Summerhayes – Open – 17th August 2025

On Sunday and it was back to Summerhayes for the open on Longs and after drawing 30 in the Stoke match and having a lovely day, I was hoping to be in the same area today. For once my misfiring drawing arm behaved itself when I pulled out number 32, right in the silvers epicentre.

I got off to a great start catching three half decent skimmers, a nice perch and a few roach on the short line in the first thirty minutes before moving out to the top four lines. More 4-6oz skimmers and roach followed along with two gorgeous crucians and a couple of little tench. I could see Adie over on golden peg 15 catching steadily and it looked like he was landing some decent skimmers.

With two hours gone it felt like I was doing okay but then I had an 8oz skimbob come off at the net and not long after a big leaper slipped the hook. My bites slowed up while Adie was still catching really well and was on for a bumper payday. I had my first look at 11.5 metres and had a decent spell catching some skimbobs, a two pounder plus a nice 12oz tench.

I thought Adie was miles ahead so came back in the short line and had a bit of a nightmare when a big leaper came off and then next chuck, the float went under and another decent skimmer went airborne and I wasn’t even attached to it! Towards the end of the match carp began to be a pain although I did also hook a fish that pulled a fair bit of elastic out before it stopped and the hook pulled.

At the all out, I’d finished up with 81 fish which I thought would go 12-15lb and I was sure Adie had 25lb+. I packed up and went to give Pete a hand with the weigh in. Alex did well on 38 with 12lb 7oz of silvers and then with the level so low, there were no pegs along ‘Cyanide Straight’ and the next angler was Mark W on 7 who had 50lb 1oz of carp. Zooner weighed 7lb 14oz of silvers on 9 and then Dave Romain went into the overall lead with 154lb 9oz on 11. Bill ‘The Paste’ also had a great weight with 114lb 11oz before Adie had a lovely net of silvers for 21lb 13oz.

Dave had the top weight on the day with 154lb 9oz

Bill ‘The Paste’ had 114lb 11oz on peg 13

Adie won again and took home a big fat envelope with a lovely net of silvers weighing 21lb 13oz

Dan weighed 39lb 6oz on 17, Alan J had 17lb 10oz, Tom R weighed 32lb 9oz on 21 and Roger C had 13lb 12oz before Ant P went into second place with an excellent 129lb 12oz on peg 28. Richie chucked back and then my silvers went 17lb 12oz so I wasn’t as far off as I thought! Big Bad Bob had 30lb 7oz and Phil B weighed 54lb 4oz on peg 36.

Ant P was second overall with 129lb 12oz

I weighed 17lb 12oz for second in the silvers

1 – Dave Romain (Colmic) – 154lb 9oz
2 – Ant P (Summerhayes) – 129lb 12oz

Silvers
1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 21lb 13oz
2 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 17lb 12oz

I picked up £30 for second in the silvers but always seem to be a few pounds behind Adie (and he took a nugget off me), he’s really got it sorted at the moment, I’ve lost fish today but so has he and if I’m honest I was on the better peg so definitely a case of ‘must try harder!’.

The Nugget-O-Meter had another great day, at breakfast Norts gave me £2, the Grand Wiz and Andy Burns added a pound each and then nuggets from me, Zooner and Dan T saw the total hit £517.

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