The annual Browning UK team meeting took place at Tunnel Barn on Friday 17th October and I was really looking forward to it as its the one day that all the sponsored teams and anglers get together for a days fishing.
The night before however I received some bad news and I don't mind admitting my head was in the shed a bit so to speak and was questioning if my concentration levels would be up to fishing.
None the less I'd been looking forward to this day for a while so at 6.30 the following morning I was heading up the motorway towards Warwickshire. Surprisingly the M42 was in a good mood that morning as well so that was a bonus.
After catching up with all the team, I drew Canal Peg 7 which I knew nothing about as not fished Tunnel since the fish o mania qualifier in the spring but it was about 4 pegs away from where I drew in that so was gauging a rough plan as I drove to my peg.
As matches go this was a very light hearted one and although you still wanted to win it, it was just a pleasure to be there fishing with the rest of the Browning teams.
I decided to opt for 3 lines of attack one close in, one down the track and one tight over to the far shelf at about 12m.
Hopefully the margins would come to life later in the day as well as it was pretty mild for the time of year and some were even sat out in t shirts!
I started on the close in line straight in front of me on maggot through ground bait and no sooner had the float settled than I had a F1 on the end! Great start I though, they are waiting to be caught!
But that was the only fish I had on that line so quickly moved to the track.
It is well publicised that the key to successful F1 fishing is to keeping moving about and switching swims as they move about a hell of a lot. With that in mind I was constantly switching between all three lines picking up odd fish but with no real consistency.
The track line totally dried up about 2 hours in so decided to concentrate on the far line tight over for the next hour moving it all along the far bank. This did work to some extent but I also missed and foul hooked a few fish. Bait wise on this line I was feeding dampened fishery micros and fishing maggot or 6mm expander over the top.
With the end of the match fast approaching, I noticed quite a few people around me starting to catch down the edge so thought it was definitely time for a look.
I'd been feeding it with maggot and ground bait for a while so was hopeful of a few more fish to finish up. It was then that I'd realised I'd made a mistake, the fish were there and literally queing up to be caught on maggots. I should have gone on this line a lot earlier instead of plundering the far bank line.
I had a nice last 45 mins fishing with some Barbel, F1s and proper Carp ending up in the net.
The lake had fished quite finicky though with 78lb winning it. I weighed in 40 odd lb for no where except beating the chap next to me who I'd had a great conversation and banter with throughout the day.
Sadly due to circumstances out of my control I had to leave pretty quickly to get home, so didn't stay for the presentations and the curry and chips but a great day was had by all and was really pleased to hear that team mate Jason Evans had won the match with 129lb from New Pool peg 1.
All in all though another great day and was glad I went despite my concentration levels being below par!
Many thanks to Frerk and Frank at Browning for putting the day on and to Justin for doing the organising and the draw!
Shall look forward to the next one
The night before however I received some bad news and I don't mind admitting my head was in the shed a bit so to speak and was questioning if my concentration levels would be up to fishing.
None the less I'd been looking forward to this day for a while so at 6.30 the following morning I was heading up the motorway towards Warwickshire. Surprisingly the M42 was in a good mood that morning as well so that was a bonus.
After catching up with all the team, I drew Canal Peg 7 which I knew nothing about as not fished Tunnel since the fish o mania qualifier in the spring but it was about 4 pegs away from where I drew in that so was gauging a rough plan as I drove to my peg.
As matches go this was a very light hearted one and although you still wanted to win it, it was just a pleasure to be there fishing with the rest of the Browning teams.
I decided to opt for 3 lines of attack one close in, one down the track and one tight over to the far shelf at about 12m.
Hopefully the margins would come to life later in the day as well as it was pretty mild for the time of year and some were even sat out in t shirts!
I started on the close in line straight in front of me on maggot through ground bait and no sooner had the float settled than I had a F1 on the end! Great start I though, they are waiting to be caught!
But that was the only fish I had on that line so quickly moved to the track.
It is well publicised that the key to successful F1 fishing is to keeping moving about and switching swims as they move about a hell of a lot. With that in mind I was constantly switching between all three lines picking up odd fish but with no real consistency.
The track line totally dried up about 2 hours in so decided to concentrate on the far line tight over for the next hour moving it all along the far bank. This did work to some extent but I also missed and foul hooked a few fish. Bait wise on this line I was feeding dampened fishery micros and fishing maggot or 6mm expander over the top.
With the end of the match fast approaching, I noticed quite a few people around me starting to catch down the edge so thought it was definitely time for a look.
I'd been feeding it with maggot and ground bait for a while so was hopeful of a few more fish to finish up. It was then that I'd realised I'd made a mistake, the fish were there and literally queing up to be caught on maggots. I should have gone on this line a lot earlier instead of plundering the far bank line.
I had a nice last 45 mins fishing with some Barbel, F1s and proper Carp ending up in the net.
The lake had fished quite finicky though with 78lb winning it. I weighed in 40 odd lb for no where except beating the chap next to me who I'd had a great conversation and banter with throughout the day.
Sadly due to circumstances out of my control I had to leave pretty quickly to get home, so didn't stay for the presentations and the curry and chips but a great day was had by all and was really pleased to hear that team mate Jason Evans had won the match with 129lb from New Pool peg 1.
All in all though another great day and was glad I went despite my concentration levels being below par!
Many thanks to Frerk and Frank at Browning for putting the day on and to Justin for doing the organising and the draw!
Shall look forward to the next one