Category: SMAC (Page 5 of 7)

The monthly meeting was held in the usual place – the Marina Bar – on 2nd August with a great turnout from the members. Many thanks for your support! Many thanks also to Steve Andrews for sending me the notes because I wasn’t able to attend.

Fish of the Month was awarded to Dave Newnham with his bass of 9lb 12oz (pictured – it’s definitely Dave and it’s definitely a bass but I’m not 100% sure it’s the actual bass – but near enough anyway).

Current club competition standings are as below:

The Open Species Competition was postponed from 31st July to 14th August, same arrangements as before. Sign in at the Marina office, fishing from 8am to 6pm and prize-giving in the Marina Bar afterwards.

Our next club event is the annual barbeque which will be held on Sunday 28th August from 2pm. Food is free for members, please bring your own drinks. There will also be a free raffle. Neville will be Chef de Cuisine and will also be providing an amuse bouche of his famous brined and smoked mackerel, as long as there is a supply of mackerel fillets on the day! It would be very helpful for our catering order if members could indicate whether they are coming with a Yes/No/Maybe to Steve Kelly before the 28th.

Please can anyone who has any catch photos, news or gossip they would like to share with members send them to me (Neville) by email, Messenger, Text or WhatsApp. Thank you!

Eleanor Atkins gave attendees a great presentation on the planned protest about the water quality around Southsea. This is caused by Southern Water discharging raw sewage into the sea whenever their treatment plants can’t cope – which seems to be often. On 10th September there will be a Protestival: Stop The Sewage Southsea event. In their words “There will be lots of amazing organisations, artists and more to raise awareness of the need to look after our sea and to keep the spotlight on Southern Water.” More details to follow

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 6th September, 7pm in the Marina Bar advertised although we usually start proceedings at 7:30!

Neville Merritt

The monthly meeting was held as usual in the Marina Bar on Tuesday 5th July at 7pm.

Fish Of The Month was awarded to Chris Satow for his 16lb Undulate Ray caught from Lady Elsa.

Competition standings are as detailed below (updated since the meeting):

The SMAC anglers who took part in the Sea Angling Classic were warmly congratulated for their efforts, partularly the teams from Stuart Newell’s Harvest Moon who topped the Charter section. See the separate report on the SAC here.

The next competition will be the Open Species Competition on 31st July, organised by Bill Arnold. We now have an impressive prize table thanks to our various local sponsors. In addition, Stuart Newell has donated seven reels, two sets of scales and other loot for the prize table. Dave Newenham has donated two bottles of whisky.

Finaly, Stuart also announced that he is one of the select few charter skippers authorised to catch Blue Fin Tuna on a catch, tag and release basis. He will be operating out of Fowey in Cornwall, and has  a special offer for SMAC members – please contact him for details. Trips will be for 10 hours duration.

Next meeting will be Tuesday 2nd August, usual time, usual place.

As usual, the monthly meeting was held on the first Tuesday in the month in the Marina Bar.

First item on the agenda was a quick round-off from the Awards Night in May, where Tim Andrews and Mark Banks were given their awards: the pair of them for the Pairs Cup; Mark for the Plaice Cup; Tim for Champion Runner-up; Bream Cup; Mandela Cup and Specimen Award for his bream of 3lb 13oz.

Bill Arnold was also thanked for his impressive powers of persuasion, relieving the attendees of nearly £500 (rounded up by Steve Andrews on the night) through the sale of raffle tickets.

On to current items: Fish Of The Month was awarded to Jim Atkins for his competition-winning bream of 4lb 8oz.

Competition standings are as follows:

Next event will be the SMAC Open Species Competition to be held on Sunday 31st July (with reserve dates). See here for more details.

Steve K has kindly prepared a list of SMAC members by name and boat, which will be helpful when calling on VHF. Paper copies can be obtained from Steve, or members can request a copy by emailing me here. I won’t provide the list on the website to protect individual privacy. As with any Data Protection requirements, members can ask for their names to be removed from circulated information if they wish.

Steve K advised us that Lizzie Mitchell, Premier Marinas Senior PR Executive will be leaving for pastures new. Lizzie has provided us with amazing support especially with the Fishing Shows we ran from 2015-17 and in promoting SMAC generally. We wish her the very best and look forward to welcoming her replacement.

