Well this is awkward. I had planned to provide a long and detailed report of the Cod Competition but what was planned for 14th November didn’t happen due to the weather, neither did it happen on the 21st November, 28th November or 5th December. If the competition had been scheduled for a Monday, Wednesday or Friday it could probably have happened several times over. Such is Winter fishing – hopefully we can get out on 12th December.

With any excuse to brighten our day (or nights), Southsea Marina boats are starting to show their Christmas Lights and this year Rebel Runner will also be dressed overall with Christmas twinkle. Visit Premier Marinas for details of the Shine A Light competition.

Elves have appeared on shelves and our feature photo is of Steve Kelly’s elf. Anyone who knows Steve will be aware of his twin passions for fishing and punk, so this elf is perfect.

Anyway, back to fishing. Bass catch regulations in force means we can’t keep any bass we catch from 1st December onwards, it’s Catch and Release only. That means the SMAC bass competition has ended and the winner is Kev Johnson with his bass of 8lb 11oz, narrowly beating Bill Arnold’s bass of 8lb 10oz.

With our attention now on cod, most reports for the Solent and approaches are of the very occasional cod, plenty of whiting and in certain places, roaming congers.  Paul Farrell has our only cod picture of the month, which indicates how rare they are this season.

John Calton joined Rebel Runner for the day and showed the skipper how to do it by catching a corker of a whiting, 2lb 5oz.  Modest John doesn’t believe in bigging up his catch but scales don’t lie.

We also had a drive-by from SSFC and it’s good to know the are keeping an eye on things.

Trevor Stewart fishing from Pete Churchill’s Moonshine appears to be catching whiting by the brace.

Keith Ward also fishing from Moonshine caught this impressive ballan wrasse on a lure:

That’s all this month I’m afraid. We have a couple more chances to fish the Cod Competition before Christmas so hopefully I’ll have more to report next time.

Neville Merritt

December 2021