Owner of www.boat-angling.co.uk and
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Feature fish of the month seems to be bass, and plenty of good fish were caught. We have very healthy stocks in the Eastern Solent, and the catch restrictions on commercial and recreational fishing plus the protected nursery areas seems to be working. The Closed Season for bass fishing in the harbour nursery areas is now over until the end of April 2025 when it comes into force again.
We seem to be seeing more large Bull Huss this year. The Inter-Club Competition was won by Ray Plomer for LHFA with a Bull Huss of 12lb 10oz.
Most marks were plagued with dogfish and small conger, which seem to be as prolific as ever. A few whiting and even fewer codling showed up, and we are hoping there will be a lot more by the middle of November for the SMAC Open Cod Competition.
Finally, squid fishing is becoming more and more popular. Both squid and cuttlefish can be caught on squid lures from boats over broken or rocky ground, from harbour walls and even steeper beaches in calm weather. Some large specimens have been caught along the coast including Portsmouth and Solent approaches.
Remember, Remember, the 5th of November….well, we didn’t. Our meeting clashed with thousands of people flocking to Southsea Common for the fireworks, so the members that braved the journey spent more time looking at tail-lights than sitting in the SMAC meeting. Anyway, many thanks to those that made it!
Steve opened the meeting presenting a long overdue prize to Terry Webster. We couldn’t actually remember at the time what the prize was for, but on checking it was for 9th place in the Open Species Competition this summer.
Next was the current Standings, these are listed below. It only takes a fish or two to juggle the placings, so all still to play for. Well done Pam for 20 Species, that’s a clear lead and possibly a record for our Ladies Species Cup.
Congratulations again to Ray Plomer who won the Inter-Club competition with a Bull Huss of 12lb 10oz. Although he was fishing for LHFA, this also earned Ray Best Placed SMAC Member and for good measure November Fish Of The Month.
Our next competition is the Cod Open on Sunday 17th November, rolling forward Sunday by Sunday if the weather doesn’t cooperate. It will probably be on the same day as the ECA Cod Competition which adds to the fun.
The Cod Pool stands at 36 entries and no cod yet, so that’s a good pot and a very low bar so far!
The Mandela Cup will be fished on Saturday 28th December. This is a fun social competition, theoretically for cod (or whiting) but if the weather is bad we fish from the marina and retire to the bar when we have had enough – in this case Rule 2 is invoked and any fish count. Rule 3 is when no fish are caught, and we decide on the spot how to allocate the prize.
The date for the Presentation Night has moved to Saturday 15th March 2025 due to a clash of bookings, so please update your diaries so you don’t miss the best night of the year.
Looking further ahead we are planning a Bass Open Competition, pencilled in for 6th July 2025. This will be based on length not weight (optional Catch & Release). We will need to source and supply Official Rulers which is being investigated.
Finally, those that attended the Shark and ray Tagging talk at the ECA on Monday were surprised to learn that this research has shown that sharks and rays don’t breed every year. Tope are likely to breed every other year, smoothhound every three years and rays can breed every five years. We never knew that.
Next meeting is Tuesday 3rd December, 7pm to 8pm (Winter Hours) at the Marina Bar as usual.
At the September SMAC Monthly Meeting we had a guest talk from Dr Christina Hunt from the University of Portsmouth. She outlined two current projects: seabed mapping and a fish-length AI development project. She nows has a volunteer for the seabed mapping but still needs lots of fish photos with rulers, so her AI program can “learn” how to measure fish from a photo. I admit I keep forgetting, but if you catch a fish please can you take a photo of it next to a fish-length ruler and send to Christina at christina.hunt@port.ac.uk ?
September was a very wet month although that shouldn’t matter on the sea which is already wet. However, wet weather is usually accompanied by windy weather which does matter because that’s what stops us going out fishing. You can tell when a lot of boat anglers are frustrated by the weather by the number of political memes circulating on our chat forums instead of fish pictures.
That sounds gloomy but there were fishable days and fish were caught. September is a strange month because the warm days feel like an extension of summer: plaice, mackerel and bream are still around whereas the colder days warn of the switch to winter species with the arrival of squid and a few early codling.
As a result, catch reports were a real mixed bag with the regulars of rays, bass and bull huss plus some plaice, gilthead bream, brill and even red mullet. Stray codling were reported as early as late August.
By October the mackerel will be heading off although some are usually still around until November. Towards the end of the month we should see some whiting although in recent years they have been arriving well into November. We have a good stock of bass which will still be active and shoaling around the baitfish over banks and harbour entrances. We usually have a visit from trigger fish which are always good for the species count. In fact, for the next month or two almost anything can turn up so have a go, and do share your catch reports here!