Stuart Newell (Harvest Moon – British Big Game Charters) has been negotiating potential sponsorship with Normark, who own brands such as Okuma, Rapala etc. They have gifted a number of stickers and a Guide to Lines booklet, which members can collect from the marina office while stocks last.

Finally, we wished all the members competing in the Sea Angling Classic in June the very best of luck. Hopefully, all that beach cleaning (pictured) will create karma for success!

Next meeting will be 7:30pm on 5th July.

Neville Merritt
June 2022

Delayed from our usual date which would have been soon after the competition season ends, this year our “event of the year” was held on 14^th May. Post-Lockdown confidence meant we were back in the Marina Bar as usual, and the members were determined to enjoy themselves. We combine the SMAC awards celebration with the Disabled Club (SMDAC) and we were delighted their members were able to join in too.

DJ Mike Otton provided the music, Steve Kelly hosted the event (and organised it all actually); Bill Arnold made sure plenty of raffle tickets were bought and Rupert Bremer presented the prizes. The Marina Bar team were kept busy supplying drinks and preparing a huge buffet spread for us all.

First up were some “catch-up” prizes that had not been  awarded at the previous monthly meetings. John Jones for his 70lb conger, Stuart Newell for his April bream of 4lb 3oz and Kev Johnson with his Angling Trust Specimen Fish certificates.

Next up were the awards for the Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club. SMDAC members have the use of the boat Lady Elsa and also fish their own lake and pier competitions. Prizes were awarded as follows:

John Wearn – Champions Cup

Frank Chatfield – Best Cod Caught on Lady Elsa (actually a whiting, there being no cod); Lake Cup

Chris Satow – Best Specimen Caught on Lady Elsa; Champions Runner-up; Combination Cup; Mixed Lakes Cup

Tony Tadd – Largest Fish Cup

George Dominy – Pier and Beach Cup

Unfortunately George Dominy was unable to attend this evening.

Then we moved onto the SMAC Awards for 2021 Season. Here are the full results, with a photo gallery of the winners below.

Plaice Cup – Mark Banks (2lb 10oz)

Bream Cup – Tim Andrews (3lb 13oz)

Bass Cup – Kev Johnson (8lb 11oz)

Cod Cup – Brian van Daal (15lb)

Champions Cup – Kev Johnson (Runner-up Tim Andrews)

Pollack Cup – Kev Johnson (16lb 15oz)

Ladies Cup – Eleanor Atkins (Bass 1lb)

Junior Cup – Ben Lumsden (Bass 4lb 11oz)

Catch & Release Cup – Kev Johnson (Mullet 7lb 1oz)

Best Specimen Cup – Tim Andrews (Bream 3lb 13oz)

Pairs Cup – Tim Andrews and Mark Banks

Species Hunt Cup – Peter Churchill (27)

Junior Species Cup – Jake Kelly (7)

Ladies Species Cup – Eleanor Atkins (7)

Cod Pool – Brian van Daal (15lb)

Nelson Mandela Cup – Tim Andrews (Cod 7lb)

Inter-club competition was won by the ECA

SMAC Cod Open Best Placed Member – Peter Churchill

SMAC Species Hunt Day Competition – Bill Arnold

Unfortunately Mark Banks, Jake Kelly, Tim Andrews and Ben Lumsden were not able to attend in person.

After an interlude so we could enjoy our buffet and a few more drinks, the next activity was the raffle. Thanks to Bill Arnold’s powers of persuasion we raised enough money from the sales of raffle tickets to top up the club coffers. The prize table included rods, reels and accessories, cash prizes and even a couple of bottles. You had to be in it to win it and it was a fun way to round off the evening.

Our thanks go to to Steve Kelly for all the work he does behind the scenes to make events like this go so smoothly; to Mike Otton for the music; to Rupert Bremer and Premier for their support; to Bill Arnold for the raffle sales; to the SMDAC team for folding several thousand ticket stubs, to the Marina Bar crew for their hospitality and most of all to all the members who turned out to help make this such a great evening. If you couldn’t make it this year do make sure you come along next year – a free drink, a free buffet, free music, not free but worth it raffle and plenty of free banter will be waiting for you.

