Some lovely winter 30's

February has been generally cold, and other than an absence of snow, it has been more typical of winters of old. The lakes have partially frozen at times and only now have their temperatures crept back to around 7C. The temperature at which they start to more reliably move and feed at. I for one have missed the relatively mild winters of the last couple of years.

We have been slow to steady in terms of guests visiting during February. The colder weather understandably putting off some of our normal winter visitors.

As always the smaller lakes have been more productive. Hardly surprising given their stocking density and the fact that the Carp cannot be too far away and are reachable. We have had 30's to 38-08 reported from both Cherry Pool and Cherry Mere already this year.

The star lake during February has undoubtedly been Cherry Springs. All of our guests fishing from Kingfisher Lodge have successfully landed Carp and very much enjoyed their visits. The lake has slowed down since Matthew Bullock's amazing hit of 50 Carp in the first week of February, but it is still fishing amazingly well.

James Dixon chose to fish from Kingfisher Lodge having switched on our recommendation from Cherry Lake. He had an exceptional weekend landing 8 Carp including the 30-05 Mirror pictured in the lead photo and this fantastic night caught Mirror of 31-07 pictured immediately above. I just love the shape of this Carp and expect it to continue to grow. A further 3 twenties graced his nets!

Steve Jasper also had good trip to Cherry Springs last week. The Carp were not at all put off by the heavy overnight frosts. He landed from memory around a dozen Carp, the biggest being a 31-07 Mirror. Unfortunately the injured Steve was unable to 'pose' for the camera. So Mike stepped in to ensure a good photo and the fish has duly been entered into our 2025 30+ catalogue.

Fishery consultant and good friend Simon Littmoden has been working on and off at Cherry Lakes during January and February. As well as introducing lots of good ideas, providing cover for me, and looking after our Facebook pages, Simon has also been getting his rods out whenever he can. He has landed three different 30's so far, two Common's of 38 and 34lb, and this fantastic heavily scaled Mirror of 38-03.

This Carp last appears in my 30+ catalogues in 2023, when it weighed in at 31-04. Good steady growth. What a fantastic forty she will make.

At this stage in 2024 some 14 different 30's had already been caught and catalogued, so we are a long way behind. This is principally due to the cold weather and partially because we have had fewer guests during this winter period than in the last few years.

My feeling is that the Cherry Lake Carp will shortly start to feed heavily and we are expecting some great catches during March. My 2025 30's+ catalogues will soon fill up! The good news is that we have plenty of vacancies. Go on.......treat yourself.