Our January meeting was followed by our annual Curry Night in the Bombay Brasserie upstairs, which was a great incentive to turn out on a freezing night. With less than a month to go before our club season closes, those with prize positions on the Club Standings will be keeping an anxious eye on them. See below for a few surprising changes (mainly because I caught something worth weighing!)
Fish Of The Month was dominated by cod, mostly from the Cod Competition but Darren Price knocked all those down with his pre-competition cod of 7lb 10oz. Congratulations Darren.
We had a quick update on recent competitions: Mandela Cup won by John Wearn and the Cod Open Competition, best-placed Member (me) coming third. These are both written up individually, see links for details.
We had more discussion on the new Bass Open Competition planned for 6th July. This will be based on length so competitors must use a standard fish rule like the Tronixpro which we gave to members when the new bass regulations were first introduced. We have a number of options including: Competitors have to source and register their own rulers when signing up; we tap up Tronixpro to sponsor the event or we add to cost to the entry fee as a deposit. We will also have to think of the logistics of this if competitors sign up on-line, and we may also have to introduce a distance limitation. For example, 15nm from Langstone Fairway would be easy to check on a plotter, and would cover the Solent, Selsey and marks out to the Overfalls.
Steve suggested we revive our programme of guest speakers for the coming Winter meetings. A talk by a local diver and a talk on engine trouble-shooting at sea were suggested, and these will be followed up by members to see if the people involved would be interested.
The suggestion of purchasing two promotional banners for use at our Club and Open events was suggested and approved. The design will include a QR code for contact details. These will be purchased in time for our Presentation Night on 15th March.
Finally, Steve passed on responses from our previous questions to Premier. They will consider installing a tender and kayak rack and are also considering a lift/scrub/launch budget price deal for members.
There being no AOB, 12 of us retired upstairs for a good curry, beer and banter. Thanks John for organising.
Next Meeting: Tuesday 4th February, 7pm in the Marina Bar.
Neville Merritt
