Ron Woodward an angler noted for his Continental exploits for big cats and carp, passed away peacefully at 2am yesterday morning in a Birmingham hospital following a lengthy illness. He had a massive heart attack in Spain from which he never recovered and his death was, sadly, entirely expected.
I first came across Ron Woodward in 1995 when I was Managing Editor of Carp Fisher magazine for he had sent in, via Julian Cundiff, a superb article on Lake Chira in Gran Canaria which I was very happy to publish. More articles followed and he became a regular feature writer not only in Carp Fisher, but in Carpworld and Carp-Talk with his captures of big carp and cats from France and Spain.
At the turn of the Millennium the internet became a primary media for anglers and for a number of years Ron (or Big Ron as he was affectionately known) was a Moderator on the Fishingwarehouse Forum, and contributed several superb articles for the Fishingwarehouse site on fishing, particularly for the giant Ebro Wels catfish which can still be read and savoured on the site today. Later, he set-up the popular Fat Carp website and forum with his great friend Jeff Lemaistre and others.
Although he had difficulties with his writing and spelling it was typical of Ron’s determination that these were no barrier to producing informative and entertaining pieces which readers always learned something from. Many anglers were inspired by his writing and followed in Ron’s footsteps to try the great fishing to be found on the Continent.
A big, proud Brummie, Ron was a senior engineer, helping to build one of the finest cars in the world – the Jaguar – and he was often pictured wearing his Jaguar baseball cap in his articles and features.
He was a larger than life man with that down to earth dry Brummie humour, with a very big heart. He leaves behind a loving family and very many good friends in the angling world which will be much the poorer now without the big man in it.
FishingMagic are grateful to Paul Selman for permission to reproduce this piece.
