Two Good Days At Tunnel

After doing a lot of silverfish matches recently, it was nice to spend the weekend back at Tunnel Barn chasing some carp and F1s. Saturday I was 4th overall on the 39-peg open with 74lb from Canal 11. I had a great start on pellets, then swapped over to maggots, mostly short and down the edge, over Sonubaits Supercrush Expander and Supercush Green. Managed five or six very crafty fish shallow, but that was short-lived.

It was flat-calm and high pressure, so the fish were definitely a bit moody. Well done Steve Daley two pegs to my left, winning with 84lb.

Sunday was the first round of the Individual League, so I was looking forward to entering that for the first time. I’ve drawn peg 13 on Canal, opposite where I was the previous day. Really fancied it for a few fish, but plumbing up was a bit of a worry with no depth anywhere and not seeing a single fish move as I tackled up.

It was also like Piccadilly Circus to my left all day with families coming and going and car doors banging, so one important thing I did was barricade my corner a bit from all the commotion and the ‘interesting’ parking. Definitely a wise move with all that disturbance going on and not a breath of water on the lakes…

I started on pellets for nothing, then dobbed bread around for nothing… oh dear! It unbelievably took 45 minutes to catch my first fish. I then had a nice run of small F1s on maggots, a quiet mid-match spell where I totally lost them, then found them again the last 90 minutes, with a very late run of slightly better ones down the side over groundbait.

I ended up with 60lb and felt I’d worked really hard for that, as the average size was so small. I was told they’d caught much better up the other end of the lake, however, so I drove home feeling a little deflated. It was only when I checked the results that I discovered I’d actually won the section, so thankfully that was all Chinese whispers and a great start to the league! Well done Sam Collett on the win with 95lb.

Feels like we’re back in winter mode now, so Matrix X2 hooks were ideal, plus nice and light Finesse Slim and F1 Slim floats in the flat-calm conditions. I used red 10-12 Slik in all my 2m Short Match Kits, but it wont be long before my 8-10 Slik comes off the subs bench.

I must also say a quick thanks to my very good friend Dave Armstrong for filling in for me at Packington on the silvers league. Plenty of guys out there are let downs, but Dave is one in a million and I’m fortunate to have him as a friend. Even better, he fished a blinder and won his section!

Hope you all had a good weekend!