Here are this weeks catch reports and our weekly news reports from Luton Angling Club. Keep sending in your catch reports and pictures as at the end of each month the committee will be judging the best catch picture and the winner will receive a £25.00 cash prize. Send in your reports and pictures of fish caught from Luton Angling Club venues via our facebook page or website. All pictures submitted are automatically entered.
River Ouse
Following his 20lb 7oz Pike capture on the 7th November Fergal O'Kane returned to the Ouse at the weekend and had another 20lb plus Pike. This one weighed in at 20lb 3oz. This fish looks like it is blind in one eye so is an easily identifiable fish. He sends his thanks to the lure angler that wound in his other rod and assisted him to land the fish.
Grand Union Canal
After a walk along the canal at the Globe this week Steve Lathwell returned with his tackle the following day and tried his luck. He started down the near shelf on punch but it was very slow using a .4 DT slim 0.10 to 0.8 and a 20 hook. He then tried three quarters of the way across with pinkie over spotted fin canal using a .2 carbon slim 0.10 again to 0.8 and a 22 hook and he started getting some fish. He ended up with 6lb of silvers in the net.
South Lagoon - Wyboston
Bailiff Brian Turner has been back in touch about the "17lb" Pike we reported last week. He realised soon afterwards that he had made a schoolboy error and zeroed the scales using his own weigh sling which is a hefty 5lb 2oz when wet but then in the haste to get the fish weighed and safely back in the water the fish was weighed using his brother in laws sling that is only 2lb. He thinks as a result of this error the Pike was actually over 20lb. Even at the reported weight of 17lb it is still a PB for Brian as after going back over all his old pictures he has confirmed his previous PB stood at 16lb 8oz and that was a fish caught 25 years ago.
Wednesday Match Report
Grand Union Canal - Braggenham Side 18th November 2021
After a cold Tuesday night 11 anglers including Tony Hickmott who was joining us for the first time met on a very bright morning with a gentle breeze at Braggenham Side. The Canal was much colder this week, and the breeze freshened during the morning, blowing directly along the canal making conditions challenging while the glare from the low bright sun made watching floats difficult.
Despite the colder water Steve Lathwell reported losing a Carp, coming back with a large scale indicating it was foul hooked. Dudley Frankland also lost a carp which stretched his No 4 elastic to the max before letting go.
A number of other large fish were hooked and lost during the match with weights spread throughout the length.
Dave Abbot fished over and had an early decent perch, then bites dried up so he came to the middle of the track fishing bread punch, taking a number of decent Bream.
Dudley Frankland took a nice net of Bream, Skimmers and bits to weigh in 6lb 8oz, while Ash Bunnage took a Bream, and bits to weigh 6lb 1oz using double pinkie on the hook.
It’s a credit to the friendly spirit of those who fish these matches that in an emergency everybody rallies round and tries to help each other, whatever the problem.
When Dennis Hunt lost the Speed tip and a weed cutter top from his landing net handle today trying to cut a submerged bramble, a replacement net handle was immediately produced by one of the other anglers, enabling him to carry on, and Tony Sal the brilliant ‘retriever of things dropped in the canal’ who had come out for a walk to see us spent about 45 minutes prodding about before finally retrieving the tip and cutter from the Canal silt.
True angling comradeship and thanks to everyone for rallying around to save the day.
We have a lack of pictures today due to the speed of trying to do the weigh in before it got dark, we will do better next week!
Results
1st Dave Abbott 7lb 9oz
2nd Dudley Frankland 6lb 6oz
3rd Ash Bunnage 6lb 1oz
4th Bart Bonito 3lb
5th Steve Lathwell 2lb 6oz
6th Joint Dennis Hunt & Malcolm Ogden 1lb 14oz
7th Ray Burton 0lb 11oz
Next Weds 24th November will fish the Ouse at Eaton Ford, so the match is members only. We will meet for an 8.30 am draw, fish 10.00am to 3.00pm, £5.00 optional pools.
Coaching Team Update.
The coaching team ran what will probably be the last 2021 ‘Bankside coaching session last Saturday, they had three young people, two Juniors and a cadet attend as well as some of the parents. Rob Oakes who is James’ Oakes dad who wrote the recent blog piece for the Canal and River Trust about James' fishing journey (See previous post) has also been learning some skills from the coaches so he can fish with James. He had this nice net of between 3 and 4 pounds of Roach while we were there.
The coaching team ran what will probably be the last 2021 ‘Bankside coaching session last Saturday, they had three young people, two Juniors and a cadet attend as well as some of the parents. Rob Oakes who is James’ Oakes dad who wrote the recent blog piece for the Canal and River Trust about James' fishing journey (See previous post) has also been learning some skills from the coaches so he can fish with James. He had this nice net of between 3 and 4 pounds of Roach while we were there.
Another success story for our coaching team is Raymond Burton who has been with the club since May this year and has only been fishing for just over a year. He fished Biddenham this week and had 3lb 4oz of fish. As mentioned on the recent Wednesday match report he has had so much help from the guys on the Wednesday outings. With his original tutor being Mark Brooks and also Roger giving him some bits and pieces as well. He says he has made so many friends at the club and thanks them for all their help.
On Saturday 20th November the Club coaches held their first ‘Dryside’ coaching session of the year at a Luton Community centre. We had a number of young people aged from 8 to 15 attend and all really enjoyed themselves.
We had a session learning how to tie spade end hooks, a fishing quiz, and this was followed up with an introduction to feeder fishing, and how to put basic feeder setups together, followed by casting practice with a competition on who could get nearest to targets on the adjacent field.
All who came really enjoyed themselves and we had great feedback from our youngsters.
Future topics include more knot tying practice, quizzes and competitions and Stick and waggler floats and these sessions are great for any youngster wanting to learn more about how to fish.
3 hour sessions will be held between 13:30 and 16:30 throughout the winter months on the 3rd Saturday of the month until April.
If you know a young angler interested in joining in with us let us know, we charge £5.00 per head for the sessions to help cover the cost of room hire.
That's all for this week.
Tight Lines
Dave M - Luton AC
