Luton Angling Club - Weekly News Reports: April 2021

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area Week Ending 25/4/2021

Apologies for the lack of weekly report last week - life got in the way and I just did not have the time to write the report, I'll include the catch reports from the previous week in this report.

Membership Renewal Reminder

Members are reminded that the priority renewal period for existing members ends on 1st May 2021. After the 30th April all remaining memberships will go on general sale and be available to new members on a strictly first come first served basis. If you have not yet renewed your membership now is the time to do so to avoid missing out.

North House Lake
A couple of cold nights were spent on North House Lake on Sunday 11th and Monday 12th for Allan Howard King. He managed to catch a couple of the stockies - Number 9 at 11lb 9oz and Number 13 at 15lb 6oz

Allan Howard King

Allan Howard King

Mark Brookman had Terrys Mirror at 30lb 8oz

Mark Brookman - Terry's Mirror 30lb 8oz

Paul Parkinson had a nice Tench on a wicked white pop up with crushed boilies in a PVA Stick.

Paul Parkinson - Tench

Bart Schmidt captured a 23lb 5oz Mirror on the morning of the 19th April

Bart Schmidt - 23lb 5oz Mirror Carp

Dean Brittain had a great afternoon session in the sunshine managing to catch the old warrior known as Pecs at 28lb 5oz.

Dean Brittain with Pecs at 28lb 5oz

South Lagoon

Wojciech Weremij had a 15lb 8oz odd looking common carp from the lagoon during a night session.

Wojciech Weremij with an odd looking common from South Lagoon

Sam Kite caught a nice 16lb 1oz Common from Peg 28 on the lagoon.

Sam Kite 16lb 1oz common from South Lagoon

Beckerings Reservoir

Gamekeeper Scott had a huge Roach which was not weighed but looks close to, if not over 2lb. Youll see in the picture the fish has a war wound on its tail so it looks like it has had a lucky escape from a hungry cormorant at some point.

good sized Beckerings Roach for Scott the Gamekeeper

Jason Wilson did a 48 hour session on the reservoir and it was hard going but a nice sized Bream spared him a blank so he went home happy.

Beckerings Bream caught by Jason Wilson

Wednesday Match Report

The Wednesday group had a much a better day’s fishing today, the air temperature has risen and the cold north wind has dropped, and the water temperature in the Canal has risen to over 14C, a full 5C warmer than at Slapton last week.

Dennis Hunt opted to fish a 1.5 Gram loaded waggler across the canal to the boats, using an 11ft Canal float rod at about 20 Yards, and caught almost from the off, feeding dampened 2mm pellet, caster and pinkie, fishing maggot and caster on the hook. He took a good mixed bag of Perch, Roach (including one over a pound) Skimmers and Bream. He also had the biggest Ruffe he had ever seen for a total weigh in of 15lb 6oz.

Colin Holmes was second with 7lb 2oz of Bream, Skimmers and Roach, also caught on a bodied Waggler. 
Dudley Frankland took Bream and Roach 6lb 11oz using a 4metre Whip and a tip rod,

Barry Roper drew a truly short straw with a boat that left a mooring in front of him only to come back 20 Mins later and spend the next 30 Mins thrashing the water to a foam trying to get back on its mooring again, destroying his swim. He fished a pole to take 4lb 11oz.

All had an excellent and very enjoyable day out.

1st Dennis Hunt 
15lb 6oz

2nd Colin Holmes 

7lb 2oz

3rd Dudley Frankland 

6lb 11oz
4th Barry Roper 
4lb 11oz

Next week the group will fish South Lagoon, Wyboston meet at the front of the Lagoon for 9am walk off draw, £5 optional pools non-members can join the group for the day if they pay the day ticket.

Let's Fish Event - Three Locks

Our first let's fish event of the year was a good day with Luton AC Coaches Mark Brooks, Myles Tommey and Bob Burdiak despite the cold easterly wind only one participant failed to catch. We had some great reactions from the youngsters taking part especially from one lad towards the end who brought and used his own float rod, With a few tweaks and a casting lesson he caught a nice skimmer which he was over the moon with. There were also some good perch and roach caught during the day.

