Thank you to our loyal Club Members who turned out despite the warnings of traffic chaos around the Portsmouth game! It was a great excuse to get down here early and chat for a bit.
Anyway… on with the meeting report! Standings are as below, early days yet and lots of blank spaces. Pete Churchill is racing off on the Species Hunt but there’s plenty of time for a chase.
Fish Of The Month was very easy this month because NO fish were entered in March and I didn’t have to do any complicated specimen percentage calculations. Instead, we changed it to Fishless Of The Month which by precedent is awarded to whoever we like, so we awarded it to Dave Newnham for being a great help in organising the Open Comps and being an all round good chap. Dave donated his cash prize to the RNLI/GAFIR fund.
Membership Update isn’t such happy news, 24 members have not paid their renewal yet which means we are £480 down on club funds. Members won’t be able to enter ANY fish that they catch in our competitions if they aren’t paid up – you can’t backdate the payment, so please make sure you have dropped off your £20 before your next trip. It would be a shame to miss out on a decent prize because of that. You can put the cash in an envelope with your name/SMAC Membership 2026, and drop it into the office. You can message Steve, Eleanor or any committee member to confirm.
Members may recall a recent debate on Fisheries Regulations. We took this opportunity to remind members that SMAC takes both legislation and guidance on minimum take sizes and catch limits very seriously. No abuse of these rules will be tolerated.
Our next Open Competition is nearly upon us: the Open Bream Competition with a date of Sunday 3rd May and following Sundays as reserve dates. Details on the Link. This is a popular competition because everyone is in with a good chance of catching a bream big enough to secure a place on our extensive Prize Table! The Committee will be looking for new additional sponsors for our Open Competitions over the next few weeks.
Our next monthly meeting will again be on a different date from usual due to the May Bank Holiday. It will be on Thursday 7th May, 7pm in the Marina Bar.
