Summerhayes – Open – 8th March 2026

The following day at Summerhayes we were on Sellicks but with 23 anglers fishing and nearly every peg in, I thought it might be a difficult day for most. It was great to catch up with Steve Raybould who I used to fish with back in the Sharp Match Group days and has just got back into it.

Sharp Match Group, Steve is back row, third from the right, I’m second from the left in the front row

I was around midway down the list and when I got called up to draw, I was happy enough with peg 15, an area that can be really good for silvers. For company I had Adie on 14 with Harry to my left, Nick had drawn peg 6 and Steve was down on 4.

On the whistle I fed two lines at 11.5 metres and began pinging maggots across, no bites on the shorter lines so went to 13 metres after an hour but still nothing, adding another section I finally got off the mark ten minutes later with a nice roach. I’d love to report that I began catching well but my next roach came thirty minutes later and then the next two fish I hooked were carp and I lost one of those. Adie was catching carp regularly but nobody else on our side was doing much.

I had a foulhooked roach but then every bite was from a carp and I hooked seven, landing four of them. There were obviously a few there so I set up a heavier rig and got the 16 metre section out to fish tight across to the island. I missed a bite before catching carp number six and really thought I’d go on to land a few more with two hours remaining. In fact, I only foulhooked one more and that came off, I did have a nice tench around a pound along with a small one but that was it.

John Dursley on peg 2 was first to weigh and had 35lb 5oz, Oscar had 8lb 10oz, Steve R weighed 6lb 8oz, Spud had 12lb 3oz of silvers on peg 5 and then Nick P weighed 17lb of big skimmers. Kev O and Glynn DNW’d before Alex went into the overall lead with 36lb 1oz of carp and silvers on peg 9.

John D had 35lb 5oz on peg 2

Chris M was second in the silvers with 12lb 3oz

Nick had 17lb of big skimmers and a crucian to win the silvers

Vic R had chucked back, Craig L weighed 24lb 12oz, Rog C had 9lb and then Adie went into first place with an excellent 59lb 5oz, my carp went 24lb 9oz and my silvers added 3lb 1oz, Harry and Bill didn’t weigh, Dave P had 11lb 10oz, pegs 19 to 21 didn’t trouble the scales, Zooner had 2lb 13oz of silvers, McKenzie on 23 chucked back and then Dan T on 25 weighed 5lb 6oz which was enough for third in the silvers and a nugget from me.

Adie had the top weight on the day with 59lb 5oz

1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 59lb 5oz
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 36lb 1oz
3 – John Dursley (Summerhayes) – 35lb 5oz

Silvers
1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 17lb
2 – Chris Murphy (Summerhayes) – 12lb 3oz
3 – Dan Taggart (Summerhayes) – 5lb 6oz

Oscar kindly donated a £1, Craig let me have a nugget (plus the one he won off Oscar) and I added a squid I won from Zooner as the Nugget-O-Meter climbed up to £233.

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

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