We traditionally fish this club competition between Christmas and the New Year (I’m told the new term for this is Twixmas), for the largest singe cod, or whiting. Boat caught, winner takes all. Well, these are our rules and we can change them if we like so we did. This has always been a social event and this year it became more social then ever, because the weather was awful and everyone wanted the social event anyway. Rather than postpone, we decided to fish the event in and around the marina and cod being unlikely, the prize would go to the most fish caught.

Colds, Covid and family pressures had depleted our expected lineup but despite that, 12 hardy anglers braved wind, rain and lack of worms to fish for four hours for the Mandela Cup. Some decided to snuggle down in the shelter of their cockpits, others risked a wetting and lost hats to fish from the holding pontoon and marina shores. After a few false starts involving crabs, Dan set the hare running with a surprisingly decent wrasse. Ray challenged with a bass that must have hatched yesterday, Pete found another wrasse hiding under the pontoon and Luke scored with a bass that wasn’t at all bad for a marina catch.

The result was a neat tie for all four, sharing the prize pool of £30 which must have lasted all of one round in the bar. After the celebrations, there had been a plan to continue to a curry venue but history doesn’t record whether that actually happened. Anyway, congratulations to all those who fished and well done the winners. Hopefully we can get back to boat fishing and cod chasing with the postponed Open Cod Competition in January.

Tonight we drank a toast to the memory of a dear friend and SMAC member, Bill Arnold who passed away last week. Bill was a huge supporter of the club and did a lot of practical work behind the scenes to help. He was a regular contributor at our meetings, a fearsome seller of raffle tickets and of course a very competitive angler. We will miss him terribly.

To recognise his contribution to the club, there is a proposal to create a new prize which will be announced at the Presentation Night. Bill himself had the idea for both the award and the construction of the prize itself, so it will be nice to see it all come together.

We had a great turnout to the meeting and there was a lot to talk about. The Club Standings are listed below – Dan Lumsden leads (by one point) the Species Competition, the Bass Cup has changed hands and we have a new leader in the Cod Pool. It’s all still happening! The Bass Season remains open until the end of the SMAC year now, so there will be no early finishes.

Fish Of The Month was awarded to the larger of two cod entered, Tony Skinner’s cod of 8lb 5oz.

The Open Cod Competition still hasn’t happened due to the weather, and if it is postponed again on 10^th the next possible Sunday (due to committee availability, Christmas and New Year) will be 7^th January.

We have had very positive messages of support from Premier Marinas so we are hopeful that this will extend to more storage facilities and other practical measures. In turn, SMAC will continue to attract new members and new berth holders for them!

The Mandela Cup competition will be held on Saturday 30^th December, to be followed by our traditional annual curry. This time it will be at one of the Albert Road establishments in Southsea. Details and a poll of members intending to go will be circulated separately.

Our Presentation Night will be held on Saturday 2^nd March in the Marina Bar. This year the cost of glass prize replicas has increased considerably, so instead we will be giving out vouchers from our two main tackle shop sponsors, Fish-On and Cosham Angling.

The January meeting will be held a week later than normal due to New Year, so we’ll see you on 9^th January 2024.

Our stalwart members have got used to the cold dark evenings and this month turned out in force to support the SMAC get-together in the Marina Bar. John Wearn kept us supplied with chewy sweets while we waited for the formalities to begin. Steve put the finishing touches to his paperwork, last meal orders were put in, drinks topped up and we were off.

First item was a review of the club competition standings, which you can read below. Then came Fish Of The Month, and because of the recent weather the list was very short. I was surprised there were any, given the severity of the storms. Nevertheless, we had a vote and the top specimen was a 10lb 2oz Bull Huss earning Mick Beatty a medal and a tenner.

The Cod Pool is still open and currently stands at £320. The only cod entered so far is a very junior 3lb something so if you haven’t put your money down, hurry up because that next cod could be worth a lot.

The last order of our Anniversary t-shirts has now been distributed, and thanks to all the members that supported this.

A quick update on The Shed Saga, Episode 4. The original shed used by SMAC members has now gone back to Premier for re-letting. The number of members wanting shed space puts the total requirement outside the scope of what SMAC funds can cover, so we recommend that those members who want to combine forces to share a shed with freezer space do so without involving SMAC. We have been promised “something” by Premier for the limited club requirements but unfortunately this won’t cover the wider needs of individual members.

The Cod Open Competition will roll on from Sunday to Sunday until we have a suitable weather window.

The Nelson Mandela Cup (a SMAC event) is traditionally held in that quiet period between Christmas and New Year when our families want rid of us and this year will be held on 30^th December. We will fish 8am to 2pm, with plenty of bar time afterwards. Largest cod or if no cod largest whiting will win.

Rumours abound regarding frozen squid availability, but there are some in 1Kg boxes in the marina office freezer for £12 a box.

Club funds stand at a healthy £2,302.29 which means we can have a very jolly Presentation Night. This will be on 2^nd March 2024 in the Marina Bar. Families welcome, there will be a free drink for members and a free buffet. There will be a presentation of cups if we can get the prize cabinet open. Steve has accidently thrown the keys away – does anyone know a locksmith? Otherwise we will just have to point to them instead of giving them, which could make the award photographs a little awkward.

Next meeting will be on Tuesday 5^th December. Nobody has mentioned Winter Bar Times so far so unless you hear otherwise it will be 7pm as usual.