Smaller exclusive lakes do the business!

Will it ever stop raining? At the moment it feels like it is going to go on and on!

Our lakes are full and the ground absolutely waterlogged. The only good news being that water temperatures have been steady for the last week being in the 8-9C range. The ground water coming into the lakes is not currently having a significant cooling effect (it will once colder weather arrives).

Whilst it is hard to see the benefit of these steady water temperatures on Cherry Lake, it can be seen on the smaller exclusive lakes. The few anglers who have visited Cherry Lakes have struggled. This is fairly typical of this time of the year. The Carp in Cherry Lake play hard to get in the winter as they rarely show themselves (rolling, jumping or bubbling), so location can be a challenge, and there is plenty of water for them to hide away in.

Regular, and good angler, Cameron Brannaghan spent a few days on Cherry Lake fishing from Osprey Lodge last week and spent a lot of time searching for them before setting his traps. Whilst he did not land any of the bigger Carp, he did manage three doubles. His results being typical of winter fishing, in that the Carp can become tightly packed in a few areas. If you can find them, and/or work out where they prefer to feed, then you are in with a good chance. If not, it's pretty tough!

During the winter months I try as much as I can to encourage angers, and especially first time visitors, to select one of the exclusive lakes. Whilst these lakes do not offer the chance of a 40lb+ Carp, they do all contain 30lb+ Carp. Much more importantly, due to the much higher stocking density in these lakes, the Carp do feed more regularly through the winter. This coupled with the fact that the Carp cannot physically be too far away, as these lakes are physically much smaller, means that winter fishing on these lakes is much more productive in terms of action and Carp caught.

This point was powerfully demonstrated on Saturday when I suggested to Cameron that he should spend a few hours fishing from Pochard Lodge (which was empty). Cherry Lake was proving to be slow. So he did...... and in three hours or so managed 6 Carp!

Simon Spencer returned to Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs this weekend, for his annual November visit to the lake. So far it has been a good trip for him. He has landed three twenties including the 29-10 Mirror pictured in the lead photograph above. This cracking fish picked up his Sweetcorn bait in 3 feet of water.

He also landed a 20-04 Common and this attractive Mirror of 25-04 (immediately above). The big Carp in Cherry Springs have seemingly gone back on the feed. Another regular Martyn Collinge enjoyed a catch of some 10 Carp during last week, but he had to wait until Thursday to catch a twenty plus (he caught a 28-08 Mirror.....sorry no photo).

I do not get too many photos from our guests showing their captures from Cherry Pool. So I am delighted to show long term regular Malcolm Williams with this cracking 27lb Common which he recently caught whilst staying in Egret Lodge on Cherry Pool. Nice one Malcolm.

Well done to all the anglers above.

Just a quick reminder that we are offering 'Black Friday sale' deals on any bookings made by November 23 for visits between 04 December and 02 February. If you are interested please call me on 01285 869887.