Lee Hodgkinson’s magic weekend in Osprey Lodge

Lee Hodgkinson and his partner Sarah have been on their third visit to Cherry Lake this weekend and have been staying in Osprey Lodge. As always it has been a real pleasure having them here, as they are so friendly and so positive about Cherry Lakes. This time I even got a kiss from Lee (see below)!

Lee has just had an amazing weekend. All the more amazing as we have had groups of Carp spawning all weekend. For the last three days the Carp have been spawning in groups of three and four in different parts of the lake. I will confess to be slightly surprised by this turn of events because I did not think the weather was settled enough for the Carp. This year it appears that the action of a few Carp have encouraged a few more to spawn and that the activity (hormones in the water?) have ensured that this activity has kept rolling on. In the past under better weather conditions, I have observed more Carp spawning at the same time than we have seen this weekend. I hope by the time they finish (tomorrow as we are expecting some rain) they will all have finished. I suspect however they will have another go when better weather returns.

Cherry Lake produced 10 Carp this weekend, 8 of which were 20lb+, despite the on-going spawning activity. The ‘Lions share’ of these went to Lee who landed 7 Carp. A great catch, which I consider to be amazing, given the conditions. As well as landing the Big Common at 38-08, he had a fantastic heavily scaled Linear of 28lb. The first fish of his trip was a stunning Ghost Mirror Carp of 24-08, all pictured below. The Big Common was Lee’s PB and he also landed two other 20lb+ fish along with a couple of upper doubles.

The Big Common was caught as the second of three Carp in less than an hour. Literally one on each rod! We were delighted to see the Big Common, albeit we were slightly disappointed with her weight. We had hoped she would break her own record when she was caught this time last year at 40-04.  She did show some signs of spawning leaving us to wonder if she has already had a bit of a go?

As you can imaging Lee was over the moon with his trip, and in particular landing the Big Common. So much so I got a man hug and a kiss on the cheek! Just as well Lee is a good looking boy!!!!

Lee becomes the latest member of the Cherry Lakes 30+ club and follows hard on the heels of Steve Townsend who ‘joined’ on Friday. Steve, like Lee, also fished from Osprey Lodge. From my perspective it is good to see these big fish coming from Osprey Lodge. I never understand why this is often the last Cherry Lake Lodge to be booked, as it has some cracking features in it.

Lee largely fished at long range on some spots he found and kept baiting them throughout his stay. Wafters over the baited area seemed to do the trick. Very well done Lee. We look forward to seeing you and Sarah again soon.