Luton Angling Club - Weekly News Reports: September 2025

Luton Angling Club - Weekly News, Information and Catch Report Roundup - Week Ending 28th September 2025

Here is this weeks news, information and catch report round up from Luton Angling Club for the week ending Sunday 28th September.

North House Lake
After managing to find a decent spot to fish at North House Lake. Carlo was rewarded with 2 mirrors during his Friday night session.

Carlo North House Lake

Carlo - North House Lake

Martin Scholes had a 48hr session at North House Lake on Tuesday 23rd and Wednesday 24th, he had a total of 3 fish. One nice common and a couple of smaller Mirrors, he would like to thank member Marcus who was having a look around the lake, for taking the picture of the first fish he caught which was the 26lb 10oz Common.

Martin Scholes - North House Lake

South Lagoon - Wyboston

Club Bailiff Brian Turner was a bit early in his predator campaign this year as he can't go next week but off to a good start. This little jack took the bait for his first of the season. He didn't do anything last year for the predators but this year he is really concentrating on it and hitting it hard. So watch this space

Brian Turner - South Lagoon

2025 Predator Match – South Lagoon, Wyboston. - Book your place now!

Luton Angling Club’s annual Charity Predator Match returns to South Lagoon at Wyboston on Saturday 25th October.

This event focuses on Pike, Perch, Zander and Eels, with cash prizes for 1st 2nd and 3rd places, and the remainder of the proceeds will be going to charity It’s open to members and guests(day ticket required), and offers a great opportunity to enjoy a focused day’s fishing while contributing to something meaningful.

Venue:South Lagoon, Wyboston

Date:Saturday 25th October 2025

More details, and an entry form available via the club website: www.lutonanglingclub.co.uk/predator

Places are limited, so early registration is recommended.

We welcome all levels of experience — whether you’re a regular predator angler or just keen to give it a go. Picture is the winner of our last event (Ray Dempsey).

2025 Predator Challenge - Enter Now!

The John Morris Memorial match at Biddenham - Sunday 5th October 2025

Secure your place in the annual match held in memory of former secretary John Morris.

Draw will take place in the car park at 8-30 fish 10am till 3pm.

£10-00 peg fee which will be donated to the charity John was involved with and there is also a £5-00 pools.

Anyone wanting to fish this match please contact our match secretary Dennis Hunt using the link below

Contact the Match Secretary

The John Morris Memorial Match - 5th October 2025

Junior Coaching Session Town South Sat 27th September

On Saturday afternoon, our Club Coaches, assisted by Cody (who was a Junior himself not long ago), ran a session on the GUC at Town South. Most of our older Juniors were not available or fishing the Division 2 National in the Fens, so it gave us the opportunity to focus on some of the newer members who have only just joined following our successful ‘Lets Fish’ taster sessions in the school holidays.

We had eight new or relatively inexperienced young members on the bank, including Molly,our first female Kingfisher (watch out boys she is very good)

We were able to give them almost one to one attention.

We went through seatbox and tackle setup, including rig choice, changing hook lengths, plumbing the depth correctly, use of a disgorger, and ensuring they knew how to bait hooks correctly.

The session started slowly, but as the swims were fed, we started to catch regularly, and our new members were able to practice playing fish and unshipping poles.

All our young anglers caught multiple fish, it was great to see the smiles on the bank, and a number caught the increasingly rare canal Gudgeon and were signed up as GUGGS (Grand Union Gobio Gobio society) Members.

The Coaches and students all enjoyed the session and we are looking forward to our Classroom based sessions starting in October where we will teach our Kingfishers lots of things they need to know including rig making which we can’t do on the bank, and all will be signed up to participate in the CRT Awards scheme which tracks their progress via enjoyable and engaging activities.

There is still time to become a Kingfisher Junior member, if you know a young angler who would like to join us and take part in the coaching activities.

