Summerhayes – Open – 4th January 2026

With sub zero temperatures and frozen lakes again it was no surprise there was a depleted turnout of only eight fishing today including Summerhayes very own version of Daniel Craig who apparently likes his coffee ‘shaken not stirred!’.

The name’s Lyttle, Craig Lyttle (and I think the t-shirt is pretty accurate!)

We were on Sellicks today and with the far side iced over, Captain Pugwash (aka Adie), took to the boat to break it up. On his return he gave me a little Drennan Margin Crystal float he’d found in the ice as he knows I use them for dobbing, cheers mate! When it was time to draw, I was hoping for a peg on the largely ice free near side and got my wish when I pulled out number 8 which has been brilliant for carp recently although I would still have a go for silvers as well.

Adie was on 6 and the next angler to my left was Steve Collins over on 13 so I had loads of room. As we were setting up it soon became apparent that those on the opposite bank were having real problems with the floating ice, as soon as they cleared a hole, it would fill up again!

I set up a rig for dobbing along with little 0.1 and 0.2 gram floats for a couple of lines at 11.5 metres and fishing maggot across. On the whistle I fed the other lines before kicking off dobbing bread by the island, there’s a submerged bush in the peg from when part of the island collapsed which is obviously a bit of a fish magnet! I did think it might be a rather low weight affair and after twenty minutes with no indications I was just saying as much to Adie when my float sailed away and a decent fish was on. Something wasn’t right though and the fish came straight to the top, initially I thought it might be a big skimmer but it was a lumpy carp which I suspect wasn’t in the mouth but I’ll never know as the hook pinged out in the net.

There were obviously a few fish there as over the next 45 mins, I’ve hooked another five carp although despite changing depths, none of them were in the mouth and I’ve only landed one more (plus a roach). Adie hadn’t had a bite yet although I had seen a couple of roach caught on the far side but they were all having a torrid time with the floating ice. After my flurry of indications (and lost fish) across, it slowed up so I had a look at 11.5 metres and first chuck the float buried as a roach took the bait but it was a one off.

Back out with the dobbing rig I couldn’t get a bite in the original spot so I tried moving further along the bank but then disaster struck when the line went over some vegetation I hadn’t previously noticed. I had to pull for a break and got the rig back but the tip had snapped off the float and I didn’t have a duplicate! As far as I could tell, nobody else had caught a carp yet so I made the decision to set up another rig (using the float Adie had given me earlier).

I did manage to catch a third carp on bread (hooked in the mouth this time) but then Steve C had two in quick succession whereas I now couldn’t get a bite. Adie caught a couple of roach and then had a decent skimmer which put him in pole position for the silvers. I went across with the light maggot rig and had a small carp followed by another two including a six pounder. Steve had a couple more to make the score 4-6 to me although I now couldn’t get a bite and over the next hour I only added a roach while he drew level at 6-6 and I needed to find another fish from somewhere.

I plumbed up right across in the bay with the dobbing rig before shallowing up by six inches and going across with punched bread on the hook. A fairly quick bite resulted in carp number seven and then I had a lump of 6-7lb and that was the last of the action. I finished up with 8 carp and 3 roach for around 32lb and I thought Steve had 6 (he actually had 7!) and this was going to be close as he had some big fish as well.

The scales started round the far side and basically they hadn’t been able to fish due to the ice, Roy had one roach on 24, Craig and Big Bad Bob didn’t weigh and then Bill had four roach (including one getting on for a pound) for 1lb 13oz. Oscar hadn’t caught and then Steve Collins weighed 32lb 10oz. My roach weighed 8oz before I pulled my carp net out and thankfully the digital scales read 34lb 15oz, last to weigh was Adie and he won the silvers with 3lb 3oz.

Steve had 32lb 10oz which included a nice golden koi carp

I had 8 carp and 3 roach for 35lb 7oz

Adie had the top silvers weight with 3lb 3oz

1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 35lb 7oz

Silvers
1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 3lb 3oz

Craig Lyttle and Rob Wylde both very kindly donated added pounds to the pot as the Nugget-O-Meter reached £143.

I had a nice pick up of £64 but the lack of a duplicate rig very nearly cost me today!

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