Pawlett Match, Apex Park. 22-4-18

Thirty of us ventured to this venue, somewhere that is not match fished enough in my opinion, as the fishing can be awesome, 50lb-80lb bags of silver fish are not too uncommon, however as these fish don't see the pressure ramped up from 30 anglers fishing at once very often, thus bringing weights down and the fishing somewhat trickier. But the rewards are there.
Plus there is an abundance of carp and they don't half pull back.

In the car park pre-draw a few of us were chatting and I reckoned that 60lb may well be enough to win and upper 20lb figures could be the best silvers weight despite those who practiced in the week getting bags to 75lb of skimmers and bream. The favoured areas for the non-carp species are pegs 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 (pegs 4 and 5 being the best 2 pegs on the lake), then you have a narrow section where we have to double bank, it is only 25-30m across so sharing water and fish is not too uncommon, it is inevitable pegs 7 and 8 are bang average at best. Then around to pegs 9 and 10, which are okay for carp and silvers, 11 is average and 12 and 13 are poor given they are at 90 degree angles to each other (I was on 13 last year and struggled as did peg 12...early baths. Same this year....) pegs 14 to 17 are good for carp but less decent silvers pegs, I wouldn't have been shocked to see them frame. But lead/feeder fishing to snags is the name of the game here and lost fish and tackle to be expected.
The next used peg is 23, a carp peg but some decent sized skimmers and bream haunt this area along with 24 (not used) and 25 whom all have island chucks, in with a shout for sure. 26 is average and tends to be a decent roach peg, then we have 27 to 31 which are opposite pegs 8, 7 and 6 and are average.
Peg 32 is a very nice peg as it has a few under water features, I would like this peg if I didn't get 4 or 5. Pegs 33, 34 and 35 are ok and can produce at times, maybe more so when the fish are heading up that end of the lake to spawn, pegs 36 to 38 are as often brilliant as they are poor, but great pre and post spawning times.

Well we all paid our dues and the draw commenced, three golden pegs chosen (27, 30 and 33) I drew around 5th in the rabble and found peg 7 in my hand, 2nd time I had this peg in the last 3 years now. I knew I had little chance of picking up with the pegs opposite in and in a tough section with pegs 1 to 10, I would say 7 is the worst peg in the section.
For company I had last years winner in Kev Crouch on peg 8 and Will Puddy on a decent peg, peg 6. Opposite me I had Chris Higgs and Derek Beards. I could also see a few others including Jamie Parkhouse (p25) and Paul Homewood (p26). In my section I had three good silvers anglers in Giffy (Chris Ware p9), Phil Clapp (p5, best peg) and Eric Fouracre (p4, 2nd best peg), tough work for me.

Peg 7, Apex Lake, Highbridge

Oh and it is always windy on the lake, no different for this match and at times it was hard going to hold the pole.
I mixed up my groundbait and sorted the rest of my bait, maggots, casters and corn. I had 4mm and micro pellets on my tray and expanders for the hook.
Tackle, well, a small cage feeder to lob on the 14m pole line, which I hoped not to use.
A pole rig (0.5g DT RBS) for carp at 14m using corn over a decent helping of 4mm pellets, but I never tried this as there didn't seem to be carp present.
A margin rig (DT Big D in 0.3g) down to my left for carp, again not really used for more that 10 mins during the day.
2 rigs for silvers, A DT Pencil in 0.2g for topkit to hand down to my left with the wind, hopefully to snare a whole load of roach which can be of a great size. The 2nd rig would be my main hope, a 16x11 DT F1/Silvers with wire stem, this would cover 7m and 14m both off to my right in a nice area of shadow.

On the whistle I cupped in 5 proper balls of groundbait on my long line and flicked a few casters down to my left. Some micros went in at 7m plus the baits required down the edge and on the long carp line.
1st look down to my left, a bite right away and a 4oz roach swung in....almost, it fell off, then the 2nd did the same as did the 3rd.....twat, I should have used the net!! Ah well I will stick with that line and keep the fish coming........ that didn't happen, I had a 6oz hybrid and 3 or 4 roach of 2oz each. Then no more bites there for the rest of the day.
Out to 7m, 10 minutes, no bites......No bites for the rest of the match over the micros or any bites on pellets, which is odd for the venue.

So after 45 minutes I was out on the long pole line, a few minutes later a 5oz skimmer was in my keepnet, then a couple 8oz samples followed, but then it would go quiet. Those opposite and either side were struggling so I plodded along picking up the odd skimmer.
Will Puddy did lose a carp early on and I saw John Fuidge down on peg 23 hook what he thought was a zoo creature only for the carp to be a 6lb fish, I asked him if it was the hardest fighting 6lber he had caught, he agreed. A lot fight like demons in there. Paul Homewood also had a carp or 2.

Over the next couple or so hours I kept picking up silvers in 2's or 3's, most 10oz sort of sized skimmers but I did have a 2lber, and a few roach in amongst them. But my skimmer sizes were nothing compared to the one Kev had and 2 Giffy caught.
My best bait was single and double maggot, casters just gave me roach so I refrained from lose feeding that area too often with casters unless bites dried up. Corn and pellets gave me the square root of naff all.

At around 2 o'clock my lines, and it seemed most others', died and bites were less forthcoming, but I did seem to be getting a few more than the others I could see nearby. The wind was really picking up, and in hindsight I could, and should, have got off my box and assembled a bigger float.
I took this spell to re-feed a decent amount and started a new area at 14m where I fed two cups of casters and maggots hoping for a few eels late on, but maybe they had not woken up properly yet from the winter, but worth a go.
I also went for a short walk and all I could prize from people is that 8lb was a good weight, Phil was admitting to low double figures, I believed him. Ziggy on peg 32 had gone home...

