Fantastic winter fishing across all of our lakes.

We have just returned from our extended holiday and it has been clear that the fishery has been in good hands whilst we have been away. Lots of progress has been made, not least is that we have finished the planned redecoration of all of the Lodges.

We had kept in touch during our travels and were aware that England was having an extremely wet period. This was obvious on our return as we could see extensive flooding in our local area, with our own lakes full to the brim. I should imagine that this wet winter has been enough to recharge the local water table and aquifers, and we should be well placed to face another hot summer (should we have one!).

Simon has been active in posting on our two Facebook pages, and has tried to keep our regular followers up to date with catches and other developments, some of which I will include, albeit it belatedly, here.

Our private Facebook site 'Beyond the Gates' is more detailed and often contains information not covered on the public FB site. I would encourage anyone who is a recent past guest, or has booked to visit Cherry Lakes this year, and would like to hear more about Cherry Lakes to sign up for this site. Certainly there has been a lot of 'Carp photos' whilst we have been away!

The mild weather, which followed the cold snap in late December/early January, was enough to get the Carp feeding through most of January. The smaller exclusive lakes have fished extremely well, often repairing catches which would be impressive in the summer, let alone in the depths of winter.

One such example was the results of the two Ian's (Blackwell and Caplin), who this year returned for their '6 nations weekend' and stayed in Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs. I have taken the liberty of reproducing a couple of comments from Ian Blackwell to give you a more informed understanding of some great angling and amazing fishing.

''We fished daylight hours only, 13.00-17.00 Friday and 9.00-17.00 Saturday and Sunday….(20 hours in total) and managed 35 Carp between us of which, we think 12/13 were 20+ to a biggest of 26lb….most of the rest were in the 15-18lb bracket, we might even have flopped a couple of 20s because we didn’t fancy weighing them in the pouring rain!!

A few pictures attached, another brilliant weekend….hopefully see you later in the year.''

Cherry Lake has fished well with Carp of all sizes being caught. A combination of the warm temperatures and the addition of new stock encouraging all the Carp to feed. I have included several of the captures that stood out for me, and apologies to any anglers omitted here. My fault as Simon did keep me informed and upto date with the fishing results.

West Country Baits boilie guru Dave Cole popped in for a short visit and managed a cracking brace of 30's including this 35-08 Mirror above. I think it was Banoffee boilies that did the trick for Dave.

James Dixon and his friend Chris Rust had a cracking weekend in Heron Lodge at the end of January catching several 30's in a 10 Carp catch. James had a 33-08 Mirror which I understand was a new PB. My favourite photo of James was this family shot with son Joey and wife Elise.

My favourite 'pure Carp' picture from this visit was the one featured below, with Chris Rust presenting an absolute stunning Mirror. Apologies but I am not sure on its weight?

My good friend and fishing buddy Chris Hughes, also took advantage of a calendar gap to have a mid-week session in Heron Lodge. He also did extremely well landing 4 Carp over 30lb+ including our second 40+ of the year (see the lead photo above of Chris's 41lb Mirror) and the Carp I know as 'Pac-mans mate at 36-08. His 32lb heavily scaled Mirror pictured below is also a real beauty and deserved to be featured here.

Given all the Carp featured here, and the significant numbers reported through our Facebook sites, it is obvious to see how rewarding winter carp fishing can be.

Given the weather forecast for at least the next couple of weeks, there is no reason why we should not see even more Carp caught as we move into early Spring. However you can't catch them unless your rods are in the water! You have to be in it....to win it!

And you can fish whilst enjoying the warmth and comforts of our Lodges! Go on, check our availability calendar and see if you can get your Carp fishing year off to a good start!