Clevedon Club Match. Apex Lake, Highbridge

Another frost greeted all 22 anglers for the draw at Apex lake in Highbridge for this Clevedon FWAC Club match.


Myself, James Gunter and Rob Fogg had all shared some healthy banter before for the draw and were loaded ready to dip are hand in the bowl, not before buying our NSAA day ticket for the venue, no rule breaking!!

I had drawn peg 1 and scales duty! Peg 1 is at the mouth of the channel between the out-of-bounds boating lake and the rest of the complex. I had Lance Tucker to my left in peg 2 and Kev Perry across from me in Peg 44.

The view of my peg

Both Rob and James had drawn in the island bowl, both had chucks to the island as their disposal.

I targeted my peg two feeder rod setups and the pole at 13m, one with a paternoster groundbait feeder, the other with a method.

I mixed up Sensas Craztbait Gold and Sensas Lake 3000 and mixed them 50/50 then added half a pint of frozen pinkie to it.

I setup up the pole to fish at 13m with a positive and negative line, I cupped in 4 big balls on my negative left hand line and 8 big balls on my positive, right hand line. Kev Perry, Paul Faiers and Barry Fowler, all in a line clipped up and introduced groundbait via the feeder to establish a swim and we all soon into some skimmer action.

Due the the shape of this part of the lake I didn't have much of a chuck in front of me, I tried my luck fishing the feeder into the channel, but was only rewarded with a small skimmer in about 10 casts. I had a look on my pole line and had instant bites on the left hand line. I had 5 skimmers in 5 put-ins, then it died, as did the whole section of the lake. Everyone that I could see was struggling. In the last 3 hours of the, the bowl of the lake I was pegged in hardly produced a fish!!

For the remainder of the match, I tried everything to get another bite, going past my feed, baiting a new line, groundbait feeder, method, changing shotting, depth, hookbaits, you name it, I tried it, but to no evale!

James and Rob on the other hand were fairing much better, James was getting steady bites on the pole, when the ever present gusting easterly winds would allow him to hold his rig still and present it properly.

Rob had alternated between the groundbait feeder and pole and was catching a few skimmers and a few bonus BREAM!

Rob Fogg with his 16lb 10oz bag, enough for 2nd on the day!

At the whistle I knew I had only 6 skimmers, Lance had packed up early, as had Simon Carvallo along with a few others.

I weighed in John Wolstencroft from peg 3 and myself then went to Dom Sullivan who mentioned he'd "had a few", on the scales they went and bottomed out at 22lb 14oz, I knew that would be an almost guaranteed match winning weight!

Rob weighed 16lb 10oz, enough for 2nd overall, James weighed 11lb 8oz, which gave him a section, by default.

Brian slipper didn't get to weigh in his seagull he hooked as they didn't count this this match!

The overall results were:

1st.   Dom Sullivan  22lb 14oz   Peg 4
2nd. Rob Fogg         16lb  8oz    Peg 10
3rd.  Paul Faiers       12lb  8oz    Peg 43

Section Winners:

James Gunter         11lb 8oz       Peg 15
Kev Perry               11lb 12oz    Peg 44
Tim Lewis              12lb  4oz     Peg 36