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