Author: Neville Merritt (Page 2 of 39)

Another month has gone by already and it was great to see a good turnout of 24 members to our monthly SMAC meeting in the Marina Bar, Southsea. It was also good to see that Premier had been prompt in responding to requests to fly the D-Day 80 Flag, which they did!

Steve welcomed us with a rundown of news, activities and planned events. The current competition standings are listed below. It’s hard to keep up with Peter Churchill on the Species Hunt, between printing the list, having the meeting and posting this report his score has changed twice.

Fish Of The Month was dominated by bream from our earlier Open Bream Competition, and Dan Lumsden won this with his bream of 3lb 1oz.which also won him second place in the Bream Competition.

Steve reported on our achievements in the Bream Competition which you can read in full here. Out of 50 entries and 26 boats, SMAC members took home 10 of the 16 prizes which is a good show.

Our next event is the Annual SMAC BBQ on Saturday 22^nd June in the Southsea Marina BBQ area. Please book your tickets on this link to make sure we have food for you! Free food will be provided for all members and families, and we always put on a good spread. Bring your own drinks, and a camping chair or two is always a good idea.

There will be a Pier Competition between SMAC and SMDAC on 23^rd July, fishing between 3pm and 9pm on South Parade Pier for the Best Specimen Fish. This is being organised by SMDAC and details will be published separately. Food on the pier will be available to pre-order, payment with order.

A boat fishing regatta to Brighton has been proposed again, and subject to weather and support it will happen early August. Details to follow.

Our next open competition is the Open Species Competition on 11^th August. Further details here.

The questions we put to the Southsea Marina Manager Dave Frey when he gave us a chat at the March meeting have still not been answered and this needs chasing up.

Finally, in AOB, John Calton gave us a useful tip on a Boat Scrapyard in Gosport, which sells secondhand equipment at very good prices. www.boatscrapyard.com

Next meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday 2^nd July in the Marina Bar as usual. See you there if not before!

Our regular monthly meeting in the Marina bar was held a week later due to the May Bank Holiday, and we had a great turnout once again. There was a lot to report and more to plan, so read on.

First up was a report on the club competition standings which are reproduced below. Dan Lumsden is in the lead overall. Pete Churchill has 15 on the slate in the Species Hunt and there are still over seven months to go, so lots more changes expected!

Fish Of The Month was awarded to Jock Park for a thornback of 15lb (125% of Specimen) which is a very nice fish and returned. It currently leads the Catch & Release Cup too.

The Open Bream Competition was a great success with 58 entries and 26 boats. You can read the full report here. We were ticked off for leaving dead fish floating in the water so we will put up notices for visitors by the cleaning station. Fish trimmings need to be put in the water on an ebbing tide so they are carried away, and any swim bladders popped so they feed the crabs without offending anyone.

The SAC Meet & Fish event last Saturday as part of the Marina Social Day was another great success, particularly as SMAC entrants Peter Churchill and Peter Kinchin carried off two of the five main prizes with Ray Plomer and Richard Pack coming a very close second. The full report is here.

Our next event is the SMAC Annual BBQ which will be held on Saturday 22^nd June. There will be free food and a special free Members Raffle, plus a main fundraising raffle with some excellent prizes. Members and families are all welcome, and to help us plan the event please can you book your free tickets via this link.  £500 is being spent on raffle prizes, a similar amount on food and of course you’ll have great company so this is well worth coming to.

SMDAC have challenged SMAC to an inter-club pier competition. This will be held at South Parade Pier, Southsea from 3pm to 9pm on a date to be confirmed. The timings are already confirmed because that’s when beer and fish and chips can be bought. We’ll have to think of some rules before then, too.

The next Open competition is the Species Competition which will be held on Sunday 11^th August with a reserve date of 18^th August. We’ll start promoting the event so watch out for details as they are published.

We haven’t yet had responses to the questions posed to the Southsea Marina manager, Dave Frey at the March meeting. Steve will chase him up.

Next Meeting will be on Tuesday 4^th June at 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.

The weather has been so poor in the last month that we haven’t met up on the pontoons much, so it was nice to get together and chat on Tuesday evening in the Marina Bar.  Steve opened the meeting listing the Club Standings (see below), this was a lot shorter than usual as the season is making a slow start.  It seems to be the Steve Tambling/Richard Pack show so far, and Richard also won the Fish Of The Month for his 14lb Pollack (pictured). Our club funds are very healthy but sadly the SMDAC funds are not looking so good so we have gifted £200 to their kitty. This is also in recognition of all their support and contributions to prize funds previously.

The date for the SMAC and SMDAC BBQ has been set for Saturday 22nd June, serving food from 2pm and the raffle prizes drawn from 4pm. All members and families are welcome. There will be free food, just bring your own drinks and cash for the raffle (because Bill is still watching).  The BBQ location is above the toilet block at the west end of the marina, and I promise it is a lot better than that sounds. This will be our first year without access to the shed so we may have to build a gazebo encampment.

We also had notification of a couple of fundraisers in our neighbouring club. Mick Beatty at the ECA (Mad Mick!) is very poorly and has lost a leg. There is a fundraiser event for him on 20th April  at LHFA. Also at LHFA, our own Michelle Plomer is organising a Blackout Football sweepstake with the South of England Open Championship for Rowan’s Hospice. See Steve Andrews for entry tickets, £5 an entry, pick your own team from the list.

Our next event, the Bream Open Competition is almost on us, to be held on 5th May weather permitting. Details here.

Our new SMAC burgees (pennants) for your boats have arrived. There are two alternative designs, £20 each from Steve Kelly. Don’t be the only one without a club pennant on your boat! Also, summer caps and winter beanies are still available at £10 each (including children’s sizes) while stocks last. These will be for sale at club meetings and events.

Our next monthly meeting will again be at a later date this time due to the May Bank Holiday:  Tuesday 14th May at 7pm in the Marina Bar. Let’s hope for some good fishing weather in the meantime!