Alex Crouch with Charlotte and a 36-08 Mirror

Birthday boy Alex smashes Cherry Lake with 4 x 30+ on his first visit!

5 anglers share 10 different thirties since my last update
Monday 24 August 2020

I will confess I am struggling to keep up and catch up with all of the great results many of our guests are having. Indeed I will just concentrate here on Cherry Lake and do a follow up on the other lakes, in particular Cherry Mere, in the next update.

Assuming I have not missed anyone out, there has been 10 different thirties out from Cherry Lake to 5 anglers since my last update just nine days ago!.

I will have to start with birthday boy Alex Crouch who visited Heron Lodge this weekend with his partner Charlotte, and boy did he have a great time. Alex decided to fish the middle of the lake after arriving. He used a marker rod to find some silty areas between harder areas of gravel and then chose to scatter and spomb out boilies around his target areas. Saturday, Alex's actual birthday, was a real red letter day for him. He started in the early hours with a 31-08 Mirror followed by this fantastic half-linear Mirror of 36-08 at 07.30 on Saturday morning pictured in the lead photo above.. This particular Carp was last caught by Charlie England in February.

Alex went even bigger at mid-day when he landed this 37-08 Ghost Mirror below. When I first saw the big Ghostie, I assumed it was the same fish as caught by Stephen Smith earlier this year at 38-04. However when I compared the Carp this was not the case and in fact I could not find this Carp either in my 2019 or 2020 catalogue of Cherry Lake thirties. Amazingly, this Carp has not been caught since May 2018 when it was caught by Sarah Riley at 34lb. As you can imagine we were very pleased to see her.

Alex Crouch. 37-08 R.jpg
Alex Crouch with a 37-08 Ghost Mirror. The biggest of 4x30's. What a birthday!

Poor Alex(!), he then had to 'suffer' for about 36 hours until around 07.30 on Monday morning when he caught his fourth Carp of the trip.......this time it was a lovely 'Leney style' Mirror of 31-03. This classic looking Carp, pictured below, was last caught by Ken O'Connor in 2019 at 33lb, so it was another new one for this years catalogue of thirties. The number now stands at 38 different thirties in 2020....... and Alex caught 4 of them on his first visit! Alex is also the 180th member of the Cherry Lake 30+ club.

Well done and what a birthday present!

Alex Crouch with a classic looking Mirror of  31-03 Mirror. His fourth thirty of his visit!
Alex Crouch with a classic looking Mirror of 31-03 Mirror. His fourth thirty of his visit!

Lee Smith has just returned to Cherry Lake for a week's holiday in Osprey Lodge with his partner Sarah. They did very well and landed a dozen Carp including a 28lb Common for Sarah and a couple of thirties for Lee. These weighed in at 31-06 and 32-08. The biggest being the Ghost Mirror pictured below. The new Cherry Lake fishmeal 'Bio-Spice' accounting for most of these. Well done Lee and Sarah

Lee Smith with a 32-08 Ghost Mirror from Osprey Lodge
Lee Smith with a 32-08 Ghost Mirror from Osprey Lodge

Matthew Went stayed in the Cottage last week with his family and struggled until Thursday night when he caught his first Cherry Lake Carp. This was also a thirty, this time a distinctive Mirror with a big 'apple slice' scale which was caught earlier this year by Tom Nixon-Taylor (178th member).

Tom Hillary also fished Cherry Lake for the first time when he stayed in Heron Lodge last week with his partner Catherine. He was extremely positive about Cherry Lakes even before he joined the Cherry Lake 30+ club (178th member) with this 31-02 Mirror Carp below. This was another one of our known thirties 'showing their face' for the first time in 2020. Must be something to do with the change in weather?

There were also lots of other quality Carp caught, but with my memory I can barely keep up with the thirties!

Well done to everyone who has caught.

Tom Hillary with his first Cherry Lake thirty. A 31-02 Mirror from Heron Lodge
Tom Hillary with his first Cherry Lake thirty. A 31-02 Mirror from Heron Lodge
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