Luton Angling Club - Weekly News Reports: March 2024

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Week Ending 31st March 2024

Here is all the latest news, information and catch reports from all Luton Angling Club waters for the week ending 31st March 2024.

MEMBERSHIP for 2024/25

RENEWALS
From 1st April 2024 existing members will be able to renew their membership. We priorotise renewals during April allowing any existing club member to renew their membership.To guarantee your place for the 2024/25 season please ensure you renew by 30th April otherwise you may miss out!

NEW MEMBERS

On 1st May 2024 any remaining membership will be released on general sale to potential new members. We have a huge demand for outr membership again this year so expect to sell out very quickly on 1st May.

Potential new members will receive an email and text on the morning of the 1st May when membership is released. All new membership is on a first come first served basis so do not delay when you are notified.

Beckerings Reservoir

Liam Murphy caught one of the Catfish from Beckerings Sunday morning on a krill pop up. It's weight was 53lb 14oz, and it put up an excellent fight.

Liam Murphy - Catfish 53lb 14oz

Liam Murphy - Catfish 53lb 14oz

Liam Murphy - Catfish 53lb 14oz

North House Lake

Peter McDonagh caught this Mirror Carp at North House earlier today, 16lb 2oz. Caught using a CC Moore pro stim liver 15mm pop up.

Peter McDonagh - 16lb 2oz Mirror from North House

South Lagoon

The bailiffs report that Bream, Rioach and other silvers are being caught by members and day ticket anglers on the South Lagoon.

Club Coaching and Let's Fish

The weather has started to warm up, and our Luton Kingfishers have been out and about over Easter. One of our participants, Jack is currently on holiday in Ireland and sent us the picture of his first Brown Trout, a lovely fish and good to see he's putting some of the skills learnt to good use.

Jack's Trout caught while on holiday in Ireland

Other juniors were out with the coaches on Town South on Saturday afternoon. A very well done goes to one of our Cadets, Maxwell aged 8 who was desperate to get fishing again this spring, so despite having his appendix removed on Thursday (2 days ago) at Stoke Mandeville he persuaded his Dad to bring him to our coaching session on Town South to see how it went.

It really didn't go too badly as while practicing bread punch fishing, Max had a couple of nice chunky roach, quickly followed by two very chunky Canal bream and some bits taken at 3 metres.

A tremendous effort and we wish Max a full and speedy recovery, and we bet you can't wait to come again!

Coaching session on the canal

All the others who came thoroughly enjoyed themselves and caught fish as well!

Coaching session on the canal

We have our First Let's Fish event of the season on Town South in Leighton Buzzard next Saturday, followed by another session on Thursday, 11th April.

As well as the Lets fish Events we have a full summer of Coaching our Club Kingfishers so if you know of a young person wishing to learn to fish why don’t you get them to book on to ‘Lets Fish’ via Eventbrite or contact the Club.

The Eventbrite links are below

Free Let's Fish - 06/04/24 - Leighton Buzzard - Luton AC

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../free-lets-fish-060424...

Free Let's Fish - 11/04/24 - Leighton Buzzard

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/.../free-lets-fish-110424...

Wednesday Group Match Report 27/3/24

This week's Wednesday match was held at Water End Fishery in Clophill. With a number of anglers unable to attend due to other commitments, 6 anglers turned out this week. The weather was mild but a strong wind and some heavy showers during the match made conditions tricky but the afternoon got better and by the end of the match the sun was making a welcome appearance.

Following his match win at Wold Farm the week before, Steve Lathwell showed why he likes the commercials by winning the day with 30lb 5 ozs on peg 3 (not the venue pegs but our own pegging) about 2/3rds down the length of the venue. Steve started close in and switched between that and a couple of lines further over to catch carp on mostly dead red maggots.

Sean Leatherland was second from peg 2. Sean started well and caught carp early fishing maggot over groundbait and fishery pellets. However, bites dried up around halfway into the match but his 21lb 8oz was easily enough for 2nd.

Les Burton came a very welcome third with 5lb 10zs from peg 5. Les fished the feeder and caught one large carp and 2 smaller fish to finish in the prize money.