Neville Merritt

The SMAC monthly meeting was held as usual in the Marina Bar.

The club competition standings are listed below. This is at 10^th May, including fish caught in the 1^st May Bream competition. Team Atkins are starting the shake up the usual list! However, there are many months ahead…

Fish of the Month (for April entries) went to Stuart Newell with a bream of 4lb 3oz. Stuart wins a medal and £10.

This year’s Species Hunt Open Competition is scheduled for July 31st with reserve dates 7th August or 14th August. More details will be published nearer the date.

Our summer BBQ will be on Sunday 28th August. This usually starts at 3pm, food will be provided but bring your own drink.

Steve Kelly has been in discussions with one of the tackle brands to get sponsorship and prizes for the club. Watch this space and thanks Steve!

https://www.boat-angling.co.uk This is Neville’s website where he hosts the SMAC page and club news reports. It’s awesome. If you get the chance have a look around. It’s chockablock with information about the waters we fish, the fish we catch and methods for catching target species and loads of other stuff. Neville volunteers to do write-ups on our club activities and competitions. With our help he also includes catch reports, photos and stories. If you’re lucky to land that fish of a lifetime please send a piccie in via his webpage, our WhatsApp group or the SMAC Facebook page.

And finally……

Presentation night is this Saturday 14^th May 7pm onwards. We have a DJ, and buffet and one free drink for all SMAC members. We’ll also have a fantastic table of raffle prizes.

Next monthly meeting will be the first Tuesday in the month as usual: 7^th June 7:30pm in the Marina Bar. All members welcome, do come along for a drink and some banter.

Thanks

Steve A

We had another (nearly) full house for the April meeting in the Marina Bar – thank you to all that turned up. It was great to welcome new members and catch up with old friends who have been hibernating through the un-fishy months previously. Hopefully, April and May will see an improvement on the dogfish/pin whiting catches that we have had to endure on trips recently.

However – some people have been catching decent fish and this month we actually had to vote on Fish of the Month, unlike last month. And on that subject, we had to make a correction for the No Fish of the Month in March because Peter Churchill actually did catch a half-decent tope and for reason that escape me (because I wasn’t listening) the entry wasn’t put forward. Pete got his medal but I think his prize money had already gone into the RNLI envelope.

But back to this month – Neil Glazier won Fish of the Month with a 12lb small-eyed ray which is 109% of the specimen weight. Other club competition standings are as follows.

On to other news: the weigh scales shed is about to be painted (in regulation Premier Marina colours), and a tube heater installed to keep the scales cosy. Apparently the scales get sleepy if they get too cold and they need to be on top form for the rare occasions when a fish worth weighing turns up.

After not much debate it was decided that the Awards Night will be held on the Saturday after the Open Bream Competition. If that seems vague, it gets worse because although the Bream Competition is scheduled for Sunday 1^st May, it may get postponed to the following Sundays if the weather is unsuitable. I hope that makes things clear. I also hope the Marina Bar are following this because that’s where we will hold the Awards Night, whenever that may be. It seemed to make sense last night anyway.

Daven Newnham has donated this very nice Bream Trophy (heading photo) for the Best Placed Member in the Open Bream Competition. The competition prize list is very impressive, see details below. Angling Trust Boat Rules apply – maximum two rods, thee hooks in total.

Neville Merritt thanked members for their orders of SMAC hoodies, the first of which were distributed at the meeting. These hoodies are Fairtrade certified and sourced directly from the cotton growers, fabric makers and garment factories in India, so you know for sure that your money is funding the people who make them rather than the owners of sweatshops. You can buy online here, or if you prefer to pay cash talk to Neville, or more accurately give cash to Neville and he will organise a hoodie for you. Here’s Steve modelling his SMAC Hoodie.

If you have any photos, news of catches or fishy stories please send them in to Neville for inclusion in the next Catch Reports. Whatsapp, text, Facebook Messenger or email.

Next meeting will be on Tuesday 3^rd May unless otherwise advised.

Neville Merritt

6^th April