“AFTER THREE HOURS IT WAS HAPPENING!”

TUNNEL Barn Farm has been kind to me, so I was looking forward to the first Fish O’Mania match to be held there. It suits my busy style of fishing for lots of F1s, and I’d love to say I cracked it at the first time of asking.

That wasn’t the case, but after three hours of the match I was getting a bit excited. Then the wheels well and truly fell off. From bagging 85lb in those opening three hours I went to not getting a bite anywhere in the peg, and I only caught four F1s in the last hour, when I should have been emptying the place.

I was in good company, though, as the whole place seemed to switch off. I was happy with how I fished and don’t feel I made any mistakes – there just weren’t any fish to try and catch. Very strange.

My draw put me on peg 17 of High Pool, close to peg 15, the flyer. It was a windy day and the lake was towing hard,so I decided to fish hard banded pellet across to the far bank, loosefeeding pellets so I could catch at a range of depths.

The opening hour saw me land F1s fishing at 4ft, 3ft and 18ins deep, but all the time I was itching to get on my maggot line where I’d been throwing bait in at 6m. After an hour I dropped in here and it was brilliant. I’d catch 10 or 12 F1s and then rest it, going back across for a few more fish and then back to 6m. After three hours I honestly felt I was going to catch 130lb-plus and win. No way!

Now it’s back on the road with a four-hour trip to Decoy Lakes for the next Fish O’ qualifier. I just need to draw a decent swim!

“I only caught four F1s in the last hour”