Tunnel Barn - Over 50s Festival

Having enjoyed a couple of previous trips to Tunnel Barn I decided to book into this year’s 3 day over 50s festival, sharing a cottage 10 miles away with Matt Greaves. We also had the added bonus of a pair of peacocks on the grounds.

We both knew it would be tough fishing against a number of venue regulars and F1 specialists, but we were both up for the challenge.

I set myself the target of trying to finish 60^th out of 120 and if possible to pick up some money along the way.

 

Sunday - Practice Open

Weight – 87lb 10oz

Catch – 63 F1, 8 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 1 Perch

Weather – Warm and sunny

Position – 5^th overall (66 fished)

In preparation for the festival Matt & I had researched the pegs, likely weights and tactics. Leading up to the event meat had been dominate, but was losing its effectiveness, being replaced by maggot and caster. Matt also found out that worm was catching, so a 1/2 kg was sourced prior to leaving.

I had already decided against using maggot, mainly because I had tried it twice on recent visits and got pestered by small fish. Therefore, my intention was to concentrate on caster and if necessary, worm.

As this was a practice match, I thought I would try something different, namely paste and if I blew out it wouldn’t be tried again.

I have been playing around with my paste mix and come up with a mix I’m really happy with – Uzit GLM & Betaine:Crushed Expander:Crushed Halibut Pellet, mixed in a 3:2:1 ratio. Also, as I would be fishing for F1s my rigs had been refined from my normal carp approach.

When I drew p6 on Canal I was told it was a good area, but other than that I’ve never fished the lake before.

On the all-in I fished 2 swims, left & right at 3+1 at the bottom of the shelf, feeding a couple of fishery 4mm pellet and started catching well for 30mins, before having to move up the shelf to avoid the increasing liners.

In the meantime, I had been feeding caster to the far bank and at the halfway point felt I needed to at least try it. To be honest the response was disappointing only catching a couple of fish. Simon Dukes, 2 pegs down was catching a few fish across but wasn’t any quicker than me on the paste.

So, I stuck with paste, rotating between a new bottom of the shelf swim at 1+1 and both margins until the end of the match.

I knew I had beaten everyone on my side of the lake, but the section was split down the middle, so I got beaten for section by a peg on the opposite bank. However, when I got back to the club house I found out I came 5^th overall to pick up £75 for the last framing place. Have to say I was quite pleased with myself.

1.  115-10 – Chris Hale – p21 Club

2.   95-  1 – Rich Kings – p16 Canal

3.   93-14 – Steve Parry – p15 Club

4.    92-13 – Pete Rice – p21 Canal

5.    87-10 – Ken Rayner – p6 Canal

6.    83-  4 – Jack Arblaster – p25 High

Monday – Day 1 – High p21

-      Day 1 – 5pts – 32- 7

-      Day 2 – 3pts – 44-13

-      Day 3 – 5pts – 12-12

Weight – 32lb 7oz

Catch – 18 F1, 2 Carp, 6 Perch, 1 Skimmer

Weather – Sunny, cloudy periods. Breezy at times

Position – 5^th in section, 108^th overall

After yesterday’s success I was looking forward to the draw and pulled p21 on High Pool, another lake I haven’t fished before. Asking around revealed it wasn’t great, and yesterdays practice open only produced 24lb.

When I got to the peg I actually fancied it for a few, until I plumbed up. It was at least 6ft (I stopped plumbing after 5ft) down the middle. Also, the island was 16m away and the far shelf was quite narrow, fortunately I managed to find a small flat spot which was 2ft deep.

On the all-in I started across tapping in a few micros with a 4mm expander and caught 2 F1s before the liners started.

A switch to the paste over a couple of short lines was disappointing as the swim was just too deep and I struggled to get a clean bite. A switch back to the far bank, feeding a ball of paste slop with micros and caster fishing worm on the hook, resulted in 10 F1s, although it was slow going.

In the meantime, I had fed caster down the middle priming a shallow line, but didn’t get a bite despite trying various shallow rigs.

So, I persisted with the paste rigs down the margins and by the next pallet.

A tough day and to be honest I was a little deflated, particularly after yesterday.

1.    124-11 – Neil Carless – p8 House

2.    120-15 – Dave Chapman – p15 Canal

3.    114-14 – Wayne Harding – p3 Canal

4.    108-  4 – Steve Parry – p33 New

5.    107-  3 – Leon Seabright – p2 Extension

6.    103-13 – Jason Jones – p1 Canal 

Tuesday – Day 2 – House p10

-      Day 1 – 3pts – 61-15

-      Day 2 – 2pts – 77-12

-      Day 3 – 2pts – 47-  5

Weight – 77lb 12oz

Catch – 43 F1, 2 Carp, 4 Perch, 1 Skimmer, 1 Roach

Weather – Warm and sunny

Position – 2^nd in section, 26^th overall

I really didn’t want to see High Pool again and was relieved to draw p10 on House. It has been a great peg, although it hasn’t been quite as dominate in the last couple of weeks.

