Introducing Darren Davies. Our new fishery manager
We are in the process of going through a lot of change here at Cherry Lakes and I thought I should try to explain why.
Over the last 15 years Judith, Dave and myself have worked hard to create what we think is one of the best fisheries and fishing holiday venues in the UK. It has been rewarding and hard work for us all, but we are all tired and now is the right time to make some fundamental change and pass the baton on.
As we have got older, Judith and I are both turning 65 in November, and our family has grown (we will be welcoming our third grandchild also in November), it has become harder and harder for us to give the fishery the energy and attention it deserves, we are less able to spend most weekends at home, and in reality I need to step back( but not too far away!).
Having explored a range of options, we have concluded that we want to keep owning and living at Cherry Lakes for the long term. To do so we need to essentially replace me (Mike) with another full time fishery manager. This will enable us to offer a full 7 day a week service fishery management service. A considerable extra cost for Cherry Lakes Limited, but one which we think our guests will welcome and benefit from.
The most obvious change to guests, will be the on-site presence of a fishery manager on Saturday’s and Sunday’s. Where shift patterns overlap between the end of March and October, the fishery managers should be available until the early evening.
One positive outcome of this should be more good quality photos to share with you all and we will keep a better count of the number of different 30+ Carp caught.
We are delighted to confirm that Darren Davies has joined Cherry Lakes as one of the fishery managers. He is a good experienced angler as well as having a 20+ year track record of working in and around fisheries. I am sure he won’t take long to get the know the lakes and will quickly be a good source of help, advice and tips for our angling guests.
The lakes have been fishing very well over the last few weeks. The drop in temperature and a little rain has been welcomed by us all. I hope we can lift all bait restrictions by October, although this is dependent on getting more rain.
I have lost count of the number of 30’s caught since my last update. The biggest was Ian Taylor, who had a Common of 42lb and several 30’s, when he spent a week in Heron Lodge on his first visit to Cherry Lakes. Unfortunately the photos did not do the fish justice, and from the way it looked it could have been a twenty! As it was a distinctive Common we could see it was the same fish that Alan Gilles caught last October at 42-05, and could be confident that it was as heavy as reported. We did receive some negative comments about the size of the fish. Regular followers of my Latest News update would know that we would never put up a large Carp and broadcast its weight without being confident that it was reasonably accurate.
The typical weights of the Carp across our 4 lakes is behind where would expect them to be. Other fisheries are reporting similar findings, particularly those which are not very deep. The intense heat of the summer appears to be the most commonly identified culprit. Now that the temperatures have dropped the Carp are actively feeding. The anglers who have done the best are those who have baited the heaviest.
This makes sense to me as the Carp are most definitely looking for food and for a change really are having an autumn feeding spell. This is not the time to just fish with small bags!
The best source of regular news and catch reports is through our Facebook pages. The private ‘Beyond the Gates’ Facebook page is restricted to past and future guests. It tends to be the first source of news including late deal opportunities as well as captures. So if you are a past or a booked future guest, I would encourage you to join up to this page. Otherwise you don’t know what you’re missing!