Low water temperatures holding the fishing back

The eagle eyed followers of this Latest News page would already have identified that my posting frequency has dropped recently as I have been away. The fishing has also been slower than you would expect at this time of the year.

The principal reason has of course been the weather. I was quite amazed to read this morning that the period October 2022 to March 2024 has been the wettest 18 months in England since records began! It has certainly felt like it! Indeed this weekend brings Storm Kathleen. One more named storm will also set a 12 month record!

As well as the sun being more absent than average, meaning it is not warming the water as quickly as normal, the extremely high ground water and level of the River Churn, means that the lakes continue to receive on-going injections of cold water. This suppresses the water temperature and holds the Carp back from feeding normally.

The Easter weekend was particularly brutal with lower than normal catches on the exclusive lakes, and nothing being caught on Cherry Lake. I am confident the Carp are desperate to get on the feed, and all the lakes will switch on big-time as soon as the water warms up.

We have had good fish being caught this week from Cherry Pool where 10 Carp to 26lb have been landed, as well as Carp to 27lb from both Cherry Springs and Cherry Mere.

Cameron Brannaghan returned for a few sessions between his football responsibilities and caught a couple of cracking Cherry Lake 30’s.

The biggest of these is a distinctive Common known as ‘Crinkle Tail’ at 35-05. Whilst I will need to confirm this on my return I am confident that this is the first time this fish has been caught this year.

Cameron’s second thirty was the 33-10 Mirror pictured in the lead photo above. I also think this Mirror plus Simon’s Ghost Common below will also be ‘new entries’ into this years 30+ catalogue. I will confirm in due course.

We have a lot of big Carp, including approx 50 over 30lb, and at least 10 over 40lb still to be caught this year. With the spawning timing, likely to be pushed back well into June, some of these Carp could get caught at very heavy weights and really make someone’s season! We still have some vacancies left in April and May, so please dont miss out!

A number of our regular guests and followers have commented on the fact that our Facebook presence has significantly improved over the last few months. It has and it is nothing to do with me!

Simon Littmoden has been working with Dave and I across our fishery operations to help improve what we do. He was the inspiration behind a lot of our work leading to the installation of the automatic Dissolved Oxygen monitoring and management systems. He is also the ’engine’ behind our social media presence. I particularly loved his April 1st post!

Simon is also a very good angler. Last week he took the opportunity to get his rods out to land this 38lb Ghost Common from the Cottage swim, pictured above.

Unfortunately I have not been around this week to meet Father and Son team James and Daniel Buffoni, who have been fishing from Grebe Lodge for their first visit to Cherry Lake. Whilst they have been unlucky in that most of the Carp appear to be more up towards the house end of the lake, Simon has said they have been really positive and a real pleasure to have at the fishery. He also said that Daniel is a super keen and very good young angler.

Daniel was very pleased with his fist Cherry Lake Carp. This distinctive 14-14 Mirror is one of our hand picked home grown ‘babies’, which like Daniel will probably get bigger and better know in the future. Well done Daniel.