Category: SMAC (Page 6 of 11)

Wow, another nearly full house! Our SMAC monthly meetings are getting so popular you’ll have to arrive early to bag a seat. We now have 76 members so perhaps that isn’t too surprising.

Our Chairman Steve Kelly opened proceedings by going through the Club Standings (details below). Of particular note is the highly competitive Species Hunt with Peter Churchill on 39 and Dan Lumsden in hot pursuit with 38.

Fish Of The Month Competition for Best Specimen: there were plenty of good fish entered in August which is a good sign. In fact there were so many to list we nearly awarded the prize to the wrong fish but having sorted that out SMDAC member Frank Chatfield collected his medal for a 15lb Undulate Ray (see header photo).

The Open Species Competition was held on 27^th August and there is a full report here. Peter Churchill won it for the Club with 15 species, congratulations Peter.

The Cod Pool started on 1^st September. £10 to enter, winner takes all for the largest cod caught between now and the end of January 2024. See Steve Kelly to enter, but only if you have £10 in your hand.

The Club Sole Night Trip took place on Saturday 2^nd September, organised by Dan Lumsden. A small flotilla headed to Southampton Water to fish into the night, keeping together for safety. Most sole came to the net from dusk to nightfall, after which things went quiet. The joint winners of the Unofficial Sole Competition were Luke Scott and Steve Tambling, 11 ozs each.

The Inter-Club competition will be held on 8^th October, and because Ray Plomer won last year on behalf of LHFA they will be hosting. The term “hosting” will be applied loosely, because the weigh-in may not be at LHFA for various reasons. More details to follow.

Steve reminded us of the open invitation to attend the Tagging workshop for Bream, Sharks and Rays to be held at the ECA on Monday 2^nd October from 6pm to 8pm.

Nearly all of the SMAC 10th Anniversary t-shirts have now been collected by members. If there is enough interest we’ll put in one final order for more so watch out for the notice on WhatsApp and Facebook.

There may or may not be a Berth Holders BBQ at the end of the month to celebrate the new paint job on the BBQ area, we await details from Premier.

And that’s all for this month! Next meeting same time same place (Marina Bar) on 3^rd October.

It was nice to see so many members at the monthly meeting again. A sign of the times really, if the weather’s too bad to fish, the next best thing is to talk fishing with mates.  Our Chairman Steve Kelly started the meeting with a review of the club competition standings (see below). Our new lady member Pam Eckersall has shaken up the Ladies Species competition by taking the lead after one trip! Dan Lumsden is still leading the Species Hunt Cup but has upped his score to 37.

Next item on the agenda was Fish Of The Month and we had several good fish entered in the book. Catch & Release – which are not in the book – also counts, so Luke Scott’s Brill of 3lb 4oz was voted FOTM from the July catches (see heading photo).

Our Open Species Competition is this month, 13^th August weather permitting. Further details here. The event will be promoted on Facebook Groups and Eventbrite, so please feel free to Share with your contacts.

Our next club event will be a night trip for Stingray and Sole. This is a social rather than a competition, and final details will be shared on the SMAC WhatsApp Group. We plan to leave the marina in our own boats at 4pm on 5^th August or 19^th August and fish in a group until first light in the morning. Those with stamina can carry on after the bass!

Our 10-Year Anniversary t-shirts have now arrived, so if you have ordered some please contact Neville to arrange collection and payment. We have a slight delay on the Medium sizes but they are promised in time for the Species Competition when a lot of members will be at the marina.

Onto marina news: the new tap has now been installed on the Holding Pontoon, so thank you Premier. The other issue we raised was the underwater obstruction which is collecting propellers at low water Springs just off the shingle point (50deg47.816’N 1deg1.926’W). Nobody is quite sure of the responsibility for this and as it’s a solid lump to remove, it’s likely to carry on being a problem for a while. It’s therefore best to avoid the channel entrance at very low water.

A final note was an invitation from ECA to a talk about tagging fish for research purposes which will be held over the road at the ECA on Monday  2^nd October, at a time to be confirmed.

There being no other business, we went back to talking about fishing.

Next Meeting Tuesday 5^th September, 7pm in the Marina Bar.

It was with great sadness that we heard of the death of our SMDAC friend George Dominy aged 87. George was a great angler and held in much affection by our community. Pictured above is George in 2019 sharing the Mandela Cup with Mikey Primett.  The weather was awful and no fish were caught at all. The cup was shared between the oldest and youngest competitor! That was typical of George, he so loved his fishing even at 85 years old.

