I always enjoy my trips to Tunnel Barn as you usually get a few bites. However, the weather was pants again with freezing overnight temperatures and a cold north westerly wind, which meant it was likely to be difficult.
I knew meat was starting to work, however due to the recent cold weather I brought 3pts of maggot boosted with Baninion and So Simple red dye just in case. Due to the wind I decided to focus on fishing no further than 3 sections, plus a short kit.
During the first hour I got it wrong, starting down the left margin with maggot for 1 gudgeon, meat down the right margin for nothing and meat at 3 sections for 1 F1. To be honest when the margins didn’t produce, I spent too long trying to make the meat line work.
In meantime, whilst it was slow going for everyone, Andy Burns to my left started catching on maggot and I had to get myself sorted.
Fishing at 3 sections to my left (with the wind) in 4.5ft of water I found it best to feed through a toss pot, mainly because the wind was making it difficult to accurately to feed by hand.
2hrs into the match I probably had 10lb, fortunately the rest of the match went much better as I started getting more regular bites including some decent F1s.
However, it started to rain and at one point I was shivering in the strong wind.
With 90mins remaining, I started suffering from missed bites and foul hookers. A switch to fishing closer where it was 4ft proved to be the correct move reducing the number of missed bites.
To periodically rest the swim, I restarted feeding meat over my original line, however the F1s were a smaller stamp so I didn’t waste too much time on it this time. The left margin, which was slightly deeper than the right, eventually produced a few fish in the last 30mins on maggot, whilst the right margin didn’t produce anything.
I weighed slightly more than expected and was left ruing that poor first hour, as I missed out on 2nd by 2oz. I am fairly sure had it not been so windy another 10-20lb was possible.
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