A new Cherry Springs record to Kevin Dryland

I am pleased to report that Judith and I are now back from our holiday and have returned rejuvenated and refreshed for the new year ahead.

During our absence fishery manager Dave looked after the fishery and Lisa helped out with the phones. I am now trying hard to catch up with all the provisional bookings that have been made. If you are waiting on my call to confirm your booking, please feel free to call me on 01285 869887.

Cherry Lakes was ‘sort of’ closed in January. We did no advertising to promote winter fishing or encourage new customers to visit. This approach coupled with the miserable weather in January has meant that we have had very few anglers visiting during the month. We (by which I largely mean through Dave)  did however to get a lot achieved. As well as some new planting, the Cottage has had the shower room/toilet refurbished and the whole Cottage redecorated. In short we have now completed all our major maintenance jobs and are ready for the Spring.

The overall picture for Cherry Lakes for January was that the small lakes (in particular Cherry Springs and Cherry Pool) regularly produced Carp to anglers, Cherry Mere was largely unfished, whilst Cherry Lake proved to be very difficult. The cold weather (the lake kept freezing and thawing which showed how cold the water was), the absence of bait regularly going in, and probably most importantly the on-going absence of big mild winds has meant that Cherry Lake has effectively been shut down since early December. The fish have certainly had a rest.

We are expecting Cherry Lake to produce a fish or two. We are currently experiencing a warm southerly with some really big winds forecast for late Friday and Saturday. If these materialise, and produce the strong under-tow necessary to really turn the water over and help to warm it a little, then I would be very surprised if the Carp do not start to move, switch on,  and hopefully get caught. Time will tell if both the weather forecast and myself are right!

Our good friends Amy and Kevin Dryfield did however brave the elements in the middle of January. Kevin wanted to chance his arm on Cherry Springs, particularly has he had listened to Dave and I saying to him that this lake normally fishes well in the winter. Kingfisher Lodge is also a good place to spend several winters days.  He is glad he did despite the weather conditions being very cold and very still as you can see from the photos below.

On the Saturday morning, with frost on the ground and the top third of the lake being frozen (it was beyond the influence of the aerators), Kevin got up early to re-position his baits. Within the next hour (between 07-08.00) Kevin caught two great Carp as you can see below. Both of these fish cam to baits interestingly positioned on the edge of the ice (he simply drove the bait boat until it hit the ice!). The first Carp was a new Cherry Springs lake record, a Mirror of 28-04, the second a stunning Fully scaled Mirror off 18lb. The bigger Carp was also a new PB for Kevin. Needless to say he was delighted. Extremely well done Kevin.

Winter fishing in my experience can often be like this. I generally think, particularly as you get to mid-January, and providing there is no significant drop in water temperature, that the Carp will feed at some point in a 48/72 hour period. When they do it is often for a short period and you have to take advantage when they do. You also cannot catch then when your rods are in the bag! It is also surprising how often that the odd fish that are caught in winter are the lakes biggest fish.

I remember fishing one 12 acre water in the depths of winter and was the only ‘nutcase’ in a bivvy braving the elements on the whole lake for the three days of my visit. The air temperature under clear skies fell to -6C on the night in question with cat ice was forming in the margins. Between 02.30-02.45 under a full moon i had an amazing 15 minutes where  I proceeded to catch two 20lb+ Commons from two spots some 70M apart. How does that work? Particularly as I then had no further action for the next  48 hours before I pulled off. In truth I thought I had no chance……but it just goes to show that you never know.  My own personal PB carp was also caught at night in January in freezing fog, again under conditions which I really did not expect to catch, as I have said before  i was a lot keener and hardier in those days!

If you fancy a trip a February we have plenty of Lodges available, give us a call. The Lodges are so much better than my old bivvy!