Author: Neville Merritt (Page 1 of 39)

We had a very interesting guest talk from The International Seakeepers Society and the University of Portsmouth to start the evening off, and you can read all about it here. We had a great turnout again and our visitors were very appreciative of the interest and support from our members.

On to regular club matters: Steve ran through the current competition standings which are listed below. These can change in an instant, all you need is a good day’s fishing and someone else is in the lead!

Fish Of The Month had a number of entries this time around including some very good fish. The winner is selected based on an unscientific combination of percentage of specimen weight and whether the assembled members think it was a good catch. The winner for September is Pete Churchill with a Gilthead Bream of 3lb 6oz.

We don’t have a date yet for an evening Sole trip, and if anyone has any suggestions for suitable marks without travelling up to Southampton Water please let Dan Lumsden know.

Our next competition will be the Inter Club Competition between SMAC, LHFA and ECA (and Southsea Sea Anglers if they wish). This will be on Sunday 6^th October weather permitting, and hosted by last year’s winner ECA.

The Cod Pool is now open, so please make sure your £10 Cod Pool entries are safely with Steve Kelly before registering a cod catch. You might think this is early, but a cod was caught in Langstone Run at the end of August!

The date for the Cod Open will be agreed at the next meeting. We need to make sure we have enough whiting in the sea to fill the prize places this year.

Club merchandise in the form of burgees, caps and beanies can still be purchased from Steve Kelly while stocks last.

Finally, our hosts for the SMAC/SMDAC Pier Competition, Best of British Food recently organised a Junior event and despite horrendous weather, the kids had a great time with some memorable (for them) catches. Many thanks to the organisers and supporters, particularly Cosham Angling. If anyone has any spare rods and reels, they are collecting them for local children to give those who don’t have the means a chance to take up angling.

Next meeting is on Tuesday 1^st October, 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.

Our next meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday 3rd September in the Marina Bar. This month we will have an introductory talk from The International Seakeepers Society, a marine conservation organisation that promotes research, conservation and education through the marine leisure community. They are currently recruiting volunteers from local anglers to undertake some research into bass and bream habitats around the Solent on behalf of a research project by the University of Portsmouth. Come along and hear more about it! The talk will be followed by our usual agenda – Fish Of The Month, events, competition standings and possibly some beer and banter too.

On Tuesday 23^rd July it was a calm sunny day, perfect for boat fishing. So we had a pier competition. (Thank you Steve for that line!) Joking aside, we had a really enjoyable afternoon and evening organised by SMDAC who challenged SMAC members to a fishing competition on South Parade Pier. Fishing from 3.30pm to 9pm, 16 members were competing in three categories: most fish caught, most species and heaviest fish.

It turned out that the heaviest fish wasn’t going to be very heavy at all and a moderate bream and a wrasse were both returned before we realized that even a fish the size of a mobile phone would have been in the running.

On the subject of mobile phones, for those not familiar with the pier fishing deck it is surfaced with a grid of very generous spacing so we were all keeping a very tight grip on our possessions, tackle and bait.

Mid evening, Sara from the Best Of British café hailed us for a slap-up meal of burger or sausage and chips of epic proportions, served in individually customised cartons appropriately decorated in sea angling themes.

The species category was fiercely contended by those going for quantity rather than quality. While the latter, inspired by a large bass caught earlier in the day hefted whole squid to the horizon hoping for more than just a few kilos of Solent weed, others were fishing right by the piles with micro hooks and having plenty of fun. Most of us soon listed the obligatory pout and wrasse, but the decider would be who could winkle out something different.

Peter Churchill nailed the species category with five: pouting, corkwing, ballan, pollack and bass. This was in spite of being given angling advice by a casual onlooker who was unaware that Peter is the reigning species king in SMAC. Heaviest fish actually weighed was Steve Kelly’s 6oz ballan wrasse, and most fish caught was 54 also by Steve.

Overall the evening was great fun and our thanks must go to John Wearn and Frank Chatfield of SMDAC for organising such an entertaining evening of fishing, food and plenty of banter.

They talk about stars being aligned but I think the clouds were definitely aligned to miss us on Saturday because we had glorious sunshine for our annual SMAC BBQ. From our vantage point on the BBQ deck (or over the toilets, depending on your point of view) we could see clouds dumping over Goodwood which must have diluted their champagne. However, our beers remained pure and helped wash down the enormous spread of food: procured by Steve, cooked up by Neville and finished off with an enormous pile of fresh scones with jam and cream made by Eleanor.

