Lymington & District Sea Fishing Club was founded in 1936 and is affiliated to the Angling Trust and Marine Regional Group Wessex.  Lymington lies in the picturesque coastal area between the New Forest and the shores of the Solent, opposite Yarmouth, on the Isle of Wight.
The clubhouse, completed in 1993,is located off Bath Road car park, Lymington. It provides a congenial place to socialise with fellow anglers and offers the opportunity for members to improve their knowledge and skill at the regular tackle talks and demonstrations held there.

The aims of Lymington & District Sea Fishing Club are to promote shore fishing and boat fishing for all anglers, in a safe and friendly environment and to encourage conservation of fish stocks. New members, in particular juniors, are always welcome. A membership application form is available to download from the web site. The club is also on facebook. A monthly newsletter is sent out to all members.

SHORE FISHING.
Numerous competitions are held throughout the year at various beaches along the Hampshire and Dorset coast. As well as the monthly competitions, there are also several leagues: for example, The Shingle Bank League and the Win-Sum League. There are also one open shore competition during the year.

BOAT FISHING.
Boat fishing is divided into two sections: large boats {or charter boat} fishing and shallow boats {privately-owned craft}. The large boat section has something for everyone and for all levels of skill and competitiveness.

• Monthly large boat competitions out of Lymington: semi-competitive, fished to minimum size limits.  from April - December.
• Match Boat League competitions out of Lymington, Poole and Weymouth: highly competitive and based on species, with no size limits.  Fished from April - September.
• Recreational boat trips out of Lymington, Poole and Weymouth, on weekdays and weekends.  Friendly atmosphere, no pressure.  Fished January - December.
• The Shallow {or small} boat section is fished from privately owned boats, which stay within a designated area, with competitions running throughout the year.
• In addition, a Small Boat Open to privately owned boats is held in the autumn.  

Shore Competitions are organised by Roland Blomfield.  For more information, please contact Roland on 01590-683363.
All competition dates for 2024.
Sat 12th Oct, Sat 16th Nov. 2025 Club Year. Sun 15th Dec.

10th Shore Competion 28th September. Results sent in by Roland Blomfield.
      The club held its 10th shore competition on Saturday 28th September at Warren Edge, Southbourne on a cold and blustery evening with strong north-westerly winds.  12 club members signed on and 9 weighed in fish consisting of bass, gilthead bream, sole, dab, plaice, small eyed ray and whiting.  On these competitions undersize fish count for points which were bass, dab, plaice, smooth-hound and conger eel.  12 fish were weighed for a total weight of 13lbs 13oz.  All fish once weighed are released straight back into the sea.
      Best fish of the evening was a bass weighing 4lb 7oz caught by Malcolm Stote.  Best flat fish was a sole of 0lb 12-7/8oz caught by Summer Monckton.
Results.
1st Malcolm Stote 1 fish 4lb 7oz and 65pts, 2nd Steve Monckton 2 fish 4lb 6oz and 60pts, 3rd John Tharme 5 fish 1lb 4-5/8oz and 85pts, 
4th Roland Blomfield 2 fish 0lb 15.2oz and 40pts, 5th Summer Monckton 2 fish 0lb 12-7/8oz and 55pts, 6th Stephen Brown 2 fish 0lb 10oz and 50pts,
7th Bruce Samber 2 fish 0lb 7.9oz and 55pts, 8th Terry Kempton 2 fish 0lb 7.4oz and 40pts, 9th Brian Dawkins 2 fish 0lb 6oz and 30pts. 
Glenn Short, Shane Samber and junior member Mia Samber sadly all blanked  but each gets 5pts.
 

