Richard Hadingham's amazing Cottage session!
He lands a brace of 30's in his landing nets at the same time!
Thursday 12 May 2022
As regular followers of these updates know Cherry Lake has switched on over the last couple of weeks (see last two posts). For the first time last weekend all 3 Cherry Lake Lodges plus the Cottage produced 30lb+ Carp, with a total of 7 being landed. As part of this return the Hadingham brothers Richard and James, who both fished from the Cottage swim, both landed a thirty each, the biggest a 33lb Common to Richard, which set a new English PB for him.
James was gutted to leave on Monday morning. particularly as brother Richard was staying on with his wife Claire. Nice touch this, they stayed on because it was Claire's birthday treat! As a result Richard was 'required' to spend much of the day off site and as a result was forced into 'resting the swim'. Well, and not for the first time, this trick paid off for Richard, because from Monday and up to Thursday lunchtime, he has landed some 8 Carp including four more 30lb+ Carp. Wow!
Things really came to a head for Richard over 12 hours from around 19.00 on Wednesday evening when I got a call from him saying that he had a decent sized Carp in each of his landing nets. Literally just getting one into the net as the other then roared off!
The first Carp was a lovely Common weighing in at 31-004, see photo above.. As far as I can tell, this Common has not been caught so far this year.
Safely within the confines of the second net, carefully guarded by Claire whilst we were weighing the first Carp, was one of my favourites, the fish known as 'Pac-Man'. So named because of the distinctive 'Pac-Man' scales on both sides of it's wrist. At 35-02, this Carp (which I think is a male fish) came out at a similar weight to when it was caught in January by Dave Cole. Another new English PB for Richard. As far as I can remember, this is the first time any angler has literally had two 30's in the nets at the same time!
During the night, Richard further extended his PB, when he landed this fantastic Ghost Mirror Carp at 37-12. This lovely fish was caught at 36-12 earlier this year by Oliver Wells.
Richard has caught from a number of areas around his swim. his successful tactic has been to bait with a mixture of crushed, powdered and chopped boilies with a pop-up over the top. He tells me he has got though a lot of boilies!
On Thursday morning, as I completed my 'morning lap', I came upon Richard with a Carp waiting to be weighed. At first I thought it was the Mirror known as the 'The Pretty One', but I was quickly corrected by Dave. In checking my records I can see hat the last time she was entered into my 30's catalogue was in 2020 when caught by Alex Crouch in August of that year at 31-03. It is always nice to see these fish which do not often get caught. This classic Cotswold looking Carp came in at 34-08 and is a top weight for this fish as she is clearly ready to spawn. Please see the lead photo above and below.
What a trip and excellent angling Richard.
Richard's 30's catching spree brings the total of different 30lb+ Carp caught from Cherry Lake this year to 32, exactly half of last year's total of 64 different Carp over 30lb. We are well on track to break the 70 for the year target. It cannot be long until some of the known 40's put in appearance and I cannot wait to see how they have progressed.
We have the following vacancies over the next 6-7 weeks
06-10 June. Egret Lodge on Cherry Pool
20-24 June and 27-01 July. Cherry Lake Cottage
27-01 July. Osprey and Grebe Lodges on Cherry Lake
01-05 and 05-08 July. heron and Osprey Lodges
Please contact me via info@cherrylakes.co.uk to book
Alan and Nick Powell sent me a lovely catch report from their time on Cherry Springs last weekend. Unfortunately I don't seem able to use their photos, but the words are self-explanatory..........................
' Hi Mike, brief summary of our excellent weekend on Cherry Springs in Kingfisher lodge with my son Nick and wife Judy.
One fish on Friday afternoon for Alan then nothing until Super Sunday with 12 fish consisting of 2 twenties and 10 mid to high doubles.
Nick with a 20lb 8oz Common and a pretty big scales Mirror of 20-04 and Alan's 19Lb Common'.
Thanks Alan and well done to you and Nick. Sorry about the photos which looked great!