Author: Neville Merritt (Page 1 of 46)

We held our meeting a week later than usual on Tuesday 13th October to make way for a charity fundraiser. The Marina Bar have always been very supportive of SMAC so that was the least we could do.

We opened with the Club Standings as usual, see below. If you look back at previous years, you can see the catch trends – loads of bream and bass, but plaice and cod are rare catches. It’s encouraging to see that we have 20 Specimens registered so far this year, and there is a fight at the top of the Species Hunt but Peter Churchill still leads (by 6) with 38.

Fish Of The Month had some worthy contenders: Sam Cofie’s Red Mullet of 1lb 7oz but not quite a Specimen; Pete Churchill’s Stingray 34lb – 136%; Andy Bird’s Mullet 5lb 11oz – 142.1% and Pete Churchill’s Gilthead Bread of 3lb 3oz – 159.3% which won FOTM by a vote. Congratulations Pete.

Treasurer’s Report in summary is as follows:

• 50 Members (we will have a recruitment push in early 2027)
• £469 for our charities of GAFIR and RNLI
• £1,401.66 in the account to cover Presentation Night 2027 and prizes
• We aim to have a bank account in time for the next round of membership subscription payments

The Inter-Club Competition was held on 4th October, hosted by last year’s winner LHFA but based from Southsea Marina. It was won by Wayne Comben with a Bull Huss of 11lb 7oz so next year’s Inter-Club will be hosted by ECA.

The Cod Pool is now live, standing at £140. It will be fished until 31st January. First place takes 75%, Second Place takes 25%. If you want to enter, take your £10 to the Marina Office where the Cod Pool Tin lives. Marina staff can sign you up, which just means putting your money in the envelope and your name on the front. We like to keep administration simple.

The Open Cod Competition will be held on Sunday 29th November, and there are nice colourful posters available if anyone would like to help with publicity. The Competition Team are busy collating a Prize Table from our sponsors. Dave Newnham has confirmed he is sponsoring a £100 cash Fuel Draw for all attendees of the Cod Comp Prizegiving, so that will be worth staying for. Thank you Dave!

There were three items in AOB:

Peter Atkinson, who holds a Bluefin Tuna licence, is offering tuna hunting trips for the cost of a fuel contribution only, dates to be offered by Peter. These are called tuna hunting trips because we are still exploring tuna opportunities so catching a tuna can’t be guaranteed, although it is always a possibility! Peter’s boat Dotty is a luxurious platform to fish from anyway.

Sam Cofie queried the Club Records Listings. These are displayed on the Club Notice Board and if you catch a bigger fish than the record, members are welcome to claim it. Only those species listed are eligible, because we want to encourage Catch and Release for fish not destined for the pot. They must be weighed on the Club Scales and witnessed as usual.

Finally, Sam also requested a Leaderboard for the Specimen Fish caught during the season. This can be accommodated, and due to a slow night shift we already have a list growing on the Club Standings!

Please Note: The Marina Bar will introduce Winter Hours from November, closing early on weekdays. However they will stay open for us on Club Meeting Nights so our meetings will move to 6pm on 3rd November and 1st December. They will also keep the kitchen open but if you want to order food it’s best if you order before 6pm. Please support the Marina Bar and the club by coming along!

You probably saw Southsea Marina on the news on Sunday!  By Tuesday it was hard to imagine that so much drama had occurred because it was as peaceful as most Tuesday evenings are. However there were lots of first-hand stories to swap which made an entertaining preamble. We must express our thanks to all the Premier crew and SMAC members who were involved (in a good way), for doing their part in keeping things as safe as they could be in the circumstances.

Anyway, onto the meeting! We had 13 members present at the Marina Bar on 8^th September. First up was the Standings (thanks Steve for updating these). A few good fish have juggled the ranking! See below.

Fish of the Month was next, with two stand-out fish from the eight in the book. These were Ray Plomer’s Stingray of 25lb 2oz (100.5%) and Kev Johnson’s bass of 11lb 4oz (118.4%). The bass had it so Kev receives Fish Of The Month.

The Treasurer’s Report followed some very meticulous organising of our financial paperwork by Eleanor, and we can report that we have a balance of £1,114.66. This puts us in good shape for our final expenditure of the year which are trophies and hospitality for the Presentation Night. We are close to setting up the bank account which will make collecting funds much easier.

We had a quick recap of the Species Competition, which is reported in detail here. Those present expressed their disappointment at the low level of support for this competition with only eight members taking part out of a membership of 60+. We had another eight visitors, but it was still a small field which was a pity.

The next competition is the Inter-Club Competition, hosted by last year’s winners LHFA. We understand it is scheduled for 3/4^th October, and Pete Churchill was tasked with getting a formal notification circulated by LHFA to the clubs.

The Open Cod Competition date will be Sunday 29^th November, and Sundays thereafter until we find a fishable one, preferably with cod and whiting present too. Dave Newnham is organising a tour of local clubs to whip up more support, and posters will be available soon. The Competition Team will be shaking up our regular sponsors for a nice full prize table.

There has been a lot of comment in our WhatsApp Chat and on social media about the role of the RNLI in the illegal channel crossings, and concern has been expressed about the financial donations we collect for the RNLI and GAFIR. For the record, there was an equal level of support for the RNLI, whose crews do their job regardless of the political moves elsewhere. We agreed to propose at the next AGM that we maintain two collection pots, one for each so members can decide how their donations are distributed. There will be no change to the 50:50 split in the current season.

