Let me first apologise, I dont make a habit of making my first post one of a rquest for help. I hope I have not broken any forum rules.

My first love has always been Fly Fishing.

Upper Rhondda Angling of which I'd been a member of for 25 years. Built up their very own Trout Farm from Scratch on wasteland. Its been there for some 20 years. Lately the club has not had very good takeup - sign of the times I think. Still its got its ever faithfull Senior and Junior members.

Last week it wold appear, someone poisoned every last single fish we had in our tanks, thats all this years, all next years and extra which the club use to offset food price.

26000 - Thats twenty six thousand fish we've lost. The guys that run the farm - for nothing spend all morning - every day at the farm. They show families around it and schools visit it.

To add insult to injury, They now have to spend £2000 to have the fish incinerated in Newport. In short whoever did this has ruined a club thats been running for 50 years.

I feel absolutely gutted. Such a horrible thing to do, to hard working and passionate members of the club.

We need help or the club is dead n the water (no pun intended). I've tried desperately with local government, businesses, but the help is not there. I think everyone is feeling the pinch at the moment.

That said I am no a willing to step back and see the club I've always loved fade away into non existence because of one apparent act of vandalism.

I've uploaded a page onto our website in an attempt to bring in some charitable funds. If you can help at all in any way, please visit this page. There is a message box for messages of support and a PAY PAL link for donations.

The message and donations page link is - www.uraa.moonfruit.com


BBC Wales ran the story, this is the link -

BBC News - Mystery as 26,000 trout found dead at Rhondda fish farm

Thankyou for reading, it means a lot to us.

Hey Tafflaff, welcome to the forum, sorry your first post has to be like this. Really can`t get my head round why some cretinous mouthbreathing ned would do a thing like this. I sincerely hope you get the support you need from the guys and girls on here, they do have a history of supporting worthwhile causes.
Don`t do paypal, who do I make my cheque out to ?
All the very best of luck to you,
Andy.

__________________
There is more to fishing than just catching fish....

does the club insurance not cover it?

What poisoned the fish; any post mortem or water test results?

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Save the softmouth trout

Hi Andy , thanks for the best wishes.

Cheques should be made out to U.R.A.A and sent to the address on the website

U.R.A.A
8 Brook st
Blaenrhondda
Rhondda Mid Glam
CF425SG

I do like your signature, and it does encapsulate our clubs ethos. Its not just catching the fish , we're a local, national and international family in this hobby.

Tests are being carried out on the fish as we speak. What we do know is that its isolated to just the farm and nothing to do with disease or oxygen starvation.

Many thanks to everyone.

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:48 PM ----------

Hi Ohanzee, we've tried repeatedly to get insurance for our farm, no problem for equipment ect. unfortunately for the fih it is oppressively priced - too expensive for a small club like us. Now we are learning just how expensive not having insurance is.

Not sure if any of the our latest visitors came from this forum, but thanks anyway

Hope you dont mind me bumping this up.

I am sorry to hear of your fish loss, its a shame and my sympathies go out to you and the club..

However how do you know they were poisoned by someone??...Did the fish all die at once and if not what measures were taken when something was seen to be wrong???....What would be a motive, Why would someone do this?....Does the club have any enemies?...Who has something to gain buy the Trout dying......Have you got water samples?..Are the Trout tanks fed from a river and if so is there any agriculture or industry that could have accidentally had a spill into the river that may have done this but that would have been small enough to have washed away by the time the river was tested?? .......Have Trout been tested?....Do you have any cctv on the site?....Any witnesses???.....Could there be another explanation?...

Sorry for all the ??'s and Columbo routine, just cant imagine why someone would want to poison all your Trout.....If it was just vandalism for the reason that someone has got a fish farm so lets kill all the fish then its a sick thing to do but given the human races penchant for destruction I would not be surprised...

Hope you find the solution....

and or the culprit if there is one

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WHEN YOU LEAVE THE RIVER, TAKE NOTHING, AND LEAVE ONLY FOOTPRINT'S!!!

THA CAN TELL A YORKSHIREMAN ,BUT THA CAN'T TELL HIM MUCH !!

All the fish were dead when the guys turned up in the morning to feed them. We have oxygen sensors and readers so we know it was not an oxygen issue.

Our water feed is taken off the river some 1/4 mile away. There are /were no dead fish in this stretch between the inlet point and outlet point.

The fish are being tested and lots of water tests are being carried out. Are there any people out there that would have done this ? Take a look around, who'd want to harm horses in a field for no reason ? It still happens.

Thanks