Charlie England banks another cracker.....a 37-12 Mirror

I think this has been the slowest October that I can remember, the only good news is that the Carp that have been caught have been good ones. I would say that all of our lakes here at Cherry Lakes have been tougher than normal. From what I hear we have not been alone. With low pressure and southerly winds moving in, I am hopeful for a good old fashioned autumn feed this week. Time will tell!

Charlie England set a new Cherry Lake record last Tuesday when he land 'Dick' at a massive weight of 49-12. In many ways I am still punch drunk from this. Charlie who is a very good angler only caught one more during his week long stay. This time he had a lovely Mirror of 37-12, see main picture above. This was last out to yours truly in the lockdown period in June at 35lb. So it is another Carp which has very nicely put on weight, being almost 3lbs heavier.

Andy Watts fishing in Heron only had a foul hooked Fully Scaled Mirror around the mid-20's to show for his week in Heron Lodge until he called me on Sunday afternoon. He was delighted to report a cracking Common which went 33lb on the scales. I am not clear if this is a new thirty for us for the year or not. As last year, unless it is very obvious, I have stopped adding Commons to our catalogue of 30's for the year. The total of which stands at 45 different 30+ Carp for the year to date.

It is often the case when fishing is slow, that the size of the Carp gets bigger. This is normally most self-evident during the winter, when the average weights of the Carp caught are so much higher than the average in the summer. I am not sure why this is the case, other than the bigger Carp obviously get that way because they eat more! This has also been the case during October where averages on all of our lakes have been sharply up.

Richard Mascall had a good stay last week in Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs. As regular readers know, this lake has been up and down all year, so it was good to see Richard land 10 Carp, all 13lb+, including three twenties to 24-08. Richard reported all the Carp appeared in great condition and up in weight on his last visit. His tactics were different to most anglers. he just fished with boilies into the middle parts of the lake spreading 30-40 boilies around his bait on each cast.

Sam Marandez stayed with his family in Pochard Lodge for his first visit to Cherry Lakes. Sam did well to catch 6 Carp this weekend (he was top rod across the complex). His catch return included two twenties of 20-08 and this impressive 23-08 Mirror below. Good angling Sam under the circumstances. Well done to you and the anglers mentioned above.