Ian Campbell becomes the Cherry Lake 30+ club 150th member

A good week's fishing across Cherry Lakes is how I would summarise this week's catch reports from across our four lakes.

I am a little short on photos from the individual lakes, but I do by chance have one to share with you, so for a change I will start with the smaller lakes.

Regular guest Arthur Cundiff stayed with his wife Jean, in Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs and had 12 Carp including a lovely Common of 20-08 which, as you can see in the photo below, he was delighted with. I was passing at the time and it was a pleasure to be able to help with the netting as well as to snap a quick shot. Dairy-Cream boilies doing the trick.

Interestingly, Arthur struggled in the early part of his stay when he was fishing days only. He decided to fish through the night on his last two nights and landed 3 Carp each night between 01.00-05.00. Sometimes it is not the case that the fish are not feeding or it is rubbish(!), it is simply the case anglers are not fishing when the Carp are feeding. Well done Arthur. We very much hope you and Jean can visit us again and best wishes for the future.

Lorraine and Barry Rowe enjoyed their first visit to Cherry Lake and stayed in Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere. They shared 19 Carp including at least one twenty. Cherry Lakes Bio-Fruit boilies accounting for at least half of these.

Greg Auger, managed to get a 'pass out' this week and stayed in Egret Lodge. He caught lots throughout his stay and was both very happy and complimentary about the fishing on Cherry Pool. I think he was quite exhausted when he left! He says he is going to try to persuade his wife to come next time. Indeed I think I caught him 'Face-timing' her and showing her both the Loge and the Lake. Good luck Greg!

I have previously reported on the fantastic results achieved by the Davies brothers (see last update). I am also delighted to report two more 30's including the 150th member of the Cherry Lake 30+ club.

Our 150th member is Ian Campbell who caught a 36-02 Common Carp from Grebe Lodge. I received a very excited call from Ian just before mid-night saying he had a very big Common in the net. He was right.....the Common looked huge in the water and much more substantial than it appears in the photo. This is a very distinctive Common which is two-tone on one side (which you can see in the lead photo above) and set a new PB for Ian. It was caught a month ago by Rix Huxley at 35-02, also interestingly from Grebe Lodge. It is obviously feeding up for the winter!

Peter Thurgood stayed in Heron Lodge this week and seemed to have it 'cracked' with three Carp in 36 hours including a 32-04 Mirror Carp (pictured below) and two 20's. After this good start the 'angling gods' turned against him and the rest of his stay was quiet. Given the conditions it was hard for us both to understand why. Peter is the 151st member of the Cherry Lake 30+ club

I am delighted to confirm that Peter's Mirror was another new 30lb+ Carp for us, and the 39th different 30+ of 2019. Dave our fishery manager joked recently that it must be costing us a 'fortune' for the 30+ club polo shirts, the 35lb+ hoodies and the 40+ fleeces. In truth I had not really thought about it...... but I have now.

Our 100th 30+ club member was Joe Baker who caught 'The Pretty One' at 35-03 on 23 July 2018. It had taken us almost 4 years to get to this 'membership number'. It has taken us just 14 months to add another '50 members'. A significant acceleration particularly when the Carp caught by regular guests who are already 30+ club members don't count!

This increase reflects the fact that the Cherry Lake Carp stock of c.300 fish is getting bigger. Around 15% of the stock (40-50) are now 30lb+, meaning that when an angler does land a Cherry Lake Carp they have a fair chance that it could be a 30+. With around 200 x 20's, we have a good number of upper twenties which will also become 30's in the future.

Until we get to our 250th member your complimentary polo shirts are safe!