Luton Angling Club - Weekly News Reports: December 2024

Luton Angling Club Weekly News Report for the Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire & St Neots Cambridgeshire Area - Week Ending 22nd December 2024.

Luton Angling Club would like to wish all its members and friends a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sorry there was no report last Sunday, this was due to a lack of catch reports which is not uncommon for this time of year, This week we do have some reports and we hope that the weather behaves over the Christmas break and that some of you will be able to get out fishing, If you do please send in your catch reports.

Merry Christmas from Luton Angling Club!

South Lagoon Wyboston

The South Lagoon still is still regularly producing lots of small carp and also some large specimens are being caught, West Thomas a regular on the Lagoon at Wyboston has been catching quite a few carp recently. On Wednesday this week, he had this lump of a Common at 32lb he also had a few smaller carp he didn't take pictures of. The bailiffs also say that anglers are also catching Bream and a number of small Jacks have also been reported. South Lagoon is available on a day/night ticket to non club members, tickets can be purchased on the bank from the club bailiffs.

West Thomas - 32lb Common - South Lagoon

Lavendon Mill

on the 16th December, as part of a programme led by Sam Richardson to increase the population of barbel in the Great Ouse, there was another ‘stocking day’.

Hundreds of barbel from 8oz to 3lb have been introduced to several sites along the water course at Lavendon, Turvey, Olney, Ravenstone, Newport Pagnell, Adams Mill and Wolverton

This is only a part of the program as additionallly spawning beds are also being improved.This is where the gravel jetting takes place at the back end of the winter/early spring. The idea is that these new fish, along with other already resident barbel, will spawn on these beds-the good news is that fish already are, as they have been witnessed doing so.

The even better news is there are lots of catch reports all along the upper Great Ouse-fish of all sizes from small to specimens.

These stockings have been funded by several local clubs, including Luton Angling Club, Olney and Clifton, Northampton Nene,Biggleswade and Hitchin, Newport Pagnell AA and Milton Keynes AA, and also by individuals Sam Richardson, Joe Carass, and Ian Barnes.

Also, a big thank you to everyone involved in organising this and also to the guys that helped with the stocking yesterday, and of course, Billy, who supplied these wonderful fish

Barbel Stocking - River Ouse

River Ouse (Blunham)

Mark North fished at Blunham, which is one of the waters that Luton members can fish as part of a water share agreement with the controlling club Barnet And District Angling Club. He only fished for four hours . The river was up and rising and pushing with a good colour. He lost 2 bream from the off but ended up with 2 bream 1 carp and a few roach.

Mark North - Blunham River Ouse

Beckerings Reservoir

A reminder that the reservoir is closed on the afternoon of the 23rd December as there is a large shoot taking place near and around the reservoir - Please vacate the venue by 12pm as for recent catch reports, the bailiffs report that a few Carp and Bream are being caught and that the water levels are now back to normal.

North House Lake

a member told the bailiff that they had a common carp in the upper 20s this weekend.

Match Report 18th December Christmas Match GUC The Globe.

This week was our final match of 2024, which was our annual Christmas match and was held at ‘The Globe’ which is traditionally followed by a buffet in the pub with ‘Secret Santa’ present exchange between the anglers. This week we fished a shortened match 10 until 2 to give us time to pack up, weigh in and get to the pub for our buffet.

We had 23 anglers turn out to fish, and we met in the car park at ‘The Globe’ where Tony Hickmott distributed the usual ‘Werthers Original’ sugar free sweets as the anglers arrived. He later calculated we had gone through 1,692 sweets this year!

It was a dark, warm but very blustery morning, with winds expected to gust up to 45mph. Because of the large numbers attending we pegged both sides of the pub, section A towards Leighton Buzzard and section B towards the Three Locks.

The Canal had good colour, but it was always going to be difficult in the strong wind which whipped the surface of the Canal into little waves. The wind did die down from 12 O’clock, which made the conditions slightly less challenging, and the rain stayed away.

All those fishing caught, but weights were generally low, especially on section B, the bigger fish refusing to show and most catches consisting of smaller fish caught on the inside line.

