Summerhayes – Open – 18th January 2026

Sellicks on Sunday and I was hoping for one of the pegs down the arms of the lake, preferably on the near side (2-8) although I’d happily take the opposite bank (16-22), I just really didn’t want to draw the top end and of course pulled out number 12! We were also in for a very wet day (just for a change!) and I really wasn’t looking forward to this at all.

I set up rigs to fish a couple of lines at 10 metres, across to the island and another for dobbing. On the whistle I fed my lines before starting down the middle but after 15 minutes and no indications, I just wasn’t feeling it so went across to the island just to to see if I could get a bite. Not a lot was happening around me, Mark on 11 had an early roach but I hadn’t seen Adie on 14, Alan J next to him or Russ on 17 catch yet.

It took an hour and a quarter before I had my first bite from a roach and by all accounts it was fishing really hard, a small carp on my light rig was next but I was going nowhere fast. I tried dobbing bread by the reeds on the inside to my left and working my way along them, I’ve eventually had a bite at 10 metres but a roach wasn’t the expected result! The next fish was a carp but not hooked in the mouth and then two more in quick succession had me thinking I was doing okay. Adie was now catching odd carp fishing by the empty pallet in between us and Russ was landing a few as well.

I lost two foulhookers and then couldn’t get a bite by the reeds, another look by the island with maggot was pretty uneventful (one missed indication) so I went back to dobbing bread down the edge and had two more carp (and another roach) including a decent one but that was my lot. With Russ finishing on the same number of carp as me and Adie on five, this was all going to be rather close.

Lee S (Summerhayes very own Tom Hardy!) on peg 2 was first to weigh and had 7lb 10oz, Glynn was on the golden peg and with nobody catching much in the way of silvers, his 2lb of roach could be worth a handy bonus, Craig L on 5 went into the overall lead with 29lb 11oz of carp but it only lasted until we got to Alex on 8 who had fished for silvers and caught nine accidental carp (and lost a few) for 32lb 1oz.

Glynn had 2lb of roach on peg 3

Craig weighed 29lb 11oz of carp

Alex had nine carp and a few silvers for 32lb 1oz

The next two pegs didn’t weigh and then my carp (along with three roach) went 22lb 10oz, Adie had 17lb 11oz, Alan J on 15 had 5lb 9oz and Russ weighed 24lb 5oz. Big Bad Bob on 18 had 12lb 10oz, Oscar weighed 13lb 8oz, Nick P and Toby chucked back and last to weigh was Dave H on 24 who had 22lb 15oz of carp along with 1lb 13oz of silvers which was enough for second.

Russ weighed 24lb 5oz on peg 17

1 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 32lb 1oz
2 – Craig Lyttle (Summerhayes) – 29lb 11oz

Silvers
1 – Glynn Wickham (Summerhayes) – 2lb
2 – Dave Hilton (Summerhayes) – 1lb 13oz

So it had fished really hard for silvers with Glynn needing just 2lb to win the golden peg, overall it had been really close again with just a carp or two separating lots of weights.

The Nugget-O-Meter had a great day thanks to very generous donations from Nick P (£5), Craig L (£3), me (£2) and Oscar (£1) as the total shot up to £166.

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