This will be our 7th Open Boat Cod Competition from Southsea Marina and it gets better and better. As usual the First Prize will be a whopping 60% of all the entry money, Second Prize 30% of entry and a table full of runner-up prizes from our generous sponsors. Heaviest cod wins, and if we run out of cod the heaviest whiting will count. Ladies and Junior (under 16) Bonus Prizes too. Sign in at Southsea Marina £10 per angler in cash or online with Eventbrite (booking fee applies). If you book online you do not need to start from the marina, but you will still need to weigh in at the marina. Fishing 8am to 4pm, weigh-in by 5:30pm at the Marina and presentations in the Marina Bar at 6pm.
Please check Eventbrite and Facebook pages for dates. If bad weather causes us to postpone the event, we will roll it forward to the following Sunday. All tickets purchased will be valid for the revised dates.
Our monthly meetings are consistently popular with members and we had another full room on Tuesday. Steve ran through the Club Standings as usual which are detailed below. Mark Banks is leading the overall Champions Cup with 6 points and Pete Churchill is romping away on the species hunt with 38 recorded so far.
Fish Of The Month was awarded to Pete Churchill for his Gilthead Bream of 2lb 8oz, the only entry that was officially a specimen. He generously donated his winnings to the RNLI fund.
Our Cod Pool stands at 24 with no entries so far. A pool of £240 means even a small cod could be very valuable!
Our next event will be the Inter-Club Competition, this year hosted by ECA. It will be on 6th October (now postponed) or on each following Sunday until the weather allows us to fish.
There will be a talk at the ECA on Tracking Sharks and Rays from 6pm to 8pm on Monday 4th November, all welcome.
The Cod Open Competition will be held on Sunday 17th November, again rolling forward every Sunday if bad weather prevents us getting out.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 5th November at 7pm. The Marina Bar Winter Hours will be in place which means the bar will close at 8pm, so no hanging about. We really need someone with a large boat, central heating and a generous stock of drinks to move to A pontoon to give us somewhere to move on to. Any takers?
Looking forward to next year, our Presentation Night (free food, a free drink, prizes and a very decent raffle) will be on Saturday 29th March 2025. This is always a brilliant evening so get there early to bag a seat. Last year the room was rammed an hour before it was due to start!
A suggestion for us to consider at the AGM was to hold a Bass Open. Our Open Competitions always attract a lot of visiting anglers to the marina and this would be an good addition. It would be based on length and Catch & Release, although fish can optionally be retained in line with National rules prevailing.
What will the next month bring – the first cod, terrible weather, who knows? Tight Lines anyway, and see you on 5th November if not before.
Holidays got in the way of a July Catch Report so here’s a combined edition for the last two months. We were blessed with some great days for boat fishing with relatively calm weather and warm sunshine. Calmer seas and smaller tides meant that some boats could push well out into the Channel, while others still enjoyed great sport but closer to home.
Every summer we hear the same comments: “Where are the mackerel?” and then “There’s loads of mackerel!” It’s true that they can be fickle and locations unpredictable. Where we used to find huge shoals and anything shiny would catch, now the fish are more scattered and feed more selectively but there are still plenty to be caught. You may need to use better quality feathers than the crude strings that were once reliable and also search around to find feeding fish but you should still be able to stock up when needed.
Summer catch reports usually include bass, tope, smoothhound, rays, bream, mullet and huss, with 2024 being no exception. All have been caught and made anglers very happy. Gilthead Bream have featured in more catches recently and they grow to a larger size than Black Bream. There are some impressive fish in the gallery below caught by Peter Churchill (3-6), Wayne Comben (4-7) and Ken Barton (5-9).
Sole need to be deliberately targeted and a calm summer night is the ideal time – if you can find the right mark. Baits need to be hard on the bottom and a lead at each end of the trace helps to keep them the baits in the right place.
You never really know when a codling might appear towards Autumn and one has just scraped into this month’s Report – from the Langstone Run of all places.
Mullet appear in late Spring but are difficult to catch at that time because they are feeding on micro-organisms. Later in Summer they start eating other things including our discarded scraps and this is when you can catch them on baits like bread flake and sweetcorn. I wouldn’t want to eat a mullet that knows what sweetcorn is though.
The Solent area has an amazing variety of species and this makes Species Hunt competitions great fun. We have visits from shoals of herring, and these can even be caught right in the harbours. Tuna have been sighted right by The Forts, and I won’t be surprised if sooner or later one is hooked. That would be a great one for a Species Hunt! I know a spider crab doesn’t count in a Species Hunt but I thought you would like to see an impressive one caught by Mark Banks.
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 6th 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 1st October, 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.