With it being bright and sunny with very little breeze I wasn’t convinced I would catch shallow, which proved to be the case catching only 1 F1. Therefore, I expected to catch most of my fish short or down the margins, as the island was 20m away.

Starting on paste at 2+2 I caught a couple of fish. It was steady rather than quick and I was conscious of wasting too much time. I tried pellet over the same line, but didn’t have a bite, so it was back to paste.

My section ran from p10 round to p27, which meant I could only see 3 anglers from my section and felt I was in danger of falling behind p16, however the 2 pegs to my left were really struggling.

The slight breeze had pushed the scum into my peg, and I noticed a few fish moving around by a clump of reeds 10m to my right that hadn’t been cut down, casting a small patch of shade. I started pinging caster and caught 4 F1 on the overshotted rig, mainly to get under the scum, fishing tight to the bank under the reeds. However, each fish was smaller than the last.

The scum wasn’t as thick a metre off the bank and plumbing up revealed a flat bottom and 2 ft of water. By fishing worm and tosspotting 20/30 casters I started catching some proper F1s and I had a purple patch of 45mins where I was catching quite quickly.

As a backup I tried feeding caster on a top kit, but all I caught was small fish. However, resting my reed swim would result in another run of fish when I returned.

Eventually the reed swim slowed down. I could still only catch small fish on my top kit. Fortunately, my left margin at 1+1 where it was much shallower, I managed another run of fish on paste.

Overall, I was really pleased with how the match went and confidence restored. I thought I might have won the section as everyone was admitting to 50-60lb, however p27 dumped 90lb on the scales and I finished 2^nd for another pick up.

1.    144-  1 – Steve Parry – p29 Extension

2.    124-14 – Dave Chapman – p11 Top

3.    115-11 – Steve Daley – p21 Jennys

4.    114-  7 – Wayne Harding – p15 High

5.    114-  1 – Harry Billing – p9 Club

6.    112-11 – Andy Benwell – p30 Top

Wednesday - Day 3 – Club p7

-      Day 1 – 5pts – 61-  6

-      Day 2 – 6pts – 21-  5

-      Day 3 – 4pts – 34-  7

Weight – 34lb 7oz

Catch – 27 F1, 3 Carp, 4 Perch, 3 Skimmers

Weather - Cloudy, sunny, light shower and breezy

Position – 4^th in section, 83^th overall

Peg 7 on Club today and when I saw the previous results for the peg I was a little disappointed, as I had hoped to have a strong finish.

Harry Billing won the section from p9 yesterday on paste. As it happened, I had a chat with him yesterday to get a feel for how he fished paste. I think what came out of it was I need to be a bit more frugal with my feed.

When I got to my peg it was only 11m wide with reeds opposite and narrower than the pegs on the opposite bank.

I started on the paste and caught a few fish, but it wasn’t as quick as I had hoped, although looking around it seemed to be a quiet start for most. In attempt to catch more quickly I tried pellet over my paste lines but only caught a couple of skimmers and a small F1, so soon changed back to paste.

After an hour I switched to fishing worm over caster tight to reeds and was pleased to pick up a few better stamp F1s. I had kept my paste line top up, but it was slow going so I ended up spending most of the middle part of the match fishing worm across.

In the last hour I concentrated on trying to catch short and struggled just picking up the odd fish, although 4 better stamp fish on paste in the last 15mins was nice.

I finished 4^th in section. Whilst pleased to have got the best section points from the peg, I was a little disappointed as 3^rd only weighed 36-15 and 2^nd 40-13 which was achievable.

1.    121-15 – Carl Lee-Hopps – p29 Extension

2.    103-  0 – Richard Kinnersley – p30 Top

3.    101-  7 – Richard Knowles – p42 New

4.    100-  4 – Wayne Ainsworth – p19 Club

5.      98-  1 – Paul Brandrick – p31 House

6.      94-  1 – Graeme Block – p23 Extension

 

Summary

Overall, an enjoyable 4 days, finishing 61^st and just missing my target of finishing under halfway.

A few better decisions would have got me a couple more points, however putting it into context 2 poor draws didn’t help me.

Following the practice open I was confident I would catch on paste on day 1 and ultimately came undone by the depth the peg. To be honest it did knock my confidence, but looking at the results the peg didn’t produce in the festival.

Day 2 on House was definitely my best day, producing the highest weight and points score from the peg. As for day 3 I managed the highest points score from the peg, but felt I should have got more from the peg.

It’s been a learning curve and I have already booked in for next year.