Sunday 14th July - Apex Lake

Having probs with blog hence late post.... hope this works.

There was a Clevedon Club Match on the Top Lake at Acorn Fisheries on Saturday (part of the Saturday Series), I had not fished any of the previous ones so did not bother, I tend to do a lot of running around on Saturdays in order to free time up to fish on a Sunday. John Wolstencroft (who has been mentioned many times on my blog) sent me a text during the week asking if I fancied meeting up down at Apex Lake. I was thinking of the middle or lower Bristol Avon but thought that'll do as it is one of my favourite lakes (not a commercial). I rolled into the car park just before 7:45 as arranged, John was already there and more or less loaded up. Colourful as ever he proceeded to tell me about a Magistrates dog breaking his number 6 section down Viaduct last week and I gather Steve Long had to intervene before the Magistrate went for a swim, We decided to fish the early pegs adjacent to Apex Drive, the wind would be in our face and little or no trouble from dog walkers, kids, cycles etc. So Barrow load up and off we go, not, my wheel had a flat. John took my pole holdall and I forced the rest around to the pegs taking a breather every so often. I went and got the car after getting to the peg. Pegs 1, 2 and 3 were vacant so I plumbed for 2 and John settled in on 3. There was only a light wind and temeratures were around 20c, lot of fish topping and the odd swirl from carp, I would not be bothering with them though and set up 2 top 3's which were identical except for the float tip clour, one red and one yellow/greenish. Depth the same at 13m and 14m right and left of me, nice and easy.0.13 mainline and 0.10 hooklength to a 18 Drennan Silver Fish. Bait was caster, maggot, hemp and 6mm soft pellet, GB was 50% Noire and 50% Fishmeal.

Before fishing John had 2 mishaps, reel spool went in the water and despite dredging with his landing net only found a cash box with something rattling inside and a fe plastic bags but more about this later. He then dropped his flask and smashed it, second one in 2 weeks!!!

So eventually we were fishing, I was going all out for silvers and John was to do the same but have a lok for carp later on in the day. After 2 hours we both had fish but nothing of any size, I was catching long and John much shorter, it was a mix of small skimmers and roach. In the 3rd hour we both bumped better fish (bream), I finally got one about 2lb on double soft pellet but no more followed until I fished worm and a better fish of around 3lb was had. Chopping and changing brought more fish at intervals but they were not getting their heads down.

Here is John concentrating down the edge on 10mm meat, he caught a roach on it, not sure if he had enough bait here!

We both had action most of the day and it was great to keep it simple and tradional, John ended up with 4kg 10 and I had 6kg 20, here are the pics of our catch.

As for the spool retrieval well, John did strip off, here he is getting ready to dive, I know he is fond of ducks but getting this close maybe a step too far, what a body.

Here he is almost underwater, he took several dives and did manage to get his spool back, well done mate, plus a pair of sun glasses, a bolt rig and more plastic bags, oh and I think there is some evidence of webbing between those toes, lol, good luck at Shackles next week John. What a great day.