During the course of the match we had one boat movement at the very end, and the anglers on A section managed to reattach the mooring lines of a boat that came adrift in the wind and moved across the canal twice.

Colin McBeth won on A section with 4lb 15oz. He fed 3 lines at 4m, 5m and 8m. He fed at 3m with liquidised bread, 4m & 8m with groundbait. He started on the 4m line with punch, caught small roach and skimmers and lost 2 good fish. He then changed and fished 5 m with maggot and pinkie on the hook.

He topped up with groundbait and chopped worm which produced a run of perch and some skimmers. When this slowed and the wind abated, he went to 8m and caught some nice roach on worm, maggot and caster and kept catching for most of the day.

Dave Whillock was second having a decent day ending with 4lb 2oz. He was followed in third place by Andy Francome with 3lb 12oz.

Winner on section B was Myles Tommey. Myles started on the inside line and had 3 quick roach, and then this line died. He then switched to a worm line and had a skimmer around a pound. He switched back to a pinkie line and managed to bag a few more smallish roach, but then it went very quiet for the second half of the match, putting 1lb 13oz 8drm on the scales.

Second Man Barry Roper ran Myles very close weighing in 1lb 13 oz.

Bart Bonito in third on section B fed 3 lines, 1 close, the others down the middle and chopped worm line far across. He had two bites on the worm, and hooked and lost a perch of about 1.5 lbs. He had nothing down the middle over groundbait.

All his fish were caught close, over groundbait and pinkie. He commented he could have caught more smaller fish but spent too much time trying to get bigger fish on worm which were not feeding.

Our weigh in was conducted by Tracey, Roger Baker, Dave Ridley and Mark Sessions in a very efficient manner, and we all made it back to the car park, got the gear stowed away, and retired to The Globe in good time for drinks and a fabulous buffet and our present exchanges.

We reflected on the fact we had had 47 individual club members fish with us this year (including 3 Juniors), and had had 47 different visits to the Canal, Rivers and Commercial fisheries with a staggering 4609lb 10oz total weight of fish caught by the members, and despite ice earlier in the year and the flooding that had made our fishing very difficult, resulting in late venue changes it had been a successful year which we all enjoyed.

We will meet at the Globe in January to set the program for the 2025 / 26 season.

We wish all those who have fished with us through the year, especially those who would have liked to have fished or attended the buffet yesterday and didn’t make it a very Happy Christmas and a successful New Year. We would like to thank the team at the Globe for making us so welcome and providing the great buffet.

The Wednesday boys and girls now have a Winter break and there are no fixtures in January and we will resume our program with our first match of 2025 on 5th February on the GUC at Town South.

Here are the match results....

Section (a) - Towards Leighton Buzzard

Section (b) - Towards Three Locks

Colin McBeth - Peg 5

Section Place:1 (a)

Overall Place:1

4lb 15oz

Dave Whillock - Peg 2

Section Place:2 (a)

Overall Place:2

4lb 2oz

Andy Francome - Peg 3

Section Place:3 (a)

Overall Place:3

3lb 12oz

Dave Abbott - Peg 1

Section Place:4(a)

Overall Place:4

3lb 11oz

Steve Lathwell - Peg 7

Section Place:5(a)

Overall Place:5

3lb 9oz 4drm

Tim Watts - Peg 8

Section Place:6(a)

Overall Place:6

2lb 7oz 4drm

Mark Sessions - Peg 12

Section Place:7(a)

Overall Place:7

1lb 15oz 8drm

Myles Tommey - Peg 19

Section Place:1 (b)

Overall Place:8

1lb 13oz 8drm

Barry Roper - Peg 24

Section Place:2 (b)

Overall Place:9

1lb 13oz

Bart Bonito - Peg 16

Section Place:3 (b)

Overall Place:10

1lb 9oz

Les Burton - Peg 6

Section Place:8 (a)

Overall Place:11

0lb 15oz

Sean Leatherland - Peg 9

Section Place:8(a)

Overall Place:11

0lb 15oz

Tony Hickmott - Peg 4

Section Place:10(a)

Overall Place:13

0lb 13oz 8drm

Dennis Hunt - Peg 10

Section Place:11(a)