One of our traditions is to hot-smoke some fresh mackerel. Unfortunately despite lots of feathering from lots of boats we couldn’t produce any in time. Steve nipped off to the fish market so we wouldn’t go short. SMAC buying fish? That’s hard to take but looking at the bill, I’m now a lot less guilty about what I spend on my boat just to catch a few fish for the pot.

We missed our friend Bill but his protege Eleanor and Dan did him proud by extracting £763 from the assembled crowd in true Bill style. As usual we had a free raffle for members then an impressive table of prizes for the main event. Steve compered the comedy act of prize allocation where guests eventually mastered the rules and things went more smoothly. We are also very grateful to those absent members who bought raffle tickets remotely while sipping cocktails in their holiday resorts. It was a sheer coincidence that they won the smallest prizes, honest. At least Dave won’t be short of knives.

Thanks were expressed by all to Steve for doing a serious amount of running around and organising, Tim and Dan for running around shifting things, Eleanor and Dan again for the raffle, Eleanor again for the scones, the cook who just put stuff on the BBQ and everyone who joined on the day in either in person or remotely to make this yet another successful SMAC BBQ.

We are also very grateful to John Wearn for taking lots of photos of the event, a selection of which are in the gallery below.

SMDAC have organised a Pier Competition on South Parade Pier, Southsea for Tuesday 23rd July from 3:30pm to 9:30pm. We will have access to the fishing deck all the time, even though the pier officially closes at 7:30pm. Food and permits will be supplied by Best of British cafe and the competition fee of £15 includes hot drinks and a burger meal from the cafe. Fees must be paid in advance to Steve Kelly, and can be dropped off in an envelope for him in the marina office.

Usual rules of two rods/three hooks applies, and the competition will be Best Specimen, Heaviest Fish and Most Species.

The fishing deck has a grid base so if you don’t want to lose everything you drop, a groundsheet is recommended! Bring your own beer, and if anyone has a drop-net that would be helpful too.

The pier has been fishing well and although fish aren’t massive, you can expect bream, bass, smoothies, dogfish, mackerel and all the usual coastal mini species. Many thanks to John Wearn for setting this up, and arranging the meals with the cafe.

Our monthly meeting was preceded by the SMDAC Annual General Meeting where Chairman John Wearn was expecting to stand down. He wasn’t allowed to! John carries on for at least another year, which shows that if you do a great job there is no escape from it.

Steve Kelly chaired the SMAC meeting as usual, and we had a good turnout again. Standings are below and as you can see Peter Churchill is storming away in the Species hunt with 30 species but the Ladies Species Hunt could be interesting with Pam ahead of Eleanor by only one point.

Fish Of The Month had five entries and was won by Mark Banks with a superb pollack of 16lb 5oz. Congratulations Mark.

Our Summer BBQ had to be postponed due to a dodgy forecast, so we are hoping for better on the revised date of 13th July. If you haven’t booked your free ticket please do using this link, so we can make sure we have enough food!

The next event will be the SMDAC vs. SMAC Pier Competition on Tuesday 23rd July from 3:30pm to 9:30pm. We will have access to the fishing deck all the time, even though the pier officially closes at 7:30pm. Food and permits will be supplied by Best of British cafe and the competition fee of £15 includes hot drinks and a burger meal from the cafe. Fees must be paid in advance to Steve Kelly, and can be dropped off in an envelope for him in the marina office. Usual rules of two rods/three hooks applies, and the competition will be Best Specimen, Heaviest Fish and Most Species. The fishing deck has a grid base so if you don’t want to lose everything you drop, a groundsheet is recommended! Many thanks to John Wearn for setting this up, and his many trips to the cafe to double and triple-check the details.

Dan Lumsden is proposing a Sole Trip on the evening of 3rd August, details to follow nearer the date. This is usually a social, with boats going in convoy to a Solent or Southampton Water mark and returning at night.

The SMAC Open Species Competition is on Sunday 11th August, details here

In Any Other Business, Peter Atkinson (Anyfish) reminded us he has a special SMAC member price of £20 for a 5lb box of frozen squid. Contact Peter to order.

Our next monthly meeting will be on Tuesday 6th August at 7pm in the Marina Bar.