Bob Church awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Congratulations to Bob Church of Northampton who has been made an MBE for services to angling.  Bob started out as a coarse angler but is now also a very highly respected fly fisherman.

On the competition scene Bob’s medal tally includes team gold medals at the world fly fishing championships in 1987 and 1988 and European team gold in 1990, as well as individual medals.  He started life as a coarse angler and continues to enjoy fishing for Pike and Zander, along with trout, across all of Anglian Water’s reservoirs.

Bob has created many successful fly patterns including the Appetizer lure, the Church Fry, Claret Hatching Midge and the Ginola, named after the French footballer David Ginola. In the early 1970s he was catching 500 fish a season.

The readers of Trout Fisherman magazine voted him Game Angler of the Millennium.

Bob has a long association with a number of charities.  Every year Anglian Water’s fisheries host the Bob Church Open and the Bob Church Classic – matches long established on the competition calendar. Bob has helped countless anglers over the years – sharing his knowledge and passion for his sport.