Our stalwart members have got used to the cold dark evenings and this month turned out in force to support the SMAC get-together in the Marina Bar. John Wearn kept us supplied with chewy sweets while we waited for the formalities to begin. Steve put the finishing touches to his paperwork, last meal orders were put in, drinks topped up and we were off.

First item was a review of the club competition standings, which you can read below. Then came Fish Of The Month, and because of the recent weather the list was very short. I was surprised there were any, given the severity of the storms. Nevertheless, we had a vote and the top specimen was a 10lb 2oz Bull Huss earning Mick Beatty a medal and a tenner.

The Cod Pool is still open and currently stands at £320. The only cod entered so far is a very junior 3lb something so if you haven’t put your money down, hurry up because that next cod could be worth a lot.

The last order of our Anniversary t-shirts has now been distributed, and thanks to all the members that supported this.

A quick update on The Shed Saga, Episode 4. The original shed used by SMAC members has now gone back to Premier for re-letting. The number of members wanting shed space puts the total requirement outside the scope of what SMAC funds can cover, so we recommend that those members who want to combine forces to share a shed with freezer space do so without involving SMAC. We have been promised “something” by Premier for the limited club requirements but unfortunately this won’t cover the wider needs of individual members.

The Cod Open Competition will roll on from Sunday to Sunday until we have a suitable weather window.

The Nelson Mandela Cup (a SMAC event) is traditionally held in that quiet period between Christmas and New Year when our families want rid of us and this year will be held on 30^th December. We will fish 8am to 2pm, with plenty of bar time afterwards. Largest cod or if no cod largest whiting will win.

Rumours abound regarding frozen squid availability, but there are some in 1Kg boxes in the marina office freezer for £12 a box.

Club funds stand at a healthy £2,302.29 which means we can have a very jolly Presentation Night. This will be on 2^nd March 2024 in the Marina Bar. Families welcome, there will be a free drink for members and a free buffet. There will be a presentation of cups if we can get the prize cabinet open. Steve has accidently thrown the keys away – does anyone know a locksmith? Otherwise we will just have to point to them instead of giving them, which could make the award photographs a little awkward.

Next meeting will be on Tuesday 5^th December. Nobody has mentioned Winter Bar Times so far so unless you hear otherwise it will be 7pm as usual.

Evenings are drawing in and Portsmouth were playing at home so perhaps that’s why we had just a few of our core supporters at the meeting. OK, so some people had Covid and others had to work, but those are pretty poor excuses. Anyway, with our small but merry band we quickly proceeded with our agenda so some of us could go over to the ECA for the Langstone Harbour Meeting, more of that later.

Steve went through the current standings which are reproduced below. The Species Hunt Cup leadership is changing daily because the top three (at least) are very close. Do remember to photograph your fish before throwing it back though.

There were several eligible catches for the Fish Of The Month medal, but in the end the important decision was which fish would Steve Tambling win with and we decided a turbot of 7lb 9oz was the best candidate.

The Cod Pool stands at £240 so if you haven’t paid, get your £10 to Steve before you catch that winning cod. You can’t pay afterwards!

The Inter-Club competition will be hosted by LHFA this Sunday 8^th October, but you can sign in at the Southsea Marina Office. £5 entry, winner takes all for Best Specimen.

The Cod Open is most likely to be held on Sunday 5^th November, weather permitting.  Hold the date and more details to follow, but it’s highly likely to be exactly the same as all the other years we have run it.

The last order for our 10-Year Anniversary printed t-shirts and polo shirts is being put together, so if you don’t want to miss out please order on this form before 9^th October.

Finally – an update on the shed which we have used for storage. As the tenant who allowed us to use the shed is leaving the marina, we urgently need alternative storage. Premier have asked us what space we need so Steve, Stuart and I will put together a request for Premier to consider.

The next SMAC monthly meeting will be on 7^th November. There being no other business, a few of the few nipped over to the ECA for the advertised Langstone Harbour Advisory Board meeting. Just quickly on that, because it’s not SMAC business really but it is relevant. As we hadn’t read the leaflet properly it wasn’t quite what we were expecting. Anyway, it was interesting and the bar was rammed with mostly sailing and environmental folk. There were four presentations from different organisations each with an interest in the Harbour.

First up was Solent Seascape Project, with some decent funding and can actually demonstrate some practical results in improving the marine environment – oyster beds, seagrass, kelp beds etc.  The Trawler-Free Zone on the Sussex coast shows that the seabed recovers surprisingly quickly. The Clean Harbours Partnership presentation was about monitoring storm discharges by the water companies and didn’t seem to have much in the way of practical proposals to be honest. We are all frustrated by the lack of direct Govenment intervention on this.

Langstone Harbour Board’s message was about the future use of the Harbour and supporting commercial use, leisure use and environmental protection. We know from the Annual Report there is a huge deficit in their budget, mainly because of the drop in revenue from dredgers and leisure use. They are currently exploring more ways of increasing revenue, some being commercial services but others being considered include walk-ashore moorings instead of swinging moorings. It’s good that they are trying to fill the funding gap rather than waiting for the Council to make them cut costs. Final presentation was from Fay Pasani of the RSPB who is acting for the Three Harbours Partnership. She has the probably impossible job of aligning 20 stakeholder organisations into a common strategy. This did appear vague at present but the intention is good – to have multiple partnerships with a common goal rather than the separate, conflicting and overlapping activities that are happening at present. Her presentation style reminded me of Sarah Pascoe which was a nice thought to end on.

