ARTHUR’S ARCHIVE

Keith remembers the great Ray Mumford, one of the true characters of match fishing... and an all-round innovator

AVING been given the task of writing 300 words about my old friend, the gifted all-round angler Ray Mumford, I soon realised they could all be adjectives, starting with ‘argumentative’ and ending with ‘zany’. But I’ll try instead to relay just how influential this unique character was.

First and foremost, history will remind us that Ray was

Hone of the all-time greats of British match fishing. He was an innovator, a perfectionist and a master of many methods. Despite coming from the South, where tactics were restricted by such things as size limits and roving matches, Ray was hugely successful wherever he fished.

One of his specialities was bleak fishing, using techniques borrowed from Europe. He was infatuated with French match fishing – world-leaders at the time – rather than the styles used here. Ray fished with pole floats rather than splashers and greased line, but he was very efficient, catching weights of up to 20lb.

From the late 1950s until the end of the 1970s Ray was ‘the man’ when it came to pole fishing. He would use a length of elastic dangling from a crook on the end, but once internal elastics and longer poles came on the scene he remained set in his ways and started to fall behind. Make no mistake, he could still win when the fishing was on his terms, but that wasn’t often enough.

Ray was far from just being a pole angler though. He designed and made some wonderful floats before the ubiquitous waggler arrived on the scene, and won a lot of matches floatfishing, as well as quite a few on the swingtip.

He was a wonderful allrounder, with a string of big roach from London reservoirs, including catches containing multiple 2lb-plus fish. I recall him telling me his best haul was seven ‘twos’ in a day!

He also sea fished, always entering the massive British Open, and held the Bristol Avon barbel record for a good few years. He even won the British Pike Championships, using little spinners and catching well while everyone else fished big deadbaits and caught not much at all.

Sadly, Ray’s later years were blighted by dementia, and he passed away in a care home back in 2012.

“From the late 1950s until the end of the 1970s Ray was ‘the man’ when it came to pole fishing”

A SUPERSONIC ICON TOOK TO THE SKIES

Concorde, the passenger plane capable of reaching speeds twice the speed of sound, made its first commercial flight. It could cross the Atlantic in under three hours.

BRITAIN’S FIRST GOLD

Figure skater John Curry became Britain’s first-ever gold medal winning skater at a Winter Olympics, taking top spot at Innsbruck, Austria.

YO ADRIAN!

Sylvester Stallone starred as the eponymous boxer in Rocky. The film followed everyman underdog Rocky Balboa as he geared up to fight world champion

Apollo Creed.

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Lures e.g. a fish with bait (6) Droitwich’s river, Severn tributary (*saw pearl) (8)

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How a falling bait is taken makes *rodent hop (2,3,4) Brown tone of early photographs (5)

Yeasty food spread, possible bait dip (*I’m tamer) (7) Weighted bait feeders used by NASA! (7)

Coarse sack cloth (*in ashes) (7) In short, pike-like marine fish ... seen in Algarve (3) Encourage (3,2)

Thin membrane around scallop flesh, used for sea bait (5) Boggy ground (5) Version of fly-fishing constrictor knot (*Gary’s pool) (5,4)

Another name for tunas (*nun ties) (7)

Young swans (7)

Chew Valley Lake is near this city (7) ac. Cheshire ace, Daiwa Pole Fishing Masters champ 2019 (5,6) Super-sharp hook with inturned eye (5) Narrowest part of rod... in multiplier (3)

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N THE era of smart phones and pocketsized digital cameras, getting a good picture of your favourite catch is simple, provided you avoid a handful of common mistakes.

Judging by the hundreds of fishy snaps we get sent every week, these errors normally occur with the framing of the shot, rather than anything too technical, so here we’re going to highlight the most common errors, and how to avoid them...

IThe perfect shot…

Here’s what a catch shot should look like, when all of the above has been taken into consideration. The result is a well-composed image that will be cherished for a lifetime.

Clear the clutter

The key objects should be the fish and the captor. Clear away everything else. Pick shrubs, grass or the lake as a backdrop. If there are trees, make sure it doesn’t look like they’re growing out of the angler’s head. Also, try to smile!

Look at the camera

Some anglers suffer from ‘droopy head syndrome’, intent on staring at a spot somewhere on the rear of the fish. Look at the camera, and don’t hide behind the fish either, as some anglers do!

Frame the image

Keep the angler in the centre and make sure their head, and also the fish’s tail and mouth, aren’t ‘cut off’. If you’re taking the picture, don’t stand 20m away so that the angler and fish are a small dot in the centre of the image.

GETTING A SELF-TAKE

SO, what if you don’t have the luxury of another angler to help take your catch shot? Don’t panic – most phones and cameras have a self-timer function, or you can download a free self-timer app. For about £20 you can buy a mini tripod that holds the phone with a spring-loaded clasp. Instead, an old selfie stick can be wedged in an upright position or cable-tied to a bankstick, or you could even balance your camera on bait buckets. The next job is to set the self-timer and get back to the mat to hold the fish. Alternatively, many of the mini tripods come with a small Bluetooth remote control unit, which can easily be paired with your phone.

NIGHT SHOTS

TAKING photos of a fish at night requires flash. You can use the one built into your camera, and boost it with an ‘external unit’ such as a small LED panel of lights (these cost as little as £20). In terms of positioning, sit close to foliage like a bush or shrub, so the light from the flash has something to bounce back off. This will help show up more detail in the fish.