Gary Barclay and Steve Hemingray are practising hard at the Lac au Duc at Ploërmel, France, in readiness for the two-day Rive Drennan Cup.

The lake is situated in the Brittany region, north west of the country. It is a huge venue at around 17km around its perimeter. There are 120 taking part, spread across the lake in 15 sections of 8 anglers.  Species are mostly small skimmers, silver bream/hybrids plus quality roach. There are also a few carp, pike and zander about.

The venue is extremely shallow with no more than 3-4ft on both the pole and waggler lines. The feeder is also allowed, although the waggler seems to be much more efficient as large numbers of feeding fish are present.

Unlike many international-style events, the match is much closer to what we are used to in the UK; there is no bait limit and the match is five hours long each day.  Plenty of groundbait feed packed with worms, casters and maggots is the key, with bloodworm and joker only used as an initial attractor.

Weights in excess of 10kg have been commonplace by all of the anglers practising, so things are boding well. It’s a cloudy and warm day today with sunshine and temperatures as high as 23 degrees forecast by Sunday.

With the cream of France taking part Gary and Steve are hoping to still make it onto the winner’s podium. It should be a fantastic competition, especially with all the generous prizes from both Rive and Drennan to be won!