24/04/25 - Tunnel Barn - Extension

Weight - 60lb 11oz

Catch - 57 F1/Carp, 3 Perch, 1 Skimmer

Weather - Cool start, sunny with a light easterly.

Match - Over 50s Qualifer (27 fished) - 12th overall

I decided to fish this Over 50 Qualifier and with the majority of qualifiers being in the Midlands or north of the Midlands, Tunnel Barn was the closest to me at just over 2hrs drive.

Not all the tickets were sold for this match, so the match was pegged just over Extension and New lakes. My draw put me on p5 Extension, so only 2 away from where I was on Sunday, and to be honest I was a little disappointed, despite some saying it was a great peg.

My job was made even tougher when Neil Machin turned up on peg 7.

Plumbing up revealed the peg was deeper than p7, plus the margins had metal tins which made the margin little deeper than I would have preferred.

On the all-in I started on pellet at 3+1 and caught 8 carp/F1 in the first hour so I felt I was doing OK. When the pellet line faded a switch to fishing 6mm meat down the left margin or right-hand short line only produced a couple of fish.

The 2^nd hour was much slower, as I struggled to make anything work. I had primed a shallow caster line, which produced a couple of fish but no more. I then tried 4mm expander down the right margin over micros for a couple more fish. A switch to maggot, produced quicker bites, but the fish were tiny, so the maggot only got used for 10mins.

The shallow caster line eventually started to produce in the 3^rd hour, although I had to get closer to the reeds than I wanted to which did result in 2 lost fish, but at least I was now catching mostly on an overshotted rig at 18in.

Moving into that last 90mins I started feeding 2 meat lines left and right at 1+1 at the bottom of the shelf, finding it best to alternative between swims after each fish.

The margins were the biggest disappointment, as I only caught small F1s and not many of them.

By the all-out I knew I wasn’t close to qualifying, but an enjoyable day regardless and the more I fish the venue the easier it will hopefully be to make the right decisions.

I beat the 2 anglers to my left but not the 2 to my right which are the better pegs. Overall, I don’t think the venue fished as well as I had hoped or expected.

Well done to Barry for qualifying, as I know he puts in a lot of work ably assisted by Paul Holland.

1.    103-14 – Barry Robson – p23 ext

2.      97-  4 – Des Shipp – p36 ext

3.      95-12 – Steve Daley – p44 new

4.      94-  6 – Carl Hopps – p38 ext

5.      87-14 – Dave Willmott – p26 ext

6.      86-15 – Jason Gooch – p31 new