20/04/25 - Tunnel Barn - Extension

Weight - 59lb 10oz

Catch - 46 F1/Carp, 6 Perch

Weather - Cold windy start, warmer later

Match - Tackle Den (18 fished) - 2nd overall, 1st in section

As I’m due to fish the Over 50s Qualifier here on Thursday, todays match was going to be useful sighter. Leading up to today meat had been very dominate, however there were signs that meats effectiveness was waning. So, as well as some meat, I also brought 4pts of white maggot, plus some expanders. I also found out the lake had been fishing hard with only 70lb winning yesterdays match.

The draw put me on p7 which was the end of the main island. Plumbing up revealed a clear shallow spot to the right of a reed bed that I wanted to stay clear of, as it looked like a tackle graveyard. As it was a cold start, I decided to start across by the island tapping in maggot and started to catch small carp, F1s and a few perch. I also pulled out of a few fish as my elastic was too strong for the size of fish which were smaller than expected, which prompted a switch to a long kit from short kit which helped.

Despite catching, I just felt I was going nowhere as I couldn’t catch anything bigger than a pound. My 2 meat lines on a top kit +1, left and right didn’t produce a bite. I had also been feeding maggot over a 5m line but very surprisingly didn’t have a bite here either (or later in the match when I tried).

I also tried a shallow line feeding maggot, but only caught 2 fish and I really was going nowhere. To be fair an awkward cross wind was making it difficult to group my feed.

A change of tactic was required, so I moved back to fishing the island, but this time tapping in micros and fishing a 4mm expander. My first fish was a 4lb carp, soon followed by some smaller carp and F1s with occasional better fish. Must admit I thought why didn’t I try this sooner!

The island swim proved to be quite productive, which was a relief, although I didn’t help myself when I managed to tip back a 4lb F1 as the end of my landing net handle caught the overhead wiring (that ran along this bank) as I tried to put the fish in the net – I was fuming.

After chuntering to myself for a bit I was conscious that I needed to catch quicker, which meant trying to make my short lines work. Although, I couldn’t catch on meat in my margins I thought it was worth trying in the deeper water and set up a new rig to fish at 1+2 off to the right which produced some decent F1s and carp.

Late on my margins eventually produced some small F1s on meat from the left and pellet or maggot from the right.

By the all-out I didn’t feel I had fished a good match, as I struggled to work out how best to catch and thought young Nicholas opposite who had caught mostly shallow had beaten me, as well as Paul Stafford on p11.

Fortunately for me I had a little more than I thought to finish 2^nd. In hindsight, I would have fished a different match as I should have caught more, but lessons learnt for Thursday.

1.    76-10 – John Brady – p31

2.    59-10 – Ken Rayner – p7

3.    58-  0 – Paul Strafford – p11

4.    57-10 – Nicholas Wilson – p21

5.    51-  1 – Bobby Moore – p17