Junior Coaching Session - 27th September 2025

5/10/25 ADVANCE EVENT NOTICE affecting Eaton Ford: Small Boats Head Race.

St Neots rowing club annual head race will be held on the River Great Ouse on Sunday 5th October and the route passes through our Eaton Ford stretch.

The event is a time trial on the river, running downstream between St Neots Campsite and The Island at Little Paxton. It will be held in four divisions, starting at 09:30, 11:15, 13:00, and 14:45, respectively.

There is likely to be lots of boat traffic and disturbance along the river during the event

Match Report for Wednesday 24th September 2025

John Keats wrote in his poem An Ode to Autumn, “O season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom friend to the maturing sun” and with this in mind 11 intrepid anglers made their way to the first Autumn match which was held upon an away venue in the form of Alders Farm, Braggenham side, near Leighton Buzzard. There was mist in the Ouzel valley as we arrived, which turned to showery rain in the morning, and the close bosom friend didn’t turn out until after lunchtime. Nonetheless, the fish were undaunted by the season or the weather, and the day proved to be very fruitful in terms of fishing.

We fished Pines Lake, which, while being a slight trek from the Car Park, holds a decent head of Carp and also a fairly prolific silver fish population. The water had a reasonable colour while still being relatively clear with fish showing in all parts.

Once again, the doyen of our party, Dennis Hunt, could not be with us, choosing the crabs and fleshpots of Suffolk rather than fishing with us.

Again, the invincible Ray Burton stepped into the breach to administer matters practical and financial to ensure that a good day was had by all.

The lake has permanent pegs with purpose made platforms, which were adequate, if a bit narrow for the anglers who bring half of the contents of their house with them for a day’s fishing.

With plenty of evidence of fish moving in the water, everyone managed to find some fish. In fact, the eleven anglers landed a total in excess of 275lbs of fish which averages out around 25lbs per angler.

As usual, some anglers turned greedy, and the match was won by Sean Leatherland with 48lbs 14oz consisting of 29lbs 10oz of carp and 19lbs 4oz of silver fish. Sean concentrated on a 5m pole line feeding loose maggots and fishery pellets with double red maggot as hook bait. He caught mainly silver fish from the start until the Carp moved onto the feed later in the match. Well done, Sean.

In close second place was Colin Kidd with 43lbs 7oz consisting of 33lbs 1oz of Carp and 10lbs 6oz of silvers. Colin fished with a pole set up, a traditional float set up for long casting and a feeder set up switching between methods as the Match progressed.

Third place was Mr Consistent, Andy Frankum, who bucked the trend with 40lbs exactly consisting of 16lbs 10oz of Carp and 23lbs 6oz of silverfish. Andy fished at 6.00m and in the margins on both sides of his swim. He fished over groundbait using red maggot or worm and caster to tempt the bream at 6m and captured 3 carp in the margins.

The weigh in was conducted jointly by the indefatigable Colin Holmes with assistance from others of the party due to the heavy weight of some of the nets.

Our indispensable and treasured Tracey Leatherland carried out the scrutiny and recorded the weights. Tracey is the only one amongst us with sufficient intellect and brain power to accurately add the separate weights of silvers and carp to reach an aggregate weight! Thank you to all those mentioned.

The overall result of the Match was as follows: -

1st Sean Leatherland 48lbs 14oz

2nd Colin Kidd 43lbs 7oz

3rd Andy Frankum 40lbs exactly

4th Colin Holmes 26lbs 6oz

5th Terry Vickers 26lbs 4oz

6th Simon Foulkes 24lbs 7oz

7th Paul Carr 20lbs 13oz

8tt Mark Sessions 18lbs exactly

9th Ray Burton 14lbs 6oz

10th Dave Ridley 10lbs 4oz

11th Les Burton 2lbs 8oz

Our next match is at one of our own venues on the River Ouse at Lavendon on Wednesday 1st October 2025. Draw at the venue at 8.30am, £5.00 optional pools plus £2.00 Pegging Fee. Fish 10.00am – 3.00 pm.

