Summerhayes – Open – 1st February 2026

Into February and this crappy weather is showing no signs of abating and I’m proper fed up with it now, I love my fishing but it’s not much fun getting soaked and blown off the bank every week! After meeting Nick for brekkie we headed to Bridgwater for the match on Longs and there were 12 hardy souls in attendance today. Pete announced the draw and I was fourth on the list, the pegs to draw for silvers at the moment are 30-36 along the track and once again I managed to skillfully avoid those and pulled out 15 on the bottom bank. To be fair it’s normally pretty good for silvers although Alex had drawn it twice on the trot recently and blanked both times which was a tad concerning!

Fresh from yesterday’s victory, Dan ‘Making It Happen’ Taggart was next and drew 33 which is right where you need to be and when Roy Hughes had the last ball in the bucket which turned out to be 32, I was sure they’d both be there or thereabouts.

Peg 15

I set up rigs for top four, 11.5 metres in deep water to the right plus 13 and 14.5 metres angled to the point of the island in the reflection of the tree (see photo above). On the whistle I fed all my lines before starting short and a little dink had me thinking I was in for a good day especially as I could see Dan and Roy into fish from the off. The next indication was a foulhooked carp and that was it for the first hour!

Big Bad Bob to my left on 19 and Nick P over on 26 were both getting some decent skimmers so with nothing in the net, I had my first look at 11.5 metres. I bumped a fish and then hooked what felt like a big skimmer but it came off shipping back and things were definitely not going to plan! Then I finally got off the mark with a 4oz skimbob only to pull out of it’s twin next chuck but at least I was now getting some bites. Well, famous last words as I shipped back out and the float just sat there!

I didn’t want to go out on the 13 metre line too early so tried the short swims again and began getting a few fish, a pound skimmer was very welcome along with some smaller samples and a nice 8oz hybrid. With three hours gone bites had faded on the short line so I went long but 13 metres was disappointing so I added another section and missed a couple of bites before catching a decent skimmer. A few smaller ones, a nice roach plus a 10oz tench followed and I was starting to do okay.

Then from being a little bit moist, the wind got up and along with freezing cold rain hitting me straight in the chops it went from being mildly uncomfortable to brutal in a matter of minutes. I could barely hold the pole and several times had to drop it on the water, my hands were so cold I had to put my gloves on and I was struggling to see through my glasses! Unable to fish long, I had to come back on the top four line and couldn’t get a bite, the weather was that horrible Bob packed up and went and sat in his van for the remaining 45 minutes.

Going into the last half an hour, the wind dropped a bit so I’ve gone back out to 14.5 metres and had a skimmer, next chuck the floats gone straight under but it was a carp that I had on for ages before it snapped me and it took me far longer than it should have to put a new hooklength on due to my fingers not working! In the last ten minutes, I had two more skimmers, missed a bite and didn’t want the match to end. I only finished up with 25 fish and was sure I hadn’t done any good as Dan and Roy had caught steadily apart from during the biblical weather.

First to weigh in was Gary Dennis on 39 who had 35lb, Russ Hilton on ‘Cyanide Straight’ peg 3 (which was also the golden ball) and had done well with 7lb 12oz of silvers which included a lovely perch, he also had 32lb 5oz of accidental carp (and lost nine as well!). Then Oscar on 11 went into the lead with a brilliant 60lb 11oz of mainly carp, my silvers went 7lb 6oz and then Bob got out of his nice warm van to weigh 7lb 4oz.

Russ had 7lb 12oz of silvers including a cracking perch

Oscar had 60lb 11oz of carp on peg 11

Nick on 26 went into the silvers lead with 7lb 15oz, Glynn weighed 5lb 7oz, Heardy on 30 had 19lb 4oz of carp, Roy then weighed 9lb before Dan just pipped him with 10lb 6oz to win the silvers (and take another nugget off me). Carlos on 35 weighed 29lb 11oz and then last to weigh was Steve Collins on 36 who had 48lb 6oz to finish second.

Roy H was second in the silvers with 9lb

Dan ‘Made It Happen’ again to win with 10lb 6oz (including another nice tench)

Steve C on peg 36 was second with 48lb 6oz

1 – Rob Wylde (Summerhayes) – 60lb 11oz
2 – Steve Collins (Summerhayes) – 48lb 6oz

Silvers
1 – Dan Taggart (Summerhayes) – 10lb 6oz
2 – Roy Hughes (Summerhayes) – 9lb

So despite the horrible weather and me thinking I was miles behind, it was actually really close in the silvers with just 1lb 12oz separating second and sixth.

Rob Wylde gave me a pound for the Nugget-O-Meter and the total now stands at £181.

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