Author: Neville Merritt (Page 1 of 45)

It was another sunny evening and the Fish Book shows a lot more entries so things are definitely looking up. A couple of good bass were added to the book today which threw Steve’s carefully crafted, complex calculations of our Competition Standings completely haywire.  At the moment, Andy Bird and Pete Churchill are neck and neck with 8 points for Club Champion but that will probably all change tomorrow. A Leaderboard App would be good but I don’t think any programmer could have anticipated our rules.  

Although there were a number of good fish logged, the stand-out specimen Fish Of The Month was Pete Churchill’s Ballan Wrasse of 4lb 10oz which is 92.5% of Specimen Weight.

Our subterfuge to get the Bill Arnold Trophy to Steve Kelly on Presentation Night without him knowing missed one important element – the engraved glass. We remedied that today with an engraved tankard which we presented to Steve.

Our member list stands at 54 with a few more to renew and some new boats welcomed to the marina, including Lawrence Seagrove returning with a new Bob The Magnificent.

The Bream Competition was held on Sunday, you can read the full report here. Best-Placed Members were Richard Pack and Steve Tamblin who tied for second place.

Our next event will be the Annual BBQ on Saturday 27^th June, fingers crossed for good weather.

The Bass Competition will be on 18^th or 19^th July and we have sponsorship confirmed from Rapala, which is great news. We are looking for more new sponsors from local businesses.

SMDAC have challenged us to a Pier Competition which is always good fun. It will be an afternoon and evening event in July, with Afternoon Tea included. Date to be confirmed after we have tried to get a closing time extension.

There is interest in a night sole trip in convoy, and if it is timed to coincide with the Cowes Week Firework finale on Friday 7^th August we could have a bit of extra entertainment.

Date of next meeting is Tuesday 2^nd June at 7pm in the Marina Bar.

Our Open Bream Competition is always popular because it marks the turning point from a rather barren spring season (these days)  and the arrival of larger breeding fish and the summer season. We have grown very tired of catching dogfish and small conger so the chance of bream is very welcome.

On Sunday 3^rd May the forecast was favourable so we had the green light. 45 anglers registered to fish including Ladies and Juniors so it was very competitive. The target was a single largest black bream, and as the fish came in to be weighed we were seeing a lot of fish in the 2lb plus range. When all were back, we ranked the fish and moved onto the prize giving ceremony, held in the evening sunshine outside the Marina Bar.

First and Second places included a cash prize plus additional vouchers from our sponsors. Runners-up received tackle and voucher prizes according to place. We are very grateful to Premier Marinas, British Big Game Charter, Andy’s Baits, Newnham Builders, Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club, the Marina Bar and Portsmouth Distillery for their generous donations of prizes.

Here are the winners:

First: Mark Jackson (Harvest Moon) 3.58lb

Second: Richard Pack (Full Throttle) 2.78lb (tie breaker dice throw)

Third: Steve Tamblin (Sea Jay) 2.78lb (tie breaker dice throw)

Fourth: Dan Lumsden (Sea Jay) 2.76lb

Fifth: Stuart Newell (Harvest Moon) 2.53lb

Sixth: Dan Shipman (Harvest Moon) 2.50lb

Top Ladies Entry: Penny Arthur (Full Throttle) 2.36lb

Top Junior: Luca Budd (Cavalier) 1.54lb

We also had a surprise additional prize. Donated by Newnham Builders, this was a £100 fuel contribution drawn in a raffle by boat name and awarded only to the skipper present at the prizegiving. The winner was – yes, Harvest Moon! Definitely a day of skill and luck for Stuart Newell and his crew on Harvest Moon.

Our thanks as always to the organisers, sponsors and competitors who together made another enjoyable and memorable day.

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 3^rd 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 7^th May, 7pm in the Marina Bar.

This is the night for a get-together, fun, banter and to celebrate the achievements of our members over the past season. We combine the SMAC awards with SMDAC to make it even more of a family gathering. This Awards ceremony was a little daunting for your new chairman because it was the first in living memory not hosted by Steve Kelly. Nevertheless (and to the huge relief of the chairman), Steve had carried on behind the scenes managing the club competition standings and the winners’ trophies for this event too.

We invited Rupert Bremer from Premier Marinas to present the trophies and he lived up to, and exceeded, his reputation for glamorous costumes. This year he topped off his amazing goldfish suit with a fender-head of epic proportions, and I was rather relieved when it came off safely.

