Cherry Springs is on fire!

As promised in my last Latest News update, I will focus just on Cherry Springs here.

Long term regulars Adrian and Lorraine Bates returned to Cherry Springs for their annual holiday in Kingfisher Lodge. They always do well, but this year was even better. After a very slow no action on Monday, the Carp turned on and clearly fed regularly throughout their week with us. Adrian used Cherry Lakes house boilies (mainly fish meals). In total he landed 34 Carp, as you can see from the very informative list of captures below, which he kindly sent me.

I have repeated it below as it is worth scrolling through.

Tuesday 20th
>
> Common 12lb 10oz (10.48am)
> Mirror 15lb 3oz. ( 11.28 am)
> Common 12lb 2oz. ( 12.11 am)
> Common 20lb. ( 17.31 pm)
> Mirror 17lb 9oz. (18.38 pm)
>
> WEDNESDAY 21st
>
> Common 24lb ( 5.45am)
> Mirror 17.5lb (9.06am)
> Mirror 13.02. (11.12am)
>
> Common 22.7lb ( 13.58 pm)
> Mirror 18.3lb (15.25pm)
> Common 17.9 lb ( 17.15 pm)
> Common 15.5lb ( 18.29pm)
> Mirror 17.10lb. (20.42pm)
>
> THURSDAY 22nd
> Mirror 30lb 12oz (00.41 am)
> Common 17lb 10oz ( 1.58am)
> Mirror 22lb 30z (11 .24am)
> Common 22lb 4oz ( 11.31am)
> Mirror 8lb 3oz (14.31pm)
>
> FRIDAY 24th
> Mirror 7lb 2oz (9.41am)
> Mirror 14lb 4oz (11.43am)
> Common 21lb 3oz (15.55pm
> Mirror 25lb 13oz (17.35)
> Mirror 17lb 2oz (18.20pm)
> Common 17lb 4oz (19.00 pm)
> Mirror 29lb 12 oz 20.03pm)
>
> SATURDY 25th
> Mirror 17lb 2oz (10.14am)
> Common 21lb 9oz (17.23pm)
>
> SUNDAY 26th
> Common 21lb 6oz (6.43am)
> Mirror 22.3oz (9.40am)
> Common 19lb 3oz (13.37pm)
> Mirror 29lb 8oz (16.22pm)
> Mirror 14lb 6oz (17.16pm
> Ghost Common 13lb 2oz (17.33pm)
> Common 10lb 7oz. ( 17.39pm)

What is particularly interesting about the list of captures is that it shows the times of the day when the Carp were caught. The vast majority were caught during the day at very considerate times (from a good night's sleep perspective). Cherry Springs is normally a day water which is good for guests. Sometimes however it switches almost completely into a night only water. This can be triggered by hot sunny periods, but most of the time I have no real idea why. It could be moon phases, or Jupiter being aligned with Saturn! More likely it is just one of those things and a mystery of Carp fishing!

Adrian's catch return of 34 Carp, included 13 over 20lb+. The biggest being the 30-12 Mirror pictured two above.

He also landed the 29-12 Carp pictured in the lead photo above and this chunk of a Mirror of 29-08 pictured immediately above. He was slightly unlucky with the 29-12 as this particular fish normally goes over 30lb. I am sure she will with another months pre-winter feeding.

This ratio of 20lb+ Carp to all Carp caught for Adrian was 2.6:1. This is significantly higher than our official guide of 1:10. We will need to adjust this given the progress of the Carp in this lake over the last couple of years. This point was immediately reinforced by Andrew Scott whose returns this week included 8 carp over 20lb where(see below) 1:3 were 20lb+.

Another pair of long term regulars, Andrew and Lynn Scott followed Adrian and Lorraine into Kingfisher Lodge. I am delighted to say that the lake just kept on producing.

So far (with 36 hours to go), Andrew has landed 25 Carp. Of these 8 were over 20lb+ including this 31-02 Mirror above.

I will admit to not being as diligent as in the past for keeping my 2024 30's+ catalogues up to date. However with the entry of both Adrian's and Andrew's 30's, the number for Cherry Springs this year stands at 4 . Well on the way to beating last years total of 7 different Carp over 30lb+.

Extremely well done Adrian and Andrew and see you next year.