Individual result was:-

1st - Steve Lathwell - Peg 3 - 30 lbs 5 ozs 0 drms
2nd - Sean Leatherland - Peg 2 - 21 lbs 8 ozs 0 drms

3rd - Les Burton - Peg 5 - 5 lbs 10 ozs 0 drms
4th - Adrian Smith - Peg 6 - 5 lbs 8 ozs 0 drms
5th - Ray Burton - Peg 4 - 4 lbs 15 ozs 0 drms
6th - Tony Hickmott - Peg 1 - 0 lbs 0 ozs 8 drms

The next Match is Wednesday 3rd April on the GUC at The Three Locks (Leighton Buzzard), meet at the venue for the draw at 8.30am am. £1.00 peg fee and £5.00 optional pools, fish 10am till 3pm.

For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time can we ask that 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.

Winter League Final Round

Sunday 24th March saw the last round of the Luton Angling Club Winter League fished on the Grand Union Canal at The Globe. This has been a well attended league and there was a lot at stake for the final league placings.

Thanks again to The Globe for allowing the anglers to use the car park and for also making room to enable the presentation of the awards on what was a very busy day for the pub due to the lovely sunny day.

Following a mild few days, the 20 anglers were met with a cold start but the day soon warmed up and despite a gusty wind, a sunny afternoon provided very pleasant conditions.

Only one point separated the top two anglers (Ian Orbell and Keith Ward) in the overall league standings prior to the final match and the end could not have been closer:

Ian Orbell drew peg 11 and won the match by 1 ounce over his nearest league rival Keith Ward. Ian fished three lines - breadpunch at 6m, groundbait and squad at 13m and chopped worm and caster tight to the far bank. By alternating the lines, Ian caught skimmers, roach and perch steady before adding some bonus bream to his net. His swim dried up around the midway point in the match so he started a new line with breadpunch adding a few small roach for an overall weight of 13lb 1oz.

Keith Ward was pipped into 2nd place with 13lb. Drawing Peg 8 Keith also fed three lines - one tight over with chopped worm and the other two down the track both with a mixture of groundbait with micro pellets, pinkies and other particles. By alternating the lines, Keith caught a few small fish before adding some larger bream.

In third place was Dudley Frankland who, having missed the first round, put in a very consistent performance in the remaining matches. Drawn on peg 18, Dudley fished three lines - down the track, and tight over with chopped worm and caster and the far shelf with groundbait and pinkie. Having caught down the track and on on the far shelf, Dudleys move to fish tight over paid off with a good run of skimmer and bream in the final hour to finish with 11lb 12oz.

Overall, in terms of the final league position, Ian Orbells' near faultless performance with 3 section wins and 1 second for 23 points overall was enough to edge Keith Ward on 22 points into 2nd place. Myles Tommey's section win in the final round meant he drew level with Adrian Smith, who was second in his section. Both anglers finished on 19 points but Myles' 78 match points was enough to finish third in the league.

All agreed the league has been a success and will once again take place from January 2025. In the meantime, Luton Angling Club will be running a series of Sunday matches on club waters during 2024. Full details will be available on the club website and in the new club books. The club also continues to run the regular Wednesday matches with full details available on the website.

Winter League

Winter League

Winter League

Winter League - Presentation

Winter League - Presentation

Winter League - Presentation

Winter League - Presentation

Winter League - Results

If you would like to send us a catch report from a Luton AC Water you can send reports and pictures via our facebook page and other social media accounts, the club website or via what’s app message to 07940 229071. Don’t forget every picture we receive is automatically entered in to our monthly photo prize which is judged by the committee and you could win £25.00. It’s not always the biggest fish that wins so well worth sending in any of your catch reports. Tight Lines Until Next Week! Dave M Luton AC

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Week Ending 24th March 2024

Here is all the latest news, information and catch reports from all Luton Angling Club waters for the week ending 24th March 2024. A few days later than usual as I have been working away.

The club's annual general meeting took place this week on Thursday 21st March. Although well attended only a fraction of our members were at the meeting.

The AGM is an important annual event where you can find out what is going and what is planned for the club in the coming year. Several members were presented with awards for the biggest fish of each species caught last year, Its well worth reporting your catches to us as all catch reports received are considered for the awards.

Roger Baker was awarded with the Diamond Jubilee Trophy which is awarded to a member that has gone above and beyond with assisting the club – Roger has been a key part of assisting and supporting the coaching team with various aspects during most of their Let’s fish events.

Some of our Junior anglers were presented with awards for their achievements and progress as they have done the club proud at various national events and are becoming very proficient young anglers.

