Stock wise there are plenty of skimmers and bream upto 6lb, with the average being maybe 12oz-1lb. Lots of roach to 2lb, some rudd and plenty of carp of all varieties to 20lb-ish. (There are some big eels, lots of baby eels and some pike). It is closed for the month of march.
I hadn't fished the lake since last summer, maybe July and decided to have a pleasure fish on Friday(5th) just to get a feel for the place. I chose peg 6 on Friday, but all I could gather was that today was going to be tricky as I only had 6 skimmers, all on the tip, couldn't get a bite on the pole. Paul Chapman fished peg 5 on Friday and also had about 6 skimmers (and a fouled pike).
So back to today, I arrived at the car park 15 mins before the 8:30 draw, we were to fish 10-4, and there was 22 of us. Payout was to be top 3 and 3 section winners. Carp counted as 2lb as in previous matches the placings or the winner at least had usually bagged a solitary carp and therefore some money. Some were happy, some wanted them to weigh what they weigh.
I wanted peg 4 as it very consistant all year round and had the wind off the back, so comfy fishing.
Into the bag of pegs went my hand, roughly 4th from last, out came peg 40, a peg which can be brilliant in the summer. It has a fallen, large, dead-ish tree to my left, which is shared with peg 41. It is also located in a bay where the south westerlies head. For company I had Mike Lilley in 41 and nobody to my right, that is until peg 37 where Titch (of Thyers tackle shop) was pegged. My section was pegs 33-42 (8 anglers).
You can make out the edge of the tree.
Looking over to pegs 33-36
On arriving at the peg, armed with the knowledge that I could only get bites, on friday, on the feeder, I decided to set up 2 feeder rods and a waggler rod. The water was clear-ish and the wind chilly.
No pole was set up, which was nice, as the fish haven't ventured in on pole lines recently, also with a busy footpath 4 or 5ft behind me, I didn't mind at all. Dogs/cyclists/holiday makers/kids/joggers and oaps are plentiful at apex, with the pegs 38-44 being most troublesome. So it saved me worrying about my relatively expensive pieces of carbon.
The 1st feeder was a medium drennan green type, 4lb mainline to a 0.10 matchteam hooklength and a 16 B611 (barbless rules). This hooklength was best at 10" to 16" long.
The 2nd feeder was a bigger feeder for micros and was fished on 6lb line and a 0.14 to size 16 B911 hooklength with a band set up for 8mm pellet, just incase carp were about or the bream were hanging themselves. Sadly it wasn't to be, despite a few 10 minute spells, I never had a bite.
The waggler was a loaded middy insert to be fished in 5ft of water at 14m or so. 3lb mainline to 0.08 line and a size 20 hook. This was only tried a couple times as the wind was rather strong and right into my bank, so even feeding was tricky. I never had a bit on this.
So I mixed by groundbait, sensas lake and sonu f1 dark, added a few micros, a pinch of ded reds and caster, but not too many,
On the all in, I catapulted (of sorts) some 4mm pellets onto the waggler line along with 3 or 4 walnut size balls of my groundbait. I then flung my feeder 35yrd or so and waited, and waited and waited.
After an hour I hadn't had a bite, Tim Lewis (peg 36) had landed a few fish, as had Mark Broomsgrove over on peg 33(I think). Someone along my bank had landed a bream of maybe 2.5lb. I couldn't see anything else.
By now the tow had picked up and keeping the tip still, along with the wind, was tricky. But alas at 11:20 I had a bite, now bites on Apex can be good old wrap rounds or little knocks. Thankfully I had a proper pull and duly landed a skimmer of 12oz. 20 mins later I had another of similar size.
The guys in the 30's had been having a few, but I couldn't see exactly what, probably skimmers.
So onto the halfway stage, I had only had 2 fish, but a couple people informed me it was tricky and that only a few smaller skimmers had been had, except peg 4, who had been catching regularly and the lad on peg 10 (good skimmer peg) had caught a few better bream.
I was rather cold now, the sun was getting to my eyes and seeing the tip, was at times, tricky.
In between 1 and 2pm I did land a decent skimmer of maybe 3lb and another 12oz fish, but bites were only coming less than a minute after casting, and single ded red was the bait (but I did actually catch a fish on half a dendra...I never catch on worm!!). I reckon I had maybe 7lb or so, which was probably nowhere, but 2 bites could bring a couple bream and 10lb, so I kept plugging away.
At half past two, I had another proper pull of the tip and a skimmer of a pound was netted. Then it died. Nobody could buy a bite, a few guys packed up and it looked like a couple skimmers could be ideal for placings, I was sure I was on par with most of the pegs in my section, maybe Tim on 36 having most.
I tried the waggler a couple times, tried the heavier set up and was alternating between maggot (live and dead), worm and caster on the tip, I even resorted to re-clipping at another 10 yards further. But nothing happened. I had slowly started to tidy my kit up, most of my bait and some bits and pieces were put away as it was gone 3pm.
At quarter past I had another bit, a gentle pull round saw me into something heavier, I had hoped it was a bigger bream as it came in nicely for a moment or two, then woke up forcing me to give line, it was either a carp or pike as I had ruled maniac bream out. 20 minutes later I landed a nice common of around 8lb, though it would only count as two. Ho hum.
The last 20 minutes went by without activity and the all out was called. Everybody was pleased about that.
As I packed away, I could make out that peg 4 had plenty and was likely to win, unless someone had bagged a load up towards the island pegs. The rest of the anglers I could see probably had similar bags.
The scales arrived at my peg and Tim had caught 12lb 4oz and Mark on 33 had around 11lb. The other weights were between 5 and 9lb I think.
Onto the scales went my silvers, bang on 9lb, add this to my 2lb for my carp gave me 11lb on the nose. Not bad, but not likely to get me any pick up, and so it proved.
The lake had been tricky, with lots of weights around 5lb and a few between 10 and 11lb 8oz. My 11lb was possibly around 8th or 9th.
Results:
1st - Dom Sullivan - peg 4 - 22lb 14oz
2nd - Rob Fogg - peg 10 - 16lb 10oz
3rd - Paul Faiers - peg 43 12lb 8oz
Sections:
A sect. - Kev Perry - peg 44 - 11lb 12oz
B sect. - James Gunther - peg 15 - 11lb 8oz
C sect. - Tim Lewis - peg 36 - 12lb 4oz.
There were a fair amount of us whom were a skimmer away from section/framing, but it was a fair match.
Apex isn't match fished enough, which is a shame as the fishing can be brilliant, but they are not used to 5 or 6hrs of pressure and feeding so they do tend to switch off after a couple hours.
If you are looking for a decent ticket then the NSAA (highbridge) one is good value.
Next up for me looks to be a Pawlett club match at Sedges, it is a silvers only match next sunday.
Take care, stay safe.
Lee
Good report, Lee. Does sound a fair venue, if a little hard on the day. Not sure on my views on the "carp are 2lb" rule. I'd be inclined to say that there shouldn't be any altering of what you catch at all. For the same reason I never understand the logic behind pike not counting.
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