After several postponements due to the weather, we finally held our first Open Competition of the year from Southsea Marina. The weather was glorious and 30 boats with 54 competitors went out on Sunday to search for the biggest Black Bream.
The fishing was generally very good with plenty of catches. The general opinion was that it was easier to catch a lot of bream than to catch a very large one! Although we were targeting bream, a variety of other species were caught alongside them which at least made interesting sport while waiting for the big one.
The wind picked up a little in the afternoon and boats started coming back in early which spread the load on Steve Kelly and the weighing-in. There was plenty of speculation because there were eight prizes plus Ladies and Junior prizes so fractions of an ounce suddenly became very important. In the end we had an uncontested overall winner, although many of the other places were only separated by the tiniest amount. Prize-giving took place in the Marina Bar garden (garden? Well, it has a fence) and prizes were handed out by last year’s winner Mark Oldfield. Results are as follows:
1st – Dave Schofield with the only 3lb bream
2nd – Jim Atkins
3rd – Peter Churchill
4th – Jim Taw
5th – Ryan Whitmore
6th – Dan Lumsden
7th – Neil Glazier
8th – Eddie Walsh
Ladies Prize – Eleanor Atkins
Junior Prize – Luca Bozga
We would like to thank all our competition sponsors who donated prizes, Steve Kelly for a lot of organising and all the competitors who made it a great day for us all.
Cash prizes were awarded for First and Second place. Other prizes were donated by: Premier Marinas, Southsea Marina Bar, Bait’R’Us, SMDAC, Brian van Daal, British Big Game Fishing, Mark Oldfield Plumbing, Victory Gas & Heating, Fish-on Bait and Tackle and Cosham Angling.