Read all about the Southsea Marina Angling Club 2024 Species Competition!
This is one of only three Open Competitions that SMAC organises, and although the summer fixture has to compete with family holidays, it is probably the one with the most chances of winning because you can catch multiple species right here in the harbour! Even expert anglers sometimes find it hard to collect enough species on the day.
The day dawned rather foggy, but after a tentative start the sun broke through and 22 anglers in 13 boats took part. Proof of the sun was the sea of pink faces in the Marina Bar for prizegiving. The aim is to catch the most species, with a tie-break scoring system and failing that, a roll of the dice. We used all three methods to come up with the prize winners. By tradition, last year's winner gives out the prizes and as Peter Churchill won last year and is hotly contended by Dan Lumsden for all species hunts, the results were going to be interesting. We had no Junior entries so the bonus prize was the Ladies Prize won by Pam Eckersall with 3 species.
![SMAC Flags NW Mixed Content Block 952X664](https://premiermarinas.com/media/qwgkkfog/smac-flags-nw-mixed-content-block-952x664.jpg?width=952&height=664&rnd=133687054289930000)
Here is the final tally:
1st Dan Lumsden - 11 species
2nd Peter Churchill - 9 species
3rd Steve Tambling - 8 species tie-break score 17
4th Neville Merritt - 8 species tie-break score 9
5th Luke Scott - 7 species tie-break score 12
6th Tim Ward - 7 species tiebreak score 5
7th Michael Chapman - 6 species
8th Kev Laverick - 5 species tiebreak score 4
9th Terry Webster - 5 species (dice)
10th Dave Chapman - 5 species (dice)
Our thanks as always to our prize sponsors including: Premier Marinas, Cosham Angling, Baits 'R Us, Fish-On Bait & Tackle, Newnham Builders, SMDAC, Prestige Builders, Sportsman's Knight, British Big Game Charters and the Marina Bar - and many thanks also to our Club Chairman Steve Kelly for organising yet another very successful event.