Cherry Lake switches on

As some of you might have guessed I have been away and have also been a bit slow in providing my normal regular updates. In fact one kind and 'concerned citizen' has even been in touch to make sure I am OK. This was much appreciated and yes we are both fine!

I will start by listing our upcoming vacancies as I accept our online calendar is not always the easiest to see where our limited vacancies are

17-21 July. Osprey Lodge on Cherry Lake

24-28 July. Cherry Lake Cottage

11-14 and 14-18 August. Heron Lodge and Cherry Lake Cottage

21-25and 25-28 August. Osprey Lodge on Cherry Lake and Cherry Lake Cottage.

01-04 September. Grebe Lodge on Cherry Lake

Whilst not the biggest Carp over the last few weeks, this 28lb Mirror caught by Mark Ng is certainly worthy of 'lead photo status' above. I hope you like it.

A lot has happened since my last update. The first thing is that the Carp on Cherry Lakes spawned heavily and energetically over the space of three days just over a couple of weeks ago. The damage they did to the reed beds opposite Grebe was amazing with a good couple of feet or so of the reeds flattened by their aggressive actions. In some of the photos below you can see where the Carp have damaged themselves spawning.

As a fishery owner I hate spawning and this time of the year. Not only do the Carp damage themselves, but there are always casualties. Some Carp die from their exertions whilst other's are spawn bound and die over the subsequent 3-6 weeks. I am told that once the Carp's eggs move into position for spawning they cannot be easily re-absorbed. So if they cannot shed them, they stay in-situ and rot, with the subsequent infection killing them. Hence the delayed impact on mortality.

This year has been worse than the last few years. I think a combination of the exceptionally high record June temperatures and the extra aggressive intense spawning this year has taken it's toll on the fish. So far we have lost 6 Carp including one of our real biggies 'The Patch'(RIP). This Carp had not been caught this year and looked well over 50lb. As you can imagine I have been 'gutted' by the loss of this fantastic Carp. I know 'livestock is deadstock', and I have got better at accepting Carp deaths over the 12 years I have been managing Cherry Lakes, but the loss of this fish has been hard (hence the extended radio silence!).

Fishing in the 10-14 day period after spawning was patchy, but the Carp were catchable by the more creative and observant anglers. I don't have enough space here to include photos of all the big Carp caught from Cherry Lakes. Just to mention a few. Peter Jones, a manager at Dartford based The Tackle Box, managed ten or so Carp during his holiday stay including a Common of 37-08 and a Mirror of 35-08. James Tunbridge followed Peter into Grebe Lodge. The fishing got better during James's week, culminating in last day on Thursday when he landed 8 Carp. In total he landed 17 including 3 over 30lb to 36-08. My favourite photos are of the 31-08 heavily scaled Mirror above and the 36-08 Mirror below

Fishing this weekend on Cherry Lake was really good. All anglers caught including a 34-08 Mirror to Paul Henry in the Cottage. The cooler weather has certainly kicked the Carp into feeding gear. Amazingly we had two 40's landed this weekend as well as three other 30's caught including 'The Peach' at 30-08 to Paul Fitzgibbon's in Heron Lodge. This lovely fish is some 4-5lb down in weight so she presumably can be described as 'spawned out'.

Steve Easton was on is second visit to Cherry Lake and stayed in Heron Lodge with his good friend Paul.. Steve had a great visit landing a real brute of a Common at 38lb, followed by this 40-08 Mirror pictured above

James Elliot returned to Cherry Lake this weekend with his good friend Chris Marshall, who landed the biggest Carp of the weekend. This 41-10 Common pictured below held by James (Chris has a hand injury). Very nice indeed. Two English forties in a weekend has got to be good and helps me positively move on!

Apologies to all the anglers who have caught good fish and have not been mentioned here. I will also update on the other lakes in my next posting.