ARTHUR’S ARCHIVES 1908 National Champs
Keith Arthur rolls back the years to cast an eye over fishing matches of the past and see just how much the game has changed
“Fish were taken back on the same train and weighed in...”
ILOVE looking at historic matchfishing photos. Some might only be a few years old but of huge significance, while some truly ancient pictures conjure up all sorts of emotions.
This wonderful image from the 1908 National Championship is a case in point. Notice everyone is float fishing. It appears that some anglers may even be using poles. Fixed spool reels as we know them were yet to be invented. Unbelievably this match was almost 50 years before the invention of nylon line so silk lines and catgut (manufactured from sheep intestine) or horse-hair hooklengths would have been the order of the day.
No keepnets are in evidence... possibly the unfortunate photographer chose a fishless area because a large proportion of anglers blanked on the North
Level Drain around Tydd Gote.
Much more likely is that the fish were killed and weighed in dead, possibly back at match HQ. I recall reading about the old London Anglers’ Association Lea Benevolent competition from a similar era. A special train ran from Clapton Station, stopping at all stations as the route followed the River Lea.
Anglers could choose which station to disembark and then select their swim. Fish were taken back on the same train and weighed in. Miss the train, miss the weigh-in.
The anglers in this photo would have travelled by train. Buses were small in 1908. Imagine turning up at a mainline station and boarding a train with all your tackle and bait. You’d then have to change to the Angling Special train that stopped at all stations to the HQ and, possibly, stations along the river.
When fishing the Witham I’ve imagined anglers back in time exiting the train at all the little halts along the river. The excitement of the match, the thrill of a day in the country away from the steelworks. Now we just get in our cars and vans...