Apologies for the late weekly round up, We had an issue with the lock on the gate at Beckerings late on Sunday evening which needed urgent attention and took priority. Myself and Fergal O'Kane visited the venue and repaired the lock. Thanks to Rob Miller for assisting with his head torch as it did get dark rather quickly which made the repair more awkward.
Luton’s CRT National Celebration weekend 12th & 13th September
Our cadets, juniors, and Luton coaches took part in this year’s CRT National Celebration in Shropshire, sponsored by Tackle Guru. The sponsor provided Gudgeon mugs and goodie bags for everyone attending.
The event took place on the Shropshire Union Canal near Market Drayton. More than 450 competitors fished over the two days, and Harper Adams University, near Newport, served as the event headquarters and hosted the presentation of the Medals, Gudgeon mugs, and other prizes. These were presented by England World Champion angler Kayleigh Dowd.
Our cadets fished for three hours on Saturday, while the young juniors and full juniors competed for three and three-quarter hours on Sunday. Luton’s boys and girls delivered some tremendous performances across both days as usual.
The Shropshire weather was changeable, so no surprise there, but it was better than last year! Heavy rain was forecast for Saturday, but apart from a couple of brief showers near the start, it did not materialise. Early rain on Sunday left the fields and pegs wet; however, it soon passed, and conditions remained dry and fine throughout the match.
Molly, Joris, and Leo our Cadets competed on Saturday, and each earned their Gudgeon mug. Molly and Joris both performed well, each weighing in 510 grams from their pegs. During the match, Molly also received some individual coaching from Stuart Conroy, a former world champion angler who was a steward on her section. Leo produced an outstanding performance. He caught several smaller fish including his Gudgeon, a large perch and a Bream for a total weight of 2 kg 200 g, winning his Gudgeon mug finishing third overall out of 180 competitors—a superb achievement. He really does need a bigger trophy cabinet now!
Sunday was the turn of the juniors and young juniors. Competing in the junior category, Daniel Carr caught 126 fish during the match. He was unfortunate not to land a larger skimmer or perch, which could have lifted him even higher in the standings. Daniel finished 29th overall from a field of more than 130 competitors—another excellent effort.
Our Young Juniors Alex and Daniel made the most of two unfancied pegs and weighed in 150 Grams each. Daniel had unfortunately left the presentation early, but had he been there would have picked up one of the section star performer awards.
All had the pick of some great Prizes and Alex was made up with his inception seatbox and can’t wait to try it out!
Everyone who went really enjoyed the weekend, thanks again to all our parents and our anglers came away with some great memories.
We really hope they will all be back representing Luton again next year
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
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| CRT National Celebration |
Beckerings Reservoir
Max Miller and dad Rob popped down for an 3 hour evening session at Beckerings during the week and Max was rewarded with a couple of beauties. The scaley Mirror came in at 25lb and the Mirror a similar size. A cracking after school session for Max!
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| Max Miller - Beckerings |
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| Max Miller - Beckerings |
River Ouse
Kletos has spent most of the Summer on the Ouse trying to find some of the big Carp which he knows are definitely in there, and he's had quite a few fish up to 15lb over the weeks since June.
He did an overnight Saturday into Sunday and had his best session of the year, catching 6 Carp.
12lb 2oz Common, 12lb 8oz Common, 13lb 6oz Common, 14lb 3oz Common, 16lb Mirror, and a 23lb 12oz Common.
Pics are of the 23lb 12oz Common the 16lb Mirror and a PB 7lb 10oz Tench. He also had a few Bream up to 6lb 8oz.
The 23lb 12oz Common is the biggest he's had from the River Ouse. He almost lost it after playing it for 10 minutes when it buried itself in weeds at the bottom of the river and he had to leave the rod back on the pod with the bail arm open for 5 mins to let the fish swim itself back out of the snags.
He did lose another big Carp later in the session too.
Even after losing that fish he can't complain after having such a great session and he thinks it was his best session ever on the river.
Lastly, he thanks Ryan Kwaricany and his friend who helped with weighing and pictures
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| Kletos - River Ouse Carp |
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| Kletos - River Ouse Carp |
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| Kletos - River Ouse Tench |
North House Lake
Carlo had a nice nights angling at North House Lake and the weather was perfect.
He managed 3 fish and was happy with that. Mad baits doin the business as usual. He said big up to the Bailiff Team who are steadily working their way through getting rid of many of the snags which is not an easy job!
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| Carlo - North House Lake |
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| Carlo - North House Lake |
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| Carlo - North House Lake |
Match Report for Wednesday Match Upon the Grand Union Canal at Slapton
16th September 2026
Brian Tracy, a Canadian Multi-Millionaire wrote “An attitude of positive expectation is the mark of a superior personality”. Thus, sixteen superior personalities set out to fish the Grand Union Canal at Slapton. Unfortunately, our meteorological guru, Tony Hickmott was away on ANOTHER holiday, so could not be with us. Consequently, we can only report that the weather was overcast at the start with the sun breaking through after Mid-day. Also, the day was marred because there were no sweeties from Tony’s everlasting supply. However, on the plus side, Dennis Hunt was also away, so his dance for rain wasn’t used, as the wife would give him what for if she got wet on holiday!!
The match was pegged in two sections. The first section was above the lock adjacent to the winding hole which held 4 pegs for four plodders with a combined age more than 300 years! The second section for 12 whippersnappers was pegged below the lock with a gap to allow for the danger of the overhead wires evident on this section of the canal. The canal looked very inviting with good colour, and the benign conditions gave hope for a good day of fishing. However, pegging below the lock was very challenging due to the overgrowth on the bank itself and in the hedgerow behind making swim identification difficult with most pegs requiring some horticultural attention.
