My first English 40 after 35 years of trying

The Prime Minister's job is a tough one, but I for one think he got the balance broadly right on Sunday by starting to lift some of the lockdown restrictions and start to get the economy going again. The key points we originally thought were as far as re-opening of Cherry Lakes was concerned, was that travel restrictions in cars by members of the same household have been lifted and angling permitted from Wednesday 13 May. Rather distressingly though for us it subsequently became clear that people are not currently allowed to stay away from home. As a result we have to stay closed for now. I have no real idea when we can open, but for now we have had to cancel all our guests who wanted to come this month. We will have to take decisions about our June bookings closer.

Given that we are can easily practise social distancing (no hand-shakes etc) and that the Lodges are individually isolated, we have always felt that Cherry Lakes is a relatively safe place.We had planned to further ensure the safety of guests and our staff by taking some further measures which we still plan to implement when we can open. Guests are going to be asked not to walk around the site and visit other guests to further reinforce the social isolation of the Lodges. Once we do initially re-open, we will also be suspending our bedding and linen service for the Lodges and Cottage. Guests will now be required to bring their own bedding/towels. We will continue to aggressively clean the Lodges and surfaces and will provide anti-bacterial soap and disinfectant if guests want to additionally clean for themselves. Hopefully it will not be too long before we can put these steps into practise.

I also just wanted to say how bad we feel for all the guests we have had to cancel over the April/May lockdown period. We would also like to thank the vast majority of guests who have worked with us to find other dates both this and next year, enabling us to roll their credit from the cancelled bookings into the future. Whilst this clearly depresses our income in the future, it really helps our current cash flow.

Changing the subject!

The weather over the last few weeks has been almost 'Mediterranean' and has been one of the real upsides of the imposed break. The Carp have enjoyed it. In fact the Carp on Cherry Springs spent last Thursday to Saturday in one long orgy and have most certainly spawned. Whether they will spawn again over the next 4-6 weeks time will tell.....but they certainly had a good go at it!

I was somewhat disappointed that the Carp on Cherry Mere left it until Sunday morning to start spawning (they could have started in the night). The arrival of cold winds and rain around lunchtime stopped them in their tracks so I certainly expect them to have another go at spawning when it next warms up. I spent ages watching the Carp spawn on Cherry Mere on Sunday morning. I am always fascinated by seeing them at such close quarters and saw some real crackers. I also tried to take some photos......with very poor results. The best of a disappointing bunch of photos is included above. I will try to do better next time.

I have continued to make the most of having an empty Cherry Lake and have enjoyed getting into a routine of working around the fishery in the morning (the place is looking great if I do say so myself) and then getting my rods out in the afternoon. In fact it would not be too hard to imagine it being permanently like this!

I have caught some fantastic Carp since my last update, all in the afternoon between 13.00 and 19.00, during conditions which have not always been obviously favourable. The highlight for me, after 35 years of Carp fishing is that I have finally caught my first English forty........The long Mirror Carp which we recently christened Ruby (after Jack Lyon's daughter who caught it with baby Ruby in tow in January at 41lb). This time she came at at 40-03......well pleased and I can now claim a 40+ Cherry Lakes fleece to go with my club polo shirt!

I have caught some other real beauties, the most photogenic being this 28-12 Mirror immediately above and the lovely Mirror of 25-08 featured in the lead photo above.

Like many others my hair is clearly getting a bit out of control. Indeed one of my best friends said 'lovely fish....but you are looking like a girl'! Harsh but fair? Funny though it is always my 'follically' challenged friends who are the first to take the mickey out of my hair. A little envy??

With Cherry Lakes staying closed for the foreseeable future I guess I better take full advantage of fishing my own lake before I hang my rods up again!

Stay safe.....and as the Government says....stay alert!