Summerhayes – Silvers Open – 21st March 2026

Given how far behind I am with the blog and the fact I didn’t catch very much, this one won’t take long! It was a silvers only Saturday on Sellicks and there were nine of us fishing today. Pete announced the draw and I really didn’t fancy 2 or 24 (nearest pegs to the car park) and was also hoping to avoid 13 at the top end which is shallow and normally holds a lot of carp. Nick was second on the list and got 13 so that was one of them out the way, then it was me and of course I pulled out number 2. Although I was a bit disheartened, I did think there was still a chance of framing as the last time I was on it, I was 6oz off third place.

I kicked off in the usual manner, feeding several lines down the middle and pinging maggots across with my game plan to catch on the shorter swims for as long as possible before going across and hopefully catching some nice roach along with a skimmer or two (to finally break ‘The Curse of the Sellicks Skimmers’). It took ages to get a bite and I had a few small tench and a couple of roach but also lost a better fish which I think may have been a foulhooked eel!

Spud next door was catching quite a few little tench and I could see Dan and Tony up further getting odd fish so with two hours gone and not a lot in the net, I had my first look across. I was expecting it to be really good or at the very least have a quick flurry of fish but it was a massive anti-climax and I only had two roach and a perch. To be honest I didn’t really know what to do next so fed groundbait on three lines and went for a walk while it settled.

Nobody was really bagging on our side and I was expecting a similar tale of woe from Nick at the top end but he was swinging in a roach when I reached him and while I was there he had another six in half an hour! I went back and had a carp, pulled out of one (not hooked in the mouth) and then just to finish off my day nicely, I got snagged up, the elastic snapped and I lost one of my favourite floats.

The scales would normally start with me on peg 2 but as I’d chucked back my not very much, Spud was first to weigh and had 7lb of mainly tench, Dan T on 6 had 8lb 2oz to take a nugget off me but wouldn’t be taking home the golden peg fund and then Tony went into the lead with 11lb 3oz which included some decent skimmers. Nick was next and had a fantastic net of quality silvers for 25lb 13oz, Bill ‘The Paste’ weighed 9lb 7oz and then Big Bad Bob on 20 went into second place with an excellent 14lb 1oz, Colin weighed 3lb 15oz and Alex on 24 had 5lb 7oz.

Spud had 7lb of little tench on peg 4

Tony had some big skimmers for 11lb 3oz

Nick had the top weight with a brilliant 25lb 13oz

Big Bad Bob was second with 14lb 1oz from peg 20

1 – Nick Payne (Ilminster) – 25lb 13oz
2 – Bobby Aird (Summerhayes) – 14lb 1oz
3 – Tony Hopkins (Summerhayes) – 11lb 3oz

Although a really disappointing day for me, there were some fantastic weights and it just goes to show that nothing is certain in match fishing, I really wouldn’t have wanted 13 today (and I still don’t like the peg!) yet it produced a cracking winning net of fish. Although I was right about the near end which didn’t fish very well for me, Alex or Colin.

£2 each from Nick P and me took the Nugget-O-Meter up to £241.

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