Back to my box and I had a couple more quick skimmers including my largest at around 2.5lb before I tried over the new caster/mag line, it was tough in the wind, but a few roach of 3oz each was all I was rewarded with for my efforts.
A couple friends turned up and all I could get while there were there were a few little fish, but I persevered. I was inclined to think I had perhaps 14lb or so at this point.
The wind was now so strong that after a quick look at 7m and on the topkit for no more fish I decided to spend the last hour on the feeder over the pole line, or at least until I ran out of groundbait.
Well I did run out of groundbait, thankfully it was my last cast of the match and luckily the last hour for me seemed better that those around me as I had maybe 6 more skimmers between 6 and 8oz (but Mssrs Fuidge and Homewood were getting big skimmers/bream off the island).

The all out was called and I packed up quickly enough and waited for the scales, which were beginning at the last peg, Jamie Cook and working back around the lake and peg 1 would be the last to weigh in. So I loaded the car and bumped into a guy who I kind of know, he was going to carp fish after the weigh in from peg 9 or 10, we discussed the ins and outs of the club and it's membership and matches etc.
Of the guys I also spoke to a few said they had mid-teens of silvers while Keith Clapp said he lost the carp-wars today 5 landed to 9 lost. But 5 carp should win the day unless he lost his keepnets.....ummm he did as when they got to weigh him in they had fell in, luckily he got them back and only 1 escapee....he weighed 42lb 4oz.
By the time the scales were at my peg Keith was still winning and the best silvers was 21lb to John Fuidge. I lifted my net and it looked 20lb+ which surprised me, and the scales bounced around to 26lb 2oz, nice. Phil Clapp said that would win the silvers, I didn't believe him as he was on the 'boys peg' and so it proved as his 20lb guesstimate actually trickled over 30lb and settled at 31lb exactly, there were some cracking 4lb+ bream in his net, which in comparison to my generally small fish net, really made a difference, so well done him.
Eric on peg 4 and Mike Davis on peg 1 both had caught tench, not many in the lake, so to see 2 on one day is great.

Back to the car park and the prizes were handed out, I managed 6th and won my section money by default, gotta love a default, thanks to Phil's haul which won him the silvers money and he was 3rd overall. The match was won by Keith with his 42lb 2oz catch.

Results:
1st, peg 17, Keith Clapp, 42-02
2nd, peg 25, Paul Homewood, 38-07
3rd, peg 5, Phil Clapp, 31-00 (took the silvers coin)
4th, peg 23, John Fuidge, 27-11 (took 3rd's money)

Silvers:
1st, peg 5, Phil Clapp, 31-00
2nd, peg 7, Lee Williams, 26-02

So a nice match, and to be honest I was chuffed with 26lb from where I was pegged and looking at the weights directly each side and across from me confirms at least I did something right.
If any of you guys who read this want a day pleasure fishing for silvers then you'd not go wrong in trying Apex, tickets from Thyers in Highbridge.

Weigh Sheet

No matches this coming weekend as yet, but that may well change if I get itchy feet on Saturday...

Until then, take care and stay safe.
Lee

A catch-up from my last post until last weekend.

The 25th of June saw the penultimate round of the Acorn Saturday Series, again I fancied a draw up towards the near end, that of the building work and entrance, but alas I picked peg 26. Paul Nichols won the section from this peg in the last round, but this match returned to the norm.
Pegs 28 and 31 were not in and I am convinced that this played a part in my match.
5 fish in the first 30-45 minutes had a nice beginning, there were plenty of fish in the area at the start and during this spell I could see them back off to the ample space, where they remained for the rest of the day.
Brian on peg 24 picked off a few more than me, well plenty more, especially later on in the match.
I ended up with 38lb something and 5th in section.

The following week I took a last minute decision to fish Norm Sterry's open at Landsend. I only decided to as I didn't fancy being bored at home, but despite an ok draw in peg 16 I wasn't feeling enthusiastic, I had decent company on a better peg in Ken Rayner on peg 15.

Landsend peg 16

I started off ok catching a few across early on, but the day proved frustrating for most, myself included. Ken caught naff all for around 4hrs and then he caught well late on to finish 4th I think.
I caught a couple skimmers and a couple late carp on my short meat line, but the middle 5hrs wasn't great and I think I ended up better than a few, but not as good as a few with about 40-something pounds if I remember rightly. My 6lb of silvers was just out of the silvers money.
The lack of effort in not getting the 16m section of the pole out definitely cost me some fish.
Norm won the match with around 97lb from peg 7.

On the 8th of July I had an afternoon over Apex, trying to catch some silvers, mostly skimmers and odd bream. I started ok with a couple, then it went quiet before I started to catch some quality roach shallow on pellet at 13m. The sun made seeing the float tricky so I came short and caught a good few bream to 7lb (which went off jumping like a dolphin), but good sport on 4-6 elastics. I think I ended up with perhaps 14 3lb+ bream, a comfortable 15lb+ of roach/rudd and lost a few carp. Enjoyable.

The following day I was on the Canal Lake at Sedges, 23 fishing, so it was going to be hard fishing. So it proved. I pulled peg 61, not the worst but away from where I fancied, 64 and 41-46.
I had 2 carp hooked in the first minute, mugged, one came off after a couple moments, the 2nd fell off at the net.
I ended the day with a few silvers (2lb-ish) and only 4 small carp for a total of just under 15lb, which was ok on the day with lots of DNW's and low weights.
Peg 64, Rob Dodd, won, as expected, with 58lb. He caught to the point of the island and down to the end bank. The pegs in the 40's did well, relatively speaking. Kev Crouch and Nick Selway coming 2nd and 3rd with 32lb and 25lb respectively. 6lb was top silvers net. So not brilliant, but it is a challenging water at times. Plenty of fish in the lake.

Peg 61, Sedges Canal

Weights....

Now that brings me up to last weekend, 15th and 16th of July.
Saturday saw the final round of the Acorn series and I had nothing to play for overall, so it was the £80 section winning prize I had to fish for. Again I hoped for a draw at the entrance end of the lake. I went in to the bucket 2nd last, well Steve Sewell and I had the last 2 balls, the pegs left were peg 5(yes please...) and 31 (ok peg but in with the 6 bridge pegs and hasn't been great for section points).
Well I didn't get what I hoped and big Steve sat on peg 5.