Overall Place:14

0lb 9oz 8drm

Keith Ward - Peg 20

Section Place:4(b)

Overall Place:15

0lb 8oz 8drm

Colin Holmes - Peg 14

Section Place:5(b)

Overall Place:16

0lb 7oz 8drm

Richard Darbon - Peg 18

Section Place:6(b)

Overall Place:17

0lb 4oz

Simon Faulkes - Peg 13

Section Place:9(b)

Overall Place:18

0lb 2oz

Ray Burton - Peg 22

Section Place:8(b)

Overall Place:19

0lb 1oz 8drm

Terry Vickers - Peg 21

Section Place:10(b)

Overall Place:20

0lb 0oz 12drm

Dave Smith - Peg 17

Section Place:11(b)

Overall Place:21

0lb 0oz 4drm

Malcolm Ogden - Peg 15

Section Place:11(b)

Overall Place:21

0lb 0oz 4drm

Wednesday Group - Xmas Match

Wednesday Group - Xmas Match

Wednesday Group - Xmas buffet at the Globe

Wednesday Group - Xmas buffet at the Globe

Wednesday Group - Xmas buffet at the Globe

Match Report 11th December

Drawn Pairs Match GUC Town North / South sections

We had decided for a bit of fun and ran the penultimate Wednesday event of the year as a blind ‘Drawn Pairs’ match, using our GUC Town South (Section A) and Town North (Section B) Canal sections, one angler from each team in each section.

The 18 anglers who indicated they wished to fish were drawn into pairs in advance, giving 9 teams, the first drawn angler allocated on section A and the second angler on section B. A further random draw for the pegs was conducted on the morning.

The competition was decided on points, highest weight in each section given 1 point second weight 2 points down to lowest getting 9 points, and the team with the lowest points overall winning. In the event of a points tie overall weight comes into play.

The day started cold, but dry with little wind, although the wind picked up at lunchtime, making the day feel much colder. The water in the canal was cold, and after the heavy weekend, rain was very coloured. The flow (and level) varied during the day with CRT running off water and boats locking. It seemed to be another day when the bigger fish failed to show in numbers, most catches consisting of roach and skimmer bream.

The Anglers pegged on Town North generally seemed to have the easier time, recording the higher weights, while those on Town South had to work hard for fish and weights were much lower, however it was another week where nobody recorded the dreaded DNW! Some on Town South also had to cope with boats four abreast, the two breasted up fuel boats delivering fuel to a customer being passed by another narrowboat!

Our individual winner on A section was Dudley Frankland with 3lb 6oz. Dudley initially set up a heavy rig as he believed the canal was flowing strongly, but after a few minutes, he realised this was a mistake and changed to a lighter rig, which dramatically improved results . He fished at 11 metres with pinkie and caster. Second was Barry Roper with 2lb 13oz with Richard Darbon third. Richard fished a whip at 3 and 7 metres to take 2lb 7oz using Pinkie on the hook over groundbait.

B section was won by Tim Watts with 6lb 4oz, who said he had one of those rare days where things went right! Steve Lathwell was second fishing 10 metres and a couple of lines on the far shelf with groundbait and a bit of chopped worm mixed in, with pinkie on the hook. Sean Leatherland was third here with 5lb 12oz, Sean caught most of his fish short at 2.5 -3 Metres using pinkie over groundbait but did have a couple of larger ‘Caster’ roach over.

This was a slightly different format that all who fished really enjoyed.

Many thanks to Barry and Keith for pegging the sections, Tracey and Roger Baker for weighing in and Ray for the Admin, running our Wednesday outings is thankfully a team effort.

Results

1st (Section A) Colin Holmes

1st (Section B) Steve Lathwell

2nd(Section A) Dennis Hunt

2nd (Section B) Keith Ward

3rd (Section A) Dudley Frankland

3rd (Section B) Simon Faulkes

4th (Section A) Tony Hickmott

4th (Section B) Tim Watts

5th (Section A) Terry Vickers

5th (Section B) Sean Leatherland

6th (Section A) Richard Darbon

6th (Section B) Ray Burton

7th (Section A) Dave Ridley

7th (Section B) Trevor Bunnage

8th (Section A) Barry Roper

8th (Section B) Malcolm Ogden

9th (Section A) Les Burton

9th (Section B) Dave Smith

Wednesday Match 11th December 2024 - Grand Union Canal

Wednesday Match 11th December 2024 - Grand Union Canal

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 into 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 8th December 2024.

