Charlie Couch lands a brace of 20's from Cherry Pool!

I will start this update very unusually with Cherry Pool.

Charlie Couch, who is clearly an excellent angler, was surprised by his partner Alice, with a weekend in Egret Lodge on Cherry Pool. He literally did not know where he was going until they arrived! He has had an excellent session landing 12 Carp, including a new Cherry Pool lake record Common of 25-04 (see lead photo above) and this 21-08 Common below. A fantastic brace for this lake. He also caught 15 Bream! He certainly does need to go home for a rest! Well done Charlie

Cherry Pool is an amazing lake and is absolutely stuffed with fish of all species. We market it as a mixed fishery due to its big stock of Bream and Carp along with Roach, Tench, Perch and Crucian Carp. Due to its depth as well as stock levels it is productive throughout the year. Despite its attractions as an exclusive lake and great fishing, it is our least popular Lodge and is often empty and the last Lodge to sell.

Whilst the lake does clearly hold some good Carp to mid-20's, in reality low doubles are the typical capture, and most of our Carp fishing guests want to be able to have a realistic chance of catching a twenty and/or the chance of a thirty.

After a lot of thought, we have decided to turn Cherry Pool into a Carp fishery which is similar to the very popular Cherry Springs and Cherry Mere. Whilst we will retain the stocks of Tench, Crucian Carp and Perch, we will progressively reduce the stock of Bream from the autumn onwards. By doing so we will reduce the fish Bio-mass as well as ensuring that our feeding programme benefits the Carp rather than the Bream. We will also introduce some high quality doubles and twenties, enabling us to market this lake as an exclusive Carp fishery during 2023.

The reason why we are not removing the Bream etc more quickly is that we are very conscious that this years bookings have been made on the basis of the lakes current description. We will be updating the web pages in H2, to reflect the type of fishing it will offer from 2023. This is the reason why some 'Eagle eyed' guests have spotted that we are 'block booked for 2023 and are not yet quoting prices for 2023.

Once established, we expect this Lodge to be just as popular as Pochard and Kingfisher Lodges and look forward to the day it produces it's first thirty! More on this over the coming months.

Ian Bettridge visited Cherry Springs for the first time this weekend with his 18 year old son Luke. They both caught a few Carp and Tench each. The biggest Carp was caught by 'birthday boy' Luke who smashed his personal best with this 26lb attractive Mirror, pictured below. Very nice!

Mind you Luke, please make sure your Dad goes to 'Specsavers' before you come back to ensure you get the tail next time!

Cherry Lake has been producing some nice Carp. Not easy but worth the effort. We are now up to 16 different carp over 30lbs so far in 2022.

The latest addition to the 2022 30's catalogue is this very impressive Mirror of 37-08 caught by Neil Ash who land a nice brace of Mirrors from Heron Lodge.

This Carp looked a real beast in the sling. It's depth and solidity not really coming through in the photos. This Carp was last caught in May 2021 at 35lb, so it is good to see it is up in weight. See below.

Neil almost had his rod ripped off the rests when this Mirror of 26-08 took a fancy to his pink pop-up just flicked around the corner. A good looking distinctive Mirror which I don't think will have to wait too long to qualify for a future 30's catalogue entry. See below.

Neil is a long term regular visitor to Cherry Lakes who has previously caught 4 different 30lb+ Carp from the lake. Interestingly these were all Commons. This Mirror broke the trend, as well as set a new well deserved PB for Neil. He has now added a 35+ hoody to his 30+ polo shirt.

Just a fleece to go Neil to complete you collection (A 40+ fleece is presented to guests who catch a 40lb+ Carp which is weighed and witnessed by ourselves)!

We still have a few Friday to Monday slots available on Cherry Lake in April If you fancy a go please call on 01285 869887