Luton Angling Club - Weekly News Reports

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Week Ending 27th April 2025

Here is this weeks news, information and catch report round up from Luton Angling Club.

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS - DON'T MISS OUT!!!

If you are an existing member intending to renew your membership - You only have a few days left to guarantee your renewal for the 2025/26 season. On the 1st of May if your membership has not been renewed - it will be offered on general sale to new members,

If you have not yet renewed please visit https://www.lutonanglingclub.co.uk/renew before Thursday 1st May.

Grand Union Canal

Phil and Callum Anderson fished the Grand Union Canal through Leighton Buzzard Saturday morning. They were only armed with maggots, and bites were hard to come by at first. Fishing light lines, size 20 hook and single maggot bites slowly arrived whilst fishing the middle section of the canal. They had Perch, some nice Roach , Skimmers Gudgeon, and a Ruffe.

By 11.30am the bites completely dried with the increasing boats and canoes so they decided to call it a day..

Callum Anderson - Perch Grand Union Canal

Callum Anderson - Ruffe Grand Union Canal

Callum Anderson - Skimmer Grand Union Canal

Phil Anderson - Perch Grand Union Canal

South Lagoon

Matthew Bond caught a superb 7lb 4oz Tench which is a new PB

Matthew Bond - Tench - South Lagoon

Reserving of Swims

It has been brought to our attention that people may be reserving swims at South Lagoon by placing equipment in them sometimes for several hours. Swims must not be reserved or obstructed and all pegs are first come first served.

Our rules state that "You can leave a swim with your tackle setup for 90 minutes max - Swims must not be reserved" This is so you are able to leave temporarily to get food/drink/or use the toilet.

Placing random items of gear in a swim to reserve it for another person prior to their arrival is not acceptable and not fair on other anglers. Our bailiffs will be keeping a close eye on this and any unattended equipment suspected of being used to reserve a swim will be moved and culprits reported to the committee. This applies to ALL Luton AC venues.

Thank you for your co-operation.

Beckerings Reservoir

Jason Mash fast becoming known as the "Carp Whisperer" has been at Beckerings this week, On Tuesday he had 4 Commons, He did another session on Friday and he realised they weren't up for bottom baits, so he reeled one rod in and put out a floater set up and had these two carp, one of which is the old fish known as"The Prehistoric" He also caught a Pike on the bottom bait that was meant for carp!

Jason Mash - Tuesday at Beckerings

Jason Mash - Tuesday at Beckerings

Jason Mash - PreHistoric - Friday at Beckerings

Jason Mash - Common Carp - Friday at Beckerings

On Wednesday, Grayson White had a 22 lb common and a 14 lb mirror (The Mirror was one of the 2022 stockies #17 that was 8.7lb at the time of stocking in October 2022), He wasn't having much luck at first, so he changed pegs and baits to catch them. He hadn’t caught anything at Beckerings this year…… so blank broken and hopefully more to come!

Grayson White - Beckerings

Grayson White - Beckerings

North House Lake

Warren Griffiths had one of the last lot of stockies that went in at North House Lake, now weighing 8lb 7oz. A very pretty fish and will be a banger when it's all grown up.

Warren Griffiths - North House Lake

Coaching Update
Our coaches were out on the bank on the Grand Union Canal at Slapton on Saturday afternoon, holding a well attended session for the Juniors. We were very pleased to see two new members, Joe and Myles, out with us for the first time, and were happy to hear Myles younger brother may join us soon as well.

All who came along to the event enjoyed themselves, extended their learning and caught some fish with Mark making everyone laugh when having his picture taken!

We have another public Lets Fish session at Slapton on Bank Holiday Monday May 5th where anyone can book on, and come and have a go with our coaches, so if you know anyone who wants to give angling a try you can book on via Eventbrite at the link below.

