Category: SMAC (Page 1 of 12)

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

We had a strong cold breeze, the Marina Bar kitchen was closed and so was the chippy but that did not deter 11 loyal members from attending our monthly meeting. Steve Kelly probably spent most of his night shift sorting out our competition standings now there are five categories each with five places. Thank you Steve! These are listed below. Mark Banks is currently leading the Club Champion points but there are a lot of ways in which that can change!

Next up was the Fish Of The Month competition. This was a stark contrast to the months where no fish were logged, because we had 23 entries (6 from the Bream Competition) of which 5 were specimens. However, there were two monsters among those: a John Dory of 7lb 7oz (247.9%) for Mark Banks and a Gilthead Bream of 5lb exactly (250%) for Andy Bird. As per Club Rules, we had to vote on the Best Fish which was extremely difficult because they were both exceptional. However the members voted for the largest specimen, Andy Bird’s Gilthead Bream so it was fair play whichever way you looked at it.

Eleanor presented the Treasurer’s Report which involved very little cash movement but the significant news for the club is that we are proceeding to open a bank account with Nat West. This will make subscription and competition entry fees for members much easier. We will stick with Eventbrite for visiting competitors who will also pay the transaction fees.

The SMAC Annual BBQ will be on Saturday 27^th June with free food (bring your own drink) and an excellent cash raffle. It will be held in the Southsea BBQ area above the utilities block at the West end of the marina.

The Bass Competition will be held on 18^th or 19^th July, weather dependent. We have sponsorship agreed with Rapala, and others are under discussion.

There will be a SMDAC/SMAC Pier Competition in the summer, date to be confirmed by SMDAC.

A night sole trip is proposed, probably to coincide with the Cowes fireworks on Friday 7^th August. This will be confirmed nearer the date.

In Any Other Business, Pete Churchill requested that entries into the Catch Register in the Marina Office to be made in pounds and ounces to avoid confusion with pounds decimal! Thank you.

Next meeting will be on Tuesday 7^th July, 7pm in the Marina Bar.

It was another sunny evening and the Fish Book shows a lot more entries so things are definitely looking up. A couple of good bass were added to the book today which threw Steve’s carefully crafted, complex calculations of our Competition Standings completely haywire.  At the moment, Andy Bird and Pete Churchill are neck and neck with 8 points for Club Champion but that will probably all change tomorrow. A Leaderboard App would be good but I don’t think any programmer could have anticipated our rules.  

Although there were a number of good fish logged, the stand-out specimen Fish Of The Month was Pete Churchill’s Ballan Wrasse of 4lb 10oz which is 92.5% of Specimen Weight.

Our subterfuge to get the Bill Arnold Trophy to Steve Kelly on Presentation Night without him knowing missed one important element – the engraved glass. We remedied that today with an engraved tankard which we presented to Steve.

Our member list stands at 54 with a few more to renew and some new boats welcomed to the marina, including Lawrence Seagrove returning with a new Bob The Magnificent.

The Bream Competition was held on Sunday, you can read the full report here. Best-Placed Members were Richard Pack and Steve Tamblin who tied for second place.

Our next event will be the Annual BBQ on Saturday 27^th June, fingers crossed for good weather.

The Bass Competition will be on 18^th or 19^th July and we have sponsorship confirmed from Rapala, which is great news. We are looking for more new sponsors from local businesses.

SMDAC have challenged us to a Pier Competition which is always good fun. It will be an afternoon and evening event in July, with Afternoon Tea included. Date to be confirmed after we have tried to get a closing time extension.

There is interest in a night sole trip in convoy, and if it is timed to coincide with the Cowes Week Firework finale on Friday 7^th August we could have a bit of extra entertainment.

Date of next meeting is Tuesday 2^nd June at 7pm in the Marina Bar.

Our Open Bream Competition is always popular because it marks the turning point from a rather barren spring season (these days)  and the arrival of larger breeding fish and the summer season. We have grown very tired of catching dogfish and small conger so the chance of bream is very welcome.

On Sunday 3^rd May the forecast was favourable so we had the green light. 45 anglers registered to fish including Ladies and Juniors so it was very competitive. The target was a single largest black bream, and as the fish came in to be weighed we were seeing a lot of fish in the 2lb plus range. When all were back, we ranked the fish and moved onto the prize giving ceremony, held in the evening sunshine outside the Marina Bar.

First and Second places included a cash prize plus additional vouchers from our sponsors. Runners-up received tackle and voucher prizes according to place. We are very grateful to Premier Marinas, British Big Game Charter, Andy’s Baits, Newnham Builders, Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club, the Marina Bar and Portsmouth Distillery for their generous donations of prizes.