Anyway, on with the show and Steve Kelly who is Treasurer of SMDAC took the mic to announce their prizes. First thing however was to welcome John Calton as the new Chairman – wait, no, it is now Commodore, selected to top the rank of his brother in a neighbouring club. To seal the appointment, John was presented with a hat of suitable glamour which I’m sure will attract admiring glances when he wears it around Southsea (which he is now obliged to do).

The official trophy winners for SMDAC were:

• Cod Cup (ok, Whiting then): John Calton
• Best Specimen Cup: Tony Tadd
• Species Hunt Cup: Frank Chatfield
• George Dominy Memorial Cup: Frank Chatfield
• Silver Fish Trophy: Jenny Munday
• Lake Specimen Trophy: Tony Tadd
• Mixed Lake Cup: Frank Chatfield
• Champion Runner Up: Ben Munday
• SMDAC Club Champion 2026: Frank Chatfield

Before moving on to the SMAC trophies, we had a quick catch-up on the Fish Of The Month winnings that hadn’t been collected, and distribution of the 21 Specimen Fish certificates and medals to:

• Sam Cofie
• Ray Plomer
• Dave Chapman
• Steve Tambling
• Andy Bird
• Pete Churchill

The Trophy Winners for SMAC based on the final competition standings were:

• Pollack Cup: Mark Banks
• Best Turbot or Brill Cup: Jim Atkins
• Ladies Cup; Soulla Banks
• Junior Cup: Jack Dickson
• Catch & Release Cup: Steve Tambling
• Best Specimen Cup: Andy Bird
• Species Hunt Cup: Pete Churchill (32)
• Junior Species Hunt Cup: Fergus Morrison (2)
• Ladies Species Hunt Cup: Pam Eckersall (10)
• Nelson Mandela Cup: Everyone that fished it!
• Cod Open Best Placed Member: Dan Lumsden
• Bream Open Best Placed Member: Jim Atkins
• Bass Competition Best Placed Member: Steve Tambling
• Bill Arnold Memorial Trophy: Steve Kelly

This trophy is awarded to the member who has made the most significant contribution to the club, and the recipient remains secret until the night. This trophy was awarded to the same person that was actually organising the trophies – Steve Kelly, so that involved some careful deception. An award to Steve for his amazing service and dedication was long overdue so it was a delight to see the surprise on his face!

• Cod Pool: Tim Andrews (First and Second)
• Place Cup: Dan Lumsden
• Bream Cup: Tim Andrews
• Bass Cup: Jim Atkins
• Cod Cup: Tim Andrews
• Pairs Cup: Tim Andrews and Mark Banks
• Champions Cup Runner Up: Neil Glazier
• SMAC Club Champion 2026: Tim Andrews

After an interlude for food and a top-up of drinks, we drew the raffle prizes. We had an impressive array of tackle and accessories, and huge thanks to all the members who generously paid for tickets even though some couldn’t attend on the night.

It was a very enjoyable evening and it’s great to socalise and talk fishing at a time of the year when any other fishing activity is a bit grim. We would like to thank Steve Kelly, retiring chairman who still did a lot of organising for the evening; Eleanor Atkins particularly for ticket sales and organising food; Dan Lumsden for prizes and raffle; Jim Atkins as photographer and assistant organiser; Dave Newnham; Premier Marinas for prize donations, Rupert Bremer for his celebrity presence; the Marina Bar for looking after us; Steve Tambling, champion lead-maker for his prize contributions; and of course everyone present and absent who helped make the evening a great success. Next year, do come along, bring your partners, don’t be shy and have a great time.

This new chairman is finally getting the hang of the job and that is entirely the result of all the supporting work Steve K. is doing behind the scenes. This has been made more complex by us voting in all the extra places on the Standings, sorry Steve! And thank you, big time.

We had 17 members present, including those that stayed on from the SMDAC meeting for the entertainment. First up was a rendition of the (now two-page) Standings, thankfully short this early in the season. Later on I think I’ll get you to read it yourselves.

We had five entries for Fish Of The Month, the final vote being hotly contended between Frank Chatfield’s Spurdog of 18lb – 112.5% of Specimen Weight, and Richard Pack’s Cuckoo Wrasse of 1lb 8oz – 120% of Specimen Weight. The result was a win for Richard and a round of applause for Frank for a very competitive fish. Frank’s consolation prize was to now be in the lead for the Catch & Release Cup with his fish, but no £10 unfortunately.