EventBrite - Let's Fish - Leighton Buzzard 05/05/2025

Coaching on the Grand Union Canal

Coaching on the Grand Union Canal

MATCH REPORT - Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Town South - Grand Union Canal

This week’s match was held on the GUC at Town South in Leighton Buzzard. Many had great difficulty getting to the venue, having to fight our way through the horrendous traffic in Leighton Buzzard caused by roadworks on the Canal Bridge by Tesco. The congestion was so bad that we had to delay the draw by 30 Mins to allow everyone to get there and we fished 10:30 until 3:30. As Tony Hickmott was not attending this week, the Werthers Golden Ticket competition didn’t run .

Fortunately, the heavy overnight rain was stopping as we arrived, and the day turned out overcast but dry, with a moderate breeze at times. The air temperature was 13C.

The Canal was nicely coloured but had large numbers of moored boats, making the number of swims available before the White Bridge extremely limited. There were several boats passing during the match, most without incident apart from the passage of an extremely large old Dutch barge, which although passing at slow speed, stirred the silt up considerably because of its size. There were no blank nets this week.

Sean Leatherland, our winner, took 13lb 10oz consisting of 2 quality Bream and 4 smaller ones plus some bits. Sean fished two lines, one at 9.5 metres fed with groundbait, punch crumb and micro pellet, and one at 11 metres on which he loose fed caster. Sean alternated between these lines using small redworms and pinkie as hookbait. Sean said he couldn’t get the fish to settle, perhaps because of the boat traffic.

Second this week was Dudley Frankland who managed a nice net of mainly Perch. Dudley was fishing close in, and being pegged behind a boat had some shelter from the breeze. He fished worm & caster due to the perch in the peg and managed to catch on that line all day, ending with 6lb 9oz

Third was Dennis Hunt who opted to fish 6mm bread punch over toasted crumb and liquidised bread at 5 metres. Dennis had several Roach and then had an extremely nice Roach / Bream Hybrid of a couple of pounds which gave a terrific fight on light gear, taking several minutes to land, watched by two Mums and their children on the towpath. The swim went dead after the Dutch Barge but picked up again later, Dennis took more Roach and a Bream to finish with 5lb 14oz.

Colin Holmes took fourth place fishing with 2 week old red maggots as bait! He started fishing the bottom of the near side shelf, and had a couple of little dips on the float which he missed so he added more shot so the bristle was just above surface so he could spot the bites better. This worked, and his next 2 bites resulted in 2 skimmers. Then two boats crossed in front of him. It all went dead after this, and Colin had just got a few bites going again when in Colins words ‘a boat that would have looked more at home coming out of Grimsby dock going into the North Sea’ (The Dutch Barge) passed and killed everything for a couple of hours. After this he got a Rudd and a couple of skimmers at the bottom of the far shelf finishing with 3lb 1oz

A big thank you to for those helping to organising the draw etc., and Tracy and all those who helped with the weighing in.

Results

1st Sean Leatherland 13lb 10oz

2nd Dudley Frankland 6lb 9oz

3rd Dennis Hunt 5lb 14oz

4th Colin Holmes 3lb 1oz

6th Barry Roper 2lb 1oz

7th Syd Wilson 2lb 0oz 8drm

8th Chris Howard 2lb 0oz

9th Richard Darbon 1lb 15oz

10th Steve Lathwell 1lb 14oz

11th Keith Ward 1lb 5oz

12th Terry Vickers 1lb 2oz

13th Dave Ridley 0lb 110z

14th Roger Baker 0lb 6oz

Our next match is Wednesday 30th April on Moat Lake at Wold Farm. Draw at the venue at 8.30 as usual, £5.00 optional pools plus £2.00 Luton pegging fee, pegs cost £11-00 which must be booked in advance via the fishery web site. Fish 10.00am – 3.00 pm.

For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time, please message us so we know you are coming before turning up. This will help us to manage the pegging of the venue, which has a finite number of available pegs. Please bring your club membership book with you as you will be asked to produce it for your first appearance.

Sean Leatherland

Dudley Frankland

Dennis Hunt

If you would like to send us a catch report from a Luton AC Water you can send reports and pictures via our facebook page and other social media accounts, the club website or via what’s app message to 07940 229071. Don’t forget every picture we receive is automatically entered into our monthly photo prize which is judged by the committee and you could win £25.00. It’s not always the biggest fish that wins so well worth sending in any of your catch reports. Tight Lines Until Next Week! Dave M Luton AC

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Easter Bank Holiday 21st April.