For anyone thinking of joining us for the first time please message Dennis Hunt or Ray Burton so we know you are coming before turning up. This will help us to manage the pegging of the venue. Please bring your club membership book with you as you will be asked to produce it for your first appearance.

Wednesday Match - Alders Farm

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.

Tight Lines

Dave M

Luton AC

Luton Angling Club - Weekly News, Information and Catch Report Roundup - Week Ending 21st September 2025

Here is all the news information and catch report round up for Luton Angling Club, for the week ending 21st September 2025.

South Lagoon - Wyboston
Andrew Elliman and his brother Chris fished Wyboston South Lagoon for a couple of nights. The first night Andrew fished for eels, but had nothing. His brother on the other hand, had 3 tench all over 5lb, with the biggest at 6lb 7oz.

The second night Andrew fished for carp and landed 3, lost 2 at the net, all were around the 10lb, 11lb mark, he also had a 5lb 7oz tench (a new pb), plus a 5lb 2oz bream. It was a great session, they even took time out to float fish for a couple of hours each day catching a good bag of roach, perch, dace, gudgeon and bleak.

Chris - South Lagoon Tench

Chris - Tench at South Lagoon

Andrew - South Lagoon Carp

Andrew - South Lagoon Bream

Chris - South Lagoon Tench

Andrew - South Lagoon Carp

Andrew - South Lagoon Tench

Chris - South Lagoon Tench

Beckerings Reservoir

It's his first year on Luton Angling Club waters, and Harry Douch is starting to get amongst them.

He’s smashed his personal best with a stunning 29lb Mirror and couldn’t be happier. The session didn’t stop there—Harry backed it up with a 17lb common and a tidy little mirror before heading off.

Harry Douch - Beckerings

Harry Douch - Beckerings

Harry Douch - Beckerings

Harry Douch - Beckerings

North House Lake

Jason Mash had a day session on North House on Thursday he had these 3 fish. After catching a load of stockies , He has managed to get some of the bigger fish. The other three pictures are from another day session he had on Tuesday.

Jason Mash - North House Lake

Eaton Ford-River Ouse

Mark North fished the River at Eaton Ford today, he started on the stick float on hemp & maggot and had a few small Skimmers and Perch while feeding on the inside with hemp. He then switched to the 4 metre whip on hemp catching Roach ending up with 9lb at the end of the session.

Mark North - Eaton Ford

CRT National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2025

Over the weekend, a number of young Luton anglers—supported by their parents and several Luton coaches—made the journey to Shropshire to take part in the largest youth angling event in the country. Luton entered four teams of three anglers: a Cadet team (ages 6–10) who competed on Saturday, and one Young Junior team (ages 11–13) along with two Junior teams (ages 13–15) who fished on Sunday.

This event has grown year on year, and 2025 marked its biggest yet, with over 500 young people competing across two days on the Shropshire Union Canal. A lovely moment came during the presentation when Simon Mottram—Guru of CRT Let's Fish and Canal Pairs winner—personally complimented our angler Alex on his performance. Alex was rightly proud of the recognition.

Saturday: Cadet Success

Our Cadet team—Leo, Joris, and Daniel—performed brilliantly, finishing 7th out of 70 teams. The weather was dreadful, with a torrential thunderstorm arriving right at the ‘All In’, forcing a 10-minute pause. Leo deserves special mention: despite feeling unwell, he persevered, determined not to let his teammates down, and finished with a very creditable weight.

All three caught gudgeon, earning the coveted Gudgeon Mug, and completed the Three Species Challenge to qualify for the Tommy Pickering book.

The presentation was held at Harper Adams University, a superb venue. All our anglers received medals, Guru presentation packs, goodie bags, books, Gudgeon Mugs, and chose additional prizes from the donated tackle tables.