We are indebted as usual to Ray Burton, for organising the administration of the match and dealing with the finances. Unfortunately, our usual Scout, Barry Roper could not be with us, but as usual with Luton Angling Club Wednesday Matchmen, people stood up to the plate to make good the shortfall. Thank you, David Willock, for providing the peg numbers and (assisted by Simon Foulkes) for pegging out both match stretches. Additionally, Ray Burton, undertook the weigh in at the end of the match for the Plodders Section. David Willock assisted by his glamorous assistant Tracey Leatherland undertook the weigh in for the Whippernappers. Thank you again Ray, David, Tracey and Simon. To repeat, we are truly blessed with such fantastic people who always pitch in to make matters as efficient and enjoyable as possible.
The actual fishing was somewhat patchy as the weights set out below illustrate. Signal Crayfish were a constant nuisance on section 2 . Had they been counted in the weights we may have been able to supply a London Seafood Restaurant for a year with the blighters!! However, some anglers did manage to engage with some decent fish which populate this part of the canal, in particular good size Roach to 12oz showed up on the upper section.
Up on Section 1, Ray Burton put in a masterful display of Waggler Fishing on peg 1 to annihilate the rest of the plodders with a weight of 7lbs 1 oz made up of quality Roach and Skimmers caught predominantly in the main track of the canal on maggot fished over groundbait. Terry Vickers and Malcolm Ogden tried in vain to keep up with Ray finishing with 4lbs 5oz and 13oz respectively. Last, but by no means least was Roger Baker with 1oz 8 drams. However, it must be said that Roger and Malcolm were hindered significantly by the arrival of Captain Pugwashes turning 3 boats in the winding hole. These actions turned their swims into the texture of weak porridge making fishing very difficult.
Section 2 was won with a well-deserved magnificent weight of 9lbs 2 oz by Colin McBeth, back fishing with us after a recent health scare. He fished a pole set up on peg 16, fishing 3 lines, the first at 5m with liquidised bread and punch, second at 8m over groundbait & and third at 13m again over groundbait. He started at 13m with maggot but changed to worm on the arrival of the first skimmer which was closely followed by a nice bream. He continued to catch skimmers and perch on this line for a while. When the 13m line slowed he topped up with Groundbait and chopped worm and switched to the 8m line which produced some small perch. He then tried punch line which produced one nice roach plus smaller fish. Penultimately, he reverted to 13m and continued to catch perch and skimmers with a few better quality fish. He then continued switching lines till the end of the match.
In second place, on peg 10 was Ian Orbell with 7lbs 11oz. Colin obviously wanted to keep his tactics and methods a secret as we do not have any record of them for this report. However, we do know that Ian is an excellent angler of great skill. We also know that he is a renowned match fisherman who is a master with a pole in his hand and the result speaks for itself. Well done Ian and good to have you with us.
Tim Watts achieved a very close 3rd place with a weight of 7lbs 6oz from peg 5. Using Pinkies on the hook, he obviously had some frantic action in the match, capturing 140 fish consisting of small roach and perch with a few skimmer bream thrown in for good measure. To catch 140 fish in 300 minutes (approximately 1 fish every 2 minutes) and still finding time to be pestered by crayfish is some effort.
Sean Leatherland finished in 4th Place with 5lbs 4oz 8 drams caught small fish on a 3.5m line using pinkie and squat until the crayfish moved in. To try and avoid them he went across on a 12m line against some rushes and caught some nice perch and the odd roach on caster.
Special sympathy to Simon Foulkes who managed to land 4lbs 10oz of fish despite losing 2 sections of his pole in the canal during the match. The good news is that Jacques Cousteau disguised as Chris Howard returned to the venue after the match and with the help of his underwater camera managed to retrieve the rogue sections. Special work Chris.
The overall result of the Match was as follows: -
Section 1
1st Colin McBeth 9lbs 2oz
2nd Ian Orbell 7lbs 11oz
3rd Tim Watts 7lbs 6oz
4th Sean Leatherland 5lbs 4oz 8 dr
5th Pete Mill 5lbs 1 oz
6th Simon Foulkes 4lbs 10 oz
7th Steven Holiday 4lbs 5 oz
8th Jim Tookey 3lbs 13 oz
9th Graham Stringer 3lbs exactly
10th Dave Willock 2lbs 10 oz
11th Pete Smith 2lbs 2oz
12th Les Burton 6oz
Section 2
1st Ray Burton 7lbs 1oz
2nd Terry Vickers 4lbs 5oz
3rd Malcolm Ogden 13oz
4th Roger Baker 1oz 8 dr
Our next match is on Wednesday 23rd September 2026 which is again to be held upon an away venue at Pine Lake, Alders Farm Fishery at Braggenham MK17 9AH. There is a tackle shop on site which can supply bait. Organisation for pegging, parking etc will be easier if people can advise the likelihood of their attendance at the earliest possible time. Please remember that this is predominantly a Carp Fishery, but Pine Lake also has large silver fish population. 2 keep nets is a requirement and the fishery do not supply them. Please look up fishery Rules.
Draw at the venue at 8.30am, £10.00 day tickets price plus £5.00 optional pools. Fish 10.00am – 3.00 pm. The number of available pegs may be limited so book early.
For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time please message Dennis Hunt or Ray Burton so we know you are coming before turning up. Please bring your club membership book (With Photograph in place) as you will be asked to produce it for your first attendance.
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| Wednesday Match - Slapton |
That's all we have for this week, Keep all your catch reports coming in via our website and social media pages.
Tight Lines
Dave M
Luton Angling Club.
