Jason puts his elders in their place!

Three generations of the Smith family stayed in Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere last week and they shared an amazing catch of 50 Carp. Grandad Bob Smith, step-Dad Ben Roach and Grandson had a lovely few days together with Jason certainly putting the older gentleman in their place by out-fishing them both by a ratio of 2:1.

To be fair to the older guys they seemed very happy that Jason was catching so many and they did not 'force' him to change sides. Both Bob and Ben both managed 20lb+ fish including Bob's new PB, a Mirror of 24lb+.

Jason's successful tactics was to use the Cherry Lakes Fruit-Delight boilies. He crushed up some in the Bait Boat and positioned the rig etc fairly close to the far reed line. The Carp obviously loved the bait and the approach because he caught very regularly, especially during the day. Within his total of 32 Carp, Jason landed two over 20lb including the family biggest of the week, a 25-08 Mirror (main picture above) and a very nice 20-08 Common pictured below . Well done all and especially Jason and look forward to seeing you back at Cherry Lakes again.

Cherry Lake has been generally slow for the last week or so. This is somewhat surprising given that the weather has on the face of it looked good. I suspect it has been too changeable as well as too wet. I have written before about the fact that a lot of rain results in more ground water entering the lakes as the very local River Churn carries a much greater volume of water and (re)charges the ground water levels. I suspect this coupled with water temperatures fluctuating results in moody Carp. Having said that the Carp are still obviously feeding heavily at times with anglers struggling to get bites and getting very frustrated. They have the look of Carp feeding heavily on naturals. Over the last week or so we have had some 7 Carp landed and a number lost. The biggest Carp being the 29-07 Mirror below, which was caught by Lee Capper from Osprey Lodge.

I have been through the shots of the 32 Carp caught this year over 30lb+ to see if this was one of them down in weight after spawning. I am pleased to say it was not in the 'library'. The next time we see this Mirror I hope it is over 30lb.