Here is this weeks round up of news, information and catch reports from Luton Angling Club.

There is not much to report this week mainly due to the very poor weather. Storm Darragh has been wreaking havoc at some of our venues this weekend, During the night on Saturday a very large tree fell across the track around the South Lagoon fully blocking access, which unfortunately cut off a couple of members who had fished the South Lagoon on Saturday night and they were trapped at the venue and unable to leave.

Committee members David Murdoch and Fergal O'Kane along with venue bailiffs Brian Turner and Andy Smith quickly mobilised themselves early on Sunday morning and dealt with the situation and cut up and removed the fallen tree. They were all very wet and cold by the time they had finished.

For safety reasons we would advise our members in future to avoid visiting our venues or fishing when there are severe weather warnings in place, we may consider venue closures in future when there are named storms and Met office severe weather warnings for wind. When there is high winds and risk of flooding, please always risk assess your surroundings when you arrive and continue monitor the conditions closely.

Tree down at South Lagoon

Clear up begins - Tree down at South Lagoon

Making progress - Tree down at South Lagoon

Wheres my ladder - Tree down at South Lagoon

Nearly Finished - Tree down at South Lagoon

The track is finally clear - No more tree!

South Lagoon Wyboston
Braving the mad weather during Storm Darragh, Day ticket anglers, Darrell West and West Thomas had another good 24 hours on South Lagoon on Friday night, they had 10 carp up to 22lbs and a few bream between them, the bailiffs tell us there are still lots of carp coming out from the South Lagoon.

South Lagoon Carp - caught during storm Darragh

South Lagoon Carp - caught during storm Darragh

South Lagoon Carp - caught during storm Darragh

South Lagoon Carp - caught during storm Darragh

Match Report 4th December GUC The Globe

This week the weather again forced a change of venue, the scheduled match on the river at Wyboston having to be hastily re arranged due to the river being in flood yet again.

It’s at times like this when our Canal sections are really appreciated as they usually give us an alternate fishable venue.

This week we decided to fish The Globe, after first checking the pub wouldn’t mind us parking, and 15 of us met in the in the car park for our draw

The day was bright and cold starting at 4C, and the forecast was fine with no rain. This week, many were fooled by it and had left our umbrellas at home. However, this prediction turned out to be untrue, as the sun went, and we had a period of heavy drizzle, which was sufficient to make everything wet at lunchtime.

The Canal was full, after the recent rain, and had colour, although with the decreasing temperature, the water (and the fish) was really cold. Boat traffic this week was minimal, with a CRT workboat and three others passing during the match without too much disturbance.

When we arrived at the pegs as the Globe towpath faces due east the low sun was shining directly in our eyes causing reflections on the water and made spotting floats extremely difficult, but when the sun disappeared this ceased to be a problem! The fishing this week was hard, but fair along the length with the bigger fish failing to show, but everyone caught, with 11 weights over 3lb recorded and only 5oz between the top 4 places.

First place Barry Roper struggled for the first two hours on punch and chopped worm, and then decided to concentrate on the roach which were present in his swim. He decided to change to pinkie for the rest of the match switching between 5 and 11 metre lines to put 73 fish in his net for 5lb 2oz.

Dennis Hunt also started on punch at top 3 plus 1 section and spent a biteless 30 minutes. Realising this approach wasn’t working he swapped to top 3 plus 2 and swapped to pinkie with loose fed squatt. This started to produce fish, and he had a ‘golden’ 90 minutes with fish regularly coming to the net. After this it did slow down but the fish were still there coming in twos and threes for the rest of the match. Dennis finished with 43 fish for 5lb 1oz to finish second.

Sean Leatherland took third catching small roach and skimmer on punch and pinkie fished over toasted crumb at 2.5 and 10 Metre ending with 4lb 14oz.

