Summerhayes – Open – 3rd May 2026

Longs at Summerhayes was the destination for day two (of four) and I was hoping for a nice silvers peg but my drawing arm needs some new batteries as it landed me on number 9 (I’m blaming Dan T who was in charge of pegging!) It wouldn’t have been my first choice but good silvers weights have been coming out from Cyanide Straight and I was only around the bend from there!

With Dan deciding which pegs to use, plenty of tippex was required!

As per usual I started short and began catching a few little tench and skimmers, it was steady rather than prolific and after 2.5 hours I probably had around 4lb. From what I could see, odd fish were being caught but nobody was running away with it as far as the silvers were concerned. I went out to 11.5 metres and lost a carp first put in before catching a 10oz eel followed by a decent skimmer, nice tench and a chunky perch.

Another look short produced two skimmers and it was definitely a case of nicking a fish or two from each line, swapping between 11.5 metres and across to the island kept odd fish coming and I had several more tench and a 2lb skimmer. Fishing to the left and right of my feed was also worth a couple of quick skimmers and I finished up with 46 fish which I thought would go 15-16lb.

The scales started with Alex who was on 38 for the second match running and he’d done brilliantly again with 18lb 13oz of silvers, Mark Leahy was the first peg on Cyanide and had 57lb 9oz before Scott Cousins on peg 4 went into the lead with 105lb.

Alex had another great weight of silvers on peg 38, 18lb 13oz this time

Scott had an excellent 105lb of mainly carp on peg 4

McKenzie did well on 7 with 52lb 13oz and then my silvers went 19lb 10oz, Mark W chucked back and Big Bad Bob on 13 weighed 33lb 11oz. Rog C had 6lb 9oz, Bill ‘The Paste’ went into second spot on peg 18 with 64lb, Roy Hughes had 13lb 6oz of silvers, Nick P didn’t weigh and then Adie B went into the lead with 114lb 3oz.

I had a lovely day catching skimmers, roach, tench, perch and an eel for 19lb 10oz

Adie on peg 26 had the top weight with 114lb 3oz

Oscar on 28 had 11lb 12oz of silvers, Glynn weighed 8lb 2oz and then Zooner on 32 had a cracking net of silvers for 18lb 5oz, Kev ‘O chucked back and last to weigh was Dan T on 36 who had 32lb.

Dan weighed 32lb but chucked his fish back before I could get a photo!

1 – Adie Bishop (Summerhayes) – 114lb 3oz
2 – Scott Cousins (Summerhayes) – 105lb
3 – Bill Hopping (Summerhayes) – 64lb

Silvers
1 – Jamie Rich (Bait-Tech/Colmic) – 19lb 10oz
2 – Alex Kerr (Summerhayes) – 18lb 13oz

Great weights again and in the silvers it was really close with just 1lb 5oz separating the top three and numerous double figure weights. I had a nice pick up of £62 for winning the silvers (and will never moan about Dan’s pegging again – honest!).

Thanks to donations from Nick P (£3), me (£3) and Rob W (£1) plus pounds from Dan T and Zooner, the Nugget-O-Meter had a great day as the total reached £306.

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