As usual, the monthly meeting was held on the first Tuesday in the month in the Marina Bar.

First item on the agenda was a quick round-off from the Awards Night in May, where Tim Andrews and Mark Banks were given their awards: the pair of them for the Pairs Cup; Mark for the Plaice Cup; Tim for Champion Runner-up; Bream Cup; Mandela Cup and Specimen Award for his bream of 3lb 13oz.

Bill Arnold was also thanked for his impressive powers of persuasion, relieving the attendees of nearly £500 (rounded up by Steve Andrews on the night) through the sale of raffle tickets.

On to current items: Fish Of The Month was awarded to Jim Atkins for his competition-winning bream of 4lb 8oz.

Competition standings are as follows:

Next event will be the SMAC Open Species Competition to be held on Sunday 31st July (with reserve dates). See here for more details.

Steve K has kindly prepared a list of SMAC members by name and boat, which will be helpful when calling on VHF. Paper copies can be obtained from Steve, or members can request a copy by emailing me here. I won’t provide the list on the website to protect individual privacy. As with any Data Protection requirements, members can ask for their names to be removed from circulated information if they wish.

Steve K advised us that Lizzie Mitchell, Premier Marinas Senior PR Executive will be leaving for pastures new. Lizzie has provided us with amazing support especially with the Fishing Shows we ran from 2015-17 and in promoting SMAC generally. We wish her the very best and look forward to welcoming her replacement.

Stuart Newell (Harvest Moon – British Big Game Charters) has been negotiating potential sponsorship with Normark, who own brands such as Okuma, Rapala etc. They have gifted a number of stickers and a Guide to Lines booklet, which members can collect from the marina office while stocks last.

Finally, we wished all the members competing in the Sea Angling Classic in June the very best of luck. Hopefully, all that beach cleaning (pictured) will create karma for success!

Next meeting will be 7:30pm on 5th July.

Neville Merritt
June 2022