I got a call on Friday to inform me that the Clevedon Inter Club Match with Frys AC had been cancelled due to the Avon being in full flood. It was the right call as the banks can be dangerous under normal conditions.
My wife went to Weymouth with her mum and brother for the weekend so I planned to go out somewhere on both days.
I fancied fishing the River Kenn again after my success a few weeks ago and didn't think the river would have been affected that much by the recent rain. I was also toying with fishing Bristol City Docks at Baltic Wharf or Apex Lake in Highbridge.
After doing a few odd jobs on the Saturday morning I headed down to Cadbury Angling and picked up some caster and maggot, I already had plently of worm and groundbait. I had intended to go the long way round to the shop to look at the river on the way but decided against it, surely it would be fishable. Wrong!
I got to peg 5 and could not believe it, the river was rushing through and at the lowest I had ever seen it. I was going to go on one of the local lakes but saw 2 big fish move above the outfall. That was it, I tackled up with just the feeder and fished a whole worm on a 14. It was hard work with all the weed etc but I did manage an eel about 1 hour in. Soon after I caught a glimpse of someone on the bank behind me and did not take that much notice until I heard something along the lines of..... '' never seen the river so low but there is a mad irishman fishing peg 5'', I turned around and it was John aka 'the duck' Wolstencroft! I caught 1 more eel while John was there.
John was looking for somewhere to fish on Sunday and after a short debate we agreed to meet at Apex the next morning for a days silver fishing. John went off about his business, I stayed until 2.30 and packed up.
Sunday;
Up bright and early on the Sunday morning at 6.30 to meet John in the car park at Apex at 8.00. I looked out and the car was covered in frost, bugger! I let the dog out and to be honest it did not feel too bad.
On the drive down the M5 the temperature changed between 2 and 2.5 degrees. I got here about 8.00, John was already there and unloaded ready to go, he had not been out for a few weeks either. A quick chat about where to fish and we decided on going around the back of the lake, I pitched up on 29 and John on 30, the pegs did not appeared to have been fished recently.
Both of us took a simple approach today, a light feeder set up for the first hour, 1 pole rig (although John set up 2 the only difference being elastic strengths). 18 hooks and 0.10 hook length. Feed would be caster in a dark groundbait mix and worm, caster, maggot on the hook.
We started fishing around 10 with both of us cupping in some caster etc, john was fishing 11 meters, I opted for 14.
View of my peg
First cast in with the feeder I got knocks straight away which I was not expecting, there was hardly andy ripple and we had a bright blue sky. John also had bites straight away and was soon putting a small skimmer in the net. I soon followed with a skimmer and some roach but they were hard to hit. After an hour John out the pole out and I could see he was getting bites every put in but was bumping a lot of fish due to the size of them. I stayed on the tip for another 30 mins or so and put a decent 12oz roach in the net.
Out on the pole line around 11:15 and I to got bites straight away, caster and crumb were put in with via the kinder cup and a proper ball via the pole cup every 20 mins or so. I soon had quite a few skimmers and som better samples, it was great to fish a match top 3 with a preston blue hollow elastic, proper fishing. John also ha a few better samples. We both had to chop and change hookbaits to keep the fish interested but they did respond to feed every time.
We packed up around 4.00 and just after an isolated heavy showerm the wind had picked up as well.
John weighed just over 13lb, pic below.
No ducks today for John but there was a grebe on a suicide misson in his peg toward the end of the session.
I weighed in just over 20lb and only beat John due to having some better samples. My camera has been playing up and John took this pic of me while I was looking down, he had another reason for taking the pic too quickly as he was probably still dizzy after falling of my platform backards!
Apex Lake is on the North Somerset Anglers tab, it's not a commercial and there is a good head of silvers in it as well as carp, it is a great winter venue and has easy access, most pegs have platforms. The average depth is around 5' to 6'.
All in all a great day, thanks for the company John.
Next Sunday we are due to fish an interclub on the Avon at Swineford, river conditions permitting.
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