Here is this week's news information and catch report round up from Luton Angling Club which includes this bank holiday weekend.The fish in our waters are certainly starting to wake up and we are starting to receive numerous catch reports from our members.

Membership Renewal Reminder

Another reminder to any existing members that have not yet renewed their club membership - You only have until the end of April to guarantee your place for the 2025/26 membership year (1st June 2025 - 31st May 2026)

Existing members are only given priority to renew up until 1st May 2025. On the morning of 1st May 2025 any memberships that have not been renewed will be offered to NEW MEMBERS. We expect these to sell out very quickly so please make sure you renew before the end of April to avoid missing out.

North House Lake - Wyboston

Brett Collins had a superb Mirror from North House Lake during his 24hr session at the weekend.

Brett Collins - North House Lake

Warren Griffiths had a 4hr morning trip to North House Lake, which produced 2 mirror carp 18lb 5oz and 16lb 2oz. I think this is possibly number 11 and number 24 from the 2021 stocking.

Warren Griffiths - North House Lake

Warren Griffiths - North House Lake

Number 24 when it was stocked in 2021

Number 11 when it was stocked in 2021

South Lagoon - Wyboston

The lagoon continues to fish very well with lots of anglers reporting good catches. Amer Jawad had a nice late afternoon session and had plenty of bites.

Amer Jawad - South Lagoon

Wieslaw Lewandowski had a cracking 3lb 5oz Perch and he also had a nice Roach and a Carp.

Wieslaw - Perch - South Lagoon

Wieslaw - Carp - South Lagoon

Rod Gladston had a Mirror carp. I believe it's the first carp he's had from the Lagoon. A lot of the flood escapees seem to have made the Lagoon their home as we've never had so many carp reported from there.

Rod Gladston - South Lagoon

Rod Gladston - South Lagoon

Matt Mardlin also caught his first ever South Lagoon carp.

Matt Mardlin - South Lagoon

Bill Ridgway fished on Peg 4 at South Lagoon on Monday 14th. He had one nice Bream about 6lb and lost a good carp at the net .He was fishing a Size 14 to 4lb hook length with 3 reds.

Beckerings Reservoir

Ben Waymont had 4 mirrors the biggest being 26.8lb and the others at 21lb, 20lb and one smaller around 10lb.

Ben Waymont - Beckerings

Ben Waymont - Beckerings

Carlo Borromeo had somewhat of a red letter day 24hr session, catching 8 carp.

Carlo - Beckerings

Nick Lynch had a Catfish at 37lb and an 18lb Mirror. Both were caught on Mamba Baits Shrimp + Pepper.

Nick Lynch - Beckerings

Nick Lynch - Beckerings

Jack O'Dell had a 25lb Mirror from Beckerings yesterday. This fish is a new PB for him.

Jack O'Dell - Beckerings

Prior to his Friday night session on North House, Brett Collins did Thursday night at the reservoir and had a Common and a Mirror.

Brett Collins - Beckerings

Brett Collins - Beckerings

Grand Union Canal

One of our young anglers, Jack O Brien went to the three locks for a few hours on Monday and on the first chuck had a nice bream that fought way too hard on his light elastic. He had it on a single pinkie over a ball of groundbait. He only had one other perch on this line before the swim died, then he tried another line of chopped worm and casters near a boat. He had some bites but no fish. He commented that Three locks is tough fishing at the moment, with bites being available but hard to produce.

Jack O'Brien - Grand Union Canal

Lee Waring had a short 2 hour session on the Grand Union yesterday he had some nice Bream and a 2lb+ Perch. Interestingly, the Perch was missing it's stripes.

Lee Waring - Grand Union Canal

Lee Waring - Grand Union Canal

Lee Waring - Grand Union Canal

Match Report - Wednesday 16th April 2025

This week’s midweek match took place away from home waters. We descended upon Twin Lakes Fishery at Bedford where 13 anglers turned up, a number that was boosted to 15 by the very welcome addition of 2 members from our Junior ranks in the shape of Jack o’ Brien and Daniel Carr. On the debit side we had lost 4 anglers to late illness. We all wish all of them a speedy recovery.