Sunday: Junior Grit and Glory

Our Young Junior and Junior teams faced more grim weather—heavy rain arrived soon after the match began, it eased after 45 minutes, and returned just as the match ended!

In the Young Juniors category (84 competitors), Alex placed 47th. In the full Juniors individual standings (184 competitors), our anglers shone:

- Louis – 23rd

- Kaden – 26th

- Jack – 42nd

- Daniel – 64th

- Indy – 72nd

All finished in the top half—blinding performances across the board.

In the team events:

- Luton Young Juniors placed 10th

- Luton Red (Jack, Kaden, Daniel) placed 7th

- Luton Blue (Indy, Louis, Heath) placed 11th out of 56 teams

Again, all our juniors earned the Gudgeon Mug and completed the Three Species Challenge, qualifying for the Tommy Pickering book. These were awarded alongside medals, goodie bags, Guru prize packs, and tackle prizes at the Sunday presentation, again held at Harper Adams.

Full results are available on the Hot Fishin website.

Thanks and Looking Ahead......

Despite the awful weather, everyone had a fantastic time and is already planning to return in 2026. Many have also been invited back in October to compete in the Daiwa-sponsored Global Celebration event.

Huge congratulations to the CRT team, who put in countless (mostly unpaid) hours to organise this incredible event. Thanks also to the army of volunteers who managed car parking, provided technical help on the bank, compiled results, and handled hundreds of other essential tasks—without them, this celebration simply wouldn’t happen.

And finally, a heartfelt thank you from Luton Angling Club to all the parents. Your unwavering support makes it possible for our young anglers to take part in events like this. We’re deeply grateful for your commitment and enthusiasm.

CRT National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2025

Daniel Carr's Report from the Celebration event

Daniel Carr, one of Luton Angling Club’s many promising junior anglers, took part in the Canal & River Trust National Celebration on the Shropshire Union Canal. Here’s his individual match he wrote on his experience.

“I had three lines set up: down the track, on the far bank under a tree, and a 3m line.

For the first 90 minutes, we were only allowed to fish 3m out. So I chucked two balls of groundbait onto my 3m line and started fishing, feeding pinkie. This worked well for the first half hour, getting 14 fish in my net.

Then it died off, with me only getting the odd fish until we were allowed to go out long. I potted two balls on the far bank and one down the track. I decided to fish the track line for 30 minutes before moving out long.

Again, I was just getting the odd fish, so I moved onto my far line, putting in one more ball of groundbait and I decided to fish maggot on the far bank, as I wasn’t getting anything on pinkie, caster, or worm. This worked well for the rest of the match, providing a bite a chuck—until I messed up in the last 30 minutes by rushing, getting into a tangle twice, and messing up two of my rigs.

I ended with 36 fish for 700 grams.

A big thanks to John Ellis and all of Canal & River Trust Angling and the volunteers for putting the event on"

Well done, Daniel—a great effort. We’re proud to see our juniors representing the club with skill and sportsmanship.

Daniel Carr at the celebration

CRT National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2025

CRT National Celebration of Young People and Fishing 2025

Match Report for Wednesday 17th September 2025

16 anglers reported to Slapton for this week’s mid-week match on the GUC. The day dawned cloudy and windy with rain in the forecast for later in the day. However, following the break in the recent drought the canal had a reasonable colour and the hope was that the fish would be as keen and eager as the humans were (optimism is forever present in the angling fraternity).

Our forever present mainstay, Dennis Hunt, could not be with us, choosing the company of his family preparing for yet another holiday. However, as usual other stalwarts of the Club in the form of Richard Gibbs, Ray Burton, Barry Roper and Bart Bonito stepped into the breach to administer matters practical and financial to ensure that a good day was had by all. A special thank you to Bart and Barry for undertaking what turned out to be a route march to peg the stretch.

We split the match into 2 sections with 4 pegs on the higher pound on the winding hole past the Slapton Road Bridge to cater for those of lesser mobility and the remaining 12 pegs on the lower pound towards Grove.

