Finally Spring is here and the Carp on the move

Here we are entering the last week in March, and finally the Carp are on the move in all of our lakes.

If you, like our Carp, are just getting going after the long cold winter, we still have plenty of vacancies during April, including around Easter. If you fancy a visit to Cherry Lakes, please use the on-line availability calendar or drop me an email.

For the first time this year for a Monday to Friday we have all of the Cherry Lake Lodges occupied by anglers, and they are all off the mark. More about Cherry Lake below, but first I wanted to start on Cherry Springs with Aaron Macdonald.

Fishing couple Aaron and Katie McDonald returned to Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs on Monday (yesterday as I write!). Last year Katie smashed her PB when she landed a 36lb Mirror. This year it is Aaron who has made the fast start. Within 24 hours of starting he has landed 6 Carp to Katie's 0 (I did hint to Aaron that marital bliss might be maintained by a swap of sides!).

This time it has been Aaron's turn to beat his PB. He was delighted with this 32-04 Mirror, pictured in the lead photo above, was is a bit of a chunk and was in great condition. He had earlier caught this 24lb Fully Scaled Mirror, pictured below. A very nice start indeed.

Come on Katie, it's your turn next!

Long term regular and good friend Andy Watts has been staying in Heron during March (as part of his extended trip built around the Cheltenham Festival). As is typical of this time of the year, the fishing can turn off and on. Last Thursday Andy managed a brace of 30's, both Mirror's at 31-12 (pictured above) and 32-10. Very nice!

He followed this up on Monday with another brace, this time of Commons. The first was this stunning 32-12 Common pictured below which was in mint condition. This Carp, along with most of the others that I have been seeing over the last week or so, have no doubt benefitted from a proper shut down this winter. Hopefully leading to a good spawning and growing year ahead?

Andy followed this lovely Common up with the capture of our first 40lb+ Carp of the year. A Common of 41-08. Although the pictures are not great (in the twilight we thought lifting from a video would be better), I was able to identify this as the same Carp as caught by Richard Haddingham at a similar weight in May 2024.

Well done Andy. He has almost single handily he has increased our running totals in the 2025 catalogue to 11 different 30's and 1 40. There are a lot more big ones to come!