I had never been to Tunnel before, despite hearing lots about it in the media it was a venue I've never fished. I knew it was F1 fishing on Canal style lakes with fish around the 1lb -2lb mark. The previous day I had recieved my new Browning Z12 pole so I had quickly elasticated a couple of top kits up with double 5 latex ready!
I drew peg 3 on extension which was right by the car back so no long walks. The area itself though wasnt the greatest with Club pool expected to throw up the big weights.
I set up 3 lines, my main line was 8m down the track line on pellet, fishing a soft pellet on the hook and feeding 2mm and 4mm mixed. The other line was a far shelf swim at 13m and then a maggot line down the edge.
I started on the 8m line and actually started pretty well, the match was only a few minutes old when I was christening the new pole with a 1lb F1. My rig on this line was a home made pencil float for that sensitivity that is needed for F1 fishing. I did have a bulk of stotz then just above the hooklength which I think is a positive shotting pattern for the bites.
I had about 10 F1's on this line before it dried up, and the fish vanished! The rest of the match I spent switching lines looking for fish. I snared a few on the far shelf on pellet, with some bigger Mirrors included. I also had a couple on the margin line on the maggot but it was a difficult 2nd half of the match but very enjoyable none the less, I ended up with 38lb I think and the lake was won with 70lb by Simon Colclough. All the top 5 weights came from Club pool with fellow welsh guy Mark Goodall topping the list with 110lb and a great days fishing.
It was an interesting place and i would really like to go back at some point to give it another go as really enjoy that s
Following the match it was back to the cafe for a curry and a post match chat before the presentations and customary raffle. Didnt win a thing in either not even the raffle but it was a great day and thanks must go to Justin Watkins and Frerk of Browning for putting the day on.