Cherry Red in our new packaging is ready to go

As regular followers of this Latest News page know, as well as our followers on both our public Facebook page, and those on the private 'Beyond the Gates' Facebook page, we have spent a lot of time over the last six months sourcing an even better range of fishmeal boilies. We have also taken the plunge to upgrade our packaging and presentation of our boilie and bait range. This reflects our confidence in the quality of our boilies.

We are delighted to confirm that we are now ready to launch our new fishmeal boilie......Cherry Red.

As well as being an excellent highly nutritious boilie, which is initially available in 1Kg and 5KG resealable bags, we have a range of hook baits including Pop-ups, Wafters and Hard Hookers, also available in the new packaging. We also have sourced an accompanying Glug. I hope you like the photo of the new Cherry Red offering above.

We expect Cherry Red to be our first choice boilie of choice as the water temperatures rise above 10C. We know the Carp love Cherry Red and that they will thrive on it.

We are now a few weeks past the introduction of our 'In-house boilies and particles only' policy. I have been delighted by the understanding and support we have received from both regular and new guests alike. Almost everyone who has commented to me welcomes our focus on helping the Carp to become healthier and heavier. I suspect the introductory 'loss leading' boilie pricing has also helped!

Please do not embarrass yourself or us, by turning up with externally sourced boilies or particles.

Thank you for your on-going support and I can't wait to see how much the condition and weights of the Carp will improve as the result of better quality feed being introduced into the lakes throughout the year.

We have been unusually busy around Cherry Lakes during February and March. I am told this is my daughters fault! She had our second Grandchild in January. This has meant Judith and I have not been away as usual during February and March. So to avoid me getting bored we have brought forward some tasks and found a new one!

Last autumn we emptied and cleaned up the stock pond. Once completed we introduced 30 high quality Carp into the stock pond. Given space, good water quality and the right level of feed we expect these Carp to grow well in this controlled environment. Once they are 20lb+ we will consider stocking them into Cherry Lake.

The big problem we face with feeding in the stock pond, and to a lesser degree across all of the lakes, is that the Ducks, Coots and even the Swan's quickly work out where the easy food source is! This then makes it more difficult to get the feeding level right, because we don't know how much the fish are getting relative to the birds.

To get round this problem we have done two things. The first is to AstroTurf the banks of the sock pond. As well as it looking much more attractive, it means we will no longer have to regularly strim the edges (with a lot of the cut grass going into the pond and not helping water quality). This enables us to put a net across the pond, as you can see from the photo above, which we hope will keep the birds off and stop them diving in the stock pond. There is no need for us to destroy the netting with our strimmer's as we have steadily done in the past!

I know, as my wife says, it is another Mike folly..........but I like it and it might even help? Wait until you see it!

I very vividly remember installing the original (Otter) fence around the perimeter of Cherry Lakes in 2012. Where we could in the out of bounds areas we used traditional wire Otter fencing. Whilst this wire is still good, we have had to replace most of the posts in recent years to maintain it's integrity.

Around much of the property, to both keep out Otters/Mink, as well as ensure privacy for our guests, we have incorporated dug in wire mesh at the bottom of a 6 foot high wooden fence. This has worked well and has done a good job. Unfortunately the fence is now c12 years old and many of the original posts are close to giving up the ghost. I am not sure how they will stand up to the next lot of autumn storms.

As you can see from the above photo, we have decided to reinforce the fence (160 panels long) with 160 new posts. As you can imagine this is a big undertaking and working on this for 2 days per week (it is hard work and we are all getting older!), we should finish this task by the end of April.

Another example of massive effort and cost which it is hard for all for our guests to appreciate.

The horribly cold winter has not helped the fishing or our winter bookings. Although the current air temperature is a chilly 5C, the Carp are itching to get on the feed. The days are getting both brighter and longer. I am pleased to say that our booking activity is picking up. So if you are planning to visit during the warmer moths please don't leave it too long to book.

Our friends at Angling Technics are offering £200 off a new AT boat to any Cherry Lake guest who books during April to visit Cherry Lakes at anytime during 2025. So if you fancy a new boat please let us or AT know to take up this generous offer.

I was delighted that regular guest Andy Watts had a red letter afternoon and evening on Sunday (it was almost as if the Carp knew it was about to turn cooler again and went on an intensive burst of feeding). He returned from a family get together and had all of his rods burst into life within 4 hours.

The biggest was the much sought after 'The Peach', a stunning Ghost mirror at 37lb. Our 6th different 30+ of the year. There are lots of 30s and 40's due out soon, so watch this space and our Facebook pages!

Well done Andy and well worth the effort.