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

It's been a slow week for catch reports this week, with only a couple of Pike captures reported by members and a few snippets from the bailiff reports as to what is being caught at various venues. Please do send in reports and pictures of anything you catch as we include all catch reports and pictures to the club.

Match Report Wednesday 13th November 2024

This week’s midweek match took place at The Three Locks Stretch of the GUC at Stoke Hammond. Due to illness and other urgent personal family matters, attendance was reduced at fairly short notice to 13 Anglers. We were due to fish the match as a pair’s competition.

Luckily one member had a calculator, so we worked out that 13 didn’t divide by 2 so we opted for a 2 separate matches with 6 anglers fishing the pound below the locks and 7 anglers fishing the pound above the locks. To coin a football cliché they turned out to be matches of 2 halves with the anglers on the lower pound, catching some fish and those on the upper pound struggling to catch anything.

The canal was at a good level and carried a reasonable amount of colour on the lower pound but was gin clear on the upper pound with both shelves clearly visible.

This did improve later with the passage of some boats so there were some grounds for optimism. However, the fish thought otherwise, and small fish were generally the order of the day particularly on the upper pound.

Boat traffic was light but there were two instances of double boats one being the usual fuel and gas vendor and the other getting a hull to the Marina.

The weather was cold at the outset, but the temperature rose during the day to around 9 degrees. However, it was pleasant when the sun came out so we could all top up with Vitamin D.

On the top match stretch, Sean Leatherland, on peg 4, led the way with very intense fishing using squat and pinkies over groundbait at 2.50m and 8.00 to tempt 30 – 40 very small roach, perch & gudgeon. Second place was Tim Watts who managed to winkle out 7 ounces of fish of a similar stamp.

It was a different story on the lower pound with Terry Vickers taking the benefit of an end peg opposite the green boat fishing at 4.00m and 8.00m using squat and pinkie over groundbait on the short line and chopped worm with worm section on the hook down the track. This tempted several good-sized skimmers and roach for a total weight of 3lb 12ounces.

Second place was taken by Chris Howard using his traditional pulverised bread with punch and then switching to pinkies and squat later to land 2lb 6 ounces.

One other angler turned up in this pound in the shape of a Cormorant who swam up the whole pound with a wistful gaze at our Keepnets!

Thank you to Ray and Simon for pegging out the stretches particularly on the upper pound due to the number of boats present. and to Ray , Tony , & Tracey for conducting the weigh in. Thank you again Ray and Tony for organising the draw and administering the money.

Overall, it was quite a hard day and well done to those present on the top pound for sticking it out to the bitter end. The full result is a follows:-

Top Pound 1st Sean Leatherland 0lbs 10 oz 2nd Tim Watts 0lbs 7 oz3rd Dudley Frankland 0lbs 4 oz 4th Barry Roper & Steve Lathwell tied with 0lbs 2oz Malcolm Ogden & Simon Foulkes DNW

Bottom Pound 1st Terry Vickers 3lbs 12oz2nd Chris Howard 2lbs 6 oz 3rd Tony Hicknott 1lb 5oz 4th Dave Ridley 1lb 2oz 5th Colin Holmes 0lb 15oz6th Ray Burton 10 oz

Our next match is Wednesday 20th November 2024 on the River Ouse at Biddenham. Draw 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.

Beckerings Reservoir Club member Kieron Logan and his son Callen Kieron and his son Callen fished at Beckerings today, Callen had a new PB pike at 11lb and Kieron had a few fish himself

Lavendon Mill - Upstream Fergal O’Kane fished the upstream section at Lavendon he had this pike and also lost another fish. He also tried float fishing but could not get a bite and other anglers said it was hard going.

He also sent in a condition report which again we always appreciate, he said that the car park is fine now and has very recently been mowed by Des. The riverbank is also OK, however the field between the car park and riverbank requires wellies as it is still very waterlogged.

South Lagoon - Wyboston Bailiffs report that small carp are still being caught along with some larger ones, one being a mirror of 25lb as well as the usual silvers.

North House Lake - Wyboston The bailiff reported a member catching a nice common, and Ethan Griffiths reported that he caught 6 fish on his session but no photos were sent in with the report.

Tight Lines until next week!

Dave M - Luton Angling Club