Gary Burton also has an amazing brace!

The fishing on Cherry Lake has continued to be slowish this week, and one hundred times better than last week. So far we have had 3 x 30+ (including a 37-09 Mirror and a 33-12 Common mentioned in my last update) and a 40+ from Cherry Lake. Interestingly it seems that it is only the bigger Carp that are being caught and I was going to say that I cannot remember the last 20lb+ Carp. However last night two nice twenties were caught Hopefully a sign that all of the Carp are switching back on?

All the other lakes are fishing better, which has also been good for our efforts to reduce the number of Bream in Cherry Pool.

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The rain of Thursday morning did the trick for returning guest Gary Burton, who fished from Osprey Lodge. Having spent some time fishing the harder gravel areas of the lake, Gary spent some time on Wednesday finding some silt pockets (mainly in the channels and low spots) and switched his fishing approach. His hard work absolutely paid off him.

Around 04.00, one of Gary's rods roared off and after a good fight he was pleased when brother David slipped the net under it. This lovely Mirror was last caught by Wayne Chawner in early April at 38-04 and is pictured above. Gary commented that both his Carp looked in top condition, which is always good to hear.

Just after 07.00 in heavy rain, Gary's second rod, which was also positioned in a silty area, was away. I was delighted when the phone went shortly after to learn that Gary had a big fish in the net. Dave and I were delighted to renew our acquaintance with 'Ruby', pictured in the lead above and below.

The last time Ruby was caught was by Jason Barnes in mid-June at 45-08. This time she came out at 47-02. A new highest weight for this big framed Carp. In fact both of these Carp are up nicely in weight and have clearly recovered from spawning, and should be heavier again next year in the run up to spawning.

Gary and David shared a brace of Carp, both 20's (I cannot remember the weights!), again form siltier areas. Certainly I was arriving this weekend this is where I would start.

I mentioned in a previous post, how a poor week can be transformed into a good week, when anglers convert their chances. This point was amplified by Gary noting that 'Ruby' had a recent hook mark in her mouth. Given we know she has not been out since June, then it appears she was recently lost. Oh dear!

Gary's impressive brace comes within a month of Liam Knight's record Cherry Lake brace when he landed 'Dick' at 50-02 and 'The Patch' at 45lb. There are a number of, to me at least, striking similarities to these two great catches. They both came within 3 hours or so from each other at the end of the night/early morning, in the rain and after several days of inactivity from the Carp. I think the rain brought by a weather front, with an accompanying slight drop in pressure was enough to get the big Carp switched on and moving.