Summerhayes – Open – 30th November 2025

On Sunday it was back to Summerhayes for an open on Sellicks and I was hoping to draw on the far side (somewhere around 19-20 would do very nicely please!). We tried the Beefeater in Taunton for breakfast and it was very nice so will definitely be going back there again. When we got to the venue there were 16 of us fishing today which is a decent number for Sellicks. As Pete got the draw underway, I was fourth on the list and pulled out peg 4, not where I wanted to be at all, Nick was next and got 23 which is in the right area. Things got even worse for me when the Toxeth Terror (I think that’s how you spell it!) drew peg 5. Steve ‘Tackle Tart’ Collins was my other neighbour on his usual bunghole (peg 2) and I thought he’d be hard to beat today.

As I was setting up there were odd decent roach topping and after my initial disappointment at drawing this side, I actually started to think I might catch some silvers today. In between Craig and me there were some lilies on the inside and before the start we decided (as gentlemen do) where the halfway point was, then the whistle went and he proceeded to try and basically fish under my pallet! I wasn’t that bothered as I had no intention of fishing down there for the carp but I did begin throwing some maggots in (on my side!) just because I knew it would annoy him.

I fed two lines at 11.5 metres with groundbait and also began pinging maggots across, it was a very slow start which wasn’t unexpected and with an hour gone I hadn’t had a bite! The Toxeth Terror had extracted one carp from our inside line and I’d seen the odd carp hooked and lost by anglers fishing for silvers towards the top end of the lake. I’ve ended up going across a lot earlier than I would have liked and didn’t get the response I wanted there either! A further 15 mins passed before I finally had a bite, unfortunately it was a carp which I managed to land without too much fuss.

I was getting the odd bite across from carp and was landing every one, even on light gear and at the half way point, I had five carp along with a solitary roach and was even ahead of Steve and Craig. It sounded like it was fishing really hard with nobody really catching carp or silvers, at one stage I was three carp ahead of both my neighbours. Then with the scores at 6-3, I lost my first carp of the day. I had another roach but as we approached the latter part of the match, a few more carp were being hooked, Steve pulled it back to 6-4 and when he hooked another it was all getting a bit squeaky bum time but then thankfully for me it came off.

I landed another to make it 7-4 but then after only losing one all day, in the last 15 mins, I pulled out of one and bumped three! On the whistle it ended 7-5 to me although I think Steve thought I had five and by the sounds of it, there were several people on five carp so it could all be quite close although I did have some lumps. After we’d packed up, Pete started the weigh in round the other side, Rob didn’t weigh on 24, Nick had 3lb 12oz of silvers (including a bonus 2lb skimmer), Big Bad Bob weighed 3lb 1oz and then Dan P, Dave B and Glynn had gone.

Nick won the silvers with 3lb 12oz

Alex on 16 had a chub of 1lb 1oz which put him second in the silvers so far, Adie weighed 12lb 3oz and then Hollywood on 13 had six carp to go into the lead with 21lb 13oz. Rog C weighed 9lb 14oz, Bill didn’t weigh on 10, Zooner had 19lb 12oz (including a roach of 3oz), Alan J on 7 chucked back and then the Toxeth Terror had 18lb 9oz (thanks for your attendance Craig!). My two roach weighed 9oz to claim a nugget from Zooner and my carp went 34lb 12oz, last to weigh was Steve who had 20lb 12oz.

Hollywood was second with 21lb 13oz of carp on peg 13

I had 34lb 12oz of accidental carp and two roach for 9oz to win the match

1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 35lb 5oz
2 – Ian Williams (Tiverton) – 21lb 13oz

Silvers
1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 3lb 12oz
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 1lb 1oz

A nice pick up of £79 for winning the match nearly made up for catching carp instead of a pristine net of silvers but I won’t be rushing out to put red hydro in all my top kits anytime soon!

£2 each from Nick P and me plus a pound from Zooner saw the Nugget-O-Meter rise up to £53.

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