Here is all the latest news, information and catch reports from all Luton Angling Club waters for the week ending 25th February 2024.
Another very wet week and most River sections in flood and ground conditions saturated and very muddy at most venues. It hasn't put off some of our members though, as you can see in the picture below!
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| a dedicated (or mad) angler on South Lagoon |
We had to cancel the Predator match that was due to take place on Saturday, The bailiffs were closely monitoring the situation and with all the rain and water levels still rising on Thursday and ground conditions completely un-suitable with most pegs under water and banks very muddy and slippery, we had to put safety first and make the difficult decision to postpone this event. A shame as we were all looking forward to it.
We will look to re-schedule later in the year sometime after September. A few participants kindly opted to donate their entry fees to the nominated charity rather than receive refunds and others asking us hold on to the fee for when the match is re-scheduled later in the year. So at least the charity will still benefit from the non-event. If you were due to take part and haven't let me know what you want me to do with your entry fee please get in touch via the facebook page or reply to the predator match email.
South Lagoon
Not put off by the aforementioned conditions Marek Zanko still fished the lagoon on Friday and despite the high water levels he had success having 4 bites, one was a Zander that escaped while being landed and 2 Pike the largest of which was around 12lb.
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| Marek Zanko - South Lagoon Pike 12lb |
Beckerings Reservoir
Kieron Logan caught his PB Pike at Beckerings on Saturday 10th but only just sent in his report so we have included it this week. He had his rods set up and out for no more than 25 mins before the bite alarm went off and as soon as he struck he knew he'd hooked something big. It was 112cm and 20lb 14oz and he was absolutely buzzing with his catch.
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| Kieron Logan PB Pike from Beckerings |
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| Kieron Logan PB Pike from Beckerings |
Martin Scholes fished on Saturday and had one of the Ide at 3lb 8oz.
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| Martin Scholes with a 3lb 8oz Ide from Beckerings. |
Wednesday Group Match Report 21st Feb 2024
Grand Union Canal - The Globe
We were back on the Canal this week and eleven of us met in light rain in the Globe car park for our draw.
The weather forecast for the day was far from favourable, with rain and heavy winds later, and the canal was a light milky coffee colour with an orange hue, so I think we all knew we were in for a testing day from the off.
We set off along the towpath and as we got to our pegs the rain intensified, so it was an umbrella day, with lashings against the squally wind, which was at times very strong and veered in direction making conditions even more challenging.
Due to most boaters opting to stay tucked up inside, we were unsurprisingly not troubled by boats moving about!
The day proved tough for many. Dudley Frankland pegged towards the old swing bridge narrows had a better day than most. He fished his pole short and fed groundbait laced with worm, caster, and dead reds down near shelf. He fished half a Deandra on a .6 float bulked down on a positive rig to weigh a 4lb 1oz catch of bream.
Sean Leatherland pegged just past the narrows had one large skimmer taken at 3mtrs on pinkie, with the rest of his bag taken using pinkie and big maggot over groundbait at 12mtrs to weigh 2lb.
Colin Holmes took third. He found nothing in the middle, then went over the far side, and fished well over depth using pinkie. He lost the first fish when a gust of wind whipped the pole around and the skimmer came out of the water and fell off! He then had two skimmers and a hybrid in the next 15 minutes, and then went back to spectating! Colin weighed 1lb 10oz.
After the end of the match, we retired to the Globe to dry out, have a pint, and thank Julie for allowing us to use the car park.
Our thanks are also due to Tracy assisting with the weigh-in on what was a challenging day.
Results
1st Dudley Frankland 4lb 1oz
2nd Sean Leatherland 2lb
3rd Colin Holmes 1lb 10oz
4th Steve Lathwell 1lb 1oz 8drm
5th Simon Faulkes 0lb 11oz
6th Steve Lathwell Terry Vickers 0lb 9oz (one Roach)
7th Dennis Hunt 0lb 6oz
8th Richard Darbon 0lb 2oz 8drms
Tony Hickmott, Adrian Smith & Les Burton DNW
Our next match is on Wednesday 28th February, and we had intended to be on the Nene at Ringstead, but due to flooding, it is now on Mill Cotton.
Draw 8.30 in the car park £5-00 optional pools £1.00 Wednesday peg fee, fish 10am till 3pm.
