Andy gets his revenge on his son Darrell!

Father and son duo Andy and Darrell Smith fished Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere this week having a re-match of their competition which was won last year by Darrell.I think that the results prove that Cherry Mere, just like Cherry Springs, can be a prolific winter water if fished well even in difficult conditions.

The result this year was very different with Andy ‘thrashing’ Darrell 11-1. Darrell did his best by pinning his Dad into the top corner (I estimated Darrell had at least 75% of the lake for his rods), the trouble with this normal ‘cunning trick’ was that the Carp were obviously concentrated in this corner with Andy soon opening a commanding lead. Mind you Andy was equally cunning, because by the time he offered to and actually switched sides with his son, the Carp had moved to the other end!

Andy landed some cracking Carp including three over 20lb including a Linear Mirror of 24lb, a Common of 21lb (pictured below) and this ghost looking Mirror of 23lb also shown below. All of Andy’s other eleven Carp were doubles including this 17lb Mirror which was caught in the morning shortly after a short snow storm! Catching a Carp with snow on the ground is a very rare event and a photo for Andy to treasure. I cannot remember this happening before at Cherry Lakes. Even more impressive, and adding to the uniqueness of the photo was that Andy was wearing SHORTS! Good grief!

Well done guys, we look forward to seeing who wins next year on your promised return.