AGM Presentation

Renewals and New Membership Update

Subscriptions have been set for the 2024/25 membership season and existing members will be contacted soon (early April) to renew their membership.

Our existing members have priority to renew during April and then any remaining membership is released to new members on the 1st May 2024. If you are an existing member and joined online last year keep your eyes on your email as you will receive an email renewal invitation, you can also renew by clicking the link on the website home page once renewals open in early April.

If you joined via postal application or direct with the membership secretary you should receive a renewal form in the post - if you don't please let us know. Don’t miss out on your renewal as after 1st May its 1st come first served and we expect to sell out quickly again this year.

2024/25 (1st June 2024 - 31st May 2025) subscriptions are as follows:-

Adult (Over 16 Years old on 1/6/24). £110.00

Senior/OAP (Over 65 Years old on 1/6/24) £75.00

Disabled Membership (Registered Disabled/PIP) £75.00

Junior - Including Night Ticket (Under 16 Years Old on 1/6/24. £75.00

Junior - No Night Fishing (Under 16 years old on 1/6/24) £12.00

Family (Couple and 2 Juniors [no night fishing for juniors] £200.00

3rd Rod Upgrade £55.00

Beckerings Reservoir

Amer Jawad fished Beckerings for 4 hours on Monday and had 4 Bream for 31lb and the biggest fish was 9lb 6oz, he had all the fish on the feeder at 40m. He fished again on Sunday for three and a half hours and had another 6 big Bream on the feeder using dead red maggots.

Amer Jawad - Beckerings Bream

While Roach fishing using red maggots at Beckerings on Monday, Jason Mash had this plump Perch, which weighed 2.8lb. As usual It's a great quality picture from Jason.

Jason Mash - 2lb 8oz Perch from Beckerings

Nicholas Dunnett found Beckerings was hard going on Sunday, he only managed one carp which was a 2022 stockie caught at 12lb 8oz within an hour of starting the session it was caught on sticky krill Active. This is 2022 stockie 20 which was 8lb 6oz when it was stocked

Nicholas Dunnett 12lb 8oz Mirror Carp (Stockie 20)

Stockie 20 in October 2022

North House Lake

Bailiff Brian Turner was unable to get on the South Lagoon as it was unusually busy so he opted for a night on North House instead. A stunning 26lb Mirror took a liking to his wicked white pop up and shortly after was in his landing net.

Brian Turner - North House Lake

Grand Union Canal

Lavendon bailiff Roger Bland did 5 hours fishing on a Luton AC section of the Grand Union canal. It's the first time he's ever fished a canal. He had these 6 Bream on feeder fished Lobworm. All the fish were caught in a 90 minute spell between half one and half two in the afternoon. Soon after that, a boat went through and the bites dried up.he'll definitely be returning to the canal soon to give it a second go.

Roger Bland's Canal Bream

Roger Bland with one of his Canal Bream

On Wednesday Neville Hunt aught these Bream yesterday during a nice bit of Tuesday fishing on the canal at Grove Church. He said the conditions were good and the water was flat and calm. All were caught on worm on the feeder.

Wednesday Match Report 20th March 2024

Wold Farm Podington

This week, we changed our venue due to adverse towpath conditions on the chosen section of the Canal and opted to go to Wold Fam Poddington instead.

As we drove to the venue the weather was warm, but steady rain was falling.

Our match was spread over two of venue’s lakes, Moat, and Islands, so we had two sections for pools this week, and having done our draw the day before anglers had the option of going straight to their pegs or getting breakfast at the onsite Café.

Fortunately, the rain soon cleared, and by ‘All in’ the day was fine with a very slight breeze which hardly produced a ripple. The lakes were nicely coloured, and fish could be seen topping.

The day turned out to be an interesting one where the resident Carp preferred to mooch about on the surface and didn’t want to feed, and last week’s results tables were completely reversed as the winners got battered by the tail enders!

Yesterday was a superb example of what Wednesdays are all about as a couple of our members are currently struggling with mobility issues and everyone rallied around to ensure that they could still enjoy their day out.

The day was taken by Steve Lathwell with 38lb 3oz. Steve was fishing Islands and used his pole, starting on 4 mm pellet over micros in 6 feet of water at 10 meters It was very slow, so he started pinging casters to the island where it shallowed up. Fishing this shallow area he found some carp. He had a couple of fish from the near margin, including a nice barbel, to end a hard but enjoyable day.

