Has winter arrived early?

Although the perimeters of the lake are still quite green and most of the trees are still carrying their leaves, and as a result it looks very much like autumn around the lakes, it feels like we have slipped into Winter from an angling perspective. Whilst it has not really been that cold, with only one proper frost to date, the huge influx of water into the lakes, following the recent heavy rain (OMG it rained heavy for almost 24 hours on Saturday....the only bright spot being England's victory over New Zealand!), has had the same impact of chilling the water as a number of heavy frosts.

As a result the fishing on all the lakes has slowed down considerably. This means that on Cherry Lake anglers have to work hard to get a chance.....and sometimes even working hard is not enough. On the exclusive lakes, the Carp are still catchable but it is much slower than in the warmer months. One to two Carp a day is a good target on these lakes until early in the new year. This is however still good fishing for the time of the year

We have now stopped feeding and providing Spod Mix, which is our normal practise around the 1st November. We will continue to feed and supply hempseed until the water warms up again next Spring. .

Ray Carpenter fished from Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs this weekend on his first visit to Cherry Lakes.

The Cherry Springs Carp have lost their 'discipline' recently, in that the most reliable time for action tends to be between 02-06.00, which is tough on the keener anglers and it means those that reel-in miss the most productive part of the 24 hour cycle ( I do try to 'instruct' then to feed during more sociable hours!). Ray did well and managed 4 Carp during his stay and lost several others. I am pleased that his biggest Carp was caught in the morning during daylight hours. The 19-08 beautiful Mirror Carp above was well worth catching.

See you next time Ray.

Ian Blackwell returned to Cherry Lake Cottage with his family last week. Ian very reasonably and sensibly balances his time between fishing and family whilst he is here and always does well as a result. Using a Baitboat to fish under the trees in the relativly deep margins on the opposite bank, Ian did very well to average a Carp a day. Tipped pop up sweetcorn over a small anount of bait did the trick for Ian positioned on a hard clear spot which he found.

I hope you like the lead photo above which shows a stunning sunrise over Cherry Lake as seen by Ian fom the Cherry Lake Cottage swim.

I was also spoilt for choice by Ian's other photos. I always like 'family shots', and the shot above with Ian and sons Tom and Oliver with an immaculate 22lb Common is a good one. The 19-08 Mirror below is also so good that I could not resist publishing it too. Thanks Ian and we look forwards to seeing you all again soon.