Wyboston Work Party

The Bailiff team and Work Party volunteers spent most of Saturday working to improve the access track - whilst nowhere near the quality of the M1 it is definitely a vast improvement with many of the holes filled in using almost 60 tonnes of aggregate and the surface levelled as best we could. Please drive very slowly along the track to avoid scouring the surface. We also created some additional car parking spaces outside North House Lake.

New Parking Area

The Track at Wyboston after improvements.

That's all for this week - Tight Lines

Dave M

Luton Angling Club

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area Week Ending 11/4/2021

Here is this weeks roundup of catch reports and club news. Plenty of reports again this week and our thanks go out to everyone who contributes to our weekly reports. Please send in your catch reports, stories and pictures via our facebook page or website.

North House Lake

Mark Brookman was woken at 1am by a 12lb 14oz Mirror Carp which we have identified as number 21 of the stockies and it's last recorded weight was 5lb 11oz.

Mark Brookman - 12lb 14oz Mirror

Howard Hornby had a pristine 27lb 3oz Common caught mid lake on a Chod Rid with a pineapple Pop Up.

Howard Hornby 27lb 3oz

On his first post lockdown night session on North House Lake, Daniel Keefe's rod screamed off early in the morning resulting in the capture of this dark mirror at 23lb

Daniel Keefe - 23lb

After trying out a few of our other venues Patrick Stevens visited North House for the very first time this week and after speaking to the bailiffs, took their advice not to ignore the margins and the advice paid off this beauty graced his net. An 18lb common that is known as Popeye he caught it using a pva bag with essential cell boilie.

Patrick Stevens with Popeye at 18lb

Wojciech Dunaj shared some pictures from a recent 3 hour lure session on North House Lake. The scales show the weight of the biggest fish he had. (12lb 5oz)

Wojciech Dunaj Pike from North House

Wojciech Dunaj weight of the largest Pike during his 3hr session

South Lagoon

After some good helpful advice from bailiff Warren Griffiths12 year old Corey Burridge caught this fantastic early season Tench at the weekend from the South Lagoon.He had it on feeder fished worm using his own 7ft children's rod. It was bent double during the fight. He and his dad David also had another 2 Tench, Bream and plenty of silvers between them.

Corey Burridge - Tench

Wojciech Weremij sent in a picture of a 17lb 3oz Pike from a recent session

Wojciech Weremij - 17lb 3oz Pike

Beckerings Reservoir

Kieran Cove had a nice 25lb Mirror.

Kieran Cove - 25lb

Kieran Cove 25lb

Wednesday Match Group

Five intrepid anglers fished the Wednesday Match on South Lagoon today. It was always going to be challenging after the extremely low overnight temperatures and frost. The water temperature was hovering around 9C on arrival with a clear sky and sunshine, which made it feel slightly warmer, although it clouded over at times through the day, and a chilly wind got up later.
The fishing started slowly with some anglers choosing to fish waggler, others pole or feeder. The guys on the Pole and waggler line were picking up small roach, but nothing huge appeared despite some trying worm to tempt a perch. Richard Gibbs stuck with a pole feeding pinkies sparingly and hitting small indications on the float.
Others persevered with the feeder catching a slightly larger stamp at about 25Yds, although bites were twitchy affairs rather than pull rounds and difficult to hit, so many were missed and all the fish when caught felt very cold.

After the whistle went at 3 Dennis’ tip sailed around and he had an 8 Oz skimmer, the biggest fish caught all day, which of course didn’t count!

Results 
1st Richard Gibbs 
3lb 3oz 8drm
2nd Dudley Frankland
2lb 4oz 
3rd Barry Roper 
1lb 6oz 8drm
Joint 4th 
Malcolm Ogden
11oz
Dennis Hunt
11oz(Not counting the 8oz Skimmer)

The group are fishing the canal at Slapton next week meet in the Club car park for 9 am walk off draw. Non members wishing to fish are welcome as this is a day ticket venue.