I had the wife with me for company, but the weather was dire, constant heavy drizzle all day, we never bought a brolly for her (ah well....) but she had my water proofs and a little brolly. I just sat in my shorts and sandals, haha. My maggots did Houdini acts all day and my the end of the day my pellets were mush.
Still, before the match started Gabe decided he didn't want to fish his peg 26 and left, but in the process scratched his new van on some metal while reversing to let me through.

A few rigs set up, tight over pellet which would couple up as a shallow rig for down the middle, a banded pellet rig for full depth around 1m off the far bank (unused), a rig for maggot/caster at 2+2 in the 10 o'clock direction. This rig would do for corn over micros at the same distance in the 1 o'clock direction. A shallow maggot/caster rig and lastly a rig for maggots or corn down the edges both left and right.

Peg 31 Acorn Paddock

There was plenty of fish mooching around all over the lake, including between me and Ricky Mills on peg 28. But as expected it was a tricky day. I caught a couple f1's early, lost 3 foul hooked fish when fishing across, so abandoned that. Nobody, except Barry Richards on peg 24, seemed to be catching much including Nick Harvey and Glen Calvert on the bridge pegs to my left.
As the day went on I struggled a little more, caught a few small, well baby, carp and some silvers down the middle on maggot.

4pm came and I had my 1st 'proper' carp and signalled the start of a few bites, well that's what I hoped. At this point I was last in the section. There were fish in the peg, even shallow on the caster and maggot line, but I never bought enough caster to make it work properly. I managed one shallow, but didn't persevere with it as I would have ran out of bait. I then had one on the corn over the micros, but that was the only fish from there all day. So I was left with the edges, I had a topkit line each side and another line at 8m each side, luckily I managed to figure something out that avoided the foul hookers a little more and caught steadily for the last 90 minutes, but at the all out was sure I would be near last in section. My clicker said 48lb (which I thought was 35lb) plus I had maybe 5lb in my other net (silvers, baby carp and f1s) but I try to over click at Acorn due to the 70lb limit which if you go over you lose the lot, no leeway.
I guessed Barry had won as he'd caught all day, I thought Nick and Glen must have 60lb each and even Ade Crawley on peg 22 had caught some fish.

I packed up with the help of the chicken-whisperer behind me, and followed the scales.
There were some 30-50lb nets and a couple 70's and a couple 80lb nets from the straight bank before Barry put 150lb on the sheet to confirm his series win in style, 4 section wins (including 3 match wins I think) and a section 2nd, which was his dropper.
Ricky didn't weigh before I plopped 58lb on the scales, plenty more than I thought, but presumed Nick and Glen had more, but they both weighed around the 50lb mark which, if Keith Ray on peg 40 had what he said was 35lb then I would win the section. Which was confirmed a few minutes later.
So at least I picked up another £80.

So a decent 1st round, an ok second round, 3 crap rounds and draws, last round was decent. I think I ended up with 19.5 points and probably in the top half of the field.
Barry won the series, I believe Paul Nichols was 2nd in the series. But I have not seen the results in full yet. They'll appear somewhere asap.
It was a well run series, thanks to Paul and Brian.

This Sunday sees me at Landsend on lakes 2 and 3, with the Pawlett group, I think I want Lake 2 as Lake 3 fished hard in Tony Rixon's Float only match on Sunday last.
I may go somewhere Saturday, Landsend or Todber? I defo want to get down to the Dorset fishery soon. Cracking venue.

Until next time, take care and have fun.
Lee

Avalon Silvers Series, 03-09-16 (plus other days)

Bit of a write up of my week since coming 2nd at Harescombe last Sunday.
I fished the Tuesday match at Acorn nr Clevedon, it had been fishing well with some good weights to over 200lb, but foul hooked fish are a problem, you need to get the feeding spot on the minimise them. Think there was 20-something fishing.
I drew peg 7, not too bad with a nice left hand margin and the right had side wasn't too bad either.

Acorn peg 7 lhs

Acorn Peg 7

Basically I fished my left edge most of the match, which produced in the last hour, during the rest of the day I picked up the odd carp from across and at 2+2 all on corn or maggot.  Loads of long quiet spells and I could see Gabe on p12 catching as was Tony Rixon on around peg 2 and Steve Shaw on peg 38. Though Paul Faires just along from me had some fish on the method and some on the pole down his edge and looked ahead of the 2 Mosella backed anglers.
I had 77lb and some ounces for 8th on the day. Learnt a few things going forward.
Gabe Skarba won with 237lb from in-form peg 12.

Results:
1. Gabriel Skarba. 237-07 p12
2. Paul Fairers. 142-11 p9
3. Tony Rixon. . 132-00 p2
4. Steve Shaw. 123-07 p38
5. S Holmes. 97-14 p11
6. Mark Walsh. 93-12 p16

Wednesday I fished the Sedges open on Tile, 15 fished and I had the last ball in the basket and it turned out to be a flyer in the form of peg 40. Though I was a little concerned as the wind was pushing up towards the other end of the lake and there wasn't a great deal of activity in my peg.
I fed the left edge only for the wind to change and fill it with floating crap in the form of leaves and branches/twigs, so that never happened.
After a 90 minute blank spell at the start of the match I ended up getting a few fish on the method and also a run of fish later on mostly on banded 8mm at 2+1 on the pole. I knew that blank start to the match would cost me and I ended up 2nd (thankfully my 2.5lb of silvers I chucked back didn't cost me) with 112lb.
Results:
1st Stuart Holmes, 140lb 6oz, peg 37
2nd Lee Williams, 112lb 4oz, peg 40
3rd Mick Shaw, 109lb, peg 28

Friday I spent a few hours down at Apex Park hoping for some skimmers, I had actually intended on fishing the Huntspill, but it didn't look right so over at Apex it was. I fished peg 3 and had 67lb of skimmers, bream and a load of roach, nice light kit fishing.

