The first meeting of the year was held on 11th January, at the earlier time of 7pm to allow Ross Honey to present an Open Q&A at 7:30pm about this year’s Sea Angling Classic competition.

Club News

Steve Kelly provided an update on the club competition standings, see below. The Bass Cup winner is confirmed as Kevin Johnson as that competition closed with the bass season. The other competitions will close at the end of January, so there’s still time for it all to change!

Fish Of The Month was awarded to Ben Lumsden for his flounder. This monthly competition is awarded by votes on the night, and takes account of Specimen Size, notable species or a story about the catch. Members all agreed that a 1lb flounder was a rarity today compared to in previous times, so we unanimously voted for young Ben.

The Mandela Cup will be fished on Saturday 15th January. Best cod, members only, winner takes all. This is a friendly competition and in seasonal spirit, takes place partly in the bar.

The date for the Presentation Night will be agreed at the next meeting.

Neville Merritt reminded members that he welcomes all photos of catches and reports for the website Catch Report and SMAC pages. You can send via FB Messenger, Whatsapp or email.

Also at the next meeting Neville will bring a selection of sizes of hoodies to try on and confirm costs so we can order a batch of SMAC branded hoodies if there is sufficient interest.

Next meeting will be on 1st February at 7:30pm. This meeting will the one where we elect club officers (Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and Commodore) and review any rule changes that members propose.

Sea Angling Classic Q&A

We were pleased to welcome Ross Honey and Glen Milligan who joined the meeting at 7:30pm to host an open Q&A session. Ross first provided an update on the events surrounding the competition, clarification on the rules and explained how the prize table is made up.

There is now an extensive Q&A page on the SAC website, please see here . This covers many of the questions raised at the meeting.

The event itinerary is here. More details are being discussed and it appears that Portsmouth Chambers of Commerce, Council, KHM etc are all keen to use the event as a way of promoting Portsmouth. They are providing a lot of support which will make this fishing competition more like a festival!

The main prize of an amazing boat package plus an expenses-paid 18 month experience programme is unprecedented. Thanks to the generous sponsors, this fully kitted out Extreme 745 Game King fishing boat will be insured and storage paid for 18 months enabling the winning crew to participate in other competitions including the 2023 SAC if they wish. The boat package will be the focus of a “Boat Reveal” in Portsmouth on 19th March, after which it will go on a road trip around the coast stopping off in London for a trip along the Thames before continuing along the South Coast and back to Portsmouth. There are other competitions and prizes within the SAC and these are being updated as more sponsors come forward.

These Q&A sessions are a good way for the SAC team to explain more about the event and also collect valuable feedback and ideas from the local angling community. For example, a question about potential disruption from anti-angling pressure groups was raised. This has since enabled the SAC team to prepare a detailed risk assessment and have contingency plans in place to address this if it occurs.

We were also given the opportunity to try out the SAC app which will be used to manage catches and the leaderboard in real time during the event itself. There will be further app training sessions available nearer the date of the event.

Follow the Sea Angling Classic Facebook page for more event news as it develops.