Two 40's+ and plenty of 30's

The fishing over the last couple of weeks has been good across all of our lakes. The exceptionally warm weather got them all going until some of them got frisky!

Since my last update we have had two different 40's caught from Cherry Lake. This brings the running total for 2025 to 5 different 40's with lots to come. The biggest of the two was caught by Jamie Hopson. This cracking fish weighed in at 45-10, and is the biggest of the year so far. Jamie during his stay at the end of April also had several 30's in his 8 Carp haul. Top angling as always from Jamie.

Mark Kearns brought his family for the first time to stay for a weekend in Cherry Lake Cottage. His timing was perfect. He landed three Carp during his weekend, which also included time away from the fishery with his family. Sensibly, he fed quite heavily with Cherry Red boilies before resting his swim for 6+ hours. The Carp responded to the lack of lines, enjoyed a 'free lunch' and were waiting for Mark on his return!

All of Mark's Carp were over 30lb and included a 35-08 Ghost Common and this 44-04 Mirror above.

This Mirror as been on my 'missing list' since it was last caught and featured in my 2023 30+ catalogue. Tom Nixon-Taylor caught this Carp at the end of April 2023, almost 2 years ago to the day at 40-08. She has put on 4lb in weight over this period, which I guess is steady and healthy, even if it is not as much as I would like it to be. Regardless, I was delighted to see this fish and to take her off the missing list. Well done Mark.

Long term returning guest Nathan Dufossee returned for one last visit before his planned move to Australia. He just missed breaking the 40lb+ barrier when he landed 'Apple Slice' at 39-08. She looked in great condition and is clearly 'expecting'. This brings me neatly onto spawning.

The hot weather of late April and early May, including the hottest ever May 1st in England, has resulted in unusually early spawning activity. Normally our smaller lakes lead the way during mid-late May, with the Cherry Lake Carp often not 'producing' until June.

This year has been so different. The Cherry Lake Carp started spawning on Wednesday and kept at it until Saturday morning. As far as we could tell the majority of the spawning Carp were the younger smaller one's. The bigger female Carp keeping themselves away from the margins and the excited young males! In 14 years of owning Cherry Lakes, this is the earliest spawning has ever started.

Our observations and instincts for Cherry Lake that not all the Carp, especially the bigger ones, were involved were confirmed over the last weekend. We had five Carp caught, the three 30's including James Best's 37-08 Mirror above, plus the 28-06 Mirror caught by Chris Caddick below, were all carrying spawn and did not look like they had been involved in spawning activity. The Carp that had been spawning took their turn to go quiet and rest up.

I was particularly interested to see Chris's Mirror Carp. This is a young fish which was 'born' here. Our babies are beautiful and getting bigger (spoken like a true non-biased parent!).

We also experienced heavy spawning activity on Cherry Mere, where I hope all the Carp were involved. Time will tell! Certainly the fishing was tough after they stopped. I think they were just 'knackered'! I hope you like the photo below which I took on Friday morning on Cherry Mere.

There was no spawning activity to note on Cherry Springs and Cherry Pool, and expect these lakes to 'get into action' during the next forecast warm spell. Indeed the Poole brothers landed 25 Carp from Cherry Springs this weekend , including 9 over 20lb's to 24-08.