Richard Gibbs took first on Moat and second overall with 24lb 11oz. Richard spent the first 2 hours throwing a groundbait feeder to an island and had two good-sized Barbel around 3lbs each, plus a Crucian around 2lbs. Then he had just the odd skimmer until all went quiet around midday. He’d been feeding a swim close in with groundbait, caster and dead reds for over 2hrs and switched to this going over it with the pole. It was quiet at first but with an hour and a half to go the swim came to life, and he took a couple of small carp, two more Barbel, two good Chub and Bream about 2 lbs right up until the whistle. His dead red maggot bait accounted for all his fish.

Richard Darbon, on Islands, took third overall with 19lb 0oz, all his fish coming on the pole. He took his barbel on double red maggots and had crucian and goldfish on corn all tight to the bank.

Many thanks are due to all who helped run the day and assisted with the weigh in this week.

Results

Islands Lake

1st Steve Lathwell 38 lb 3oz

2nd Richard Dardon 19lb 0oz

3rd Andy Frankum 14lb 14oz

4th Keith Ward 12lb 11oz

5th Dave Smith 11lb 10oz

6th Adrian Smith 7lb 9oz

7th Simon Faulkes 5lb 1oz

8th Dennis Hunt 2lb 13oz

9th Les Burton 2lb 6oz

Moat Lake

1st Richard Gibbs 24lb 11oz

2nd Colin Holmes 11lb 7oz

3rd Ray Burton 11lb 0oz

4th Dudley Frankland 9lb 10oz

5th Andy Norgate 6lb 14oz

6th Malcolm Ogden 5lb 4oz

7th Terry Vickers 3lb 14oz

8th Roger Baker 0lb 15oz

Overall Results

1st Steve Lathwell 38lb 3oz

2nd Richard Gibbs 24lb 11oz

3rd Richard Darbon 19lb 0oz

4th Andy Frankum 14lb 4oz

5th Keith Ward 12lb 11oz

6th Dave Smith 11lb 10oz

7th Colin Holmes 11lb 7oz

8th Ray Burton 11lb 0oz

9th Dudley Frankland 9lb 10oz

10th Adrian Smith 7lb 9oz

11th Andy Norgate 6lb 14oz

12th Malcolm Ogden 5lb 4oz

13th Simon Faulkes 5lb 1oz

14th Terry Vickers 3lb 14oz

15th Dennis Hunt 2lb 13oz

16th Les Burton 2lb 6oz

17 Roger Baker 0lb 15oz

Our next Match is on Wednesday 27th March, and is at Water End Fisheries, Clophill, which Adrian Smith will run.

Draw 8.30 at the venue £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.

Wednesday Match - Steve Lathwell

Wednesday Match - Wold Farm

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Week Ending 17th March 2024

Here is all the latest news, information and catch reports from all Luton Angling Club waters for the week ending 17th March 2024.

Annual General Meeting

The club will hold its Annual General Meeting on Thursday 21st March 2024 at 8pm at the usual venue - Stopsley Working Mens Club, Putteridge Road, Luton. Members are encouraged to attend to keep up with club affairs. Remember to bring your membership book for proof of membership and eligibility to vote. There is ample free parking and a bar is available.

Beckerings Reservoir

The roach did not want to play at Beckerings on Wednesday, so Darren Savage had a go for the carp instead. He caught 3, including the stunning half lin at 33lb 6oz

Darren Savage - Half Lin at 33lb 6oz

Grand Union Canal

Neville Hunt had a few Bream 1 to 2Ib while fishing the canal at Grove Church on Saturday. He had them on cage feeder with worms. An overcast day with no wind, there were also very few boats, and the water was flat and still.

Neville Hunt - Bream from the GUC at Grove Church

Mark North fished the canal at Slapton on Saturday and had a few fish on the whip using bread. Unfortunately, he couldn't use the car park as despite the prominent keep clear signage, an inconsiderate person had parked their car in front of the gate.

Mark North's catch from the GUC at Slapton

North House Lake

The bailiffs reported an 18lb Mirror being caught at the weekend and also 3 of the stockies made an appearance. On Sunday the venue bailiffs deployed bundles of barley straw in to the lake, in total two large bales of barley straw were put in onion sacks and deployed at various locations around the lake, Barley Straw as it decomposes releases a chemical that prevents algal blooms and has proved quite successful at North House over the last couple of years.