We opened the meeting with a few words of remembrance from Bill Arnold, then we drank a toast to George.

Then John Wearn said a few words on behalf of the SMDAC and we drank another toast to George.

Then Steve Kelly said a few words on behalf of SDAC and we drank another toast to George.

Then Bill wanted to say a few more words so we drank another toast to George.

By which time we all needed refills and decided we ought to get on with the meeting.

Steve read out the latest club competition standings (see below). Mark Banks is in the lead for Club Champion with 7 points.

We haven’t had many good fish weighed in this month so Fish Of The Month was a contest between a decent mullet and a couple of tiddler cod. Although some of us would secretly have preferred to catch a cod of any size, we did the honourable thing and voted FOTM for a mullet of 3lb 5oz to Michelle Plomer. Congratulations Michelle.

On Sunday 16^th July there will be an Eastney Beach Clean organised by Sea Shepherd UK. Meet at 10am at the Ferry Road Car Park PO4 9LY.

The Open Species Competition will be on 13^th August with a reserve date of 27^th August. Details here.

Our Sole and Stingray Night Trip is likely to be 4^th or 5^th August. This will be confirmed at at the monthly meeting on 1st August.

The Brighton Commodore Rally has been converted to a pathfinder mission this year, with the full rally planned for 2024 based on information gathered during the informal trial run this autumn.

There was some Marina News based on responses to our questions to Peter Pring:

• Additional tap on the Holding Pontoon – there are no resources available to do this so he will be getting quotes
• Dredging the marina – not in the Capital Projects list at the moment
• Health and Safety issues in the BBQ area – he will investigate

Two further questions will be passed to Peter:

• Request to control the nettle infestation around the sheds
• Is the marina channel a Premier responsibility as far as the spit, because there remains a concrete block and pipe in the channel at that location which is a danger at low water.

The long-awaited quotes for our anniversary tee-shirts has finally been secured from a different supplier, and an order form will be circulated. There will be an option for cotton tee shirts, polo shirts and polo shirts with pocket in sizes Small to 5XL. (Post meeting note: we will order a few extra in the popular sizes to allow for people who want to try for size).

Club funds are healthy, and a wreath will be bought for George’s funeral if that is allowed.

Next Meeting: Tuesday 1^st August, 7pm in the Marina Bar as usual.

Another lovely evening in the marina, and another monthly meeting already. If only the wind would drop a bit so we could get more fishing days in, but despite that we had several fish to consider for the Fish Of The Month competition. Like the Mornington Crescent game on Radio 4, nobody has quite worked out what the rules are for this. A starting point is the size of a fish compared with the published Specimen qualifying weight, then members vote based on how “good” a catch this was taking into account rarity and whatever other factors come to mind. I’m sure one day AI will come up with an algorithm but in the meantime we’ll carry on arguing about it. Net result was, FOTM went to Dan Lumsden for his turbot of 7lb 2oz.

The current club competition standings are listed below.

We all agreed that the BBQ on Saturday was a great success with around 50 members and guests enjoying the sun, company and food. We raised £720, which covered the £600 cost plus a new gas bottle for next time. Thanks to everyone who supported the event particularly those who bought raffle tickets but were unable to attend, and those helpers who stayed behind to clear up. The full report is here.

Our next main event is the Open Species Competition on 13^th August – more details here

There will be a group night fishing trip for sole and stingray in the summer, so watch out for details as we need a calm night!

Our flotilla trip to Brighton is planned for September. Details will be confirmed when our organisers have confirmed availability of marina, a guide and suitable tides. There will be a competition over the trip but we have yet to agree how this fits in with our SMAC rules for fish caught from Southsea Marina. Watch this space, or more specifically watch the WhatsApp Group.

Our 10-year anniversary T Shirts will cost around £14 each for the first batch, and about £17 for single orders later. These will be supplied by our local merch printer Vintage Pig, and when we have finalised the print design an order form will be circulated.

In Any Other Business, we asked Steve to ask the Marina management if they have plans to do some maintenance and repairs to the BBQ area; get around to fixing the tap on the holding pontoon please and is there any news on dredging the marina?

Our next meeting will be at 7pm on Tuesday 4^th July in the Marina Bar as usual.

