‘Rab’ Butler Obituary

It is with great regret that I have to report the death of Edward ‘Rab’ Butler a keen match angler with the club for many years.

I took the opportunity to look back through the club records and Rab’s highlights were definitely two great bags of fish from the Rother at Coultershaw in consecutive seasons. On 8th July 2009 Rab took at catch of 21-10-0 in a three hour evening match, the catch consisted of four good bream, a good chub and a net full of roach and dace which by themselves would have won the match. Fast forward a year to 7th July 2010 and a net of 4 chub with the best just shy of 5lb together with bits and pieces gave him a total of 16-6-0. Although others have had some success from this swim nothing has got anywhere near Rab’s catches.

Rab was a strong advocate of the pole and we sometimes wondered whether his pole was fishable at one length only as he always seems to be fishing at the same distance. When the occasion demanded Rab would revert to other methods but undoubtedly his pole was the first tool out of the rod bag. His persistence often paid off as he regularly appeared in the frame and won his fair share of matches and trophies. His most successful season with the club was the 2008/9 season when he won five of the clubs trophies.

I think my abiding memory of Rab would be an incident at an away Three Counties match at a venue called Lythe Hill when plumbing up at the start of the match a carp grabbed his plummet and stripped his top three from the pole. We were kept amused by the sight of said top three being towed across the lake until it was eventually recovered right at the far end of the lake. All this before the match had started!

Rab was always first at the draw for matches, and I’m sure that if they fish matches up there Rab will be number one in the queue with his trusty pole in hand

RIP – Rab