It is most encouraging to see young blood amongst us and even more so to see them have some success, as the weigh sheet set out below demonstrates.

We fished Jack’s Lake at the venue (just a coincidence in names – Nothing to do with Jack O Brien!!) which was at a good level despite the prolonged dry spell and carried a fair amount of colour. However, we did face a strong wind blowing down the Lake which meant that the anglers on the high and low numbered pegs were face on into it. As the weigh sheet below shows, sport was somewhat patchy.

Steve Lathwell was the clear winner on the day with 60lbs 2oz. Steve opted to use a Method Feeder rig with micro pellets as groundbait and 8mm pellet as hook bait. He fished against the island opposite his peg and his net(s) contained mainly Carp with the occasional Tench. He alternated with random trips into the margins when sport became slower.

In second place with 47lbs 10oz was Mark Sessions who chose a maggot feeder to the end of the island, feeding 2mm pellets and maggot linked to a size 14 hook holding 4 maggots as bait.

In third place was Sean Leatherland with 43lbs 12oz caught mainly on a pole to 13m using maggot as bait.

In 4th place was Colin Holmes with 23lbs 8oz He also fished a method feeder initially but changed to a lifter bite detector due to difficulty with the gusty wind effecting the rod tip which in turn dislodged the feeder. Following this change of approach Colin began to catch with a 6mm banded pellet.

After that, the remaining anglers struggled to find any fish consistently, which the weights set out below testify to. However, nobody blanked on the day and despite the wind the weather remained dry.

Thank you to Ray Burton for his efforts to get the match under way by sorting out the financial side and the draw. Also, thanks to Richard Darbon for time keeping, (although he didn’t call time until he had hooked his last fish!!!). Finally thank you again to the stalwart Tracey who turned up, as usual, got Sean’s tackle to his peg and then returned later in the day to assist with and to scribe up the weigh in.

Overall, it was quite a hard day fishing wise but at least the weather was kind to us. Well done to those who managed to find some decent fish and to the rest for making it a pleasant day all round.

The full result is as follows.

1st Steve Lathwell 60lbs 2oz

2nd Mark Sessions 47lbs 10 oz

3rd Sean Leatherland 43lbs 12oz

4th Colin Holmes 23lbs 8oz

Joint 5th Andy Frankum and Paul Carr both on 18lbs 12oz

7th Richard Darbon 15bs 10oz

8th Jack O Brien 14lbs 2oz (a very impressive effort Jack – well done )

9th Dave Ridley 12lbs 4oz

10th Dudley Frankland 6lbs 4oz

11th Daniel Carr 5lb 4oz (One fish expertly played to the net- well done Daniel)

12th Ray Burton 4lbs exactly

13th Brian Shaw 1lb 10oz

DNW Terry Vickers and Simon Foulkes.

Our next match is Wednesday 23rd April at the Town South stretch of the GUC in Leighton Buzzard. Draw at the venue at 8.30 as usual, £5.00 optional pools plus £2.00 pegging fee, Fish 10:00am – 3:00 pm. Parking arrangements will be that the CRT carpark will be available to the less mobile members as usual.

Otherwise, please park considerately on the adjoining housing estate, particularly remembering that it is bin collection day and the Council Refuse Cart drivers are not renowned for their judgement of narrow widths!!

For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time, message us so we know you are coming before turning up. This will help us to manage the pegging of the venue.

Please bring your club membership book with you as you will be asked to produce it for your first appearance.

Unfortunately there are no pictures to accompany the match report this week.

That is all we have to report this week. As always please keep your reports coming in to us. If you would like to send us a catch report from a Luton AC Water you can send reports,pictures and videos via our facebook page and other social media accounts, the club website or via a what’s app message to 07940 229071. Don’t forget every picture we receive is automatically entered into our monthly photo prize which is judged by the committee and you could win £25.00. It’s not always the biggest fish that wins so well worth sending in any of your catch reports. Tight Lines Until Next Week!
Dave

Luton Angling Club