We hope never to use these……two defibrillators installed

As promised I have attempted to catch up with Simon’s Facebook updates, and even published my own ‘exclusive’!

Every now and again I hear about horror stories of anglers having heart attacks whilst fishing, sometimes they are are even found when it is too late to save them. Recognising that we have a lot of different anglers and guests staying with us during the year, many of which like me who are ‘getting on’, I guess the law of averages suggest that some day we might have a guest experience a cardiac event.

If one does unfortunately happen at Cherry Lakes we want to feel we have done everything we can to help. So we have invested in two new defibrillators These are automatic machines which give very clear instructions and if they are required to be used, might help to save a life and/or give the individual some extra time for the paramedics to arrive.

We have located one of these on the back of Grebe Lodge. This one is is within a maximum of 50 meters of each of our Lodges. We have also located one near the Cottage in the car port, which serves the Cottage guests and enables us to grab a defibrillator quickly if we receive an emergency call.

I will be personally delighted if we have wasted several thousand pounds and these never get used. But like all insurance, it’s good and reassuring to have it even if you don’t want to claim!

Now my exclusive story! As my wife knows, I have always been a keen ‘bird watcher’. Every now and again we see a species of bird that we do not recognise, and that happened last week. Evidently this bird, pictured above, is a ‘Red Breasted Goose’ and is a very rare visitor to the UK ( its normal range is around the eastern Mediterranean). It is not as big as the Grey and Canadian Geese which we normally see, but it is much prettier and just as noisy!

Whilst on relatively unusual birds, I can also report. that we have a pair of Egyptian Geese trying to ‘raise’ a family. Unfortunately their brood of 4 chicks is down to 2. Hopefully they will be successful.

Fishing couple Jason and Hayley Cousins recently returned to Cherry Lakes to stay in Pochard Lodge on Cherry Mere. They both successfully applied themselves. Hayley landed her PB whilst Jason caught this impressive Mirror of 31lb pictured above. Well done both and thanks for visiting.

Long term regular Matthew Hitchcock returned last week and had a good result. He applied himself and fished well to land 4 Carp during his stay. His target was one a day and he achieved exactly that!

I am frequently asked how many Carp will I catch Mike? Given I am not a clairvoyant and I often have no idea as to the competence of the angler, this is an impossible question……..so I normally fall back on saying that one Carp a day is a good targe!

Matthew’s 4 Carp included two real crackers. The fully scaled Mirror pictured below will be a new 30 for us by the end of the year. This was Matt’s first Carp of the week and weighed in at 29-04.

His 3rd Carp was an absolute beauty. A classic looking Cotswold Carp, this Linear Mirror weighed in at 35-04. Definitely one that every angler should be pleased to catch. The 35lb Mirror was the 42nd 30+ Carp of the year from Cherry Lake.
Well done Matthew and hopefully see you later in the year.