Eaton Ford Work Party

A dozen Club Members met in the Car park at Eaton Ford on a sunny but chilly spring Sunday morning, for our first socially distanced work party of the year to carry on tidying up, opening more swims, and improving the fishery for the benefit of the members.

An additional 10Kg of grass seed mix were sown on the tracks and around the new wildlife pool, and a further 10Kg of wildflower seed was sown on the front faces of the spoil banks behind the backwater. 

We can’t wait to see this bloom in due course, the pollinators should improve the wildlife diversity significantly.

A start was made felling and laying the willow along the spit, but this was hampered by our resident pair of swans who have now moved in and since Friday have built their nest approximately halfway along, This has now delayed the work considerably, as we will have to wait until after the nest is vacated before undertaking further work here to avoid disturbing the Swans. Anyone visiting the site is asked not to disturb the nest or walk along the spit until the nest is vacated.

The volunteers made a start on reclaiming another four swims, two on the backwater adjacent to Riverside park and two on the main river, one at either end of the fishery. 

This involved cutting and pruning trees with both chainsaws and manual tools and clearing vegetation. We also removed a number of branches that were either impeding access or obstructing casting from existing swims.

The platform at the top end of the fishery was also given some maintenance with an additional spacer bearer inserted to ensure safety.

The fishery was also given general a tidy up, with fallen branches being moved. 

The club would like to thank Stewart Thornton, Neville Hunt, Dennis Vivian, Fergal O Kane, David Murdoch, Barry Stevenson, Bob Burdiak, Roger Bland, Mark Brooks Wojciech Dunaj  Glen Daniels, and Dennis Hunt who generously gave up their Sunday to attend and assist with these improvements. We would welcome anyone else to the working parties being held at other venues soon, don’t be afraid to come along and help, we have varieties of tasks, some light, with some heavier ones as well, and we aim to have a bit of fun and general banter. Please contact the club if you would like to come along and join in, especially if it’s your favourite venue, the more the merrier, there is always plenty to do.

The work party team

Platform Repairs

Glen mowing the nettles.

Glen laying willow along the banks of the spit.

Mrs Swan in her newly built nest with Mr Swan on patrol

Wyboston Work Party

Our next work party is planned for the 24th April at North House Lake where we will be carrying out our annual track maintenance and repairs where we plan to level the track and spread and roll several loads of aggregate we are also looking at the creation of some additional parking spaces to the left of the North House entrance gate.As heavy machinery will be in operation. South Lagoon and North House Lake will be closed on the 24th and access will be restricted. Anyone fishing the night of the 23rd must leave the venue by 8am on Saturday Morning.

Membership Renewal Reminder

Existing members are reminded that for the month of April renewals are being prioritised and existing 2020/21 members are only guaranteed a place for 2021/22 season if they renew before 1st May 2021. On 1st May all remaining membership books will go on sale to new members and they will be on a first come first served basis so don't miss out on your renewal.

That's it for this week - Tight Lines

Dave M - Luton Angling Club

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area. Easter Bank Holiday Edition 5/4/21

Here is all this weeks news and catch reports from Luton Angling Club. 29th March saw the first step out of the current lockdown and what we hope is the start of a return to normality. Anglers are now permitted to travel reasonable distances to go fishing and Night and Match fishing is now permitted along with the better weather at the start of this week has resulted in an increase in the reports sent in to us.

Beckerings Reservoir
Amer Jawad and Dennis Hunt had set sights on the Roach and Bream at Beckerings this week. On their first session Amer set up a bream feeder rod, and after about an hour had a funny twitch and a sensation of a fish on the end. What happened next was a display of superb angling skill lasting over 50 Minutes. Amer had actually managed to get his size 16 hook lodged in a lead core leader, which in turn was attached to a lead clip with 3oz lead attached leading to about 10ft of Nylon / fluorocarbon.

Amer managed to land this fish, netted by Colin Holmes, as he had a bigger landing net, and they freed the fish from its 3oz tether, took pictures and it swam strongly away.