The Premier Berth Holders Social will be from 10am to 12:30pm on Saturday 7^th March in the Marina Bar and SMAC will be supporting it with our information board display. All are welcome, and there’s a free bacon buttie and hot drink from Premier plus whatever corporate branded loot you can beg for. By the way the bag is good but the pen doesn’t last.

Preparations are well under way for our Presentation Night on Saturday 14^th March with a free drink and raffle ticket for members, free food, a very generous cash raffle and lots of prize-giving banter. Do come, partners welcome. 7pm for 7:30pm start in the Marina Bar.

Membership subscriptions are due so if you haven’t paid yet please contact Steve Kelly or Eleanor  Atkins before they call in The Collector.

There was a call for the SMDAC vs SMAC Pier Competition again this year, so if SMDAC are game we are up for the challenge. Unfortunately the burger van is no longer on the pier so we may have to go further afield for supplies – like to the other end of the pier.

Our friend Dan Sissons is organising a Bass Beach Competition on the same weekend as our Open Bass Boat Competition 18/19 July. Their presentations will probably also be in the Marina Bar. If they coincide….that could be fun!

There was a reminder that the Bass Closed Season is upon us, Catch & Release only until end of March. The good news is that from April onwards our take limit goes up to three fish per angler per day, minimum length 42cm as before.

Finally, the University of Portsmouth Angling Club is holding a 24 hour Fishathon on or around 5^th May, so if any of our members are available for a few hours to fish alongside some newbies and give them some tips I’m sure they would be very grateful. Location probably at the Portsmouth end of the seafront.

Next Monthly Meeting is Tuesday 7^th April at 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.

We had a great turnout of members despite the weather and Eastern Road. That was good because we had a lot of rule change proposals in the pipeline and we needed a representative number of members to vote on these changes. The minutes of the AGM might look more official than our usual reports and this is because we may need to reference a formal set of AGM Minutes if we apply for a different status of club which could allows us to reclaim VAT.

SMAC Annual General Meeting 10^th February 2026

Minutes:

1. Members Present

• 17 SMAC members were present plus one puppy

2. Review of 2025 Season

• Bream Competition May, best placed member Jim Atkins 2nd
• New Bass Competition, promoted and organised by Dave Newnham and Dan Lumsden C&R, shotgun start, sponsorship by Rapala, best placed member Steve Tamblin 1st
• Species Competition top members Dan Lumsden and Pete Churchill, both with 11 but Dan placed first with a score of 27 vs 7
• Cod Competition, first date in November finally fished February, best placed member Dan Lumsden 1^st
• SMAC BBQ in June, good call on the weather
• Premier Berth Holders Social Morning – result, new prize sponsor Portsmouth Distillery, Premier lift & Scrub discount and a promise of a new banner

3. Treasurer’s Report

• Funds at start of year £2,230 (committed spend approx., £1,900 for presentation night)
• Funds at end of year £1,897 (expected spend £1,900 for presentation Night)
• Membership funds due now approx. 70 members @ £20 – £1,400
• Raffles raise £400+ each

4. Officer Elections: 

• Commodore: Tim Andrews re-elected as Commodore
• Chairman: Neville Merritt elected
• Deputy Chairman: Jim Atkins elected
• Treasurer: Eleanor Atkins elected
• Secretary: Dan Lumsden elected
• Event and Competition Volunteers: Dave Newnham, Steve Kelly, Dan Lumsden

We always welcome other members to come forward to help our Committee and volunteers with future events and competitions!

5. Rule Change Requests:

1. Rule 7: “Species Hunt to be added to the Annual Competition and count towards Club Champion”  – ACCEPTED by unanimous vote
2. Rule 7: “Each cup to be increased from 3 places and points to 5 places and points” – ACCEPTED by unanimous vote
3. Rule 7: “Only one fish to be entered per angler per cup” (instead of one angler taking several places with several fish) – ACCEPTED by majority vote
4. Rule 7: “Add smoothhound to the Competition Cups” – REJECTED by a majority vote because this was considered impractical as most people want to return smoothhound. However it was suggested that we could run a summer or evening Social Competition for smoothhound based on length on Club Rulers.
5. Rule 9: “Only fish caught on berth holders’ boats may be entered into Club competitions” (instead of only Annual berth holders) – ACCEPTED by unanimous vote
6. Rule 9: “Only fish caught on berth holders’ boats or by past berth holders (i.e. not crew on their boats) if they have maintained their membership for up to five years may be entered into Club competitions. All boats must leave and return from Southsea Marina or Langstone Harbour within 24 hours and all fish must be weighed and witnessed on Southsea Marina scales on return” – ACCEPTED by majority vote. As this is a new rule we will offer an amnesty valid only for one month for memberships that may have lapsed over the past five years.
7. Rule 11: “Fish of the Month awarded only to Specimen Fish” – REJECTED by a majority vote. However it was noted that the wording of this rule should be clarified to: “Fish Of The Month – awarded to the best specimen fish or notable fish, members at the meeting to vote.” This means that exceptional fish can be recognised even if they do not reach specimen size.