Around half of my Apex Park Lake catch.

So on to Saturday, I had seen the weather forecast and had decided a day of rest and homey stuff was in order......well that was put paid to when Mike West called me at 8am and asked could I cover him in the 1st round of Avalon's Silvers Series, so I agreed, I rushed to sort my gear, grabbed some casters from the end of the road and shot over for the 9am draw. 22 fishing so a nice number and a whole raft of very very capable silver fish anglers were present.

I drew peg 39, not too bad and 1 off the end peg which had a guy who has the venue's skimmers population sorted John Fuidge on peg 40. Ray Wickham to my right on peg 38, then Ken Rayner and Steve Fouracre next again.

Avalon peg 39....

A topkit rig for my right edge just using maggots and casters, a rig for maggot/corn for anywhere in front as I had the same depth all over, so a groundbait line was fed in front at 11m given the wind predictions, then a micro/corn line for 2+2 slightly left.
Lastly a banded pellet rig was made up for 11m and 2+2 on the left hand areas of my peg, but that went fishless, as was the 1 cast I had on a small groundbait feeder.

Simply put, the weather was dire, very wet, a touch windy and I messed my feeding up.

I watched John catch skimmers steadily during the day in amongst his attachment to 21 carp (I only had 9 on). I caught nearly all my fish down my right edge and never had a fish over 6oz in my 5lb+.
I had roach, perch ,skimmers and rudd to make up my weight, which wasn't at all near last by all accounts with a dnw or 2 and a few weights under mine. I only hooked, and bumped, 1 'proper' skimmer all day.

The winner was covering for Chris Fox, Paul Faires, he had 28lb+  to beat John Fuidge's 24lb and Vic Bush's 23lb.

Results:

1st Paul Faires (Chris Fox), 28-08, peg 33
2nd John Fuidge, 24-03, peg 40
3rd Vic Bush, 23-00, peg 17
4th Ken Rayner, 19-03, peg 37
5th Lee Woodhouse, 18-09, peg 12
6th Ziggy, 18-00, peg 9

Saturday evening was spent mostly drying fishing gear in various areas of the house!!

Next up is my blog from today's match at Acorn, PSV vs Over 55's...

Until then.....
Lee

Pawlett Match, Apex Lake. 24-04-16

A change of scenery today, a match over at Apex Lake in Burnham/Highbridge. It is a venue that is a public park so we see dog walkers and their sometimes uncontrolled k9s, joggers (summer viewing?), kids and cyclists plus the usual array of strange people, anglers aside.!!

We had 25 fishing today so a nice turn out, the weather was set fair but a north to north-westerly would be blowing up the lake, strengthening as the day went on. The lake is really affected by wind and the tow can be extreme at times.
I arrived in plenty of time and had a natter with a few peeps. We had John Fuidge and Ziggy Slowinski with us again today after they joined a few weeks back. Mark Watkins was making his debut on the day and would be on peg 24. He fishing Apex a fair bit but is relatively new to match type fishing.
I fancied any of the pegs in the 30's as you'd get a bit of room and they are consistent silvers pegs, I didn't expect more that 1 or 2 carp to get caught today. Pegs 3 to 6 would be a nice draw, but I really didn't fancy anywhere else to be fair, maybe peg 10.

The draw took place and I had the 3rd last ticket, peg 11 was my home for the rest of the day, well unless I left early!! It isn't a great silvers peg but you have the island a decent chuck in front and the usual marginal reeds, both likely to be the carpy type areas. If the wind go up as predicted I knew the tow would be stronger closer in than further out, but you'd have trouble holding the pole long....hmmm.
Another issue with the peg is the fact you have brambles behind you so anything over 13m is tricky to fish as you'd need to triple break down, so 13m was my maximum distance for the pole as this was fine enough to double ship.
I made my way round to the peg and got my tackle down the slope onto the platform. For company I had Pete Manning on peg 10 and Nigel Hull down on peg 12 in a corner.

Peg 11, Apex Lake

I sorted out my bait, mixing just of 2kg of groundbait, I thought that a lightly lightly approach may be best. I also prepped some micros for the method feeder. 1/2pt live maggot, 1pt caster and some corn and 4mm pellets for the margin would complete my bait tray.

4 top kits assembled, the 1st was a margin rig for corn at 8m down to my left, this was fishless so nothing more on that. The 2nd was a light 0.2g caster rig for top kit on both sides, this remained fishless. Lastly 2 rigs on light number 4 laccy, 4x14's Carp Gents with 0.10 and 0.08 hooklengths and a size 20 hooks on each. The 1st of these was a bulk and one dropper for if the skimmers arrive, also if the eels want to feed, I didn't expect them in numbers to be fair as the water was still cool. The 2nd was a bulk at half depth (had 4.5ft from 4m to 13m) and 3 droppers, I expected a few roach to be off bottom. I also set a waggler up after 2hrs after a few bubbles had been appearing at 25m, but that was fishless.

At the all-in I fed 3 decent balls of groundbait in front at 13m, 1 at 8m and some pellets and corn went down the edge, never to see any action. Similarly I began to feed both sides by hand with caster, but as I mentioned I never had a touch on either despite a few roach spawning in the reeds.

I began on the feeder with big pellet as hookbait, 1 carp would be there or thereabouts at the end of the match. Sadly I never had a bite in the 50 minutes I spent on it.

In on the long pole and I had a small silver bream 1st drop, this was followed by a few more and odd roach on the drop. Infact the second hour saw me switching between the long and short lines picking up a few fish including a bonus 10 or 12oz skimmer, but most were 3 to 5oz palm sized silver bream.

The sun was shining and I was out of the best of the wind and it was really nice, rather warm too and I could have sat shirtless....I didn't though as there were kids around!!

