'Bus-man holiday Dave' sets new Cherry Mere record

Fishery manager Dave had a few days off last week, so what did he do.?...............he went fishing on Cherry Mere! He simply cannot get too much of the place!

With high pressure for much of the week and bright sunny days, he did not catch many (7 Carp I think), but the ones he did catch were well worth catching. Dave fished his favourite method feeder style with 20mm Cherry Lakes Bio-Spice fishmeal boilies. The 20mm boilies probably helped him to be selective in keeping some of the smaller fish off his hook bait enabling the bigger Carp time to pick them up.

His first Carp was this stunning Mirror of 32-02 pictured above. This Carp was last caught by Dave Horney in May at 31-02 and came from the bottom of the slope towards the 'old island' corner.

He followed this big one up with a 27lb Mirror before landing the new lake Mirror at 36-04. Wow! How does such a small heavily stocked keep producing Carp like this? This amazing Carp has put on nearly 5lb since it was caught by Gary Young in May. Dave said he weighed the Carp twice and was very careful in zeroing the scales as he could not quite believe the size of the fish. Fantastic and well done Dave.

Dave's final Carp of real note came on Thursday when he landed this lovely Ghost Common of 24lb pictured below. . This was not a Ghostie I particularly recognised and it also looks like it could get a lot bigger. As you could imagine Dave was very pleased with holiday results and teased me by saying 'much better than you did Mike in France'.................and a lot cheaper!

Moving on to Cherry Lake. We still have a vacancy for October. Notably for Grebe Lodge for 11-15 October. Please call 01285 869887 if you want it.

This weekend has also been productive on Cherry Lake. Regular Oliver Wells in Grebe Lodge has caught 5 Carp to date including a Ghost Common of 35-04. Distressingly for me, Oliver was unable to get hold of me and his self-take photos were not good. A double shame for us both, because none of our Ghost Common's have previously been recorded over 35lb. He has promised to try harder to reach me next time!

The good news is that the next two guests did!

Vince Jewitt staying in Heron Lodge, was making his return after a break since joining the 30+ club back in September 2018. This time he earnt himself a 35+ club hoody when he landed this 35-08 Mirror below from a mark at around 8 wraps. This particular Carp is fairly elusive and had not featured in my 30's catalogues since July 2020 when it was caught by Paul Mitchell at a similar weight.

I was delighted earlier this morning when Neil Ash called me over to Osprey Lodge. Neil and his lovely wife Maria are regular guests and have been visiting Cherry lake since 2017.

Neil has caught his share of Cherry Lake Carp and has only managed to catch one 30+ before. This morning he went better and set his new PB, when he landed this lovely Ghost Common of 32-12. This Carp was caught by Rob Owen in April at 31lb. Spice fishmeal boilies and a bit of Sweetcorn did the trick for Neil.

Very well done to all the anglers above