Keith Arthur’s
views on the news
BOB Nudd and Browning have been synonymous for 30 years. I don’t think the brand would have survived in the UK without him.
Bob has been a phenomenal performer at home and abroad, and over the years I’ve fished with him (well, against him, really) many times.
One of my favourite ‘Nuddy’ days was when a maggot company came out with a ‘super’ maggot. Angling Times arranged for us both to fish on the Trent Embankment in Nottingham, one of us using standard maggots, the other using the big grubs. Bob won the toss, which gave him the choice of bait and me the choice of peg. Bob chose bronzes and I chose a downstream peg. We had some great fun and the better peg outfished the better bait.
Moving on, I don’t know another angler ever who could have caught what Bob did on that great day in 1999 when he triumphed on the Castrejon Canal for his fourth World title.
I’d just come from winning the John Smith’s and reported on the match for Sky’s Tight Lines, unknowingly at the time with bronchial pneumonia.
I stood with Bob while the rest of the section was weighed in, the result depending on the Spanish angler a few pegs downstream.
When we knew Bob had beaten him I found it hard to keep my emotions in check... one of the great, if not the greatest, career days for one of the great, if not the greatest, match angler ever.