Thanks to Barry Roper for pegging, Ray Burton for the Admin and of course Tracey for assisting with the weigh in.

Results

1st Barry Roper 5lb 2oz

2nd Dennis Hunt 5lb 1oz

3rd Sean Leatherland 4lb 14oz

4th Tim Watts 4lb 13oz

5th Chris Howard 4lb 6oz

6th Steve Lathwell 3lb 13oz

7th Colin Holmes 3lb 9oz 8drm

8th Dave Ridley 3lb 9oz

9th Bart Bonito 3lb 4oz

10th Colin McBeth 3lb 2oz

11th Dave Abbott 3lb 1oz

12th Ray Burton 2lb 11oz

13th Tony Hickmott 1lb 2oz

14th Malcolm Ogden 0lb 10oz

15th Les Burton 0lb 5oz

Our next Match is a drawn pairs on Wednesday 11th December on the GUC at Town South / Town North.

Competitors notified of section the day before

Draw 8.30am and there is a £5.00 optional pools plus the usual £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, as we need to 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.

Dennis Hunt - Wednesday Match

Wednesday Match

Report from the final round of the LAC Sunday Series for 2024.

Sunday 1st December staged the final round of the LAC Sunday Series for 2024. With the rivers once again out of action and following a Wednesday match at Town South, the match was moved to the GUC at Three Locks.

13 anglers turned out for the match with the two front runners - Myles Toomey and Dave Smith, knowing if they could win their section and the other not to perform so well they were in with a chance of winning the overall Series.

The weather was not kind for the draw, tackling-up and the start of the match with continual rain until around 1pm resulting in tough conditions. Interestingly, similar to the more recent LAC Wednesday match, no bonus fish were caught and therefore, although the weights were low, it was a close match.

Chris Howard on peg 5 won the match with 1lb 2oz 12drms. Fishing various pole lines with pinkie, squat and breadpunch, Chris caught small fishing steadily through the match.

Tim Watts on peg 9 was second with 13ozs 4drm. Tim employed similar tactics to Chris. Third place went to Adrian Smith with 12ozs catching small fish on pinkie at 3m and 4th place went to Sean Leatherland with 10ozs 8 drms of small fish close-in on pinkie and squat.

The results only include the anglers fishing the river match.

With the LAC Sunday Summer Series over, there is now a short break and the LAC Winter League will start on Sunday January 19th. The match will be on the Canal and the venue will be confirmed nearer the date pending on weather conditions. The draw will be at 8.30am. £1.00 peg fee and £5.00 optional pools, fish 10am till 3pm.

For anyone thinking of joining in with the friendly matches, they are open to club members and if you are joining us for the first time can we ask that you message us so we know you are coming before turning up. You will be asked to produce your Club book at first appearance, so please have it with you and you are very welcome.

Match Results

The Overall League positions were unchanged. With the best 5 result counting (one of which had to be on the river match, the final series placing are:-

The results above only include the anglers fishing the river match.

That's all for this week, 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 into 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 1st December 2024

Here is the round up of Luton Angling Club news, information and catch reports for the week ending Sunday 1st December 2024.

Apologies for the lack of report last week this was due to ill health.

South Lagoon Wyboston

The South Lagoon at Wyboston is still fishing very well, even with high water levels due to river flooding. Andrew Elliman braved Storm Bert and had a cracking couple of nightshe had a PB zander of 11lb 4oz along with a number of carp to 18lb 8oz, he also had Bream to around 6lb.

Andrew Elliman - South Lagoon

Andrew Elliman - South Lagoon

Andrew Elliman - South Lagoon

Andrew Elliman - South Lagoon

Andrew Elliman - South Lagoon

After enquiring about the conditions and water levels at the lagoon and being informed that it was high but fishing well, Matthew Lloyd gave it a go and although he only caught one fish, it was a decent Pike, so he was not disappointed

Matthew Lloyd - South Lagoon

Andy Darby sent in a report from his session on the lagoon on 13th November, he had 5 pike out in total. 3 good doubles and 2 jacks. All caught on ledgered deadbait fished close into the margins.

