Rare 'Snow Carp' sighted on Cherry Mere

I will confess I thought I had written my last catch report and my only task was to publish my normal 'annual report'. Well I got it wrong!

Last week's tremendous result of the 'Owens', who both caught 30's last week from Cherry Mere in the current arctic conditions, inspired locally based Liam Steer and Dale Green to book late and chance their arms last weekend.

I was able to pass on some of the Owen's successful tactics of the previous week, in particular to fish the middle. Well I was no help! By Saturday afternoon, the only Carp they had caught was from closer to the drop off at the edge of the margins. From memory this was about 18lb, which given the freezing conditions, I thought was a good start.

Although it was not forecast, Sunday morning produced several hours of snow and we had a good inch or so of the white stuff. Christmas had come early to Cherry Lakes. I braved the cold and snow and popped in to see the lads in Pochard Lodge and Matthew Wortherds in Egret Lodge, saying they had a really good chance to catch one of the very rare beasts a 'Snow Carp'. In fact I was so hopeful for Liam and Dale that I asked them to call me if they did.

Sure enough just after lunch I got the call that Dale had landed a Common of 21lb. See the lead photo above. I was so excited for Dale. Partially because this was his first Carp in the snow, and partially because this genuinely is such a rare event (because normally we do not get that much snow). I have been Carp fishing since 1975 (OMG 47 years!), and in all this time I have only caught two Carp in the snow. I remember saying to Liam, that I thought he still had a chance, as the best time probably was going to be between 14-17.00.

I was almost as delighted as Liam, when I got a call from Liam around 15.30 to say that he had also caught one, this time it was a Common of 22lb. A brace of Snow Carp twenties shared by two good friends. What a nice early Christmas present!

Their successful tactics were to fish around the margins, principally at the bottom of the marginal slope. They fed micro pellets, some broken boilies and used sweetcorn as their hook baits. They finished their weekend with 5 Carp. Another excellent result in very tough conditions

Pochard Lodge is now closed whilst we undertake some major work repairing and future proofing both the fishing deck (which sits completely over 6 feet of water), as well as replacing the joists for the upper decking. The addition of a galvanised steel frame should comfortably out last me! A tough job in these conditions, especially for me watching!

Regular Matthew Wortherds always enjoys his trips to Egret Lodge on Cherry Pool. He enjoys catching a range of species on the float, feeder etc. Despite the tough conditions, he did really well this weekend. The cold proving to being the biggest challenge rather than getting the fish to feed. He caught Carp on the float and feeder to 14lb ( shame none were in the snow), as well as Perch and some quality Roach. Matthew caught some 20 Roach including 4 over 1lb. As you can see below they looked in lovely condition. it must be all the Carp feed that they are eating!