Despite a rather rainy evening we had another great turnout to our monthly get-together in the Marina Bar.

Words of appreciation were expressed for all those that contributed their efforts to make the annual BBQ in August such a success. With the help of Bill Arnold’s fund-raising efforts, the club accounts show a sufficiently healthy balance to see us through the various planned events and the Awards Night in early 2023.

Steve Kelly ran through the current competition standings which are as illustrated (apologies for the corrections, an updated image will be along soon). Mark Banks is in the lead for the Catch and Release Cup with a bass of 12lb 8oz – 131% of a specimen weight. Peter Churchill is storming away with a tally of 38 in the Species Hunt but he has some close competitors in his wake.

Next on the agenda was the Fish of the Month. Mark Banks cleared the table with his selection of double figure bass so we selected one of them and decided that he had won. Mark kindly donated his £10 prize to our RNLI Fund, moments before realising that exact £10 was needed to enter the annual Cod pool, which runs from today. You have to be in the Cod Pool before declaring a fish (winner takes 75%, second place 25%) so see Steve Kelly with your £10 before you catch one this season!

Pete Churchill, who knows a thing or two about fishing advised us that most of the season’s cod are these days caught mainly in the September to October timeframe. This poses a bit of a dilemma with the timings of the Inter-Club and Cod open competitions but we eventually settled on the Inter-Club on Sunday 2nd October and the Cod Open on Sunday 30th October (set your clocks back!) with reserve dates thereafter. There is already a growing prize table so promotion will start immediately.

A proposal was put forward to run a CPR Training session at the October meeting and this was unanimously agreed. October includes the British Heart Foundation Restart a Heart day so it’s appropriate timing. The plan is to run our normal club agenda from 7:30 then at 8:00pm Liz Baugh, ex-RN Medic and now running Red Square Medical will conduct a live virtual training session for us. The practical element will involve a bit of fun and a competition, so be ready to get down and physical! Members will need to bring a pillow and an old pillowcase they no longer require. You will find out why on the night.

The marina bar staff have advised us that their Winter hours mean closing at 8:00pm so we will move our club meetings to a 6:30pm start. Reminders will follow with the notifications of future meetings.

The RNLI pot is growing nicely so we plan to invite the RNLI or GAFIRS to a future meeting to receive the donation, and also provide a bit of safety-related training if that’s possible.

Finally in the photos below you will see our special guest for the evening: Zeke Newnham, a very well-behaved Saarloos Wolf dog.

Next meeting will be a 7:30pm on Tuesday 4th October in the Marina Bar as usual.