As we entered the 3rd hour bites had slowed and it was only John Fuidge on peg 26 was having a few silvers. I had fed around half of my groundbait by now and had figured out a routine that would usually see me pop the odd fish in the net. I had bumped a couple fish so I switched hooks a couple times, which helped. The 3rd hour gave me around 8 or 9 small fish. The wind was also getting up and the tow had picked up, nicely against the wind, I hoped the better skimmers would put in an appearance. The short pole line wasn't doing much so I deposited a nice helping of maggots and casters here hoping for the eels to arrive.

The 4th hour was nice although I had a 2lb skimmer pop off the hook as I grabbed the landing net and a gust of wind caught the topkit, I did curse!! I managed maybe another 1lb of fish during this spell, maybe only John Fuidge doing okay. But Mark Watkins over on peg 24 was getting a few bites.

The 5th hour went similar although a frisky 10oz eel was netted, only lightly lip hooked, proving to me they have not yet awoken. I guessed my weight to be 5lb or so at this point.

The last hour was soon underway and the bank walkers had commented how slow people were finding it and 7 or 8lb would be very good, I reckoned John had that to be fair, so maybe he was the person to beat. Pete Manning said he reckoned I had 7lb, I thought less.

With just under 3/4 an hour to go I hooked a fish that pulled plenty of elastic out, nice bonus I thought, a proper bream of perhaps 3 or 4lb then PING....hook pulled.....I cursed, not too loudly, but I did. The wind was buffeting the piece of carbon around, plus the double shipping, barbless hooks etc didn't help!!

A couple of smaller fish were soon netted though and the tow was blasting through, luckily my peg was somewhat sheltered compared to most, some couldn't hold their poles further than a few sections and have waves resembling the beach that's only a mile away!!

With 30 minutes left I hooked another bream, slightly smaller, but was netted and a bonus 3lb fish entered the keepnet. I smiled.

The remainder of the match was fished out, a couple roach and small silver bream were added to the collection, I reckoned on just over 8lb.

I packed up, loaded the car and caught up with the scales that were weighing my side of the lake. Peg 1 had 5lb+ then peg 2, Jason King, had 11lb 3oz that included a late 6lb bream I was told, I didn't think I had that but thought John Fuidge may have done.

A few dnw's and a couple 4 to 6lb nets before my usual under estimated net weighed 14lb 1oz. The usual names and how I cant lie straight in bed etc came my way.

I drove the car back round to the car park and re-caught up with the scales. My 14lb was still leading as Mr Fuidge had 9lb+, and with the last few guys saying they only had a few pounds each it looked like I had won. The last few were telling the truth. So I had won, more importantly I had qualified for the Silvers Final and All-Winners Final in 2017 I one foul swoop. Bargain.

Back at the car park I chatted with a few guys before the results were done: I think these are correct.......lol:

1st, Lee Williams, 14lb 1oz. Peg 11

2nd, Jason King, 11lb 3oz, Peg 2

3rd, John Fuidge, 9lb 15oz, Peg 26 (default silvers win)

4th, Jamie Cook, 7lb 9oz, Peg 28 (default 3rd)

5th, Mark Watkins, 6lb 13oz, Peg 24 (section win)

6th, Mike Davis, 6lb 10oz, Peg 8 (section win)

Weights

So a tough day, but despite my not-so-happy feeling when I drew the peg, the little bit of shelter afforded me a few extra fish I think. But it was nice to win and I really enjoyed the day, these less-carpy venues are what I like about my fishing at the moment.

Oh well done Mark Watkins on the section win, defaulted, but all is good. Keep learning mate,

Next up is Makins on Wednesday for a Fisho qualifier, the wife is coming so it wont be a quiet day, haha.

Then I hope to get a couple matches in over the following few days, next Sunday I am on Campbell with the PSV bunch.

Until then, take care.

Lee

A. Giles Memorial Match, Apex Lake. 02/08/15

Today was the Albert Giles Memorial Match at Apex Lake in Burnham-on-Sea / Highbridge, its a public park with plenty of the usual stuff that goes on being at such a venue, dog walkers, kids, bikes, joggers!!, inquisitive people plus a decent head of silver fish and a few carp.

With 25 down to fish the £15 entry was broken into £2 peg fee which Highbridge AA kindly donated back to the chosen charity: British Heart Foundation and a fiver from our entry went into the donation, overall £185 was raised, brilliant.

I arrived at the car park in plenty of time, only to be told that several day ticket anglers were fishing mostly from pegs 1 to 5, good pegs, so the numbers and pegs were altered a touch.
The banter flowed and I noted that the end few pegs on the long bank would be the area to draw, these pegs were 32 to 35 inclusive.
If you drew the island pegs then carp were a viable target, especially as the skimmers don't tend to haunt this area in large numbers. Lastly the area I didn't fancy were 6, 7 and 8 as the pegs opposite on this narrow channel were in the match, pretty much ruling out the chances of a decent net of skimmers.

After the rabble had drawn the tickets I was last in the bucket, I pulled peg 7, not impressed, not surprised though. So I made my way around to the other car park and set about getting to my peg and sorting my gear out. My peg and Brian Gatiss' (p8) and Phil Clapp's peg (p9) were all through the reeds. I had Chris Higgs opposite me (p28) and he had Colin Haggett to his left and Steve Giles to his right.



Front. P7 Apex



looking left, P7 Apex

Looking right, P7 Apex

Once at my peg I set up 3 rigs for the pole and a small method feeder (unused).
The pole rigs consisted of a 4x12 carpa chimp for my topkit line to my right, here I would feed hemp and caster hoping for a few decent roach and maybe a rogue skimmer or 2, or a decent eel (lots of eels in here to over 6lb). This rig was also used at 7m where I planned on chopped worm and caster.
A 4x18 float of the same pattern was for fishing various baits over a nice helping of groundbait at 13, the last rig, which remained biteless, was for my left edge and was for corn over hemp and 4mm pellets.

Hemp, corn, micros,  4mm, worms, caster and maggot were all on my bait trays, plus I wasted 1.5kg of groundbait.
After my initial feeding of the 7m and 13m lines I began on the topkit to my right, I caught a few roach and rudd in the initial half hour. Opposite me, during this spell, Chris Higgs had a few decent skimmers, he kept plugging away for the duration of the match.
Further along the end pegs from 32 to 35 all looked like they had netted a few skimmers.