9th Club Shore Competition.  Report sent in by Roland Blomfield.
On Saturday evening 3rd August the club held its 9th Shore competition on Lymington Sea Wall.  It was a pleasant evening with a light north-west breeze and 9 club members plus 2 guests signed on.  8 weighed in fish consisting of gilthead bream, smooth-hounds and silver eels.  On these competitions under size fish count for points which were silver eels.  A total of 27 fish were caught, weighed and released back into the a.s.a.p. for a total weight of 22 lbs 10.5 oz.  Best round fish of the evening was a smooth-hound of 4lb 7oz caught by guest angler Barry Samber.
Results.
1st Barry Samber (guest) 3 fish for 5lb 13.5oz, 2nd Malcolm Stote 10 fish, 1 undersize for 5lb 2oz and 75 pts, 3rd John Tharme 4 fish, 2 undersize for 3lb 7oz and 80 pts, 4th Steve Monckton 4 fish, 1 undersize for 2lb 0-3/8oz and 55 pts, 5th Bruce Samber 3 fish, 1 undersize for 1lb 14.2oz and 60 pts, 6th Mrs Summer Monckton 4 fish, 1 undersize for 1lb 9-3/8oz and 45 pts, 7th Danny Mapes (guest) 2 fish for 1lb 3oz, 8th Roland blomfield 3 fish, 1 undersize for 0lb 15oz and 40 pts, Shane samber no fish but gets 5 pts.

8th Club Shore Competition.  Results sent in by Roland Blomfield.  
On Sunday morning 28th July the club held its 8th Club Shore competition on the Shingle Bank at Milford-on-Sea.  The weather was warm and sunny with a light wind.  13 club members signed on and 10 weighed in fish consisting of black bream and pollack.  On these competitions under size fish count for points which were plaice and bass.  A total of 41 fish were caught for a total weight of 31 lbs 14 3/8 oz.  Best round fish of the day was a black bream of 1 lb 6.2 oz caught by Bruce Samber. 
Results:
1st Bruce Samber 8 fish 8 lb 1.7oz and 55 points, 2nd John Tharme 9 fish 7 lb 15oz and 50 points, 3rd Pete Chamberlain 5 fish 3 lb 15oz and 55 points, 4th Malcolm Stote 6 fish -1 under size 3 lb 13 3/4oz and 50 points, 5th John Hitchiner 3 fish 2 lb 10oz and 35 points, 6th Luke Woodford 3 fish 1 lb 14oz and 30 points, 7th Shane Samber 3 fish 1lb  13.1oz and 25 points, 8th Terry Kempton 2 fish 1 lb 9oz and 20 points, 9th Glenn Short 2 fish 1 lb 8 1/8oz and 20 points, 10th Steve Monckton 1 fish 0 lb 14 3/8oz and 20 points, 11th Roland Blomfield 1 fish under size for 15 points. Mrs Summer Monckton and Rory Lancaster both no fish but 5 points each.

Adult Win-Sum League competitions are organised by Colin Saunders.  Contact Colin on 0780 2511 522.
Competition are only fished on Wednesday Evenings only.  All the dates for competitions in 2024.

Adult Win-Sum Bonus Competition Wednesday 23rd October.  Results sent in by Colin Saunders.
      The club held the league's bonus competition at Hordle Cliffs on Wednesday evening in which 9 club members took part.  The fish proved very shy for some members and plentiful for a few.  Malcolm Stote stormed to a good victory taking the golden peg prize as well on the night.
Results:
1st Malcolm Stote 389 points, 2nd John Tharme 250 points, 3rd Paul Watson 213 points, 4th Colin Saunders 136 points, 5th Chris Ellis 132 points, 
6th Marc Duncan 49 points.  Garry Mann, Peter Chamberlain and Steve Monckton all blanked.  Longest round fish pool of £45.00 went to Malcolm Stote with a conger eel of 46cm.  2nd Longest round fish pool of £45.00 went to John Tharme with a whiting of 31cm.  Longest flat fish pool was not won.  Smallest fish pool of £22.50 each was won by Malcolm Stote and Marc Duncan both with a pouting of 13cm.
      Colin Saunders sends is sincere thanks to all who have taken part in this year's league and who have helped with the administration and also pegged the beaches.
TIGHT LINES TILL NEXT YEAR - COLIN.

