1st outing of 2012 - Apex Lake Monday 2nd January

I wasn't really sure whether or not to fish over the New Year long weekend or even where to go but bought some maggot and caster plus some bream 3000 from Cadbury Angling on New Years Eve just in case, I had some worm plus various pellet, corn and some green swim stim in my bait store at home. In my mind I was thinking Apex Lake would be a good choice as I have had some decent winter bags there in the past but just don't seem to get around to fishing it as often as I would like. After a relaxing day on the Sunday due to waking up with a mild hangover I went to bed and set the alarm for 7:20am on the Monday. Got up within 10 mins of the alarm going off and looked out to find the weather did not appear to be too bad. By 08:45 I was in the car park unloading the car, The wind was typically blowing towards the housing estate from the sea and the temp guage in the car stated 6.5 degrees, the wind made it feel a bit colder. I decided to put all the bream fishing best practice and theory to the test and fish into the wind, I settled on Peg 3 which has plenty of water in front of it. On the way round I noticed one angler was fishing in the 'no fishing zone' but did not ask how he was getting on. Another angler was on Peg 6, he had been there about 2 hours with nothing to show and suggested most anglers had been struggling of late. I looked at his end rig and saw a 10mm white hair rigged bolie being buried in among some groundbait, I didn't suggest to him that his chances of any action would be limited. Back to Peg 3 I decided it would be a one rod attack and set up my trusty 11.5ft drennan medium feeder rod with a 1.5oz tip, 3lb reel line, a small cage feeder and a 3 foot trace of 0.10 preston power line to an 18.
I mixed up some bream 3000 and swim stim, 50/50. On the bait tray was 1/4 pint of dead reds, 1/2 pint caster and 1/4 live reds plus I cam across some near death pinkies in the bottom of the carry all.
Cast out 3 times with a few casters and pinkies in the feeder at about 35 - 40 meters and clipped up. After about 20 mins a skimmer about a pound is safely snared by 2 dead reds, the bite was postive and set the scene for the rest of the session. Within a few more casts a decent skimmer about 2lb graces the net again on 2 dead reds, the the heavens opened and the wind got worse but with my head down still concentrating on the rod the tip goes around and stays there, carp me thinks but no, picking up the rod the typical feel of a good bream and a real beauty at around 4lb. Two other anglers turned up opposite me with their backs to the wind and brollies up, very comfortable but only saw them catch one fish between them in the 4 hours I was there. I continued to catch skimmers every so often and missed a few bites as well. On one occasion I cast out and before the feeder hit the water the rod was suddenly pulled skywards, I found myself playing a duck, the line was screaming of the reel and in an effort to stop the reel double handle going around I cut my index finger and brused the nail, the duck escaped non the worse for wear unlike me, that was worth £250 on you've been framed! I packed up at about 2:30 but no one was about to take a picture of me with the catch so just quickly laid them out on the grass and took a snap before returning them safely to the water, overall a good days fishing which is often the case when not properly planned and done on the spur of the moment. Overall the fish weighed between 25 - 30lb. Apex Lake is controlled by North Somerset AA, day tickets can also be purchased in most local tackle shops and Veals (the old Thyers shop) is open in Highbridge on Sunday mornings I believe. I will certainly be back to Apex soon.