Barry and Bart undertook an endurance test which became necessary due to the terrible state of the towpath towards Grove with hedging being out of control on one side of it and overgrown weeds and reeds on the canal side making some pegs normally available, totally unfishable. This problem along with moored boats meant that even with 4 pegs to the other side of the Slapton Road bridge for the less mobile of our brethren, fitting in the remaining 12 pegs entailed going beyond the occupation bridge towards Grove. Thus, the later numbered swims needed a walk of around 1,500 yards. Of course, this was doubled for Barry and Bart in pegging the stretch and returning to the car park plus it doubled again when they then had to walk to their own pegs after the draw. It was reported that Bart and Barry were a stone lighter and 2 inches shorter at the end of the day!

The weather was kind to us overall with a dry day though a gusty wind did cause a little hindrance to some pegs. Unfortunately, Tony Hickmott was not with us, so the water temperature is unknown.

There was plenty of evidence of fish movement in the water and everyone managed to find some fish.

The weigh in was conducted jointly by the indefatigable Colin Holmes with assistance from Jim Tookey together with Bart Bonito and of course the invaluable Tracey Leatherland. Thank you to all those mentioned.

The winner of the main 12 pegs match was Simon Foulkes with a weight of 9lbs 4 oz made of roach and small skimmer bream. Using a pole set up, Simon fished 2 lines at 11m and 13m respectively using pinkies as his main bait. The first 4 hours on the 11m mark over groundbait produced fish regularly. After that line became unproductive, he switched to the 13m line which he had fed with pinkies throughout the match, and his reward was finding more small roach eager to feed.

Also using similar tactics, second place was taken by Jim Tookey with 7lbs 4oz, closely followed by Sean Leatherland in third place with 6lbs 12oz.Fourth place was taken by Barry Roper with 5lbs 10oz.

First place on the 4 peg match above the lock was taken by our former crime fighter Richard Gibbs who eulogised at great length that we were fishing very close to the scene of the Great Train Robbery of 1963. Les Burton revealed that his Dad was stopped by the police at the time of the robbery. The other 2 anglers made no comment on the matter stating that to do so may incriminate them!

Richard fished with a tried and trusted rod and line method using a waggler set up. The fishing was slow but with perseverance he landed 2lbs 4oz of fish which did include a couple of nice quality Roach. Well done, Richard. While the fishing in this section was slow the compensation was that with a large hedge behind them the anglers here were sheltered from the worst of the wind. Thus, an enjoyable relaxing time was had in excellent company.

The overall result of the Match was as follows: -

1st Simon Foulkes 9lbs 4oz

2nd Jim Tookey 7lbs 4oz

3rd Sean Leatherland 6lbs 10oz

4th Barry Roper 5lbs 10oz

5th Bart Bonito 5lbs 1oz

6th Colin Macbeth 4lbs 13oz

7th Tim Watts 4lbs 8oz

8th Peter Mills 4lbs 4oz

9th Graham Stringer 2lbs 12oz

10th Colin Holmes 2lbs 2oz

11th Dave Ridley 1lbs 13oz

12th Dudley Frankland 1lbs 8oz

The four peg match result was :-

1st Richard Gibbs 2lbs 4oz

2nd Terry Vickers 1lb 4oz

3rd Les Burton 1lb exactly

4th Ray Burton 3oz

Our next match is another away venue on Pines Lake at Alders Farm on Ivy Lane Braggenham on Wednesday 24th September 2025. Draw at the venue at 8.30am, £5.00 optional pools plus £2.00 Pegging Fee, together with the day ticket cost of £10 for the Fishery. Fish 10.00am – 3.00 pm.

That is all we have for this week, Please keep your catch reports coming in! You can send them via our social media pages, the club website or directly via What's app to 07940 229071.

Tight Lines,

Dave

Luton AC