After 40 minutes or so I went out over the 5 balls of groundbait I had fed at 13m, the float remained stationary over the next 25 minutes or so. On the hour I looked on the worm line and had a 6oz skimmer and a bootlace eel before bites stopped.

The next couple of hours remained quiet for me, picking up the odd fish close in and a couple over the 7m worm line. My 13m line was quiet of activity and I kept it in my mind to try nearer the end of the match.
A couple looks down the edge for carp were fruitless, but I felt you'd need at least a couple to stand a chance of getting in the money places (top 3 only), what more was I saw Paul Berry over on peg 24 lose a carp to his margin. Big Nick Selway (p33) was also having some action, in a 10 minute spell he played and landed a friggin big eel of 6 to 7lb (I had one way back in to 90's just under 7lb from the lake), un-be-known to me he went to put it in the keep net but the top ring collapsed an the snake found the safety of the lake again............!!! His next drop in on the pole saw him connected to a carp (they average 6-7lb), but he lost it at the net. He was catching a few decent skimmers though and along with Mike Davis on end peg 35, looked to have been building a nice net of fish.

As we approached the last hour I reckoned I had near 3lb and Chris Higgs opposite must have near to 10lb, also his neighbour Colin was beginning to net a few on the pole after a random attempt to catch on the pellet wag (okay!!). A nice eel of 1lb off the long pole line gave me hope that it may have come to life, especially when I foul hooked a rudd of around 1.5lb, this came off though which cheesed me off.
Another fruitless look for carp down the left edge was followed by me coming in shallow on my topkit, this is how is spent 45 minutes of the last hour, putting about 5lb in the net, quality roach and odd 3oz skimmer plus the usual 1oz fish. I still thought I was miles behind and the last 15 was spent long and down the edge looking for a bonus bream or (preferably) a carp.

The all out was called and I figured I was miles behind as I hadn't heard any news of the island pegs, plus I generally thought the pegs 32 to 35 would be the place to be. Chris would have more than me, but I didn't think Colin would be ahead of me despite his late flurry of skimmers.
I wished that I had gone and fished to plan and fished for the roach up in the water, I didn't, I hoped for some skimmers and a few decent eels.

Soon enough Phil Hembery was at my peg with the scales and board, only Dick Hurford on peg 6 had weighed, I couldn't see him all day and he's a quiet chap. 2lb 7oz was Dick's net.
I popped my 'over 3lb' net on the scales and settled at 10lb 4oz, slightly more than I thought, I was cursing in my head that I should have stayed, or started earlier, fishing for roach, especially when Phil said nobody had a carp from the island pegs and peeps had struggled. I also managed to get a slightly wet foot as I stepped back to see the scales and promptly missed the pallet....luckily my leg remained dry!

I stayed on scales duty and Brian tipped back maybe 5lb, before Phil Clapp looked like he'd go close to my net but fell just short with 9lb 11oz, consisting of around 9 nice eels plus a few roach/silver bream. Not much occurred around the island until we got to the 1st peg on the long bank, Paul Berry on carp-peg 24 put his bunch of skimmers on the scales with 8lb 9oz. (the same as Pete Manning who weighed before him).
A couple 5lb+ nets and a dnw preceded Chris Higgs, he moved ahead of me by 9oz, he'd plugeed away picking up 6-10oz skimmers throughout the match but had a quiet spell in the last hour.
We weighed a few more before Nick pulled his net out, remember he'd tipped back a 6lb+ eel and lost a carp in a funny 10 minute spell. His net looked rather bulky with skimmers (for the match) and he took the lead with 11lb 6oz. Mark Sweeting weighed 9lb 8oz from p34 but had suffered 'chip shop syndrome' and was battered both sides as peg 35, Mike Davis took the match with a fine net of 12lb 3oz, mostly small skimmers to 1lb.
This pushed me to 4th, one out of the money, but we were there to raise a few quid for charity, which we did, so it wasn't too bad.

Results:
1st, Mike Davis, peg 35. 12lb 3oz
2nd, Nick Selway, peg 33. 11lb 6oz
3rd, Chris Higgs, peg 28. 10lb 13oz
4th, Lee Williams, peg 7. 10lb 4oz
5th, Phil Clapp, peg 9. 9lb 11oz

Weigh Sheet.

A pretty fair match even if weights were less than expected and to be honest the lack of carp definitely helped with that.
In hindsight, I should have ignored the skimmers and fish shallower for the roach, as I had been advised, but knew or rather thought that they'd be needed plus a couple carp at least. But the skimmers never showed like they can and only 3 or 4 carp were hooked and lost all day (the couple of carp anglers fishing did have a few over spombed pellets).
The pegs I figured would do well and they did. Plus I suffered from bumped fish and fish that fell off while swinging them in, a lost foul hooked rudd never helped. But then everyone loses fish so cant make excuses, I will try harder next time though.

Next up is Campbell lake on Sunday with PSV, but I may make a trip up to Durleigh on Saturday if I don't fish a match at Landsend or Acorn.

Take Care.
Lee

P.S.....A big thank you to those who took part and to Highbridge AA who donated the peg fees to the charity, plus Chris Higgs who put £40 of his own money in the donation. Plus thank-you to Pawlett Legion for the food laid on after the match and to Phil Hembury etc who organised the event. Thank-you.

Apex Lake, Clevedon Club, November 24th 2013

Sunday's match was a club affair at Apex Lake in Burnham/Highbridge.
Now I like the venue, it has loads of silvers, eels and a decent head of carp. It is a venue that gives rewards to those who think about their angling. The only slight is that it is a public park and occasionally dogs (and their walkers) can enter your swim in certain areas.  But generally there isn't any problems. The swims are decent, platforms or solid bank and the water is of a nice depth (3-6ft as a rule).

