The Association was formed in 1927 and all waters were leased. However as the years went by the Association were able to purchase fishing rights and now own about 8 miles of double and single bank fishing whilst we do still lease about 2-3 miles of water on the Rivers Dwyfor and Dwyfach.
Membership is open to persons residing within 3 miles of the waters under control of the Association and the membership is limited to 160 local members. New applicants for local membership are treated as waiting list members for the first year and are allowed to fish but have no voting powers. Over the past few years full membership has not been achieved therefore we have allowed persons residing within the Gwynedd area to become Associated Members which must be applied for each year. These members enjoy the same privileges as the Local members but have no voting powers.
We have a President, 8 Vice Presidents, Treasurer and Secretary and an Executive Committee of 12 Local members and these officers are elected each year at the Annual General meeting which is normally held in December of each year.
To cater for visiting anglers we issue day, week and season permits with concessionary permits for Senior Citizens and Full time Students. Junior permits up to the age of 16 years are also available. We operate a Personal Accident Insurance cover for all anglers between the age of 8 years and 70 years of age.
All members and permit holders are required to abide by very strict set of rules which are only there to ensure that there is fair play and everyone enjoys themselves. For example, we do not allow fishing when the river level drops below a set marker line except between Sunset and 2-00 a.m. whilst bait fishing is restricted and only fly can be used when the river level is at a certain point. This action is necessary to protect fish stocks. All permits have the necessary rules printed on thereon and we trust all anglers will observe them. There is a lot of camaraderie amongst our members and there is certainly no social barriers, everyone has a good chat, puts the world to right and with luck catch a few fish.
We are very conservation minded. For a number of years we have run a successful hatchery where we rear sea trout up to smolt stage. With the exception of one year we have released between 8000 - 10,000 sea trout into our feeder streams. To ensure that we have our own genetic strain, the mature fish we strip originate from the River Dwyfor catchment area.
All along the Dwyfor we have created holding pools for the benefit of our fishing and wildlife. We do have otters in our river catchment area but you would be very lucky to see them. On certain sections of our river, kingfishers are a regular feature.