6th Adult Win-Sum League Competition.  Results sent in by Colin Saunders.
      On Wednesday evening 21st August the club held its 6th Adult Win-Sum League match at harbour Road, Southbourne.  15 club members signed on in a windy but dry conditions.  As it was rough and windy there was a lot of surf which made it slow pulling the fish through it.  Fish caught included bass, conger eel, gurnard, mackerel and sole.
      The longest round fish was a conger eel of 51cm caught by Chris Ellis.  The longest flat fish was a  sole of 37cm (estimated to be about 1 1/2 lb) caught by Mike Dawkins.  The shortest fish was a pouting of 12cm caught by Steve Cox.
Results:
Zone 1.  
1st Andy Dawkins 104 pts,  2nd Johnny Tharme 84 pts,  3rd Malcolm Stote 77 pts,  4th John Hitchiner 51 pts,  5th Steve Monckton 30 pts. 
Zone 2.
1st Chris Ellis 141 pts,  2nd Steve Cox 129 pts,  3rd Mike Dawkins 77 pts,  4th Bernie Effamy 30 pts,  5th Pete Chamberlain 24 pts.
Garry Mann, Marc Duncan, Colin Saunders, Luke Woodford and Paul Watson all blanked.

5th Adult Win-Sum League Competition.  Results sent in by Colin Saunders.
On Wednesday evening 3rd July the club held its 5th match and the venue was Lymington Sea Wall.  10 club members signed on and 9 weighed in fish.
Zone 1.
1st Chris Ellis 289 points, 2nd John Hitchiner 121 points, 3rd Garry Mann 94 points, 4th John Hitchiner 83 points, 5th Colin Saunders 56 points.
Zone 2.
1st Andrew Dawkins 266 points, 2nd Michael Dawkins 197 points, 3rd Steve Monckton 106 points, 4th Marc Duncan 76 points, 
guest for the evening Martin Bobbet 180 points. 
Longest round fish was a 49 cm eel caught by Andrew Dawkins.
Smallest fish was a bass of 10 cm caught by Garry Mann.
Longest flat fish was not won.

Shallow Boat Competitions are organised by Brian Ansell.  Contact Brian on 01590-672628.  
All Competitions fished on Sundays.  Dates for 2024.
10th Nov Small Boat Open, 24th Nov, 2025 Club Year 8th Dec.

11th Shallow Boat Competition.
      On Sunday 13th October the club held its 11th Shallow Boat competition in which 12 club members took part.  It was cold and  alittle rough to start, but for once the weather forcast was right.  The sea calmed down making it a pleasent but cold day although we all said the fish were hard to find.  On our competitions the fish are measured and weighed and released stright back into the sea and points awarded for each fish.  Fish caught consisted of black bream, conger eel, dogfish. bass, bull huss, tub gurnard, pouting, whiting, thornback. small eyed, blonde and spotted rays.  We did have 2 specimen fish caught a bull-huss weighing 12lbs 14oz and a tub gurnard of 3lb 8oz both caught by Alan Mapes.
Results:
1st Alan Mapes 134pts, 2nd Ian Rogers 93pts, 3rd Paul Dibden 83pts, 4th Derek Smith 72pts, 5th Colin Wright 71pts, 6th Chris Hardy 70pts,
7th Adrian Moody 67pts, 8th Barry Littlefair 64pts, 9th Paul Watson 45pts, 10th Brian Ansell and Alan Martin both 35pts and 12th Denis Mapes 20pts.

10th Shallow Boat Competition.
      On Sunday 8th September the club held its 10th Shallow Boats competition and 12 club members fished the competition.  The weather flung assorts at us.  It was nice to start with just cloudy.  Later in the  morning then rain started and we had a steady downpour for a couple of hours, but the best part was we had very light winds.
      Fish caught on these competitions are measured and points awarded then put straight back into the sea.  Fish caught consisted of black bream, bull huss, conger eel, dogfish, gurnard, plaice, spotted and thornback rays, scad and smooth-hounds.
Results:
1st Paul Watson and Paul Dibden both with 88 pts, 3rd Dan White 83 pts, 4th Denis Mapes 77 pts, 5th Derek Smith 65 pts, 6th Alan Mapes 60 pts,
7th Barry Littlefair 48 pts, 8th Adrian Moody and Chris Hardy both with 45 pts, 10th Brian Ansell, Alan Martin and Colin Wright all with 40 pts.

