Oliver Wells lands ‘The Peach’ at 36-10

Oliver Wells is one of our regulars, a friend of the fishery and a good angler to boot! He has previously caught a lot of good big Carp including the Common known as ‘The Scuff’ at 42lb+ (see the last picture below). One of his handful of Cherry Lake target fish is the the beautiful Ghost Mirror known as ‘The Peach’. He has often said to me that he is really keen to catch her/him.

As you have no doubt already surmised, Oliver was over the moon this week to catch ‘The Peach’ at 36-10. With Cherry Lake being so slow, and the temperatures so low, the Carp are rarely giving any indication or clues to their location, Oliver has needed to work very hard and diligently to find one or two active fish. As they say 'you have to be in it.....to win it!‘ His efforts paid off big time yesterday when his Fluoro pop-up was picked up and the rod roared off.

I noticed Oliver fighting a Carp early afternoon from the warmth of the house! By the time I arrived he was in the process of easing this hard fighting Carp into his waiting landing net. It was obvious that he had landed a big Ghostie, but which one?

I have to say this fantastic Carp looked so attractive and beautiful in its winter colours. The clearer the water the more distinctive the Ghosties colours become. 'The Peach' has clearly come through, what has been a long winter, in good shape.

At 36-10, it is its highest ever weight. In fact this lovely fish was our first named fish, after being named by some of our earliest guests in 2013 when she came out at c.23lb+. Both Dave and I are unsure whether ‘The Peach’ is a male or a female fish. I guess I have always assumed it is a female. The steady weight gain of just over 1lb a year on average suggests it is more likely to be male? Either way 'The Peach' remains the best looking of our Ghost Carp and one of my favourites. Whilst it would be great to see her as a 40lb+ Carp, she represents a real prize capture, in my view, at any weight.

Despite the horrendous conditions today (Snow and Sleet and temperatures of no more that 1C), Oliver managed a follow up 'whacker' just 30 hours after catching 'The Peach' when he landed this fantastic heavily scaled Carp of 35-08 (pictured below). This impressive Carp was last out when caught by Neil Bullock in October 22 at 37-09. As you can see the fish was also in great condition even if it had dropped some weight. As the weather warms up I am sure this weight will be quickly recovered.

Oliver's successful tactics was again to fish a coloured fluro pop-up, with the Carp giving no warning of it's presence before the shrill one-toner indicating a screaming run.

Well done Oliver in toughing it out (he is the only angler on Cherry Lake this week) and really top angling. You fully deserve all your results.

This has been a long hard winter, particularly on Cherry Lake. Other than a productive period in the first few weeks of January and a couple of days for Lee Pearce in mid-February Cherry Lake has been unusually difficult.

The Carp have either been good at finding the unfished areas, or more likely have essentially ‘shut down’ for substantial periods of time.. One upside of this, which I have seen in the past, is that the Carp do seem to benefit by a good winter rest. The Carp are subsequently often in good condition, and hungry when they get going through to the Spring period. Hopefully this is the case this year.

Having said this, as our results have showed, there are some cracking Carp to be caught. It is also a truism that it is the bigger Carp which are often the first to feed in winter.

So although its been slow and difficult, my 2023 Cherry Lakes 30's plus catalogue is in good shape.

So far this year we have recorded 14 different 30’s plus 3 different 40’s. The 40’s list includes the biggest Ghost Mirror which came out to Lee Pearce at 40-06.

I am also pleased to report that the level of enquiries and bookings has markedly picked up over the last week. Despite the weather (or maybe because of the weather), it seems like many anglers are finally thinking about warmer days ahead and getting their rods back out! So if you are interested in booking, and especially if you are restricted on dates, please don’t leave it too long to book.