Andy Darby - South Lagoon

Andy Darby - South Lagoon

Andy Darby - South Lagoon

Beckerings Reservoir

Darren Savage sent us in a number of pictures of fish he has caught from the reservoir in recent weeks, the biggest 2 carp were 28lb the tench was 4lb one carp was caught Wednesday morning with the temperature at minus 2 he had 36 carp in total, lots of bream and some lovely roach up two 2lb 2oz.

Darren Savage - Beckerings

Darren Savage - Beckerings

Club Coaching - Do you want to become an Angling coach?

Do we have any members who are interested in joining our Club’s successful Junior coaching program and getting involved with coaching at our CRT ‘Lets Fish’ Events?

To become a volunteer coach, you would need to complete the two day Angling Trust Level 2 training course and gain first aid and Safeguarding qualifications. We do have Bursaries available, (subject to Terms and Conditions). On completion you will have gained your L2 coaching qualification, giving you your coaching badge and you will then be fully insured when coaching. This will give the ability to coach at both CRT and Club events.

We currently ( subject to available spaces) could get prospective coaches on a training course being held locally in Peterborough over the weekend of 18th / !9th January.

Those who do coach thoroughly enjoy the experience. It really is a very rewarding experience and is your opportunity to help safeguard the future of angling. Don’t be afraid of applying, even if you aren't the greatest angler, we will happily upskill you to the standards required.

If you are interested and want to know more, please get in touch with the club as as soon as possible, and we'll put you in touch with our coaching team.

Luton AC - Volunteer Coaching Opportunity
Luton AC - Volunteer Coaching Opportunity

Match Report 20th November River Ouse Biddenham

After the first snow of the winter on Monday, and the coldest night of the year so far on Tuesday night, 12 members met at Biddenham in the still frozen car park at 8am, we were full of hope rather than expectation that the venue would fish, and we would bag up!

Because of the cold temperatures and early darkness, it was agreed that this week we would fish 10 till 2 rather than our usual 10 to 3.

As we did our draw by peg 6 we could see the river was coloured, well up, and had significant flow, with logs and other rubbish being swept along in the stream. The water temperature was hovering at a chilly 7C.

When we had got to our pegs and started fishing the hope all but disappeared, and we knew we were in for a hard day, bites being extremely scarce this week and weights in ounces rather than pounds!

Richard Darbon our winner decided to use his feeder rod while still unloading the car and could not believe the flow on the river. He went ahead with the feeder plan but had lots of debris coming down so fished 8ft out in a small eddy. He had nothing on worm or maggot but tried double pinkie, which produced a couple of bites, Richard reported losing a big perch and a small roach before landing a 1lb perch.

Tony Hickmott fished a cage feeder filled with liquidised bread, rotating between bread punch, maggots and worm on the hook, this was bottom fished on the near side edge of the crease, hopefully targeting any Chub that might be present. Tony found presentation of the bait was difficult due to the many leaves and other detritus coming down the river and binding the bait. He then changed the setup to a Paternoster rig to help keep the bait off the bottom, hopefully away from the leaves, also giving the opportunity to fish at different depths.

After another fruitless hour it became obvious that this had also failed, as no bites materialised, and the bait was still becoming blinded by detritus. Tony then changed to his favourite 6-meter whip, tooled up with a self-made pole style pencil float and size 20 hook, alternating between a single Pinky or bread punch on the hook, and this at last brought fish to the bank in the form of a few Bleak, for the final one and half hours.

Terry Vickers comment on his third place was he fished a stick float and pinkies . resorting to trying for small fish close in as there wasn't a lot else.

It was a very hard day, but the sun shone, and we didn’t get any rain, and we all enjoyed the general banter and being out in company, its why its called fishing rather than catching!

As usual thanks to all who helped in running a successful day, you know who you are.