9th Shallow Boat Competition.
On Sunday 11th August, a very hot and sunny day with a moderate breeze blowing from the east  which unfortunately made it rather uncomfortable with wind against tide the club held its 9th Shallow Boat competition.  12 club members signed on and all caught fish  consisting  of black bream, conger eel, plaice, rays, shad, bass, pouting and wrasse.  On these  competitions all the fish are returned to the sea and points awarded for each fish and different species.
Results:
1st Alan Martin 74 pts, 2nd Denis Mapes 71 pts, 3rd Barry Littlefair 69 pts, 4th Adrian Moody 59 pts, 5th Alan Mapes 48 pts,
6th Adrian Hulme 48 pts, 7th Derek Smith and Paul Watson both 42 pts, 9th Brian Ansell 41 pts, 10th Colin Wright 40 pts,
11th Chris Hardy 30 pts, 12th Neil Mitchener 25 pts.

Large Boat Competition are organised by Marc Duncan.  Contact Marc on 0781 0876 281.
All Large Boat competitions are fished on Sunday only.  Dates for 2024.
6th Oct, 3rd Nov, 1st Dec.

8th Large Boat Competition.  Report and Photos sent in by Marc Duncan.
      The 8th Large Boat competition took place on Sunday 22nd September from Poole aboard "Ocean Runner", skippered by Ryan Jones.  With the weather forecast to be wet all day we pushed off looking for ballan wrasse.  After an hour the rain had stopped and we were into fish, catching ballan wrasse, pouting, scad, black bream and red bream.  We then moved towards the piers looking for plaice and gurnards where we had 8 tub gurnards and  5 plaice.
      Next mark was for congers where we only had a couple, but Mark Boldick, Robin Lane and Jane Hopkins had some smooth-hounds.  With another move in search of congers we eventually hooked into them with almost everyone landing at least one and most notable was Tony Methvan's of about 20lbs.  Final mark saw us move to the Half Bank for doggies and rays.  5 dogs were caught and Glynn Barker had a small undulate ray.  A good day's fishing with plenty of banter was had by all, having 11 species and 257 fish all of which were returned bar a couple of gurnards.
Results:
1st Robin Lane 234 points, 2nd Mark Boldick 196 points, 3rd Malcolm Gerrish 156 points, 4th Marc Duncan 146 points, 5th Jane Hopkins 144 points, 6th Glynn Barker 112 points.
Next Large Boat competition is on Sunday 6th October aboard Blue Strike Charters out from Lymington.

7th Large Boat Competition.  Report and photos sent in by Marc Duncan.
The club held its 7th Large Boat competition which took place on Sunday 11th August from Mudeford aboard "Blue Strike Charts" skippered by Dan James.  With ideal weather conditions, even though we had a south easterly breeze, the decision was to push out to a wreck for rays, conger, tope and bull-huss.  We stopped on the way out in search of  mackerel which were few and far between.  At the wreck we did a couple of drifts and then anchored.  Malcolm Gerrish eventually caught a tope, Dave Wood had a couple of bream, Marc Duncan and Pete chamberlain had a couple of pouting.  With fishing proving to be rather hard we moved to the Dolphins and had a  drift there with Marc having a small tub gurnard.  This was  followed by a nice tope.  We then anchored on Christchurch Ledge where Pete had a couple of eels and Marc caught the only other.  Jane Hopkins and Glynn Barker had a couple of breams each.  Marc had a tope and a few small pouting were also caught.  Final mark saw us drifting for plaice, with 12 being caught the  best going to Malcolm who also had a double shot.  Roy Evans had a nice tub gurnard and Dave landed a dab.  A slow start to the day but a flurry of fish to end it off.
Results:
1st Malcolm Gerrish 102 points,  2nd Marc Duncan 95 points,  3rd Dave Wood 89 points,  4th Pete Chamberlain 63 points,  
5th Roland Blomfield and Glynn Barker both with 50 points each.

Vernon Everitt Match Boat League is organised by Robin Lane.  Contact Robin on 0787 6471 901.
These are species-based competitions with no size limits.  Dates for 2024.
28th Apr, 11th May,29th Jun,13th Jul,17th Aug, 7th Sept,26th Oct.

