Gary's day

Sunday was Triple Cup time again this time at Abbey Cross' Taylor's Lake where no 2 pegs seem to be the same. It was going to be a wet day with thunderstorms forecast for the afternoon. They arrived early and it was a very wet draw.

It was peg 29 for me on the Top Lake; tucked away at one end with a view up the favoured riverbank pegs. With a big lilly bed in front of me my options were simple: 7 sections of pole left, middle or right. I also had pretty much the same depth of 3 1/2 foot everywhere so set up was quick. Bonus fish would be the key today so I set aside the left for a possible bream or F1 with some groundbait, micros and sweetcorn and the rest for anything else swimming with loose fed maggots.

A quick couple of rudd / roach on the maggot rig saved the blank but it was very hard going. Even with the float dotted right down the bites were horrible to see. Ray over on the riverbank side had a great start with a couple of skimmers and the point peg (52) kicked in with bream coming on the long pole.

Time to try for a skimmer. In went the float with an expander on the hook and few micros in the feed; a few bubbles came up from the bottom; and then a skimmer was in the net. This happened twice more with the waits getting a bit longer each time. Had I at last sorted out Taylor's? Sadly the clouds then cleared and the sun came out and the lake started shutting down. I managed 2 more small skimmers but only after giving the left swim a long rest and even the rudd had disappeared. The odd small fish jumping out of the water suggested I had a pike in the area.

At the weigh in I managed just under 10lbs which would be good team points as the Top Lake had fished hard. Every ounce would count today especially on the Car Park Lake which can be very tricky.

A big thank you to Abbey Cross for hosting us all on Taylor's Lake.

Bishop's Stortford came out convincing winners with 60 points to Sawbridgeworth's 85 points and Abbey Cross's 94 points. That is 2 in a row now for Bishop's Stortford - can we make it 3 next year?