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, 13th 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 5th August or 19th 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  2nd October, at a time to be confirmed.

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

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