Barley Straw at North House

Barley Straw at North House

Rivers

The close season came into force on 15th March, members are not allowed to fish any rivers until 16th June, Under the salmon and freshwater fisheries act, 1975, It is an offence to fish for freshwater fish and eels from 15th March to 15th June (both dates inclusive) prosecution can result in a significant fine and a criminal record. If you witness any illegal fishing please report to the EA hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

Coaching Donation

The club coaching team would like to thank Spotted Fin - Match in St Albans for their extremely generous donation of bags of groundbait, caps, box stickers and keyrings which will be used for Junior match prizes. https://www.facebook.com/spottedfin.match if any other tackle shop or manufacturer would like to donate bait or equipment to support our young anglers and the coaching activities please get in touch.

Donation from Spotted Fin for our young anglers and coaching program

Match Report 13 March 2024

GUC Town South

As the anglers met at the White bridge on Town South for our draw, we were all slightly apprehensive as to what the day would bring. After signs that the canal was starting to fish again last week, we had another huge amount of rain at the weekend resulting in the canal having a dark coffee colour and flowing strongly over the overflows into the adjacent River Ouzel. The overnight temperature had been mild, and the day was warm but overcast, with a strong and gusty breeze. Water temperature though was measured at nearly 10C so was much warmer than recent days.

The match was pegged either side of the white bridge, and having reached our pegs there was confirmation the day was going to be challenging due to the high colour, strong flow and wind. Keith Ward stood up mid match to stretch his legs, and a strong gust of wind took 3 top kits off his roost and into the Canal. Fortunately, quick thinking Andy Norgate on the next peg saw this happen, jumped up and was able to rescue the top kits from the canal before they sank, much to Keith’s relief.

Dennis Hunt our winner had a peg on the Ouzel overflow opposite Mentmore recreation ground and noticed that while there was very strong flow on the inside with water going down the overflow, but the water 6 metres out was significantly calmer so opted to try this line from the off, holding back and easing the float through the swim.

Dennis used a .5 gram wire stem float bulked down, with a size 20 hook. The float buried on the second run through, and a nice Canal bream fought hard in the strong flow, which gave some confidence the canal would fish, and was soon followed by another.

Dennis lost another large fish (perhaps foul hooked?) five minutes before the all out.

The two bigger bream in his in his 20 fish catch were probably just over 3lb each and showing spawning tubercles. He also had two cracking roach one about 8 oz and one bigger probably 10 oz. He took his fish on 4mm bread punch using toast crumb and liquidised bread mixed as groundbait fed in small balls via a pole cup.

Barry Roper took second with a catch consisting of four large bream caught on chopped worm at 11 metres. Because of the strong flow he used a 1.5 gram float, and Barry commented the flow made netting the big bream very tricky.

Adrian Smith took third place. He feed three lines, one close-in, one at 9 metres (both these with Groundbait and pinkie) and at 13 metres (chopped worm).

He started close-in and caught a nice skimmer and two smaller ones on pinkie before bites dried up. He then moved over to 13m line and had a small roach, but fish were crashing in the reeds, so he moved line again to 9 metres where he caught steadily throughout the match taking some nice skimmer and hybrids on pinkie. Adrian lost two bigger fish – suspected to be large bream.

Despite the challenging conditions the fish showed this week and all attending enjoyed not getting wet! Many Thanks for Tracy and Roger Baker who assisted with weighing in this week.

Results

1st Dennis Hunt 16lb 4oz

2nd Barry Roper 15lb 14oz

3rd Adrian Smith 13lb 5oz

4th Jim Tookey 8lb 11oz

5th Richard Gibbs 6lb 0oz

6th Tony Hickmott 5lb 1oz

7th Richard Darbon 3lb 15oz

8th Simon Faulkes 3lb 14oz

9th Les Burton 3lb 10oz

10th Steve Lathwell 3lb 2oz

11th Colin Holmes 3lb 2oz

12th Dave Smith 2lb 121oz

13th Terry Vickers 1lb 12oz

14th Sean Leatherland 0lb 15oz

DNW Andy Norgate and Ray Burton

Wednesday Match 13.3.24

Wednesday Match 13.3.24

Wednesday Match 13.3.24

Wednesday Match 13.3.24