Father Christmas keeps on giving! Three 25lb+ Carp presents!

It was a great shame for me that we only had one (paying) guest on Cherry Lake this weekend as the weather has continued to be amazing for the time of year. In fact, with the Carp being very active on all the lakes as a result of the high temperatures (the water temperature is currently just above 10C) we have had to start feeding them again!  If this warm weather continues for much longer I have no doubt I will start to stress, as I do think it is healthy for the Carp to have a period of rest in low water temperatures each year.

Christopher Brown has just arrived for Christmas in the UK from Qatar (they think it is cold!) and is visiting Cherry Lakes for the first time this weekend. I was standing talking with him this morning on the decks of Heron Lodge when he had a take and, after a good fight, I had the pleasure of landing for him a PB Ghost Common of 26-02. This particular fish has put on nearly 4lb over the last year and looks set (judging by the size of it’s frame) to become a 30lb+ Carp in the next year or so. As far as I know this Carp has not been caught this year? Christopher as you can see from the photo below was delighted with his new PB Ghostie!

Fishery Manager Dave took advantage of Grebe Lodge being empty, and was joined by his good buddy Joe Barr. Joe has been a good friend of Cherry Lakes and regularly helps out, so it was a pleasure to have him ‘guesting’ with Dave. He was delighted that he had negotiated out a pass from his better half as he had two 25lb+ Carp in less than 12 hours fishing.

Joe’s first fish was a 25-04 Mirror caught hard against the reed bed on the far bank. He followed this up with a 28-08 Fully Scaled Mirror close to the far bank in 6 feet of water. The Fully Scaled Mirror has done amazingly well since being stocked at 21lb last March. This Carp was very nearly sent back to the fish farm when it arrived because it has a lump on its side ( I think I got a good discount as a result at the time!?). As a result it was christened ‘Twister’. The ‘funny’ thing is that Dave and I have been discussing ‘Twister’ recently wondering if it was OK as it has not been caught since being stocked.. Well since then this Carp has obviously thrived putting on over 7lb (Wow!). Better than that ‘Twister’ has filled out. Unlike me (I have filled out far too much), Twister looks much better for putting on some weight and the lump is much harder to see. Judging by its weight, length and progress she will be a thirty plus next year.

It is very interesting that this week we have seen several rarely caught Carp on the bank. I am not sure if the weather has reduced their normal caution? I am hoping that some of the other hard to catch big Carp (including the ‘Broken Mirror’ which must be over 40lbs) will also slip up soon.

The guests on Cherry Pool, a match angler who had a ‘ton’ of Bream (almost literally), whereas to date 7 Carp have been landed from Cherry Springs and 2 upper doubles from Cherry Mere. In short all the lakes are delivering.

Finally an apology. It looks like I will run out of time (which is code for me saying that I need help with a bulk e mail!), and will not be able to send our normal Christmas Greetings e mail to all of our recent guests and friends. If I fail to deliver, I will aim to send a New Year update.

So I will sign off for now by wishing everyone who follows this update page a very Happy Christmas.