Summerhayes – Silvers Open – 28th February 2026

A double header at Summerhayes this weekend kicking off with Saturday on Sellicks, I was near the top of the list and drew peg 2 at the near end. It wouldn’t have been my first choice as it’s a narrow swim but hopefully I should still get a few bites.

It was the usual sort of approach feeding three lines at 10 metres and pinging maggots across. It took a little while to get my first fish, a small tench and although not fast and furious, I was getting a few indications and after two hours I had seven little tench and two hybrids for around 2lb. At this stage, Toby on peg 4 was probably just ahead of me but there wasn’t much in it.

With bites dwindling, it was time to have a look across and first drop in, the float buried and I had a decent roach. This signalled the start of a great period and it was a bite a chuck for an hour before they disappeared and I went from getting loads of indications to nothing. While I’m still suffering from ‘The Curse of the Sellicks Skimmers‘, Toby is having no such problems and has got it sorted as he landed several and was looking good for another victory.

I did hook a better fish in the deep water and knew straight away it was an eel (despite Toby suggesting I’d finally hooked a Sellicks Skimmer), thankfully I managed to land it without too much trouble and it was a handy 1.5lb bonus. Going into the final hour I went back across for another little run of four roach, I knew I’d been well beaten by Toby but was hoping I might have enough to sneak into the frame.

The scales started with me and my 38 fish went 12lb, Toby had an excellent 20lb, Spud on 6 weighed 7lb 6oz and then Dan T pulled his net out and it was going to be very close for the nugget but he just edged it with 12lb 6oz to push me down into third.

I had 12lb including a bonus eel

Toby won with 20lb of skimmers, little tench and a nice crucian

Big Bad Bob had 5lb 5oz, Oscar on 13 weighed 5lb 14oz, Bill ‘The Paste’ caught 4lb 8oz and Nick P on 16 weighed 6lb 9oz. Alex then went into second place with an excellent 16lb 13oz, Rog C had 2lb 6oz on 20, Tony H weighed 6lb 10oz and Rob B on 24 had 7lb 9oz.

Alex was second with a lovely net of quality roach and perch plus some little tench

1 – Toby Burrell (Team Army) – 20lb
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 16lb 13oz
3 – Dan Taggart (Summerhayes) – 12lb 6oz

So it was a case of close but no cigar for me as my stuttering start to the year continues and I missed out by a few ounces again.

£2 each from Nick P, Rob Wylde and me saw the Nugget-O-Meter climb up to £220.

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