Ryan Young finishes the year in style!

As I mentioned in yesterday's update, Cherry Lake fishes much more like a typical quality Carp water in winter than our other lakes. It is often slow and hard going.....but very rewarding for some. This is essentially because the stocking density is much lower and also that the Carp can be much harder to locate and find. In winter, for example, we can go for several weeks without seeing signs of Carp on Cherry Lake.

I have tried hard to manage the expectations of this week's guests on Cherry Lake, most of which are new to Cherry Lakes. I have made a point of reminding them all not to fish too many spots, and as a result spread their bait, as the Carp in winter might only feed for a very short spell of 15-30 minutes every 24-72 hours. Typically these feeding spells often come at very similar times of the day/night. Given this seems to be the case on so many waters over the years, the last thing you need is to have 10 baited spots when they do feed and only 2/3 rods to cover them!

Two days ago Brian Hamilton landed a lovely 23lb Fully Scaled Mirror around 13.30. Earlier today Ryan Young, a first time visitor to Cherry Lake, landed two Carp 5 minutes after each other around 13.45. Talk about proving a point!

As you can see from the lead photo above, Ryan brought along his partner Danielle and his 3 month old son Alfie for his stay in Osprey Lodge for the New Year period. When I spoke with Ryan this morning, he was staying positive but looked a bit disappointed at not yet having any action. We had a long chat and I encouraged him to try a rod or two in Grebe's water (the guests in Grebe this week are not fishing), as the Carp might be holding up there.

It was a much happier Ryan who called me just before 14.00 today. I asked him if he had just caught one.......he said no....I have got two! Although his rods were positioned some 100 meters apart, he had two runs in very quick succession. One from his consistently baited spot, the other from Grebe's water. The first being the 29-04 Common pictured above. At first I thought this might be one of our 30's down in weight , but after a good study of our 30lb+ Commons from 2019 which does not include this lovely fish, I am pleased to report that this is one of our bigger twenties coming through. Given it's length it has plenty of capacity to emerge as a new 30+ on it's next visit to the bank.

Ryan's second Carp, which took the bait literally seconds after the Common had been placed in the retainer, was this Mirror of 21-02 above. This is another one of our beautifully scaled younger Mirrors coming through and was much more stunning in the flesh than comes across in the photos. Successful tactics was a small bait contained within a PVA stocking of crushed boilies, pellets etc. Well done Ryan......and you still have time to 'earn' a 30+ club shirt!

I reported yesterday that the McCarthy family, who have been staying in Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere this week, have been having a great time. Dad Martin and sons Connor and Alfie have all caught twenties during their stay to date, and each of them had caught their own new PB's. Rather stupidly I used a photo of Connor with younger brother Alfie's 20-08 Common (he was showing Alfie how to hold it). Alfie was not impressed with me.....hence the photo above. Well done Alfie.

Davy Jones fishing on Cherry Springs has now caught up with his Dad Dereck (see yesterday's update which includes Derek's new PB of 22-08), when he landed this fully scaled Mirror of 15-08. They have both now caught two each. Sounds like a needle match!