Finally…we had the competition on 30th December after week upon week of postponements due to the weather (seven times because the day before Christmas Eve was never going to make us popular). We even had a few settled days beforehand to get into the swing of things after two months of being stuck ashore. Although overcast, visibility was good, it wasn’t too cold and a slight westerly breeze gave us plenty of options.

A total of 102 anglers signed in, with 45 boats mostly heading out from Southsea Marina, the Eastney ramp or ECA. After hearing a bit of chat on VHF it appeared that more fish were being caught inside the Nab rather than further out. Weigh-in was 4.30pm so most of us were back in our berths by dusk, waiting to see if this years’ results would be better than last. Although the winning cod wasn’t as big as last year we were pleased that five cod weighed in (only two in the 2017 competition) and we had the main prizes awarded to cod with a number of good whiting as runners-up.

The winner was Tim Andrews, our SMAC Commodore with a cod of 9lb 2oz. Tim would usually hand out the prizes but as he was a recipient this time, yours truly didn’t duck fast enough and had the honour of handing out the prizes and congratulating the winners.

There were also prizes for Ladies, won by Hayley Ellis and a Junior prize won by Michael Houghton.

Hayley Ellis fishing from Miss Molly
Michael Houghton Junior Prize Winner

Other winners were as follows:

2nd: Ken Barton cod 8lb 14oz
3rd: Tom Baker cod 4lb 9oz
4th: Bradley Tomkinson cod 4lb 7oz
5th: Dean Kilford cod 3lb 10oz
6th Pete Bowden whiting 3.76lb
7th: Darren Price whiting 3.24lb
8th: Kim Bowden whiting 2.38lb
9th: Germit Ladaher whiting 2.16lb
10th: Bernie Kwil whiting 2.06lb
11th: Steve Manning whiting 1.94lb
12th: Dick Stubbs whiting 1.92lb
13th: Tim Ward whiting 1.78lb

We are very grateful for the support and prizes from the following: Portsmouth Marine Training; Allan’s Marine; Solent Truck Parts; Barden UK; Premier Marinas, The Marina Bar and Cafe; Pete Kilshaw (Sportsmans Knight); Adam Houghton (Anglers Edge); Baits ‘R Us; Lock Stock and Tackle.

The entire event would not have been possible without the hard work and commitment from SMAC Chairman Steve Kelly who made sure 102 anglers had a great day. Thanks again Steve.

PS Thanks to Steve Andrews for taking the photos!