Three amazing results

What a contrast the last two weeks has been to the heat wave at the end of May. A combination of the low pressure and largely warm winds, and the Carp gradually getting back on the feed after spawning, has resulted in three really noteworthy catches by our guests.

Unusually I am going to start with Ian Turnbull who visited Cherry Lakes for the first time when he stayed in Egret Lodge on Cherry Pool.

Ian spent a lot of time targeting the Crucians, fishing close in. Unfortunately they did not want to play ball. He did however catch a hatful of very small Carp (I assume they naturally survived from the last two years spawning), several big Tench, and amazingly a 23lb and 30-02 Carp.

As far as I am aware this is the biggest float caught Carp caught from any of our four lakes. An amazing result if you ask me!

Cherry Lake has been under-fished over the last two weeks since spawning finished. I would like to say that this was a result of brilliant fishery management, but it was just the way bookings worked out.

Peter Jones, the manager of the famous Dartford angling shop The Tackle Box, dis come for his normal summer holiday stint in Grebe Lodge. Normally Peter bags up, but this time he had to work hard for his 11 Carp. He did manage several 30's to 36lb, but most of the Carp he caught were the younger Carp and principally males.

The downside of having no other anglers on the lake for much of his stay, plus the warm south westerlies blowing up the lake into the house bank, meant that most of the Carp were at the other end of the lake, and with no angling pressure to move them around.

Phil Flaherty and Paul Muncey did however get lucky, as they had booked Heron Lodge. With no anglers in the Cottage and the strong weekend southerlies, the Carp were stacked up in their water.

Phil, who gets married very soon, was on his 'Stag do' with his 'Best Man' Paul. What a great way to spend a weekend, with much lower risk of a headache!

Between them, fishing a combination of the Cherry Liver and Cherry Red boilies, they landed 15 Carp and lost a further 9. Amazing! In fact their result was even more amazing as that they were too tired to fish through the nights!

Most of the Carp caught were doubles and low to mid twenties, again highlighting the fact that it is the younger Carp and the male fish which tend to get back on the feed the quickest. They did however get some biggies as you can see from the photos.

Fishery manager Dave Bowen has always said that Carp seem to have softer mouths after spawning and are more easily lost for a few weeks until their mouths harden up again.

The third amazing result, was down to regular Peter Acciaioli, who spent this last Monday to Friday in Kingfisher Lodge on Cherry Springs.

He certainly hit the lake at the right time and showed remarkable levels of stamina and commitment. During his stay he landed 53 Carp and 4 Tench. Again most of these were high doubles and low to mid twenties. Our Liver bait doing the business. On Tuesday he landed 23 fish. Wow! I certainly would have reeled in and gone for a rest (a pint!), a long time before reaching this number!

Well done to the anglers above. Very impressive.

I am getting asked about (late) availability. If you are interested in booking with us, it is easy to check availability through the website or to drop us an email.

We do sometimes advertise late availability through our Facebook pages, and in particular on our 'Beyond The Gates' page. So if you are a past guest or have booked to come, please don't forget to join our exclusive FB page.

If it helps, we have a few gaps in June and July on Cherry Lake in both the Lodges and the Cottage.

Until next time stay safe and tight lines.