Lee and Sarah share a 17 Carp catch from Osprey Lodge to 38-03

Well I should go away more often, because the Carp fishing has significantly improved across the complex in my absence as you can read about below.

Me? Where have I been? Well I had my first Carp fishing trip to France for over two years with my good buddy Chris. We are too booked up here, you see, for me to fish my own lakes!

We went to a supposedly big fish water on a drive and survive basis. We caught loads of Carp, the vast majority were under 25lb. Not exactly what I drove to the Loire valley for! Particularly as the Carp were not in great condition and obviously hungry and under-weight. I have to admit that these days I am too lazy and old to want to have lots of runs/Carp a day. The next venue will be one more similar to Cherry Lake where one to three Carp in a week would be a good result, with a realistic chance of a bigger Carp than I could catch here.

The condition of the Carp was a consequence in part of limited amount of anglers feed and no apparent feeding of the fish in the absence of anglers. I know from my own perspective of the last couple of years, that it is expensive to feed the Carp during periods of lockdown. We feed as regular readers know as a matter of course, as the only effective way of keeping the Carp in good condition and growing. During lockdown we simply had to feed more. Having seen what can happen to a lake which is over-stocked without supplementary feed, it reinforces our belief that we have been largely doing the right thing! The steady increase in the size of our Carp and the new number of 30's (see below) is also another 'tick in this box'.

This weekend (I returned on Saturday evening) has been very good across the complex. Brian Round on Cherry Springs very much regards his visits to Cherry Lakes as a holiday. In fact it took him 24 hours to get around to casting out! He also baits up and reels in for the night before starting around 07.30 in the morning. Well all I can say is that the Cherry Springs Carp like Brian's relaxed approach as he has so far had 12 Carp, all doubles + to 26-08. He has still got 4 days to go and will see how many he gets up to!

Three generations of the Prest family (Adam, Paul and Peter) fished from Pochard Lodge this weekend and they had a good time. I have lifted the following words directly from a thank you e mail received this morning .......

'' 3 nights spent in Pochard with 3 generations of anglers! Grandad took the biggest fish with a 24lb 5oz mirror! A lot of action during the night resulting in 6 x 20+ and 7 good doubles. Many thanks for a great stay Judith and Mike and we hope to see you again in the future! '' In fact all three of the anglers caught a 20lb+ Carp, which I think is pretty good! Well done on a good first visit.

Cherry Lake has also fired back into life. Sarah Sedgley and Lee Smith have been the stars this week, but I will start with first-timer John Furnley who fished from the Cherry Lake Cottage swim with regular Luke Williams. Luke and John caught 5 of our smaller Carp (I understand between 18-22lb ) when John smashed his PB with this Common Carp of 37-12, pictured below. John became the 228th member of the Cherry Lakes 30+ club with thee capture of this impressive Common.

We have two late vacancies. One for Cherry Lake Cottage for Monday 04 to Friday 08 October. The other for Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere for Friday 01-04 October. Please call 01285 869887 if you want to book one of these.

Lee Neilson, whose first planned visit in March was a casualty of the last lockdown, tried again this weekend when he stayed in Grebe Lodge. He caught 4 lovely Carp, between 26-01 to 29-07 including this stunning Mirror pictured below. Space prevents me from showing some of the other Carp which all looked good. Well done Lee on a good first visit and thanks for the photos..

Lee Smith and his partner Sarah Sedgley had a 'right result' when they spent a week in Osprey Lodge. As regulars they know that the lake can be difficult (normally) and occasionally more accommodating when everything comes right!. Indeed for the first two days, the fishing was more like the norm as they did not catch anything. Things then started to change from Wednesday when they obviously found the right spots to present their fishmeal boilies. They successfully built up these spots by regularly heavily baiting with boilies to the Carp both looking for and feeding on their baits.

Lee and Sarah shared 17 Carp catch which included 4 thirties, 10 twenties and three 18/19lbers. Sarah smashed her PB when she landed this stunning Ghost Common of 32-08 pictured in the lead photo above. When I was told about this Carp, I thought it was the Ghost Common which normally weighs in around 33lb ( Simon Littmoden have caught the Ghost Common at 33-12 in April, see post of 26 April ). I was absolutely delighted to realise that this is actually a new 30 for us. What a stunning Carp and it looks absolutely mint! I was almost as 'over the moon' as Sarah!

Lee was a bit 'naughty' as it was officially Sarah's turn on the rods when he 'got there first' and landed their biggest fish of the trip, a long Common weighing 38-03 (see picture immediately above). So whilst Lee technically qualified for a 35+ hoody, he felt obliged to donate the hoody to Sarah . This particular Carp is one which I know well. I was surprised to realise that It had not yet featured in this years 30+ catalogue. In fact it was last caught almost a year ago to the day by Darren Batchelor at 38lb.

Lee also caught two other 30's, a 31-08 Mirror and the second new 30 of the trip when he landed this 32-08 Mirror pictured above. This brings our running total of first time 30's for the year to 9 and our number of different 30's to an amazing 52. As promised I will write more about this the next time we have a serious turn down in the catch results.

Well done to all the anglers above and in particular to Sarah and Lee on an amazing total catch as well as both setting new English PB's.

Finally just an appeal to our regular guests. Please do not leave it too long to book as we are already heavily booked for next April onwards. Tight lines!