Summerhayes – Silvers Open – 22nd November 2025

Saturday it was a silvers match on Sellicks which had just received an injection of quality roach and skimmers from Big 8. I was really looking forward to it even though a few had fished it mid-week with just one roach being caught! Only nine of us fishing today and I was hoping to draw on the far side, failing that I’d settle for one of the early pegs on the near side, where I didn’t want to be was at the top end and that’s exactly what I got with peg 14! Saying that, nobody really knew how it would fish and the first job would be just to get a bite.

I set up a couple of light rigs and the depth was pretty the same all the way across at just 18 inches. On the whistle I fed a couple of lines at 11.5 metres with a little nugget of groundbait and a few pinkies before pinging a few maggots over to the island. It was a slow start for everyone although after half an hour or so, I went to move the rig and there was a small fish on briefly. Next chuck I had a carp so I had a look at 14.5 metres a lot earlier than I intended but two carp in quick succession was far from ideal and I was beginning to get the gist of how the day was going to go!

From what I could see, nobody was catching with the exception of Nick on 20 who had several quality roach. I was on the verge of going for a walk when the float went under and I shipped back carefully before landing a decent roach. Another doubled my tally but the ‘action’ (and I use the term loosely!) was short lived. Russ wandered up from peg 7 to see how I was doing and reported he had two silvers and that everybody was struggling that side.

Nick was still catching quite well and putting together a decent net of fish but second and third were still up for grabs. I landed my fourth carp and then had two roach out the blue and that was it, I never had another bite for the remaining three hours! Colin who was on peg 17 to my left had only hooked a few carp but then struck into a big 2lb skimmer that leapt out the water before he safely netted it to put him in second place. With around an hour to go, he hooked a carp that did him under the next pallet and made a mess of his rig so he decided to pack up a bit early but left his net in and watched Nick for the final sixty minutes. I thought that would leave the rest of us vying for third place but then at the all out, he tipped back his skimmer (and second place!).

After packing up I took some of my kit back to the car and asked the others how they’d done, Roy on peg 3 had three roach, Alex only had one and then Russ said he’d ended up with two roach, a rudd and a perch so this could be close with both of us admitting to around 12oz. Spud on 24 had several roach and a little tench so would probably claim second spot.

Roy’s trio of redfins went 9oz, Alex had a quality roach for 5oz, Russ’s mixed bag weighed a pound and then Adie on 11 didn’t weigh. Then it was my turn and thankfully the digital display settled on 1lb 2oz, Colin had chucked back and then Nick had a nice net of quality fish for 7lb 13oz which would win by a comfortable margin. Roger on 22 didn’t weigh and then Spud had 1lb 10oz for second place.

I think I looked a but too excited at weighing 1lb 2oz!

Nick won easily with 7lb 13oz of quality roach and a skimmer

Spud was second with 1lb 10oz on peg 24

1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 7lb 13oz
2 – Chris ‘Spud’ Murphy (Summerhayes) – 1lb 10oz
3 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 1lb 2oz

I picked up £26 for a thoroughly undeserved third and I know I moan on the blog sometimes about being ounced, well today things went my way and I’m sure in fishing it all evens out over time, even if we do moan we’re the unluckiest anglers on the planet!

£2 each from Nick P and me saw the Nugget-O-Meter climb to £44.

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