River Lune fishing rights

[benhben]

Hi,
I am after some info on who owns coarse fishing rights along the lower stretches of the river lune. I'm hoping to search the river for pike and perch on lures. Starting around Lancaster at the skerton tidal weir up to the old railway bridges around Halton.

There is next to no up to date info online for this. I've been given advice that the skerton stretch is EA owned and therefore just a rod license. There are old reports the Halton area was owned by Lansil fishery, but this seems non-existent online. I'm assuming the club is no longer operating.

Thanks for any help

ben

[liphook]

You'll want to speak to one of the lads in the local tackle shops for up to date info as it's been about 15 years since I all but stopped fishing the Lune.
The EA beats were divided into three separate section's of Lansil and Halton upper and lower. A day ticket was required on top of any rod licence, it was £12 - £15 per day from the Scarthwaite Hotel back then BUT they didn't allow coarse fishing as these were seen as strictly game fishing beats. That's the true Left bank (looking down stream) around Halton weir. The right hand bank was all private water including the Luneside Engineering Syndicate where I was a member - again all closely guarded salmon fishing. It was £650 a year when I last paid subs. Below Skirton weir was the Lansil club water and they did allow coarse angling - it was a club run from the Lansil Social Club which I'd imagine will be closed at the moment due to the virus. I heard of big catches of bream in the days before the mitten crabs took hold. Good luck with it Ben but remember you are on once famous and highly prized game water that is not known for holding any coarse fish above its tidal stretch. If I can help anymore then drop me PM I've contact details for owners and keepers who may be able to tell you more.

[benhben]

Did a bit of digging. Lansil Sports and Social Club currently own the fishing rights on both banks of a 2 mile stretch from the Halton weir at the narrow road bridge (old toll bridge) down to the canal aqueduct bridge. They offer both day ticket and annual membership and coarse fishing is allowed. Coarse season tickets are pretty reasonable.

The lower stretches around Halton weir are EA owned and simply require an EA rod license. This is the advice of a local tackle shop although I have heard it is an EA day ticket from other sources. The lack of info and no bank signage means to me a bailiff would struggle to enforce anything other than EA license.

I have also heard reports of big coarse fish in the upper Halton beats around the old rail bridges that are now cycle path bridges. Haven't been able to find any info on who owns this area.

North of this to north of Caton and Denny Beck picnic area is Lancaster district anglers and is purely available for salmon fishing.

The Lower stretches of the lune around Lancaster seem quite disorganised and even the clubs aren't 100% sure of their stretches and costs. It would be difficult for any bailiff to argue the fishing rights are clear and concise, not that I am advocating ignoring them.

There are stories of some big coarse fish on the lune but not in great numbers and difficult to locate. Think I will investigate with some day ticket fishing before deciding on a membership. Ill post any catches to anyone interested.

[Whiters58]

Hi benhben. I've just been added to the forum. I was wondering how you've got on about fishing the Lune. I normally travel to the Ribble, but with lock-down, I joined Lansil at the start of the year (I used to be a member back in the 70's and a short spell in the mid-90's). I have the Club Secretary's contact details if you are interested. Coarse permit is £35pa. I've been out around 6 times this year. I had a few sea trout and a rainbow at Denny Beck, but no sign of any coarse fish at all, not even a single mashed maggot.

Re the other beats at Halton/Caton and at Skerton, you're probably aware that they're on day ticket via the Lune Rivers Trust at https://www.ibookfishing.co.uk/lune-riv ... n-fishing/

I was born and raised in Caton and there used to be huge shoals of dace around the Crook, sadly long gone it seems.

With the cyclepath due to re-open this week, I'll be walking the banks a lot more before June 15th and trying to track down some shoals. I'd be Interested in how you are getting on.

[liphook]

Welcome to AA Whiters I'd be interested to hear more about your coarse fishing captures from the Lune! It's surprising that the dace have disappeared? What of pike, chub and roach etc?

[Whiters58]

Thanks for the welcome, liphook. I always felt I'd just missed out on the Lune's heyday, starting to fish in the mid-70s. There were almost weekly reports in Angling Times back then of big catches of large bream and 30lb+ bags of dace, usually at night.

I never managed any big hauls myself, but I rarely caught any small coarse fish. Dace to 1lb, often mistaken for small chub, decent roach and hybrids and my best bream was 12lb 4oz from the old sandbank. Things definitely dropped off from the late 70s, never really understood why.

I'm not a pike angler, but there were always reports of good sized fish in there. Never saw a chub (just big dace).

It was never easy fishing and plenty of blanks. It's a big, pretty featureless water, and location is difficult, especially as few people fish it nowadays and information is in short supply. Hoping to have a bit of a campaign this summer, though. Keep in touch.

[liphook]

Interesting, was that all from the Lansil stretch and down or was there scope to coarse fish upstream of the Skirton weir? I'm a confirmed all-rounder and will fish for most things that have fins but there was no talk of coarse fish when I gushed the Lune a lot.

[Whiters58]

Hi liphook. I mostly fished the Lansil stretch as the main coarse fish stretch back in the day. Skerton fishery also produced roach, dace, bream, perch and pike.

I never coarse fished the Halton lower beat - a confirmed game fishing beat. I only ever caught dace from the Halton upper beat (from Forge weir up to the Crook), quite a few of them on the fly, which was good fun. Above the Crook, in the Lancaster & District Anglers water (game only), there were often big shoals of dace spawning in the shallows in April/May. In winter, they would fall back to the deep water on the bend (the Crook). Having walked the banks quite a bit I wouldn't hold out much hope of locating coarse fish above the Halton weirs these days. Not seen anyone fishing the upper beat for years.

[liphook]

Thanks for that Whiters It's a changed river the Lune so maybe it's future will be in coarse fish? Salmon seem doomed but we live in hope that they might bounce back

[benhben]

Did anyone ever do any coarse fishing on the lune following this thread? I never managed to get round to it. There are some fishy looking places but a lot of it just looks like deep slow moving dark water.

I heard reports of some small tributaries above caton which hold good pike, but finding who owns fishing rights is almost impossible. Seems there is skant information when fishing the lune.

Even the signposts around the crook which warn of private fishing, display a phone number that no longer connects.