Category: SMAC (Page 8 of 11)

Save the Date: Next Meeting  is 4^th October when we have a special virtual guest, Liz Baugh to run a CPR training Exercise for members. The meeting will start as usual at 7:30pm in the Marina Bar and the training will start at 8pm.

CPR (Cardiopulmonary resuscitation) is a vital life-saving skill which is used when someone’s heart has stopped such as after a heart attack or near-drowning. Liz will give us guidance so we will all have the confidence to have a go if the need ever arises.  This wouldn’t be training without a practical exercise, so please can you bring a pillow with you, and an old pillowcase that is no longer required? To add a bit of fun to a serious exercise, we’ll also have a competition with a prize of a Distillery Tour for Two kindly donated by our neighbours at the Portsmouth distillery. You’ll find out more on the night!

Liz is a former Royal Navy Medic and is now Lead Medical Consultant with Red Quare Medical. She provides medical training services for maritime organisations, from commercial ships to super-yachts. She fully understands the world of boat angling and her training will be highly relevant for us. This training has been registered with the Resuscitation Council UK and everyone attending will get a CPR guide sheet to take home.

Despite a rather rainy evening we had another great turnout to our monthly get-together in the Marina Bar.

Words of appreciation were expressed for all those that contributed their efforts to make the annual BBQ in August such a success. With the help of Bill Arnold’s fund-raising efforts, the club accounts show a sufficiently healthy balance to see us through the various planned events and the Awards Night in early 2023.

Steve Kelly ran through the current competition standings which are as illustrated (apologies for the corrections, an updated image will be along soon). Mark Banks is in the lead for the Catch and Release Cup with a bass of 12lb 8oz – 131% of a specimen weight. Peter Churchill is storming away with a tally of 38 in the Species Hunt but he has some close competitors in his wake.

Next on the agenda was the Fish of the Month. Mark Banks cleared the table with his selection of double figure bass so we selected one of them and decided that he had won. Mark kindly donated his £10 prize to our RNLI Fund, moments before realising that exact £10 was needed to enter the annual Cod pool, which runs from today. You have to be in the Cod Pool before declaring a fish (winner takes 75%, second place 25%) so see Steve Kelly with your £10 before you catch one this season!

Pete Churchill, who knows a thing or two about fishing advised us that most of the season’s cod are these days caught mainly in the September to October timeframe. This poses a bit of a dilemma with the timings of the Inter-Club and Cod open competitions but we eventually settled on the Inter-Club on Sunday 2^nd October and the Cod Open on Sunday 30^th October (set your clocks back!) with reserve dates thereafter. There is already a growing prize table so promotion will start immediately.

A proposal was put forward to run a CPR Training session at the October meeting and this was unanimously agreed. October includes the British Heart Foundation Restart a Heart day so it’s appropriate timing. The plan is to run our normal club agenda from 7:30 then at 8:00pm Liz Baugh, ex-RN Medic and now running Red Square Medical will conduct a live virtual training session for us. The practical element will involve a bit of fun and a competition, so be ready to get down and physical! Members will need to bring a pillow and an old pillowcase they no longer require. You will find out why on the night.

The marina bar staff have advised us that their Winter hours mean closing at 8:00pm so we will move our club meetings to a 6:30pm start. Reminders will follow with the notifications of future meetings.

The RNLI pot is growing nicely so we plan to invite the RNLI or GAFIRS to a future meeting to receive the donation, and also provide a bit of safety-related training if that’s possible.

Finally in the photos below you will see our special guest for the evening: Zeke Newnham, a very well-behaved Saarloos Wolf dog.

Next meeting will be a 7:30pm on Tuesday 4^th October in the Marina Bar as usual.

By John Wearn, SMDAC

Southsea Marina Angling Club held their Annual BBQ on Sunday 28th August , with the weather holding out favorably making 2022 a resoundingly successful event. But only achieved by the hard work put in by Steve Kelly doing all the organizing aided by Bill Arnold, with Neville Merritt once again committing his good self to barbecuing all the succulent deliciously cooked and plentiful food, including separately cooking his specialty in marinating deliciously smoked mackerel, all freshly caught by fishing members, especially for the day.

Thanks must go for the lovely scones cooked to perfection by the loving hands of Eleanor Atkins Jim’s wife. Steve Andrews made up for it by winning most of the prizes, but give him his due he was just as busy giving them back to be re-raffled, that goes to show the character of members throughout the club.

There may have been others behind the scenes who helped in making the afternoon so enjoyable, if so thank you all for making the bbq such a pleasant occasion you did us proud. This is shown by the fun little Eira Scott SMAC’s youngest member ( as pictured with her dad Luke ) was having, as she helped Steve and Bill when the raffle ticket winners’ prizes were being presented. Our thanks for a great day from SMDACs attending members.

PS
Steve did a brilliant job, neatly filleting 30 mackerel for the smoker from fish supplied by members. You would think 30 mackerel equals 60 fillets, but not quite. Steve confided that as he was at the back of the boat getting into the rhythm of fillet-fillet-head over the side,  something  distracted him and it was fillet-fillet-fillet over the side. Oops. Still, there was plenty for all and we even sent a doggy bag of smoked mackerel to our good friend Rupert in the Marina Office.
Neville Merritt

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