Tony Rixon's Short Pole Series, R2, Trinity Waters, Sunday 23rd July 2017

Round two of Tony's topkit + 3 sections league, the draw is all important on this lake when you have some pegs with an empty peg and others with anglers either side.  I was chatting before the draw and missed my usual spot near the front, leaving me with a choice of 3 when I got there, I took the middle card in the bowl and wasn't wildly happy when I opened it and saw 23.  22 is an end peg and with 20 and 21 not pegged I'd have preferred that, I also had 24 in.  On this bank (22-33) the margins are hugely improved by having an empty peg.

On the plus side (or so I thought......), the wind was blowing down into this corner, so hopefully the fish would be there as well.  I had intended to stick with two baits, paste and pellet, but I did have a few dead maggots, hoping that this would draw some fish into the edge, if the angler either side didn't have them.

Far too much time to set up, so I set up more rigs than I needed, just in case..... A paste rig for straight in front, a paste rig for the edge, a shallow rig, a rig to fish banded pellet on the deck and a margin rig for maggot or worm.

On the all in I started as usual on paste over pellet, instant bite and after a very spirited tussle, I had a fish I thought was 15lb, but on seeing it at the weigh in, it was probably 13lb, a long lean common.  great start and I was expecting the usual 3 or 4 in the first hour.  What I expected and what I got was two different things!  The pegs on here usually fizz when pellet is fed, but not today and the wind was getting up, making things tricky.

With 45 minutes gone and not another bite, on paste or banded pellet, I found an old jar of JPZ pellets and tried one of them, a carp took a liking to this, but it was the only one I caught on JPZ, so back under the bench in the garage for them.  I got off my box and pumped some expanders, desperate times mean desperate measures.  This brought a couple of 4 oz skimmers and one more carp, but bites were very few and far between.  I then got off my box again and made up some GB, put dead maggots in it and fed this out in front, fishing double maggot on a 18 - like the bloody winter!!

I managed 3 or 4 more small skimmers on the maggot, but no carp.  I had been feeding both margins, but fishing either side brought the same result, banded pellet = stationary float;  maggot, worm, corn or paste = float doing a jig, shit fish in the edges.

By now the wind had increased and fishing at topkit + 3 was pointless, the tow was going with the wind and fishing paste saw the rig pulled out of the paste, I had a 0.8g float on for fishing pellet and this was led at a 30° angle, presentation was impossible.  I have some 2g rigs made up for this, but hadn't brought them as I haven't experienced conditions like this on this lake for years, I'm not even sure 2g would have been enough.

The wind dropped a little and I managed one more carp on paste straight in front and in the last 15 minutes the shit fish disappeared from the margin, a sure sign some carp had arrived, indeed they had and I had 2 in those last 15 minutes, too little too late.  Not an enjoyable day, not sure if I could have found some trip against the wind if I could have fished out further (although the wind would have made much more than 11m impossible).  It would have been a day for the feeder or lead had it been allowed!!

Only managed 3rd in section, disappointing on a venue I know and have a good record on, but the conditions and not having an empty peg were against me and if I could fish it again tomorrow, I haven't a clue what I could do differently to improve my result (apart from take some heavier rigs).  The fish seemed to be at the back of the wind, as the main weights came from calmer pegs.