Anyways onto the match. I arrived at the car park around 8:10 in time for the half past draw. It was a nippy morning with a bit of a frost. Slowly the others arrived, and we were soon handing our money over to Mark Bartlett and Rob Fogg who were sorting us out while Adie was not present.
I had been down to have a look on Saturday, where a mate had been fishing, and it was hard, in fact he waited a long while before his bites began, but sport was slow. The frosts had knocked the fishing a bit, so we need a settled period for it to pick up again. Apex can be an excellent winter water, I have had weights to over 40lb of skimmers and bream.
The most popular pegs would be 1-6 and those from 43 back to around 32. I fancied the mid 30's really, along the footpath, or maybe peg 2 or 3. Peg 4 is seen as a/the top peg, but I have never really done well there,
There was 13 or 14 of us down to fish, only 1 no show.

Into the bucket goes all the hands, out comes a piece of paper, peg 4....decent enough, and I expected a few fish. So a quick jump in the car and I drove round to the other car park. Once in my swim I set about getting my kit sorted and any luggage placed back on the barrow as rats can be a pest on this lake, some of them are super friendly and are not shy...

Peg 4, Apex Lake.



Once I had mixed my groundbait (50/50 mix of sensas matchblend and magic), pumped some expanders and organised my box etc I set up 4 rigs, which I actually made on Saturday.....now I am getting good at a little prep...lol.
These were all Nick Gilberts Silverfish Caners. A 0.6g float on 0.14>0.12>B511 size 18 for soft pellet or if I was to be catching steadily, this had a bulk and a single no.10 dropper.
The 2nd rig was the same float, with a 0.10 hooklength to a size 20 B511, for maggot/caster, maybe soft pellet.
The 3rd was a 0.4g, spread shot, 0.08 hooklength and a size 22 B511, this was for the roach on the drop or up in the water, should they show.
Lastly I had another 0.4g float, but this was on 0.12 and a size 16 B611, for chopped worm next to the tree to my left (you can make out the edges of the tree in the pic). Maybe a decent perch or a rogue carp being the target here.
I also set up a small guru feeder with a 2ft tail of 0.12 to a size 18 b611. This was my banker tactic.

In the hour or so before the whistle I never saw one fish top, not one bubble, nothing, so I was expecting a struggle.
The all in sounded at 10am, and I cupped a decent pot of worm and caster by the tree, but I never had a bite there, so no more on that.
I cupped a Satsuma sized ball of groundbait at 13m in the 1pm position, a pot of wetted micros and a few soft pellet went in at 13m on the 10am position. I was feeling positive. Sadly I never had a bite on these 2 lines either, despite varying my rigs, mostly using the lightest rig and feeding softly softly.

Anyways, there is not much to tell you about the next 5 hours except I had my 1st bite at around 11:15 when a suicidal skimmer took my bait on the feeder. Others had caught a few, some were still biteless and the remainder were on 1 fish...it was tough.
I did bump a baby skimmer off when the poor thing took my single red maggot on the feeder, that was around 13:30, so at this point it was 2 bites, 1 in the net, 1 bumped....Lance Tucker on peg 32? was in the process of packing up after only having 1 bite, others had packed their poles away as I don't think anyone except Mark Bromsgrove on peg 8 (apparently he was getting plenty) had a fish on that line...

Around 2:30 I started packing up, an hour before the whistle, I left 1 pole rig and the feeder set up, but I had switched to a larger feeder and a 5ft tail, 0.08>size 22 b611, a scratching feeder rig...lol
At 3pm something happened....another bite, a minute tap on the tip, which I missed, I chucked back out and low and behold 5 mins later I was into another fish, a 4oz skimmer was netted. Sadly I only had 20 minutes left!!....at 15:15 I bumped a fish which never registered on the tip, it fell off when I was pussy-footing in bringing it in, it felt a decent skimmer...a couple mins later I landed a small 4oz skimmer, then I missed a couple bites in quick succession and then bumped another baby skimmer. The fish were only lightly hooked and these smaller skimmers have really soft mouths. The bites were taps on the tip, not positive knocks.
So bites were coming and as the all out sounded I missed a bite.....But I was glad it was over!!

I was soon packed up, a few of the others had packed up with plenty of time left!!
Rob Fogg came and weighed my 4 or 5 fish, they went 3lb 8oz, which he said looked ok for the section....if he could remember what pegs were in what sections....lol
The other pegs on my right didn't weigh in as they were fishless, Rob himself was on peg 6 and had packed up early, but informed me that Mark Bromsgrove on peg 8 was bagging...maybe over 20lb in his net.
During the match I could see Nick Harvey, Paul Faires and Phil Deacon catching the odd skimmer from the pathway pegs opposite me and were looking like contesting the placings, but Mark Bartlett on peg 42 only had 1 small skimmer and dnw'd. Also the far peg opposite me (peg 35?) had Simon Carvallo catching a few all day, especially at around 1-2pm where it seemed like he was getting a bite a chuck on the feeder.

Anyways, I loaded the car and scooted back to the main car park for the results.
As expected Mark Bromsgrove won with 28lb+ from peg 8, I guess it makes sense as that peg gets the sun all day and was out of the cold winds we had for the last couple days. Maybe the water was warmer? But well done him....
Alas I never got my section as Phil Deacon and Kev Perry both had better weights, but I think it was Phil who won my section.

Results:
1st, Peg 8, Mark Bromsgrove, 28lb 8oz
2nd, Peg 40?,  Paul Faires, 16lb 4oz
3rd, Peg 35?, Simon Carvallo, 11lb 10oz
Sections: Phil Deacon, Peg 41, 9lb 4oz. Kev Perry, Peg 33, 6lb 13oz.

Weigh Sheet.....

 

So all in all a tough day, not un-expected as we'd had a few frosts and a cold northerly. Other fisheries were slow by all accounts on Saturday, lets hope it improves.

I was a little surprised that everyone, except the winner, didn't catch on the pole, and feeder weights were the outcome. But I am not surprised that I had bites late on, a little too late, because that is how Paul Wharton had found out on Saturday.

