Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area. 28th December 2020

Here is all this week’s club news and catch reports from Luton Angling Club.

Storm Bella arrived this week bringing very strong winds and further heavy rain and with the already saturated ground and high water levels this resulted in the worst flooding I have ever seen at our river venues. According to the EA gauging stations the water levels rose well above the highest levels ever recorded which meant that most of our River Ouse venues were inaccessible – At Biddenham the water was way up the track meaning you could not even get to the main gate into the car park.

Biddenham Car Park

At Eaton Ford the water was almost up to the first (Swing) entrance gate. 

Eaton Ford

Similarly at Wyboston the water levels on the lagoon were over the banks and the track between North House and the river was completely under water on Sunday afternoon meaning access to North House Lake was also not possible during most of Sunday.

Wyboston

At Lavendon Mill Upstream the water was almost up to the layby and on the Downstream the weir itself almost under water.

The weir at Lavendon

I flew my Drone over Wyboston, Eaton Ford and Biddenham and the video footage is available on our Youtube Channel https://youtu.be/SJViXkEXZ5U or search for Luton Angling Club on YouTube.

Thankfully the water levels are now slowly dropping – Members please be aware that the grass areas around South Lagoon and along the River and also in Biddenham Car Park will be very waterlogged and you should consider carefully where you park your vehicle to avoid getting stuck.

South Lagoon
on Tuesday and before the Flooding Janusz Kansik had a great day beating his PB with a Pike of 22lb 7oz and measuring 109cm in length. 

Later in the week despite the high and rising water levels a few anglers were predator fishing on the accessible areas of the lagoon. Filip Dunaj lost a possible low double figure Zander at the net and Wojciech Weremij caught a small Jack and lost a few pike.

North House Lake
Certain older sections of our otter fence which are due for imminent replacement suffered during the high winds and the integrity of the fence was compromised – Patching up was done quickly by the bailiff and then some additional repair work was carried out on Sunday during a short COVID Safe work party. Thanks go to David Murdoch, Paul Sweet, Wojciech Dunaj, Daniel Crook, Sam Kite and also Bailiff Brian Turner and the other work party volunteers that offered their assistance if any further work was required. 

Following the repairs to the Otter Fence Wojciech Dunaj fished for Pike on North House and had a small pike which wasn’t weighed.

Beckerings Reservoir
Last weekend Neil Cox fished the reservoir and only had one fish during his session which was a nice looking Common at 22lb 12oz. This was his first (of hopefully many) cracking winter carp. 

Finally Luton Angling Club wishes all its members and contacts a happy new year!

That’s it for now – Tight Lines until next week!

Dave M
Luton Angling Club.

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area. Week Ending 20th December 2020

Here is this week’s round up of club news and catch reports received from Luton AC waters. As you’ll no doubt be aware new COVID restrictions have been imposed and we have identified that all our fisheries fall within Tier 4 – While we are pleased that fishing is still recognised as an allowed activity please follow all the government guidelines with regards to limiting your travel and keeping yourself and others safe. If you are in a tier 1,2 or 3 area you should not travel to any of our venues.

With everyone likely busy in the run up to Christmas. We have only received a couple of catch reports this week. Do send us in a report if you do get out fishing over Christmas.

South Lagoon
Filip Dunaj was on South Lagoon and had a nice Zander of 7lb 8oz which I believe is the first one we have had reported for a while.

North House Lake
Paul Parkinson fished an overnight session and caught a mirror carp of 16lb. A previous weight for this fish was recorded at 5lb 8oz in October 2017 so we are pleased to see that along with the other C3’s it has piled on the weight over the last 3 years. We have a picture of it at 5lb 8oz and it is clearly the same fish and is easily identifiable by its scale patterns.

Grand Union Canal

Dennis Hunt fished the Grand Union Canal on Sunday using up the rest of the squatt that was left over from the match on Wednesday. He caught lots of small roach at 6 metres-nothing very big but had between 2-3lb in just over 3 hours.

Wednesday Match Group
The Wednesday match group had their last outing of 2020 on Wednesday and fished at Three Locks. Hospital appointments, COVID-19 restrictions and a flooded kitchen transpired to make a lower than expected turnout today for the last match prior to Christmas. Four met in the car park early morning with the pink glimmer of dawn still in the sky and an air temperature of 8C which remained constant throughout the day, with an occasional very blustery wind.

Fishing section 4 above three locks the group walked off after the draw to their pegs. The Canal water was cold but holding good colour. All started brightly with Trevor Bunnage taking 40 small roach in the first hour before it all went pear shaped. He lost four pole rigs to a pike of about 4 to 5lb which took most of his hooked roach for the next two hours before he called it a day and went home before the rain started.

The remaining three anglers carried on in the rain and the small roach kept coming along with some gudgeon and perch. One of the perch took a piece of chopped worm that was bigger than it was! Despite using chopped worm which usually produces good results the bigger bream and perch failed to show. There was no boat traffic through the section throughout the match either. Successful baits were Punch, Pinkies and Squatt. After a tight match Chris Bartlett Howard emerged the winner by 4oz, beating Dennis Hunt into second place with Dudley Frankland in third place.