Nevile Merritt

It’s our 10^th Anniversary Year and the weather gods were smiling on our annual Summer BBQ. If it’s not windy, people go fishing. If it’s not sunny people don’t fancy sitting around a BBQ. So the perfect weather combination for an Angling Club BBQ is sunny and breezy, which is exactly what we had on Saturday. We had a record attendance of 50 members and families for an afternoon of food, chat, a drink or two and of course our famous raffle!

Food consisted of some plump mackerel provided by Team Harvest Moon, freshly smoked; traditional BBQ fare (and lots of it); topped off by scones, cream and jam from Eleanor Atkins and lovely fresh strawberries from Barbi Hutton.

Our raffles always give great prizes, top up club funds and provide plenty of live entertainment – the four candles provided more laughs than the Two Ronnies! There are two raffles, a free one for club members and a fundraising raffle where some members demonstrated that the more tickets you buy the more chances you have. Seems fair to me, and as a result we raised over £700 for club funds to pay for these events. We would like to thank Bill Arnold and Eleanor Atkins for their amazing ticket sales and our prize sponsors British Big Game Fishing; Premier Marinas; Newnham Builders; Just Fishing Boats; Prestige Plumbing and Southsea Marina Disabled Angling Club.

We now have 73 members fishing from 41 boats berthed in the marina. On Saturday we also welcomed new member Steve Holt who, like others, has transferred to Southsea Marina because of the SMAC and the active fishing community here. We are very grateful to Premier Marinas for their continued support of our club activities – including the BBQ area!

Final thanks go to Steve Kelly for all the organising; the team of helpers, fetchers and clearers who put it all together and tidied up afterwards; and the roaming photographers including Barbi Hutton and Steve Andrews who were kind enough to share their pictures below.

Neville Merritt

Lots to tell you about this time so grab a drink and settle in for a read. Our May meeting was held a week later than usual on the 10^th May to accommodate the Bank Holidays. We had a good turnout as usual in the Marina Bar.

First up was the Competition Standings, which if I had recorded properly I would have reproduced them here. What I can remember is that Steve Tambling is on there as the Best Placed SMAC Member on the recent Open Bream Competition.

Next was the regular Fish Of The Month vote. Members were reminded that fish don’t swim onto the entry book by themselves. Qualifying fish have to be written in the book in the Marina Office, even if they have been weighed and recorded in a SMAC competition. Once that was out of the way we voted Mark Banks the winner for a bream of 3lb 13oz. If Mark had timed that better he would have won the SMAC Open Bream Competition last Sunday, but that’s fishing. We had a little chat about how well that event went, you can read about it here.

Our next event will be the annual SMAC BBQ on Saturday 3^rd June. We will provide free food for members and partners, just bring your own drinks. It will be held in the Marina BBQ area which is located on top of the toilet and laundry block. It isn’t nearly as bad as that sounds. The event starts at 2pm, with a raffle at 4pm. Food will be served when the cook decides it’s safe to eat, and the event ends when we have had enough. This is always a fun occasion so do come along. We’ll confirm during the week before just in case the weather forecast is terrible although unlike fishing competitions, wind doesn’t matter.

Save the date for the annual Open Species Competition, which will be held on Sunday 13^th August. It will be fished from 8am to 4pm; last weigh-in 5pm and prize-giving in the Marina Bar at 6pm. The format will be the same as in previous years: photograph the fish and the entry card showing all distinguishing features before returning the fish to the sea. The photographs will be needed to verify the species claims for the winners.

We will have a group night fishing trip for stingray and sole some time in the summer, so watch out for details. We’ll anchor or moor up in shallow water targeting stingray in the evening and sole at night. This will be a great opportunity for those of us (myself included) who feel a lot more confident fishing at night when you know there are other boats close by.

We also have plans for a weekend trip to Brighton Marina which is being organised by Dave Newnham and John Evans. The plan is to fish on the way to Brighton, overnight at Premier Brighton Marina either on board or in a hotel, have a slap-up meal and a few beers in the evening then on the Sunday, fish on the way back to Southsea. Dates will be dependent on numbers interested and berth availability in Brighton Marina so please contact Dave if you want to be included.

We will be ordering a batch of SMAC Anniversary T-Shirts soon, when prices are confirmed. I’ll circulate order details as soon as they are known. We expect the first batch order to be cheaper than ordering later individually, so grab the opportunity when it comes. Standard SMAC logo polo shirts and hoodies can still be ordered online from the Club Shop.

That’s it for now. Next meeting will be Tuesday 6^th June at 7pm in the Marina Bar.

Neville Merritt