Maybe I should have switched to a lighter hooklength earlier? Maybe a bigger feeder should have been put on earlier? Maybe I did everything ok (except land a couple fish), that's fishing...that's why we keep going.....

 

Next up for me looks to be a match on Trinity Woodlands on Sunday, I know PSV had a match there on Sunday, but the blog has yet to be done, I think......but 5lb separated their top 4 with around 30lb winning.

 

Until next time...stay safe and have fun...

 

Lee





A rather warm Sunday

This weekend was going to see me fish a match on the River Kenn in Clevedon, but only 4 names were taken, and 1 of these could not make it. So with this the case, Adie Baker gave me a call on Friday saying it was called off, which given the expected temperatures and sunshine (yes, it still is rather summer like so make the most of it!!). But then people don't fish many matches on canals, drains and rivers anymore unless it is a winter/summer league.

I had work on Saturday, which was dead, we saw maybe 6 customers.......!! And with no plans for Sunday I was at a loose end what to do. I could have maybe tried to find a match, and the PSV guys said I could have tagged on their match up at Walters Lakes, but the warm sunshine and distance, plus my kids wanted to do something meant that any fishing would be opportunistic.

So come Sunday morning we decided to take a trip upto Cadbury garden centre and then maybe grab some food to have a picnic by the River Kenn, then work things from there.
So after a bit of brekkie, I loaded my seatbox, some maggots and 1/2kg of frozen groundbait, a landing net and handle, along with my S7 silverfish rod into the car. The 4 of us set off to the garden centre.

I popped into the angling centre, it'd be rude not to, and bought some more maggots (they had no casters). I didn't spend another penny!! Which is odd for me.
None the less, we had a look at the pets and fish, a browse around the out-houses saw me wanting/needing a new garden lodge thingy, ideal for a  new fishing shed!!. But I got told £3000, or even £7k was not an option. Blast.

So we tooted over to Clevedon, where we stopped in the Kenn Road car-park and took a walk along  both sides of the road in the warm sun. There wasn't really any fish topping, in fact I doubted I would catch due to the weather, but it was nice to get the shorts on and have a walk with the family.
We then drove round to Strode Road where I had a quick look and decided that we'd have a fish for an hour while having lunch. We popped to Tesco's grabbed some fruit, sausage rolls and more drinks etc.

At the river I set the rod up, ideally I wanted to fish the waggler towards the far bank, but realised I forgot my catapults, so I restricted myself to about 10m out, where I had decent depth of maybe 8ft or more. This was as far as I could throw my maggots.
It looked fishy, loads of fry, and I mean loads, the water was full of baby fish. So I expected a few fish on my loaded 3BB waggler set-up. I was using 2.5lb maxima to 0.08 hooklength and a size 20 B511. An hour later, all my food was devoured, the kids had wandered around the hedges/trees and explored as much as they could, and we were nearly out of liquid refreshment.
I had not even had a touch or see a fish top, so we packed up and left. But I did enjoy it and will fish there again.

So we were stuck about what to do, the temp in the shade showed 32 degrees and felt it too despite a breeze, we settled on heading back to Apex Park in Burnham/Highbridge. Heading back down the M5 we listened to Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final and he was doing ok. The temperature did drop to 30.5 degrees by the time we had pulled into the car park at Apex.

A quick walk around saw plenty of small fish topping and a few anglers looked like they were catching the odd fish, there were a couple carp anglers whom looked like they had a few carp from the island swims (low 20's pegs?). I stood in the pegs by the bench and decide that'd do for me, but later in the day.
So we sent the kids to play in the park for fifteen minutes while I watched the water, there were odd carp out towards the island and the delkims from the carper's bit alarms shrieked occasionally.

We soon set off back to Bridgwater and arriving home we watched some of the tennis until Murray was 4-1 or something down in the 3rd set. So we loaded the car with kids and took the pole instead of the waggler rod and headed back to Apex, I also took some micros, 4mm pellet and 8mm meat. Along with the maggot, groundbait and a few 6mm expanders, bait was sorted.

Pointing at the few mooching carp by the island.

 

The kids were soon in the park playing, I was soon fishing. I had 1 line at 13m in front, for skimmers/bream and a margin swim to my right at 6m for mostly carp.
I fed the long line with some wet micros and loose groundbait, I fed the margin with 2 cups of mixed 4mm pellet and meat.
1st put in on the pole bought a silver bream, followed by a few more, all on the drop, but all welcome. For the next hour I had a few more smaller fish, maggots and expanders both bringing the same result.
A look down the edge didn't bring a bite, but temps were still high and to be honest I was not expecting anything of size.
Back out to the long line saw me bring a skimmer of maybe a pound to the next, but no more followed, just more smaller silvers. But I was enjoying it.

Me in my swim.

 

By now Andy Murray had won Wimbledon, a fantastic achievement. But the larger fish in my swim were absent, if not feeding. I did try the margin again and I had a bite, this saw a good bit of number 20 lacy come out, but it turned out to be an eel of a pound or 2.
I gave it 20 minutes more, in that time I had some more silvers out long.
I packed up at around 8:15 with a good few pounds of fish, and a pleasant evening in the sun with the wife and kids was had.

 

Just 1 of the plenty I caught.

 



So I had a nice weekend really, whether it would have been nice fishing a match in the sun and heat is debateable. The Kenn is a venue I will fish again for sure as it makes a change from carp, carp and odd flying skimmer.

 

Next up for me is the 3rd Clevedon Saturday Series Match at Plantation's Match/Horseshoe lake on this Saturday. I don't stand a chance unless I win the next 2 matches.....and a few guys not turning up...lol

 

 

Take Care and Tight Lines.
Lee

Apex Lake 7/4/13 Clevedon Club Match

Today saw me on the Clevedon FWAC match at the public park lake that is Apex in Burnham/Highbridge. It is a nice water with depths upto around 6ft or so. It is a NSAA (Highbridge) club water.
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