6. Plans for 2026 Season

• Presentation Night 14th March
• Bream Comp 3rd May
• Bass Comp Saturday 18^th or Sunday 19^th July
• Species Comp late summer date tbc
• Inter-Club hosted by LHFA again
• Cod Comp to be scheduled from early November
• BBQ June date tbc
• Premier Berth holder Socials will be supported by SMAC if invited.

7. AOB

• No AOB thankfully

9. Next AGM

• Tuesday 2^nd February 2027

February Monthly Meeting

Following that epic session, we then rattled though our regular Monthly Meeting Agenda.

Standings was a short read as only a few fish have been caught let alone entered since our season started on 1^st February. Please see WhatsApp or the noticeboard because Steve and I scribbled all over our only copy in our excitement during the AGM.

Fish Of The Month was awarded to Ray Plomer for a giant dogfish of 2lb 1oz. A sign of the times but well done anyway.

Our Open Cod Competition was finally fished on 1^st February (or 32^nd January) after postponing since the end of November based on weather forecasts. Congratulations to Dan Lumsden for catching the only cod and taking 1^st place. You can read all about it here.

Now the SMAC 2026 season has started, membership subscriptions are due £20 please to Steve Kelly who has kindly volunteered to help Eleanor our new Treasurer.

Presentation Night is Saturday 14^th March in the Marina Bar as usual. 7pm for 7:30 start and we always expect a big crowd – partners and juniors welcome. There will be a free drink voucher for all members, free food after the prize giving and a massive raffle. Our new committee and volunteer team are already on the case to make this another great evening.

Next regular Monthly Meeting will be Tuesday 3^rd March in the Marina Bar starting at 7pm.

Let it never be said that SMAC members are wimps. 17 brave souls defied snow and the Eastern Road gridlock to attend the meeting, and 14 of us enjoyed our Curry Night afterwards. Many thanks to the staff of the Marina Bar for staying open for us!

We started as usual with the current Standings, which Steve kindly prepared for us (updated version reproduced below). This was followed by Fish Of The Month and because of the dire December weather – which is easier to blame than dire angling skills – we only had three fish to choose from. Ray Plomer’s Bull Huss of 12lb 10oz was a clear winner at 107% of Specimen Weight (updated to add the photo above of the actual Ray Plomer and the actual Bull Huss).

We reported on the Mandela Cup previously, and we honoured the Stalwart Seven who fished bite-less on 28^th December. Having been in the archives I noticed that not only was it traditional to fish between Christmas and New Year, it’s almost traditional not to catch anything either.

The Cod Competition still hasn’t been able to run, so we may consider a Saturday if Sunday forecasts remain iffy. However, there still seems to be cod around according to those like Tim Andrews who are catching them.

Next monthly meeting is our AGM where we appoint our Committee and review Club Rules. Following the resignation of our long-standing and brilliant Chairman Steve Kelly, we need to review roles and responsibilities across not only the Committee but also those members who are able to help out on an ad-hoc basis. It is important for the survival of our club that we are jointly able to keep it going by sharing the work involved – if we are able to do that then no single role need be too much of a burden. We will circulate a proposal for who does what so that members can consider any of these roles before the next meeting.

There are a couple of Rule amendments we may consider at the AGM:

1. In the Winter period, when the Marina Bar shuts early and members are less inclined to attend a club meeting on a cold evening, to consider not holding formal monthly meetings in person and instead provide updates and interaction online.
2. To consider including long-term Winter Berth holders (i.e. not monthly contracts) for Club competitions, which are currently restricted to Annual Berth holders only or members fishing from those boats.

Any proposed rules changes require a Proposer and Seconder, and will be discussed and voted on at the AGM before being adopted (or not).

Finally – a reminder that the SMAC season ends on 31^st January, so you have the rest of the month to catch a cod for the cod pool, top up your Species count or fluke something big to mess up the Standings!

Next meeting will be our AGM on Tuesday 3^rd February at 7pm in the Marina Bar.