Here are the winners:

First: Mark Jackson (Harvest Moon) 3.58lb

Second: Richard Pack (Full Throttle) 2.78lb (tie breaker dice throw)

Third: Steve Tamblin (Sea Jay) 2.78lb (tie breaker dice throw)

Fourth: Dan Lumsden (Sea Jay) 2.76lb

Fifth: Stuart Newell (Harvest Moon) 2.53lb

Sixth: Dan Shipman (Harvest Moon) 2.50lb

Top Ladies Entry: Penny Arthur (Full Throttle) 2.36lb

Top Junior: Luca Budd (Cavalier) 1.54lb

We also had a surprise additional prize. Donated by Newnham Builders, this was a £100 fuel contribution drawn in a raffle by boat name and awarded only to the skipper present at the prizegiving. The winner was – yes, Harvest Moon! Definitely a day of skill and luck for Stuart Newell and his crew on Harvest Moon.

Our thanks as always to the organisers, sponsors and competitors who together made another enjoyable and memorable day.

Thank you to our loyal Club Members who turned out despite the warnings of traffic chaos around the Portsmouth game! It was a great excuse to get down here early and chat for a bit.

Anyway… on with the meeting report! Standings are as below, early days yet and lots of blank spaces. Pete Churchill is racing off on the Species Hunt but there’s plenty of time for a chase.

Fish Of The Month was very easy this month because NO fish were entered in March and I didn’t have to do any complicated specimen percentage calculations. Instead, we changed it to Fishless Of The Month which by precedent is awarded to whoever we like, so we awarded it to Dave Newnham for being a great help in organising the Open Comps and being an all round good chap. Dave donated his cash prize to the RNLI/GAFIR fund.

Membership Update isn’t such happy news, 24 members have not paid their renewal yet which means we are £480 down on club funds. Members won’t be able to enter ANY fish that they catch in our competitions if they aren’t paid up – you can’t backdate the payment, so please make sure you have dropped off your £20 before your next trip. It would be a shame to miss out on a decent prize because of that. You can put the cash in an envelope with your name/SMAC Membership 2026, and drop it into the office. You can message Steve, Eleanor or any committee member to confirm.

Members may recall a recent debate on Fisheries Regulations. We took this opportunity to remind members that SMAC takes both legislation and guidance on minimum take sizes and catch limits very seriously. No abuse of these rules will be tolerated.

Our next Open Competition is nearly upon us: the Open Bream Competition with a date of Sunday 3^rd May and following Sundays as reserve dates. Details on the Link. This is a popular competition because everyone is in with a good chance of catching a bream big enough to secure a place on our extensive Prize Table! The Committee will be looking for new additional sponsors for our Open Competitions over the next few weeks.

Our next monthly meeting will again be on a different date from usual due to the May Bank Holiday. It will be on Thursday 7^th May, 7pm in the Marina Bar.

This is the night for a get-together, fun, banter and to celebrate the achievements of our members over the past season. We combine the SMAC awards with SMDAC to make it even more of a family gathering. This Awards ceremony was a little daunting for your new chairman because it was the first in living memory not hosted by Steve Kelly. Nevertheless (and to the huge relief of the chairman), Steve had carried on behind the scenes managing the club competition standings and the winners’ trophies for this event too.

We invited Rupert Bremer from Premier Marinas to present the trophies and he lived up to, and exceeded, his reputation for glamorous costumes. This year he topped off his amazing goldfish suit with a fender-head of epic proportions, and I was rather relieved when it came off safely.

Anyway, on with the show and Steve Kelly who is Treasurer of SMDAC took the mic to announce their prizes. First thing however was to welcome John Calton as the new Chairman – wait, no, it is now Commodore, selected to top the rank of his brother in a neighbouring club. To seal the appointment, John was presented with a hat of suitable glamour which I’m sure will attract admiring glances when he wears it around Southsea (which he is now obliged to do).

The official trophy winners for SMDAC were:

• Cod Cup (ok, Whiting then): John Calton
• Best Specimen Cup: Tony Tadd
• Species Hunt Cup: Frank Chatfield
• George Dominy Memorial Cup: Frank Chatfield
• Silver Fish Trophy: Jenny Munday
• Lake Specimen Trophy: Tony Tadd
• Mixed Lake Cup: Frank Chatfield
• Champion Runner Up: Ben Munday
• SMDAC Club Champion 2026: Frank Chatfield

Before moving on to the SMAC trophies, we had a quick catch-up on the Fish Of The Month winnings that hadn’t been collected, and distribution of the 21 Specimen Fish certificates and medals to:

• Sam Cofie
• Ray Plomer
• Dave Chapman
• Steve Tambling
• Andy Bird
• Pete Churchill

The Trophy Winners for SMAC based on the final competition standings were:

