Hopefully we can now have a ‘proper Autumn’!

At last the horrible high pressure system which has been sitting over the UK for weeks has finally moved away. We are due some decent rain today, hopefully the start of a wet period. We so desperately need some ‘proper rain’ to recharge the ground water table and get the River Churn properly flowing again. Our lakes are about 2 feet down, and given most of the lakes are not deep, that’s at least 35% of the normal water volume that’s missing.

Fishing has been tough across all of our lakes this autumn. Some good fish have been caught, but I would say it has been more challenging than in recent years. I think the combination of the high pressure coupled with lower water levels, have resulted in moody Carp. From what I understand, we are not alone and most fisheries are reporting lower catches and tough conditions. Hopefully my next update will be full of great catches as the Carp respond to the change in weather condition?

We have taken advantage of the low water levels to undertake a couple of key re-builds. Each fishing platform has steps which anglers can use to get closer to the water level. Ideal for landing and returning fish, as well as for launching/removing bait boats.
Last week we replaced the steps on Egret Lodge. Although the existing Oak upright posts were sound, we future proofed the structure with scaffolding. We have previously used scaffolding for the Cherry Lake Lodges as well as for Pochard Lodge. Given Pochard’s fishing platform is completely over deep water, it is good to know that the structure is sound! Another big maintenance job ticked off!

I always enjoy catching up with our angling guests who have a smile on their faces because they have caught a new Personal Best. I think this is the case for Mark Carter, who is pictured in the lead photo above with a 32-08 stunner from Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs.

Returning guests Kevin Snow, with the 34-08 Mirror above, known by me as PAC-man’s mate’ (because it has a pac man style scale only on one side of its wrist) and Roger Hammond also caught new PB’s. Roger landed a 32-04 Common on Monday and followed this with his new PB, a Mirror of 43-04 on Tuesday night. Unfortunately the big one was caught in the early hours and the photo was not great. I did however recognise it as one of our known 40’s.

Cherry Pool has been our most productive Lodge over the last month. This is our deepest lake and the lower water levels have a much smaller relative impact? Any way the pick of the fish caught was this stunning heavily scaled Mirror of 29-08 caught by David Skinner.

The strangest capture of the last few weeks was the 3lb Perch caught by Ian Roberts from Cherry Springs. This specimen Perch took a fancy to his small pink pop-up! Go figure!

And lastly to report that I managed to fall heavily on Wednesday, chipping a bone and damaging ligaments in my right ankle. Not a good thing to do, a few days before a week fishing in France. My ‘helpful mates’ are showing their sympathy by calling me various names like ‘club-foot’ and ‘hoppy’. Hopefully I will have the last laugh and catch the biggest fish of the week!