Summerhayes – Open – 8th June 2025

Sunday it was off to Summerhayes for a match on Sellicks and there was a great turnout of 20 anglers including Tom Thick, Hoffy (who I hadn’t seen for ages) and Andy Akehurst who was back again after winning the silvers on his first visit the previous week.

With Pete and Sally away, Adie was in charge of proceedings today and got the draw underway. I was quite near the top of the list and pulled out peg 6 which is normally good for silvers, although with nearly every swim in, most people were expecting it to fish hard today. Andy A drew golden peg number 3, Glynn was on 5 so we had to have a nugget on it while Tom got 16 which is my favourite peg and also wanted to have a pound on silvers.

On the whistle I fed two 11.5 metre lines with groundbait before pinging some maggots across to the island, starting on the shorter lines, as expected it took a little while to get a bite but a carp wasn’t the required result. My next fish was a nice rudd and although I wasn’t getting loads of indications, a chunky perch and a big 2lb skimmer was a decent return for the first sixty minutes.

Andy A caught a skimmer but then I had two in quick succession followed by a small perch and a chublet as my catch rate continued to tick over. Glynn was struggling and his regular phone updates from McKenzie on peg 25 (who was bagging on carp) and Zooner on 15 suggested I was doing okay, even Alex on 23 (where he’d won with over 30lb the previous day) hadn’t had much.

Then Mr Akehurst had a really good spell catching several skimmers and although I added another decent skimmer along with a nice perch, I was sure he was ahead of me. I did hook a fish that I thought might be another perch but turned out to be a very handy bonus 2lb crucian.

As we neared the halfway point, there wasn’t much between us but I still thought he was edging it and in with a shout of a taking home the golden ball money. Nobody was now catching much and it sounded like the lake had switched right off. After feeding maggots across for three hours, it was time for my first look, shipping out to 14.5 metres, I laid the rig in, it settled and then a positive bite resulted in a modest amount of elastic coming out. I was expecting a roach so was disappointed when I swung in a 2oz carplet which went straight back!

Thankfully, my next fish was a roach and I had five including a decent one which got me thinking I was in for steady second half but then all I could hook was carp as my hooklength box took a beating. I did miss one good bite which saw a big skimmer leap out the water several times.

Towards the end of the match, the odd skimmer was coming out and Andy had two more which by my reckoning put him comfortably ahead of me and I just couldn’t get a bite from anything other than carp, Glynn was having the same problem and at one stage he hooked a carp which headed in my direction, the float shot under and without thinking I struck and we were both attached to the same fish much to everybody’s amusement. Not long after I returned the favour as our comedy of errors continued!

He then had two big skimmers and lost one after feeding a long line with groundbait so with nothing to lose and time running out, I followed suit and started a new swim to the left at 13 metres with two pots of loose groundbait. After ten minutes, the float sailed away only for yet another carp to give me the runaround. Not long after I hooked a fish that tore off but then stopped and it felt like a big skimmer, I started shipping back very carefully only for it to come off and I was sure that was going to cost me.

That was the last of the action and on the whistle, I finished up with only 16 fish (5 skimmers, 5 roach, 3 perch, 1 crucian, a chublet and that rudd). Andy said he thought he had 12-13lb and I knew I didn’t have that. The scales started at peg 2 or they would have if Craig had still been there, despite watching young McKenzie opposite him empty the lake of carp, he didn’t pick up any tips and DNW’d (thanks for your attendance Craig!).

Andy’s skimmers went 9lb 8oz, Steve W on 4 had 36lb 15oz, Glynn weighed 5lb 7oz and then my fish went 11lb 12oz which put me in the lead for now but I knew it wouldn’t last as apparently Adie over on 19 had done well and Alex was admitting to 10lb. Chris W on 8 had 30lb 3oz of carp, Hoffy weighed 30lb and then Rob B weighed 8lb 13oz of silvers on peg 10.

Mark Leahy went into the overall lead with 49lb 13oz, Oscar on 13 had 18lb 4oz, Kev ‘O weighed 13lb 5oz, Zooner had 7lb of skimmers before Tom edged in front with 50lb 5oz of mainly carp. Adie then had a lovely net of skimmers for 23lb 12oz, Rich S on 21 weighed 30lb 11oz and then it was Alex who’s estimate was very accurate as he recorded 10lb 14oz. Last but not least was young McKenzie who’d done fantastically again, fishing 16 metres to win with 69lb 12oz of carp.

1 – McKenzie Wickham (Summerhayes) – 69lb 12oz
2 – Tom Thick (Tom Thick Baits) – 50lb 5oz
3 – Mark Leahy (Summerhayes) – 49lb 13oz

Silvers
1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 23lb 12oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 11lb 12oz
3 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 10lb 14oz

After a good first half, my match just fizzled out but I picked up £30 for second in the silvers and me and Glynn had a right laugh so still a really nice day.

The Nugget-O-Meter did brilliantly today, donations from Norts (£2), me (£1), Craig Lyttle (£1) and Rob Wylde (£1) plus pounds from Zooner, Glynn Wickham and Tom Thick saw the total climb to £320.

There’s still a great offer running if you fancy treating yourself to some new fishing gear, use the exclusive discount code AgainstMenandFish10 to get 10% off when you shop online at Somerset Angling

Also I still have copies of my book available from eBay here or Amazon here

And if you could spare five minutes to leave a nice review on Amazon, it would be very much appreciated.

Next up – Revels

Coming soon – Lots more match reports

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