Thank you ECA for hosting another interesting evening.

Our annual Inter Club Competition between SMAC, Langstone Harbour Fisherman’s Association, ECA and Southsea Sea Angling Club will be held on Sunday 8th October. LHFA won last year so they were hosting this year’s competition. The competition is to catch the single best specimen fish. Ray Plomer won the competition in 2022 (pictured) but fishing for LHFA which he has supported for many years. Ray is also a member of SMAC. Entry forms are in Southsea Marina office, entry fee pool £5, winner takes all.

Details:

Fishing 08:00 to 17:00

Weigh in by 18:30 at LHFA

Winner Presentation 19:00 at LHFA Bar

If you catch a fish of 75% of specimen weight or more, please let others know on Channel 10 so fish under that weight can be returned if people wish to do so. Further details please contact Ralph on 07383 081325

Wow, another nearly full house! Our SMAC monthly meetings are getting so popular you’ll have to arrive early to bag a seat. We now have 76 members so perhaps that isn’t too surprising.

Our Chairman Steve Kelly opened proceedings by going through the Club Standings (details below). Of particular note is the highly competitive Species Hunt with Peter Churchill on 39 and Dan Lumsden in hot pursuit with 38.

Fish Of The Month Competition for Best Specimen: there were plenty of good fish entered in August which is a good sign. In fact there were so many to list we nearly awarded the prize to the wrong fish but having sorted that out SMDAC member Frank Chatfield collected his medal for a 15lb Undulate Ray (see header photo).

The Open Species Competition was held on 27^th August and there is a full report here. Peter Churchill won it for the Club with 15 species, congratulations Peter.

The Cod Pool started on 1^st September. £10 to enter, winner takes all for the largest cod caught between now and the end of January 2024. See Steve Kelly to enter, but only if you have £10 in your hand.

The Club Sole Night Trip took place on Saturday 2^nd September, organised by Dan Lumsden. A small flotilla headed to Southampton Water to fish into the night, keeping together for safety. Most sole came to the net from dusk to nightfall, after which things went quiet. The joint winners of the Unofficial Sole Competition were Luke Scott and Steve Tambling, 11 ozs each.

The Inter-Club competition will be held on 8^th October, and because Ray Plomer won last year on behalf of LHFA they will be hosting. The term “hosting” will be applied loosely, because the weigh-in may not be at LHFA for various reasons. More details to follow.

Steve reminded us of the open invitation to attend the Tagging workshop for Bream, Sharks and Rays to be held at the ECA on Monday 2^nd October from 6pm to 8pm.

Nearly all of the SMAC 10th Anniversary t-shirts have now been collected by members. If there is enough interest we’ll put in one final order for more so watch out for the notice on WhatsApp and Facebook.

There may or may not be a Berth Holders BBQ at the end of the month to celebrate the new paint job on the BBQ area, we await details from Premier.

And that’s all for this month! Next meeting same time same place (Marina Bar) on 3^rd October.

It was nice to see so many members at the monthly meeting again. A sign of the times really, if the weather’s too bad to fish, the next best thing is to talk fishing with mates.  Our Chairman Steve Kelly started the meeting with a review of the club competition standings (see below). Our new lady member Pam Eckersall has shaken up the Ladies Species competition by taking the lead after one trip! Dan Lumsden is still leading the Species Hunt Cup but has upped his score to 37.

Next item on the agenda was Fish Of The Month and we had several good fish entered in the book. Catch & Release – which are not in the book – also counts, so Luke Scott’s Brill of 3lb 4oz was voted FOTM from the July catches (see heading photo).

Our Open Species Competition is this month, 13^th August weather permitting. Further details here. The event will be promoted on Facebook Groups and Eventbrite, so please feel free to Share with your contacts.

Our next club event will be a night trip for Stingray and Sole. This is a social rather than a competition, and final details will be shared on the SMAC WhatsApp Group. We plan to leave the marina in our own boats at 4pm on 5^th August or 19^th August and fish in a group until first light in the morning. Those with stamina can carry on after the bass!

Our 10-Year Anniversary t-shirts have now arrived, so if you have ordered some please contact Neville to arrange collection and payment. We have a slight delay on the Medium sizes but they are promised in time for the Species Competition when a lot of members will be at the marina.

Onto marina news: the new tap has now been installed on the Holding Pontoon, so thank you Premier. The other issue we raised was the underwater obstruction which is collecting propellers at low water Springs just off the shingle point (50deg47.816’N 1deg1.926’W). Nobody is quite sure of the responsibility for this and as it’s a solid lump to remove, it’s likely to carry on being a problem for a while. It’s therefore best to avoid the channel entrance at very low water.

A final note was an invitation from ECA to a talk about tagging fish for research purposes which will be held over the road at the ECA on Monday  2^nd October, at a time to be confirmed.

There being no other business, we went back to talking about fishing.

Next Meeting Tuesday 5^th September, 7pm in the Marina Bar.