Monday, 5 August 2024

04/08/2024 - Tunnel Barn - House Pool

Weight - 94lb 8oz
Catch - 48 F1s, 5 Carp, 5 Perch, 4 Skimmers, 2 Roach
Weather - Mostly cloudy and breezy at times.
Match - Tackle Den (20 fished) - 2nd overall

A trip to Tunnel Barns House Pool with Tackle Den and we had a good turnout of 20 anglers. After the warm and sometimes hot weeks weather, today was cooler and cloudier, so I was a little unsure how it would fish.

Peg 8 for me which is a good area, although the island is 17m away and I set up a swinging rig (which never got used due to wind) to get closer to the island along with a couple of over-shotted rigs, conventional shallow rigs and a jigger. I also set a paste rig to fish 2+1 and a meat rig for the margins.

On the all-in I started on the GLM paste, whilst I primed my shallow caster line at 13m. After an hour I had 6 big F1s, although in hindsight I probably stayed on the short line a bit too long, but I wanted to give my shallow line as long as possible to develop and I couldn’t see anyone running away with it just yet.

When I did switch, I struggled to catch and eventually got going, fishing 4in deep with an over-shotted rig. However, it was tricky trying to stay in contact with them, switching between rigs and depth, and the breeze that was blowing right to left meant I struggled to keep my feed as tight as I would have liked.

As the match progressed, I started swapping between the long line and the left margin next to a small reed bed again catching shallow.

At the half-way point I was about to net a big F1, when my top kit slipped out of my hand and despite my attempts to pull it back it sunk. Steve Venn on p6 lent me a feeder rod and I unbelievably managed to snag it. However, just as I was about to make a grab for it, the hook detached and the top kit sunk never to be seen again.

After all that faffing about it took be a little while to get back into a rhythm.

The left margin was now only producing small F1s or silvers, so I started feeding 6mm meat covered in A-krill cloud with micros and I kept the short paste line topped up with small balls of micros. For 45mins I swapped between the margin and short line to keep me ticking over, whilst I kept feeding casters hoping my shallow line would recover, particularly as Steve on p6 was now catching really well over his.

When I returned to my shallow line, I caught a few big F1s, before the smaller ones returned.

In the last hour the margin line got stronger as I picked up a few carp up to 4lb in amongst the F1s, switching to the paste line to rest the margin.

When the match finished, I knew Steve had at least won our section as he was admitting to 160lb, so I was pleasantly surprised to finish 2nd overall and a few more lessons learnt. In hindsight I didn’t feel that paste was right today, and I think I should have started my shallow line a little closer.

Another busy day and I do enjoy my visits to the venue.

1.   
177-  3 – Steve Venn – p6
2.      94-  8 – Ken Rayner – p8
3.      89-  5 – Jason Crump – p32
4.      77-  3 – Andrew Black – p33
5.      70-10 – John Pearce – p29

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