Author: Neville Merritt (Page 13 of 43)

Another lovely evening in the marina, and another monthly meeting already. If only the wind would drop a bit so we could get more fishing days in, but despite that we had several fish to consider for the Fish Of The Month competition. Like the Mornington Crescent game on Radio 4, nobody has quite worked out what the rules are for this. A starting point is the size of a fish compared with the published Specimen qualifying weight, then members vote based on how “good” a catch this was taking into account rarity and whatever other factors come to mind. I’m sure one day AI will come up with an algorithm but in the meantime we’ll carry on arguing about it. Net result was, FOTM went to Dan Lumsden for his turbot of 7lb 2oz.

The current club competition standings are listed below.

We all agreed that the BBQ on Saturday was a great success with around 50 members and guests enjoying the sun, company and food. We raised £720, which covered the £600 cost plus a new gas bottle for next time. Thanks to everyone who supported the event particularly those who bought raffle tickets but were unable to attend, and those helpers who stayed behind to clear up. The full report is here.

Our next main event is the Open Species Competition on 13^th August – more details here

There will be a group night fishing trip for sole and stingray in the summer, so watch out for details as we need a calm night!

Our flotilla trip to Brighton is planned for September. Details will be confirmed when our organisers have confirmed availability of marina, a guide and suitable tides. There will be a competition over the trip but we have yet to agree how this fits in with our SMAC rules for fish caught from Southsea Marina. Watch this space, or more specifically watch the WhatsApp Group.

Our 10-year anniversary T Shirts will cost around £14 each for the first batch, and about £17 for single orders later. These will be supplied by our local merch printer Vintage Pig, and when we have finalised the print design an order form will be circulated.

In Any Other Business, we asked Steve to ask the Marina management if they have plans to do some maintenance and repairs to the BBQ area; get around to fixing the tap on the holding pontoon please and is there any news on dredging the marina?

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

Nevile Merritt

It’s our 10^th Anniversary Year and the weather gods were smiling on our annual Summer BBQ. If it’s not windy, people go fishing. If it’s not sunny people don’t fancy sitting around a BBQ. So the perfect weather combination for an Angling Club BBQ is sunny and breezy, which is exactly what we had on Saturday. We had a record attendance of 50 members and families for an afternoon of food, chat, a drink or two and of course our famous raffle!

Food consisted of some plump mackerel provided by Team Harvest Moon, freshly smoked; traditional BBQ fare (and lots of it); topped off by scones, cream and jam from Eleanor Atkins and lovely fresh strawberries from Barbi Hutton.

Our raffles always give great prizes, top up club funds and provide plenty of live entertainment – the four candles provided more laughs than the Two Ronnies! There are two raffles, a free one for club members and a fundraising raffle where some members demonstrated that the more tickets you buy the more chances you have. Seems fair to me, and as a result we raised over £700 for club funds to pay for these events. We would like to thank Bill Arnold and Eleanor Atkins for their amazing ticket sales and our prize sponsors British Big Game Fishing; Premier Marinas; Newnham Builders; Just Fishing Boats; Prestige Plumbing and Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club.

We now have 73 members fishing from 41 boats berthed in the marina. On Saturday we also welcomed new member Steve Holt who, like others, has transferred to Southsea Marina because of the SMAC and the active fishing community here. We are very grateful to Premier Marinas for their continued support of our club activities – including the BBQ area!

Final thanks go to Steve Kelly for all the organising; the team of helpers, fetchers and clearers who put it all together and tidied up afterwards; and the roaming photographers including Barbi Hutton and Steve Andrews who were kind enough to share their pictures below.

Neville Merritt

Lots to tell you about this time so grab a drink and settle in for a read. Our May meeting was held a week later than usual on the 10^th May to accommodate the Bank Holidays. We had a good turnout as usual in the Marina Bar.

First up was the Competition Standings, which if I had recorded properly I would have reproduced them here. What I can remember is that Steve Tambling is on there as the Best Placed SMAC Member on the recent Open Bream Competition.

Next was the regular Fish Of The Month vote. Members were reminded that fish don’t swim onto the entry book by themselves. Qualifying fish have to be written in the book in the Marina Office, even if they have been weighed and recorded in a SMAC competition. Once that was out of the way we voted Mark Banks the winner for a bream of 3lb 13oz. If Mark had timed that better he would have won the SMAC Open Bream Competition last Sunday, but that’s fishing. We had a little chat about how well that event went, you can read about it here.

Our next event will be the annual SMAC BBQ on Saturday 3^rd June. We will provide free food for members and partners, just bring your own drinks. It will be held in the Marina BBQ area which is located on top of the toilet and laundry block. It isn’t nearly as bad as that sounds. The event starts at 2pm, with a raffle at 4pm. Food will be served when the cook decides it’s safe to eat, and the event ends when we have had enough. This is always a fun occasion so do come along. We’ll confirm during the week before just in case the weather forecast is terrible although unlike fishing competitions, wind doesn’t matter.

Save the date for the annual Open Species Competition, which will be held on Sunday 13^th August. It will be fished from 8am to 4pm; last weigh-in 5pm and prize-giving in the Marina Bar at 6pm. The format will be the same as in previous years: photograph the fish and the entry card showing all distinguishing features before returning the fish to the sea. The photographs will be needed to verify the species claims for the winners.

We will have a group night fishing trip for stingray and sole some time in the summer, so watch out for details. We’ll anchor or moor up in shallow water targeting stingray in the evening and sole at night. This will be a great opportunity for those of us (myself included) who feel a lot more confident fishing at night when you know there are other boats close by.

We also have plans for a weekend trip to Brighton Marina which is being organised by Dave Newnham and John Evans. The plan is to fish on the way to Brighton, overnight at Premier Brighton Marina either on board or in a hotel, have a slap-up meal and a few beers in the evening then on the Sunday, fish on the way back to Southsea. Dates will be dependent on numbers interested and berth availability in Brighton Marina so please contact Dave if you want to be included.

We will be ordering a batch of SMAC Anniversary T-Shirts soon, when prices are confirmed. I’ll circulate order details as soon as they are known. We expect the first batch order to be cheaper than ordering later individually, so grab the opportunity when it comes. Standard SMAC logo polo shirts and hoodies can still be ordered online from the Club Shop.

That’s it for now. Next meeting will be Tuesday 6^th June at 7pm in the Marina Bar.

Neville Merritt