Results
1st Chris Bartlett Howard 2lb 15oz
2nd Dennis Hunt 2lb 11 oz
3rd Dudley Frankland 2lb

The group will resume their weekly Wednesday matches in the New Year so watch the Club Facebook page if you are interested in taking part.

Finally Luton Angling Club would like to wish all its members and visitors a Happy and Healthy Christmas! Stay Safe!

Send in your catch reports, pictures, stories via facebook, email or Whats app to 07940 229071. We welcome content from our members whether it be videos, a story of your days fishing, pictures and reports of the fish you have caught , interesting pictures of our venues or wildlife you have seen while fishing.


That's it for now - Until next week Tight Lines!


Dave – Luton AC

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area. Week Ending 13th December 2020

Here is this week’s round up of club news and catch reports from Luton AC waters. We really appreciate any information, reports and stories from any of our waters and you don't have to catch a monster sized fish to feature in our weekly reports.Send in your catch reports, pictures, stories via facebook, email or Whats app to 07940 229071. We welcome content from our members whether it be videos, a story of your days fishing or pictures of the venues or wildlife you have seen or pictures and reports of the fish you have caught.

Wyboston River Ouse
Darren Savage spent five hours on the River with only one bite. That bite resulted in a cracking 6lb 8oz Chub so it was worth the wait!. 

Paul Nash was also back on the river and caught 2 double figure Pike the first one at 11lb and then a slightly larger one at 12lb 4oz.

Beckerings Reservoir
George Griffiths caught a 13lb 3oz Pike using an imitation roach lure during an overnight session.

Match Reports
A welcome return this week for our match reports following the ease of the national lockdown restrictions. The Abbey Lads match group fished the Grand Union Canal at Town South and had an excellent day.

1st L. Willis
12lb 7oz
(4 decent Bream)

2nd D.Whillock
10lb 10oz

3rd D .Smith
7lb 5oz

4th K .Ward
5lb 7oz

Wednesday Match Group - Back on the Bank

Also back on the bank were the Wednesday Match Group who hold a friendly open match almost every Wednesday. Any member is welcome to attend and if the group are fishing one of the clubs Day Ticket waters then non-members may also take part by purchasing a Day Ticket. Here is the report from their outing on Wednesday 9th December.

Nine hardy anglers, including a couple of new faces, met at Three Locks for the first of the Wednesday knock up matches following the lifting of the recent Covid Restrictions. Following on from the recent overnight frosts the morning was clear, with an air temperature of 5C.

Having walked off following the draw, they set up and as the whistle went started fishing. It soon became apparent that the recent heavy frosts and the overnight rain which had coloured the Canal meant they were all in for a challenging day. 

The fuel barges delivering to moored boats on the far bank early on also caused disturbance for some of them, but in a way this may have increased the chances of catching. 

Everyone struggled for bites all day and baits used included bread punch, Squatt, pinkies and chopped worm. When the whistle blew the day had certainly been a challenging one, with a couple of DNW, and most weights being in ounces, but there were a few bigger fish in the nets when it came time to weigh in. 

Barry Roper was in the money again with a couple of nice skimmers, Jim and Lol had a Skimmer each, Malcolm Ogden who fished a tip rod had one skimmer and had been broken by another better fish early on, and Nuala Gray had a 10oz Perch. The phrase ‘That’s Winter fishing’ was true on Wednesday for sure.

Results
1st Barry Roper
2lb 1oz 

2nd Jim Tookey
1lb 6oz

3rd Lol Breach
1lb 3oz 5Drms

4th Malcolm Ogden
1lb 1oz 5Drms

5th Nuala Gray
10oz

6th Dudley Frankland
5oz

7th John Gray
3oz 5Drms

DNW - Richard Gibbs & Dennis Hunt

Next week will be the last outing prior to Christmas and the group will be back at Three Locks again, this time fishing section 4 towards Leighton Buzzard, meet in the top car park for a 9am draw as usual, and fish 10am till 3pm. Non-Members can join in if they wish, £5.00 optional pools. The group would like to wish all the members and visitors who have fished with them this year a Happy Christmas and a Good New Year.

Everything Including the Kitchen Sink!! - Canal Litter Pick – with Canal and River Trust
The club was recently contacted by Phoebe Webster who is a volunteer leader for the Canal and River Trust asking us if we could assist with a Litter Pick at the Grove Church Section on 9th December. We rallied together a few of our usual volunteers to represent the club as users of the canal and on a damp but mild Wednesday morning met Phoebe and some of the local residents of the Canalside properties and live aboard boaters.

We walked the entire 2 mile section to Slapton and cleared a significant amount of litter from the hedgerows along the towpath. The usual expected litter such as plastic drink bottles, crisp packets, beer cans and bottles but also disappointingly several items of angling related litter were also discovered along with plenty of junk disposed of by people maintaining their canal boats this included a Kitchen sink and containers of used engine oil!!!. Several bags of rubbish were collected and disposed of making the section look much tidier – A reminder to all users of the canal please take all your litter home with you as leaving it behind is totally unacceptable.

