4-13 and 4-09 Crucian's lead the way!

Earlier this week we undertook our normal annual netting of Cherry Springs. We like to undertake an audit of our fish stocks, to see how they are getting on. This helps us to manage the bio-mass and inform the levels of feeding required when the water warms up.

This year the netting process has been different to normal. The exceptionally cold weather meant that we had to work very hard to stop the lakes from freezing over. The aerators did a great job, but boy did we burn some electricity! The heavy rain in early December filled the lakes up to the brim, and because of the freezing conditions, we were unable to get our water levels to the level where the north bank undercut is not a sanctuary for many of the fish, which helps improve the effectiveness of the netting activity.

The Roach in particular were hard to find. They were hiding close to the banks and in the undercut because they were hiding from an influx of Cormorants. As we had some of the few lakes not properly frozen in the area, our lakes became even more attractive to the Cormorants. As a result I believe the Roach were not shoaled up (their normal winter behaviour), but were scared stiff and hiding out of the way. Not good if you are netting!

Whilst we were unable to catch the quantity of Roach we expected, we did see some cracking Crucian Carp, Tench and Perch.

I was not expecting to see any Crucians because I thought they would be in the undercut or tight to the banks, and hence evade our nets. Out of a Crucian Carp population which I would estimate is about 25 strong, we landed 8 Crucians all above 2-08lb in weight. Of these 3 were above 4lb. The biggest two can be seen in the lead photo above. 4-09lb on the left and 4-13 on the right. The bigger specimen if caught on rod and line would be a new lake record, and I am told would be within ounces of the national record. Truly exceptional fish, which we are very proud of.

Indeed we are lucky when it comes to specimens Crucian Carp, because Cherry Pool also holds a good stock of Crucian's to nearly 4lb. This lake, because it is smaller is a more practical proposition to fish for and target the Crucians, which are ofter caught just off the fishing platform of Egret Lodge.

I was convinced that with a half frozen lake that Ben, Sam and Jack would not be able to properly net Cherry Springs. I even tried to delay their visit given -6C was forecast for Monday night/Tuesday morning ( not possible as they were fully booked for the rest of the winter), but Ben said they could still net the lake with it partially frozen. As you can see here, they obviously could!

It was fascinating watching them in the water with their Dry-Suits, breaking the ice around the edge as they walked the net out. They were then able to start pulling the net in by either feeding the net floats under the edge of the ice (they would then slide the floats along the under-side of the ice) or carefully pushing sheets of ice around. Very clever and certainly a first for me!

I have to say that having worked with Ben and Sam Bicknell for the last 4 years, they are an excellent netting team as well as being fishery management experts. They are always calm, confident and a pleasure to work with. Thanks guys for a great job in freezing conditions.

As well as the Crucians, we also had the pleasure of seeing some specimen Perch to over 3lb+. These lovely fish, are caught even less frequently than the Crucians, principally because not many anglers target them. Typical of our predator fish, in particular Pike and Perch, they thrive on neglect!

I love the photo of Jack Golden, showing off three in the winter sunshine and ice/snow in the background.

By contrast, the exceptionally cold water meant that the Carp were not very active, and were less 'interested' in either jumping over, or squeezing under, the net. We had the time to undertake two sweeps of the lake and 'counted' over 150 Carp. I was delighted to see that the Carp looked in great condition and were up in weight.

Ben Emptage. from AJS Fisheries who undertook the netting on our behalf, was extremely complimentary about how much the quality and size of the stock has improved in Cherry Springs over the last 4 years that they have been netting it. I have been left wondering though. Have we got too many Carp in the lake? Something for us to ponder on.

From memory we counted 153 Carp from the two sweeps of Cherry Springs, which is roughly half of the estimated number of Carp in the lake. This was a better return than normal because the Carp were less active. We only chose to weigh a few of the larger Carp, so I do not have a detailed breakdown of the Carp seen. Suffice to say there were very few singles, a lot of Carp between c18-22lb, and a good head of larger ones. We had three good 30's, carp of 33-04, 34-08 and this 36-02 stunning Mirror above.

Cherry Springs is a very reliable winter water, so if you fancy catching one of these beautiful Carp, please use the on-line booking process to book your break.

Happy New Year from us all here at Cherry Lakes