Top 10 On The Tunnel Winter Champs

Last Sunday was the practice match for the Drennan Winter Pole Champs at Tunnel Barn with around 90 anglers booked on. I drew peg 16 on House, which fished a bit tougher than expected. My 63lb won the section and was 2nd on the lake behind Grant Merrett’s 84lb off peg 31. Long pole and hard pellet early, then maggots, then a late run of fish down the edge over Sonubaits Supercrush Green and F1 Original. Well done Bradley Gibbons winning with 120lb from High pool.

Day One section win

Monday was Day One and the start of the three-day festival with 120 fishing and a real who’s who in attendance. Section points decide this event, so you need three good days. I had a nice start winning my section off High 21 with 75lb. I caught all over the peg. A few on pellet down the side, a few on hard pellet across, then maggots across, maggots short but sadly just a handful of fish shallow.

Day Two I was on a very underwhelming peg 15 on New Pool. I struggled most of the day but fired up two new swims and had a good last 45 minutes to scrape a 3rd with 50lb. Needed 62lb to win the section. Definitely should’ve just fished maggots down in the deep water all day as the fish didn’t want to be anywhere else.

Day Three I needed a section win and hopefully a big weight to make the top 15 money prizes. Jennys peg 8 was my destination, which hadn’t been fishing too well, but I quite like the peg, plus any of them have a chance on this lake if it’s a low-weight day. Based on the previous day’s fish behaviour I’ve just fished maggots in the deep water, catching lots of stockies and a few better ones plus one carp. Felt I fished a half decent match, despite having a bandaged-up thumb after slicing it in the morning. The fish were ultra cute and hovering off the deck, but you couldn’t catch them shallow or in shallower water. My 65lb won the section and secured me 9th overall in the festival for a nice pickup. Really chuffed with that!

Well done all the other framers and especially the unstoppable Kristian Jones winning it overall. A superbly ran event with great coverage by Tom Scholey and Catch More Media. Tunnel Barn has fished exceptional for October and was the perfect home for a big event like this.

Tacklewise I’ve used a mixture of long and short kits with my MTX5 pole, mostly red 10-12 Slik and a bit of green 8-10 for shallow fishing. I’ve used 0.16 Power Micron main line and 0.12 or 0.11 bottoms. Matrix F1 Slim Carbon floats from 0.15g to 0.4g saw the most use, plus Finesse Slims in 0.4g and 0.5g on the deeper pegs.

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