The tail rubber on the lead clip was on so tight that the lead would never eject on its own, so they probably saved this fish from towing this around for some time. Should it have become snagged god alone knows what might have happened. Please make sure all rigs used are safe and don't be offended if the bailiffs ask to carry out a rig check. Dennis Hunt had a 1lb 14oz Roach and as well as the accidental Carp Amer also had an Ide and a Perch.

On their second visit of the week Amer bagged up with 13 big bream for well over 100lbs. All were taken at 30 Yards+ and as his previous PB was about 6 and a half pounds he has beaten it 13 times this week. The biggest fish was well over 9lbs. All the fish were kept in a number of keep nets, handled very carefully and swam away strongly at the end.

Also at Beckerings Svajunas Budrevicius had a 13lb 8oz Mirror Carp and 8 Bream between 7lbs and 9lbs

Neil Cox ended his long winter blanking streak (December was his last catch) with a 22lb 11oz Common caught using madbaits. He started on Friday at one end of the lake but decided to move to the other end he had another good run but lost the fish due to a hook pull.

Bailiff Jack Rose had a 19lb Mirror Carp over the weekend.

North House Lake

At North House Lake we can report that one of the large C7 Carp we stocked in November 2020 has been caught by Barry Emery at 26lb 2oz, This is believed to be the first capture of the fish named John's Common since it was introduced to the lake.

Barry also had another carp a common weighing 11lb 11oz in the same session.

On Thursday Dave Brown had the Mirror Carp known as Pecs weighing 27lb 12oz.

Leanne Holloway had her first ever North House Carp a common of 14lb 9oz and she was over the moon with her catch.

Terry Gould smashed his PB and was buzzing after landing a lovely dark 26lb 8oz Mirror.

Kieran Turner had a 22lb 2oz Common Carp.

South Lagoon

On the South Lagoon Wojciech Weremij caught a cracking Mirror Carp weighing 25lb 8oz,

Filip Dunaj had a Perch which was weighed at 3lb 10oz - We have had a number of good size Perch being reported from the lagoon in recent weeks.

Mariusz Pustelnik caught a 10lb 8oz Pike

Grand Union Canal

Gareth Evans had his first GUC carp of the year and also had a decent Chub which was a bonus and a surprise as they are not particularly common or caught often from the canal.

Wednesday Match Group Report

With competitive fishing now being permitted the Wednesday match group were back out for their first post lockdown match of the year thios week. 8 anglers met at Section 4 (Three Locks) and it was a lovely mild spring day with birds singing in the trees the canal temperature was hovering around 10C and the air temperature rose to 20C through the day only two boats passed them all day. Some good banter was had and everyone enjoyed the day which matters the most!

All anglers caught and the pegs furthest from the locks produced best - Bream and Perch made the bulk of the winning weights. Several of the anglers lost good fish during the day.

Results

Dave Britton 10lb 8oz
Colin Holmes 8lb 2oz
Dave Moore 3lb 2oz 8drm
Richard Gibbs 2lb 15oz
Barry Roper 2lb 10oz
Dudley Frankland 2lb 5oz 8drm
Dennis Hunt 2lb 3oz 8drm

Next week the group will fish South Lagoon and meet for 9am - Non Members welcome as South Lagoon is a Day Ticket Water.

Eaton Ford- Development Project

Further progress made at Eaton Ford this week by venue bailiff Stewart Thornton, Dennis Hunt (assisted by his wife and Granddaughter) and Trevor Bunnage. 20 Kilos of grass seed was spread on the flat areas of the newly excavated areas Dennis' Granddaughter loved her go on the spreading machine and did very well, She also enjoyed helping Stewart with the bonfire.

We have a work party on the River at Eaton Ford on Sunday 11th April with lots of work still to complete including spreading a further 10kg of Grass Seed and 10kg of Wildflower seeds, removal of branches from the River and clearing of cut vegetation which was removed as part of the excavation works.

Please send in all your catch reports and pictures via our facebook page, website or What's App or Picture Message to 07940 229071.

Tight Lines

Dave M - Luton Angling Club