has a serious impact on salmon stocks in our rivers and an impact on angling tourism and the local economy.
Rhys Hughes, Environment Agency Wales, said: “Poaching at any time of year significantly threatens the future stocks of salmon in the River Rhymney.
“We appreciate the assistance we receive from legitimate anglers to report any such activity and we urge anyone who sees suspicious activity to call our Incident Hotline on 0800 80 70 60.”
The nice thing about this story is that it is once again worth a poachers while to fish the Rhymney. For many decades only things like eel could live in the polluted waters, black with the effluent of colliery washeries.
It looks lie the river is getting back to how it was in the 19th century, before the large scale exploitation of coal in this valley. It is wonderful news that the river is returning to life.
The Rhymney has been a clean river for years, I used to do a lot of coarse fishing on it over twenty years ago, and it was not unusual to see salmon and sewin, not that I fished for them of course, in season or out. I`ve always been a good boy.