• Pollack Cup: Mark Banks
• Best Turbot or Brill Cup: Jim Atkins
• Ladies Cup; Soulla Banks
• Junior Cup: Jack Dickson
• Catch & Release Cup: Steve Tambling
• Best Specimen Cup: Andy Bird
• Species Hunt Cup: Pete Churchill (32)
• Junior Species Hunt Cup: Fergus Morrison (2)
• Ladies Species Hunt Cup: Pam Eckersall (10)
• Nelson Mandela Cup: Everyone that fished it!
• Cod Open Best Placed Member: Dan Lumsden
• Bream Open Best Placed Member: Jim Atkins
• Bass Competition Best Placed Member: Steve Tambling
• Bill Arnold Memorial Trophy: Steve Kelly

This trophy is awarded to the member who has made the most significant contribution to the club, and the recipient remains secret until the night. This trophy was awarded to the same person that was actually organising the trophies – Steve Kelly, so that involved some careful deception. An award to Steve for his amazing service and dedication was long overdue so it was a delight to see the surprise on his face!

• Cod Pool: Tim Andrews (First and Second)
• Place Cup: Dan Lumsden
• Bream Cup: Tim Andrews
• Bass Cup: Jim Atkins
• Cod Cup: Tim Andrews
• Pairs Cup: Tim Andrews and Mark Banks
• Champions Cup Runner Up: Neil Glazier
• SMAC Club Champion 2026: Tim Andrews

After an interlude for food and a top-up of drinks, we drew the raffle prizes. We had an impressive array of tackle and accessories, and huge thanks to all the members who generously paid for tickets even though some couldn’t attend on the night.

It was a very enjoyable evening and it’s great to socalise and talk fishing at a time of the year when any other fishing activity is a bit grim. We would like to thank Steve Kelly, retiring chairman who still did a lot of organising for the evening; Eleanor Atkins particularly for ticket sales and organising food; Dan Lumsden for prizes and raffle; Jim Atkins as photographer and assistant organiser; Dave Newnham; Premier Marinas for prize donations, Rupert Bremer for his celebrity presence; the Marina Bar for looking after us; Steve Tambling, champion lead-maker for his prize contributions; and of course everyone present and absent who helped make the evening a great success. Next year, do come along, bring your partners, don’t be shy and have a great time.

This new chairman is finally getting the hang of the job and that is entirely the result of all the supporting work Steve K. is doing behind the scenes. This has been made more complex by us voting in all the extra places on the Standings, sorry Steve! And thank you, big time.

We had 17 members present, including those that stayed on from the SMDAC meeting for the entertainment. First up was a rendition of the (now two-page) Standings, thankfully short this early in the season. Later on I think I’ll get you to read it yourselves.

We had five entries for Fish Of The Month, the final vote being hotly contended between Frank Chatfield’s Spurdog of 18lb – 112.5% of Specimen Weight, and Richard Pack’s Cuckoo Wrasse of 1lb 8oz – 120% of Specimen Weight. The result was a win for Richard and a round of applause for Frank for a very competitive fish. Frank’s consolation prize was to now be in the lead for the Catch & Release Cup with his fish, but no £10 unfortunately.

The Premier Berth Holders Social will be from 10am to 12:30pm on Saturday 7^th March in the Marina Bar and SMAC will be supporting it with our information board display. All are welcome, and there’s a free bacon buttie and hot drink from Premier plus whatever corporate branded loot you can beg for. By the way the bag is good but the pen doesn’t last.

Preparations are well under way for our Presentation Night on Saturday 14^th March with a free drink and raffle ticket for members, free food, a very generous cash raffle and lots of prize-giving banter. Do come, partners welcome. 7pm for 7:30pm start in the Marina Bar.

Membership subscriptions are due so if you haven’t paid yet please contact Steve Kelly or Eleanor  Atkins before they call in The Collector.

There was a call for the SMDAC vs SMAC Pier Competition again this year, so if SMDAC are game we are up for the challenge. Unfortunately the burger van is no longer on the pier so we may have to go further afield for supplies – like to the other end of the pier.

Our friend Dan Sissons is organising a Bass Beach Competition on the same weekend as our Open Bass Boat Competition 18/19 July. Their presentations will probably also be in the Marina Bar. If they coincide….that could be fun!

There was a reminder that the Bass Closed Season is upon us, Catch & Release only until end of March. The good news is that from April onwards our take limit goes up to three fish per angler per day, minimum length 42cm as before.

Finally, the University of Portsmouth Angling Club is holding a 24 hour Fishathon on or around 5^th May, so if any of our members are available for a few hours to fish alongside some newbies and give them some tips I’m sure they would be very grateful. Location probably at the Portsmouth end of the seafront.

Next Monthly Meeting is Tuesday 7^th April at 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.