2024 Veterans Cup UK Championships Rutland

The inaugural UK MVFF Championships was hosted at Rutland Water on the 17th & 18th August.

This is a new event in the Military Veterans Fly Fishing calendar & will be competed on an annual basis on various waters throughout the UK.

Some anglers chose to start with a practice day on the Friday beforehand and it was evident from the start that the conditions would prove to make for a challenging few days - hot, bright, little wind + high water temperatures. Catch returns were low!

12 of us were staying at the Greetham Valley Lodges and our woes of a difficult day were soon forgotten - the banter started, the beers flowed and we were treated to an absolute top notch feast provided by Byran.

Match Day 1 - Seen 14 anglers work tirelessly to tease out a fish from various locations but they were few and far between. Leader board from the first day was Phil Thomas on 2 fish.

Match Day 2 - The conditions started slightly better with intermittent cloud cover and a bit more wind, enough to hold a steady drift.

Fish had been reported between Spud Bay & Half-Moon Spinney and the majority of boats headed there first & it proved to be right, producing a few early fish.

Boats headed back for a 4pm finish, results and prize presentation. As the catch cards came in it was obvious it had been another very difficult day and only a few fish would separate top and bottom rods!

Top Rod over 2 Days with 6 fish - Phil Thomas

2nd over 2 Day with 5 fish - Byran Yip

Boat Pairs Day 1 - Phil Thomas & Glen Lamont

Boat Pairs Day 2 - Byran Yip & Stevie McArthur

The David Ogg Killer Fly Prize - Cammy Duncan

Wooden Spoon - John Maestri

I'd like to congratulate the new Champion Phil Thomas, thank the team at Rutland Water and all the anglers who made it a memorable weekend.

A special thanks to Neil Smith for all his hard work securing generous sponsors who provided a fantastic table of prizes:

Rilmac Scaffolding

Phoenix Group

JML Services

Willmott Dixon