Results

1st Richard Darbon 1Lb 0 oz

2nd Tony Hickmott 10oz

3rd Terry Vickers 5 ½ oz

4th Malcolm Ogden 5oz

5th Barry Roper 4 ½ oz

6th Dave Ridley & Steve Lathwell 3oz

8th Dudley Frankland 2oz

9th Les Burton ½ oz

10th Ray Burton ¼ oz

DNW Dennis Hunt & Colin Holmes

Biddenham

Biddenham

Match Report Town South GUC Wednesday 27th November 2024

This week’s midweek match took place on the Town South Stretch of the GUC in Leighton Buzzard. Despite the early morning rain and a cold wind, 16 anglers turned out – again more in hope than expectation. The weather was cold at the outset with a persistent drizzle until mid-day, but the temperature did lift a little during the day to around 5 degrees and showed a little improvement when the sun did briefly show its face in the afternoon.

The canal was above its normal level with a heavy colour due to the recent rain. With the surplus water running off it was also towing significantly enough to make bait presentation difficult. Boat traffic was very light as most boat owners had obviously hunkered down to wait for the weather to improve!

The match was decided by either low number pegs1, 2 & 3 plus the other end peg no 16. The pegs in between were a very mixed bag some fished, some didn’t!

Our winner was Tony Hickmott with 6lbs 8oz on peg 16, with a catch consisting of 4 good sized bream, all taken on a 10m whip flicked out towards the far bank. The successful bait was double pinkie on a size 20 hook over a small amount of liquidised bread groundbait and sparingly loose fed pinkies. Tony was using one of his own beautifully made floats which obviously stood up well to the testing flow.

Second place was taken by Richard Darbon with 5lbs 7 oz on peg 2, also using a whip with pinkies as bait, both close in and down the track. His catch did include one superb roach approaching the pound mark plus skimmer bream and small fish.

Third place with 2lbs 10 oz was taken by Steve Lathwell on peg 1 using every method he could think of trying on his pole with one good sized skimmer bream and very many small fish. In fourth place was Dave Abbott with 2lbs 7 oz on peg 3 using a similar method to Steve.

Thank you to Ray and Steve for pegging out the match and to Ray , Tony , & Tracey for conducting the weigh in and Ray and Tony for organising the draw.

Overall, it was a hard day with difficult conditions so well done to all those present for sticking it out to the bitter end.

Results: -

1st Tony Hickmott 6lbs 8oz

2nd Richard Darbon 5lbs 7 oz

3rd Steve Lathwell 2lbs 10oz

4th Dave Abbott 2lbs 7oz

5th Terry Vickers 2lbs 4oz

6th Colin Holmes 1lb 3oz

7th Tim Watts 1lb 0 oz

8th Andy Frankum 0lb 12oz

9th Colin Macbeth 0lb 8oz

10th Danny Worth 0lb 5oz

JOINT 11th Ray Burton & Bart Bonito 0lb 4oz

13th Dave Ridley 0lbs 3oz

14th Chris Howard 0lbs 1 oz

Les Burton and Sean Leatherland DNW

Our thoughts go to Les and Ray Burton this week. Les, who is a real soldier for fishing at all due to his current health, was most unfortunate to have his seat and his brolly taken into the canal by an isolated extremely strong gust of wind, which effectively ended his day out. Fortunately, all his equipment was recovered by those on adjacent pegs who pulled together to help him.

Brother Ray had a very nasty and upsetting experience after the match when he was putting equipment back in his car. being the victim of opportunist thieves who stole one of his tackle bags while he was distracted. The bag taken contained bait boxes, and unfortunately one of the Clubs Contessa Match Scales. The police have of course been informed. It was a day where bad luck seemed to come to people who didn’t deserve it. Our best wishes also go to Richard Gibbs and Dudley Frankland who are undergoing medical treatment / recovery after an operation. Get well and we hope to see you both back with us soon.

Our next scheduled match is Wednesday 4th December 2024 on the River Ouse at Wyboston. However, the venue could be changed due to the high likelihood that the river will be unfishable due to recent rainfall. Should the venue be changed the new venue announcements will be on Facebook, on the website and on the Wednesday What’s App group. Wherever is decided, the Draw will be at the venue at 8.30 as usual, £5.00 optional pools plus £1.00 pegging fee, Fish 10.00 – 3.00 .

For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time please message us so we know you are coming before turning up. This will help us to manage the pegging of the venue which has a finite number of available pegs. Please bring your club membership book with you as you will be asked to produce it for your first appearance.