A quick reminder on Club Merchandise: we have the last two pennants at £20 each and a few Beanies and Caps at £10 each. Please message if you want to grab one.

Post-Meeting Note: the Cod Pool is upon us! As the Cod Pool opens on 1st October which is before our next meeting, this is a reminder that if you want to enter and fish for cod before the next meeting, just write your name on an envelope plus the helpful words Cod Pool, put your £10 entry fee in it and leave it in the Marina Office for the SMAC message folder.

Finally, due to another booking at the Marina Bar on our normal Tuesday, for our next Monthly Meeting we will instead meet at 7pm on Tuesday 13^th October.  

Thanks again to our regular members who supported our monthly meeting on Tuesday! We started as usual with the Standings, see below. Points to note: The Plaice cup is wide open, just a small plaice could earn a lot of points. The same with cod, although that season is yet to arrive, if it actually does. Pete Churchill is romping away ahead of the field in the Species Hunt, now at 33. You wouldn’t need to catch an unusual number to get into the placings behind him and Andy Bird though. One new entrant in the Bass Charts is Neville Merritt, straight in at Number One but probably like the charts, a one-hit-wonder.

Next was Fish Of The Month, and although Andy’s specimen mullet was a few points larger and Ray Plomer’s little silver eel a lot rarer, the room graciously voted your Chairman’s bass Fish Of The Month, probably because it’s unlikely to happen again. The £10 prize was donated to the RNLI/GAFIR pool which currently stands at £402. We’ll add that to next meeting’s agenda to decide how to donate it.

Your Treasurer Eleanor Atkins has done an amazing job of organising our paperwork and finances, which is more necessary now that we have several committee members involved in the administration. Thanks Steve Kelly for doing such a comprehensive job before!

The Bass Competition was a great success although it was a tough day, and a couple of visiting regulars couldn’t make it. Our members dominated the prize table, and we gave Neil Glazier his 11^th Prize at the meeting. Full report here.

The Species Competition date has been moved to 22^nd (or 23^rd) August due to the marina channel dredging works. We have some good prizes, so we need to get the word out and attract plenty of visiting competitors. This is a great competition because everyone has a good chance, especially fishing inshore over varied marks. Fishing 8am to 5pm this time. Tie-break scoring will be reviewed!

The Sole Trip proposed for 7^th August will be postponed because we won’t have a Holding Pontoon to return to! A new date will be scheduled.

Lawrence Sargrove will be donating a quantity of industrial conger-wrangling gloves. They are Medium size so suitable mainly for junior and lady wranglers. They would also come in handy for any seriously mucky jobs like stripping anti-foul.

A note on the marina dredging works: berth holders will have received an email and a notice from Langstone Harbour Board. The work will be mainly carried out at high tide which allows boats to navigate around them over the shallows. At other times the channel will be open as usual. The main inconvenience is the lack of a holding pontoon while the work is carried out. Diesel fuel will be available as usual, but you will have to clear the berth once refuelled.

The next Monthly Meeting will be at the later date of 8^th September at 7pm in the Marina Bar, due to the Bank Holiday.

A heatwave inland but a pleasant evening on the coast. What better than a beer in the cool shade and a meeting with fishing mates? 13 of us met at the Marina Bar on Tuesday 7^th July for our regular monthly SMAC meeting.

The current Club Standings are reproduced below, and the latest version can always be found on our club notice board outside the marina office. Many thanks Steve Kelly for keeping it up to date!

Fish of the Month was a vote-off between Sam Cofie’s two 2lb Gilthead Bream (100% of specimen) against Peter Churchill’s plaice of 1lb 15oz which although less than half specimen weight, a plaice of that size is a rare thing these days. Sam won, so congratulations!

The Summer BBQ last month was another enjoyable social, and thanks again to all those who helped make it happen.

Our next Open Competition is the Open Bass Competition on 18^th (or 19^th) July. We have some great prizes to add to the table, with new sponsors including Decathlon, Rapala and Portsmouth Distillery to add to our regular supporters.

The Open Species Competition follows soon after on the 8^th (or 9^th) August, and promotions for that will be going out very soon.

The SMAC/SMDAC Pier Social doesn’t have a date yet, our club representatives are trying to get a time extension from the pier management. More details to follow.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday 4^th August at 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.

Blazing sun and a gentle breeze – if you have to be on land, where better than to spend the afternoon in the company of friends, with plenty of free food plus drink at supermarket prices (because that’s where you probably bought it). It was a smaller crowd than usual which was a shame. I guess some people were fishing, which is the only allowable excuse. The raffle had great prizes, the burgers from Bransbury Butchers are legendary and Jim and Eleanor again produced a batch of awesome scones, this time with a bonus of home-made cherry jam!

Huge thanks as usual to our organising team on the ground: Jim, Eleanor, Steve, Dan, Dave, Tim plus all those that helped on the day, supported the event and those that bought their excuses with raffle tickets. Will our run of good weather for the BBQ continue next year? Maybe Premier marinas can be persuaded to invest in some corporate-branded sunshade umbrellas!

Neville Merritt
Chairman and Cook