World champion Bob Nudd helped to spur me on

The year 1992 was a good match fishing one for me – probably my best year.

I fished 45 matches and won 10 of them with several section victories too, although it started very badly.

On Wednesday, January 1 that year I fished an Ely Open match on the Ouse on a mild but very windy day.

The event was a sellout with 100 anglers taking part and some very good match anglers too, including the current world champion at that time, Bob Nudd.

Angling is unique in that you can take part in the same event as top international anglers and champions; just pay your pools and hope for a miracle!

Guess who I drew next too? Yes, Bob Nudd! He won the match with 8lb of mostly roach and skimmers, whilst I had just 1lb approximately (I did not bother to weigh in), just two roach and two skimmers.

The river was up and flowing quite hard and there was a strong gusty wind to contend with, yet Bob held a pole at 14 metres checking his float to slow the bait down in the flow, with apparent ease.

All I could manage to hold was 11 metres and very unsteadily. He also fed far more accurately than me.

I was totally out-fished but he was a delight to watch. I drove home mentally bruised, but Bob is one of the best match anglers in Europe, if not the world, and he had already won the individual World Championships twice in 1990 and 1991 and would go on to win again in 1994 and 1999.

He is 76 now and still fishing matches whenever Covid permits. In mid-December he notched up another fine win in the Stanjay Open on the Old River Nene at Benwick.

Bob lives in Cambridgeshire and his winter matches appear now to be mostly in or near to the Fens and the Norfolk Broads.

He is not secretive about his methods and regularly does a live stream from his peg and reports on all his matches on his Facebook page.

I contacted Bob to check the accuracy of my match records but thankfully he said: “I can’t remember the Ouse match but then there have been so many.” He said he was happy for me to publish this story.

As I said at the start, I went on to win 10 out of 45 matches that year, a very satisfying ratio of wins.

Maybe I could not compete with Bob but maybe he inspired me on the first day of that year. Some say I was lucky. Denis Flack, who was writing this article for the Free Press at the time, commented: “Chris has had a golden arm at the draw bag this year.”

I will take that as almost a compliment from Denis!

We were both on the Bury St Edmunds Angling Association committee at the time and he also kindly reported when I fell in at the Ten Mile Bank stretch of the Ouse (14ft deep at the edge) trying to locate my keepnet.

It was late October, and the water was very cold. I had waders on (totally unnecessary at that venue) and if it had not been for John Coley’s swift action, to help drag me out, I might have drowned!

I fished the match but not surprising came last and also came close to hypothermia.

Bob is a professional match angler and has had a long-term sponsorship arrangement with fishing tackle company Browning.

My eldest son James experienced one of Bob’s Fishing Masterclasses, as a birthday present, 10 years ago and thoroughly enjoyed his day at Cross Drove Fishery.

I have had an amazing response to these fishing articles so far (this is number six) and thank you to all who have contacted me. All five articles can be viewed via the Suffolk News website.

Please do keep sending me your catch photos, plus details of how, where and when to chrisboughton@outlook.com

I hope we all have a much better year in 2021 and if you go fishing please do not fall in!

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