Cherry Springs on top form

As promised in my last update, I will spend more time than normal in this update on Cherry Springs.

Over the last few weeks we have run (at significant cost!) the big splash aerator all night and it has certainly go the Carp feeding well. The noise has been worthwhile!

Roger Mascall left this morning following his third visit to Cherry Lakes. He was delighted to have caught a new PB, this lovely Mirror pictured above, which was weighed by fishery manager Dave at 30-04. This was the biggest of the 20 or so Carp caught during his Monday to Friday stay. Included in this haul was eight Carp over 20lb's to 28lb. Roger caught from a number of locations including areas in the middle as well as the margins. And he caught this many without fishing nights! He also caught 4 Tench to 4lb.Well done Roger

Gavin Millet fished in Kingfisher Lodge last weekend and also had a good session with his good friend James Hunt. They also caught over 20 Carp between them including some 10 above 20lb. Gavin and James invested in a Cherry Lakes bait deal. They fished the Bio-Fruit boilies along with pellets and hempseed to very good effect. Matching wafters over the hemp, pellets and crushed boilies proving irresistible to the Carp. Needless to say that after such a good weekend they are looking to return in 2024.

It is good to see the number of thirty pound plus Carp starting to build up. Both of these Carp are first timers in my 2023 catalogue and have not appeared in previous years. They bring the number of entries in the 30+ catalogue for 2023 for Cherry Springs to 6.

I think the annual netting to remove the Roach, helps both by reducing the biomass and give the Carp the chance to eat the feed. Given the lake record is 37lb, who knows the lake might over the next year or so produce it's first forty! Now that would be nice.

Graham Cresswell and his wife Judith, returned to Cherry Lakes recently and this time chose to fish from Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere. I forget how many Graham caught, and I know it was a good few. Unusually both fishery manager Dave and myself were both around when Graham caught his Cherry Lakes PB, when he landed this 31-04 Mirror.

As regular readers know, Cherry Mere is an ideal lake for Carp to reproduce. For some reason, presumably the colour of the water, the Perch and other predators are unable to keep on top of the fry, so each year we have to remove as many of the small Carp as we can. Given that professional nettings have not been very successful, we ask anglers who catch any small Carp to keep them in a keepnet and we then subsequently remove them. So if you are fishing Cherry Mere, or indeed any of our other lakes, please feel free to bring a float rod which you can use whilst waiting for the other rods to roar off!

Unsurprisingly, it is often the float rod which produces something special, albeit a 3lb Crucian, or it is a 20lb+ Carp (which on a float rod really does test your fish playing skills. Sweetcorn fished in conjunction with pellets being the best bait combination.

Cherry Lake was a little frustrating to the Cherry Lake guests this week. The Carp were obviously feeding and showing off, but did not want to pick up anglers baits very readily. Having said this, all four Lodges/Cottage all caught. I suspect the Carp were in part feeding on naturals.

Scott Lewis made his first visit to Cherry Lake this week staying in Grebe Lodge. He went away very happy with his two Carp. Fortunately for him, both were thirties. The fist was also his biggest, this 35-08 Mirror pictured above. This was followed by a second heavily scaled Mirror of 30-02. Well done Scott and to all the anglers mentioned above.