Eaton Ford – Development Update – December 2020
We have owned the fishery at Eaton Ford for about 60 years, and a few years ago we were fortunate to obtain a grant to restore the basic fishery to some of its former glory, and by doing so we made some great fishing available to our members again.
This work was always considered to be phase one of the restoration and it was hoped that future work could be undertaken to improve the fishery if more funds became available.

The property was originally a willow plantation, which was coppiced for basket making and contained a backwater and an enclosed pool.
Over the years the pool totally silted up, became overgrown, and has now ceased to exist, and the backwater, which used to provide excellent winter fishing, a refuge for fish in high river flows and good spawning habitat has also silted up and is now only about 600mm deep and in danger of being completely lost, with the exit to the river blocked with a fallen willow, which has subsequently taken root.

The Club approached the Environment Agency to enquire if any funding from the Fisheries Improvement program (FIP) (Money put aside from rod licence sales for fisheries improvement work) might be available to make improvements by desilting, removing the fallen tree and slightly widening the backwater to restore the fish refuge, provide easily accessible pegs, provide spawning habitat and improve the winter fishing again the pool will also serve a as a wildlife refuge and improve biodiversity on the site.

 
The EA when approached were keen to try and assist in the restoration, and after significant planning work on both sides the Club is pleased to announce that a joint project, funded by the EA and the Club (Match Funding) has recently been approved so the works can now be started.

Our selected contractor hopes to start work very early in the New Year, with the expected duration of the work being approx. two weeks, during this time half of the fishery will be closed, although its hoped that the other end of the fishery away from the works will remain accessible. We hope that good progress will be made and will enable the enhanced spawning habitat to be ready this spring.

We hope all members will co-operate by avoiding any interference with the works while they are in progress, and respect any closures that we need to put in place.

That's it for now - Until next week Tight Lines!

Dave 

Luton AC

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area Week Ending 6th December 2020

Here is all this week’s news and catch reports from Luton Angling Club.

 

Beckerings Reservoir

The largest (and greediest) known Pike in the reservoir known as Yellow Spot was caught again this week by Les Bolland and weighed 20lb 1oz. Despite being caught regularly the fish is in excellent condition. 

Jason Wilson was on Beckerings for 48hrs fishing for carp which didn’t show however he did have a good sized Bream which saved a blank.

South Lagoon and River Ouse Wyboston

After messaging us via the facebook page for some advice on where to go Pike Fishing – Paul Nash and his mate Rory fished South Lagoon and the River Ouse at Wyboston for the first time and both caught. First cast on the lagoon resulted in an 11lb Pike for Paul and then Rory’s last cast on the river produced a slightly smaller Pike at 10lb 8oz both were caught on dead baits and the pair said they will be back soon to spend some more time targeting the predators on the River.

 

Grand Union Canal

Jack Rose has been after the Perch on the cut and after the disappointment of losing a monster of a Perch he reckons was nudging 4lb during a previous session, he was back out again and this time managed to get a 2lb 15oz Perch in the landing net – his mate had one at 3lb 3oz but this was not photographed. Jack said he will be back after the one that got away soon.

 

Trevor Bunnage has also  has been having some good nets of fish from the canal using Bread Punch and Single Pinkie.

Canal Litter Pick

On Wednesday 9^th of December the club will be assisting the Canal & River Trust with a Litter Pick along the Grove Church section. The day is being led by Phoebe Webster – Canal & River Trust Volunteer Leader for the Grand Union South. We will meet at 09:30am at Church Lock (Lock 29) LU7 0QU and walk the 2 mile section down to the bridge this is a good chance to get outdoors for some exercise and meet others (in accordance with social distancing of course). If you can assist please visit the following link for more details and let the organiser know you will be attending. 

Litter Pick Event Details – Click Here.

 

Lavendon River Ouse

Dennis Hunt and Trevor Bunnage were at Lavendon on Wednesday they had a good day with a roach a chuck at the start. The usual numbers of bigger roach failed to make an appearance and only a couple of better sized Roach were caught. These Roach along with a nice Perch of around 2lb and lots of small roach made up a final weight of around 5-6lb. Dennis hunt fished using his old Daiwa TDP whip and said the 2lb Perch went quite well on a flick tip!

Wednesday Match Group - Back on the Bank 9/12/2020

Following the easing of the national lockdown restrictions on 2^nd December the Wednesday Match Group are able resume their socially distanced matches at a different Luton AC venue every Wednesday. Any club member is welcome to attend and take part and if the group fish a Day Ticket venue non-members are also welcome as long as they purchase a day ticket. This week Wednesday 9/12/20 the group will be fishing below Three Locks (Milton Keynes Side) they will meet in the Car Park for a 9am walk off. There is an optional £5.00 pools and non-members are welcome to attend as this is one of our Day Ticket Stretches. If you want any more information on these Wednesday events please drop us a message via our Facebook page and we will put you in touch with Dennis Hunt who organises them. 

Tight Lines until next week.

 

Dave

Luton AC