For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time can we ask you message us so we know you are coming before turning up, so we can ensure we have room as this will allow us to better manage the pegging.
You will be asked to produce your Club book at first appearance, so please have it with you.
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| Wednesday Match |
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| Wednesday Match |
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| Wednesday Match |
Kingfishers Coaching Day on the Bank at How End - 19th February
This week is half term for most of the local area , and many of our young Luton anglers were desperate to get on the banks again. Unfortunately, not all were able to make it to our session today, but we had four keen young anglers on the bank on what turned out to be a very pleasant practice session.
It was lovely to see our young anglers putting into practice some of the things they had learnt in our classroom sessions and being able to use some of the new tackle they had at Christmas for the first time.
For some it was also the first experience catching Carp, especially using a waggler, and some nice fish were landed and safely returned.
Everyone, Coaches and Kingfishers enjoyed the day out, and we hope to get everyone out on the bank again soon.
If you know a young angler who would like to learn to fish, join our Kingfishers and fish with friends of their own age please contact the Club, we have a full program mapped out for this year, and we would love to meet you.
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| How End Coaching Session |
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| How End Coaching Session |
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| How End Coaching Session |
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| How End Coaching Session |
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| How End Coaching Session |
Kingfishers Winter Classroom Coaching Session
This week following the outing to How End we had four of our young anglers come to the winter indoor session at Bushmead community hub in Luton.
The Coaches thought that after the bankside session at How End on Monday it would be useful to go through seat box setup again, so we asked our young anglers to bring their boxes with them so we could help, and them make sure they had correct posture and an ergonomically correct setup when fishing. This proved very useful, and we were also able to help with some very reasonably pricesd second hand accessories to aid them.
We then did a session looking at groundbait mixing, where we practised trying different mixes in the water tank and watching how these break down to increase the Kingfishers' understanding of what is happening beneath the water.
Following this we had a session on types of hooks and their uses, and then went on to practice tying spade end hooks with a Drennan hook tier, which our young anglers enjoyed, all getting successful results by the time they left.
They all left keen to practice what they learnt at home, so they can become even more proficient young anglers.
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| Kingfishers classroom session |
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| Kingfishers classroom session |
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| Kingfishers classroom session |
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| Kingfishers classroom session |
Winter League - Round 2 - Match Report.
Round 2 of the LAC Winter League took place on Sunday. Due to heavy overnight rain the anglers arrived at Town South to be greeted by a full flowing and horribly coloured canal. A quick decision was made to travel to Three Locks to see if the canal was in a better state. Thanks fully it was and therefore, it was agreed to peg above and below three locks.
However, the 18 anglers remained in confident mood that we would catch despite the conditions and result for the same venue the previous Wednesday, that confidence was repaid as the venue performed better than expected.
Winner on the day was Simon Foulkes with 5lb 8oz 8drm. Having drawn end peg 10 above the locks, Simon initially fed three different lines, one on the far track with fluro pinkie and groundboat and two other lines tight over and in the boat track with chopped worm and fluro pinkie. Switching between the lines, Simon had around 2lb of fish in the first 2 hours. He then fed another line down the near side track with liquidised bread and when he tried it caught a big skimmer and 5 smaller one to complete his catch.
Adrian Smith was second. Pegged on the end peg below the lock, Adrian started on the bottom of the far shelf with breadpunch and pinkie but did not catch. A swap to his near shelf line that had been fed with ground bait resulted in a bream around 2lb and then another change to fish maggot tight to the far bank over chopped worm ended with him catching a large perch and then a smaller perch and some skimmers to end with 4lb 14ozs 8drms.
Peter Deppe came 3rd with 4lb 9oz - repeating his same place finish in the previous round. Peter fed a line at the base of the far side boat track with chopped worm, maggot and caster and caught his mostly good sized skimmer catch in the last couple of hours.
Ian Orbell came 4th with 4lb 4oz 8drms. Ian had caught small fish early but a change to a new line near the end of the match rewarded him with a large bream to boost his catch and 4th place.
The next Winter League Match is Sunday 3rd March on the GUC at Town North, if it is possible to peg if not we'll switch venue. Meet at the venue for the draw at 8.30am. £1.00 peg fee and £5.00 optional pools, fish 10am till 3pm
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| Full Results and League Points |
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| Current winter league standings |
