Gary's day

Today was the big match of the year, the Triple Cup between BS, Abbey Cross and Sawbridgeworth. 3 teams of 9 descended on Hall Farm with both lakes in use. The mid-week match had fished OK but we had had another 3 days of 30+C temps and today was going to be another scorcher.

Out of the draw bag came the middle pegs for our team; not a great start meaning we had not one of the 6 end pegs. Tony, Barry and Dave opted to fish the Small Lake with the rest of the team on the Large Lake. Peg 21 and the high bank section was my draw.

Whilst setting up there were plenty of rudd and roach with the odd carp swimming around in front of me so that pretty much had my day planned - shallow. Now would they feed? A few quick, decent quality silvers saw me off the mark and it was soon clear that the carp were swimming rather than feeding. A few carp and f1s did finally take a pellet but only when close to a couple of big weed clumps in front of me.

It was a slow plod but I looked to be doing OK as the pegs I could see on the far bank were pretty quiet and so was Jeff to my left. About half way through it was time to try the margins as I needed a break from fishing shallow for little to show. A couple of quick fish on corn to the left had me excited but then the swim died a death and never really came back. The right margin was much better but with the weed only 5/6 metres away every fish went charging for it.

At the all out I ended with 54lb and the all important max team points and we seemed to have done pretty well on the Large Lake.

In a very close finish Bishop's Stortford took home the Cup with 35 points to Abbey Cross 38 points and Sawbridgeworth 61 points. Well done to all in toughing it out in pretty extreme conditions and roll on next year.