Great results from Cherry Lake stock check netting
51lb Common would break the Cherry Lakes record
Monday 6 January 2025
As I hinted in the last update we had some very pleasant shocks from a test netting which we undertook on Cherry Lake recently. I have long been of the view that it would be hard to net Cherry Lake because it has come many bars, gully’s and channels. Carp are very skilled at exploiting any ‘lifts’ in the net (as would occur when the bottom of the net is ‘hovering’ above the bottom when over a gulley or channel).
I was persuaded by Ben Emptage of AJS fisheries that a test netting was possible and worth the effort and so for the first time in 12 years we gave it a go! I am so glad that he did.
Ben and Sam Bicknell did an excellent job. They essentially divided Cherry Lake into two, so they could make one sweep in both the top and bottom halves of the lake. I seriously expected no more than a handful of Carp in each sweep. Instead we had about 60 Carp in total including some surprises.We were also able to remove a useful number of Roach.
All of the Carp looked in good condition and were splendid in their winter colours. The biggest surprise was the big common known as ‘The Scuff’. This Carp was huge and so solid and took the scales down to just under 51lb. Wow! If caught by an angler this would have set a new record for Cherry Lake. As you can see from the photo above, she still looks big despite being contrasted with 4 chunky guys!At least we now know we have at least one 50lb+ Carp again in Cherry Lake with more to come.
Within our return of 60 Carp we had a total of 6 Carp over 40lb, including 3 over the 46-10 Mirror (caught by Andy Watts) which was the biggest recorded in 2024. As well as the new 50+ Common, we also had a Common of 48-07 and a Mirror of 47-08. It appears that our autumn feeding efforts were worthwhile and the Carp benefitted from it.
It would have been good to have seen the other 250 Carp in Cherry Lake to see how many other surprises we would have found!
As I don’t want to spoil the tease, where we will share many of these photos over the next week on Facebook, I will limit myself for now just to this photo of the 47-08 Mirror. This fish was caught by Mark Goodyear at 44-08 in early September and just shows what can happen when Carp feed on good quality feed.