Recreational Boat Fishing Trips are organised by Robin Lane.  Contact Robin on 0787 6471 901.
These trips are non-competitive and target various species when in season.
Weekend trips for 2024.  19th Oct,23rd Nov,7th Dec.
Mid-Week trips for 2024. 10th Oct, 28th Oct, 14th Nov, 28th Nov, 16th Dec,

19th Recreational Evening Fishing Trip.  Report sent in by Dave Price.
      7 members from the club went out for an evening recreational fishing trip on Tuesday 24th September out from Lymington aboard "Double Six" skippered by Ben Wood.  The weather was good with light winds and only a slight chill once the  sun had gone down.
      This was a short trip from 5pm until 9pm to fish the Solent with the target fish being codling.  We were fishing within a short time of leaving Lymington and Ben anchored up on a deeper mark with the hope that the tide run would not be too strong as we arrived shortly after the tide had turned.  We were lucky as the Solent can be very weedy but, on the night, there was hardly any weed around.
     No codling was landed although Mark Boldick hooked into a  very good fish that rather frustratingly came off as it went under the boat.  We did land a selection of congers, dogfish and some good-sized bream.  The biggest was caught by Robert Taylor at 2lb 6oz. 

7th recreational Fishing Trip.  Report sent in by Dave Price.
      9 club members on Saturday 14th September went for a recreational fishing trip from Weymouth aboard "Meercat" skippered by Rayn Casey.  The recreational members were once again lucky with weather having a cloudy day with sunny intervals and light winds which made for calm conditions all day.  The target for the day was big bream on some wrecks that were quite a way off shore.
      We started the day by going out to Portland head and catching mackerel for bait (and the BBQ).  Getting mackerel has been a challenge on the recreational trips this year for a change we actually hit a few shoals and in a couple of drifts had a plentiful supply of mackerel for everyone.  A couple of cuckoo wrasse were also caught whilst we were feathering here too.
      With a good supply of bait on board, we then steamed out to the wreck and whilst on the way out there, for the first time on a recreational trip, we  encountered a shoal of big bluefin tuna.  It was an amazing sight with several very large fish smashing baitfish on the surface and then one tuna leaping fully out of the water to give us a really good appreciation of just how big these fish are.  The skipper took the boat in closer to where the tuna was, but by the time we had got there they had gone.
      We then carried on to the wreck to search for big bream.  Martin Bobbett was the first to land a good-sized bream but they weren't being caught in the  numbers that we had hoped for.  The skipper moved us around a few wrecks to see if we could find them, but not many were to be found.  However, we  did land a good quantity of other fish including mackerel, cuckoo wrasse, pouting, red gurnard and pollack.  Several congers were also caught with Tony Methven catching one around the 25lbs mark.  On the last wreck Martin Bobbett also landed a good-sized bass and Mark Boldick caught the fish of the day which was a black bream of 4lb 2oz.
      We then headed back to Weymouth but stopped off in the mouth of Portland Harbour to do some jigging for squid.  According to the skipper, the  squid have arrived early this year and we benefited from this with several members catching good sized squid and Nelson Phillips landing a decent cuttlefish too.
 

17th Mid-week Recreational Fishing Trip.  Report sent in by Dave Price.
      On Wednesday 4th September eight club members went on a fishing trip aboard "Ocean Runner" skippered by Ryan Jones out from Poole.  The day was cloudy with light winds and as this was a trip mostly targeting bass all day then it made for good fishing conditions. 
      As usual for one of Ryan's bass trips, we started the day by catching live bait on feathers on a mark out from Bournemouth Pier.  This was very successful and in a very short time we had live tank full of small scad.  We then set off to drift over some banks for bass with live bait near the bottom on Portland rigs.  Ryan had said this hadn't been particularly effective of late and he was right.  After 3 drifts with absolutely no takes we gave up on this method and moved closer to the Needles to fish the live bait under floats.
      This was far more successful and in the first set of drifts, the fish of the day was landed by Mark Boldick which was a fantastic 9lb bass.  Anton Emblem also landed a very good fish.  A few other bass were landed by members but nowhere near as many as on the  previous trip with Ryan.  When the tide died off and we waited for it to turn, Ryan went to a nearby wreck where we anchored up and a few pouting were landed and a very nice cuttlefish was caught by Neil Pullman.
      When the tide started moving again, we went back to drifting on the floats near the Needles and on the ledge on the way back where Anton landed another fine bass about the same size as his first one.  Also, Tony Knight caught his first ever bass whilst out with the club.  It was a good enjoyable day's fishing and over the whole day 8 keepable bass were landed on the boat.