Quest Baits Blog

You asked for comments on this one Elie but to be fair you have answered in the same way as I was going to - you beat me.

There are venues available over here but personally - it may just be a psycological thing but I really feel that I have been away on holiday if there is a ferry crossing or flight involved.

Similarly I really enjoy sampling different food from different cultures and I also find the language difficulties really drum home that I am away - almost on a mini safari adventure.

A break in England never gives me quite the same buzz as a trip overseas.

Just a personal view. I do feel there will be more and more commercial holiday places cropping up here in the UK.

Similarly it is becoming increasingly common foir fisheries to be installing proper toilets and shower blocks. This is happening on many syndicate waters but I feel the trend will also be picked up and carried on with the venues open to anyone willing to pay the money.

This is a subject which makes the UK running of things a little difficult. The cost of it. Once toilets and showers are installed then you need to have someone cleaning these and maintaining facilities. You need full time bailiff’s/wardens living on site. Once anglers start paying good money they expect plenty in return. All this comes at a cost and once the sums are done you may find it to be much cheaper to set these venues up and run them in France. Plus the fish are available at a size which interests the most experienced angler.

A sad state of affairs but U.K. costs are considerably higher.

Elie/Shaun

Your right. The holiday aspect of it does come into play. I guess it would be extremely difficult to not only replicate a venue with big fish but also the adventure of getting there. Not quite the same going round the M25. Elie, your also right in stating that the cost of a weeks fishing in France does soon add up considerably, after paying say £350 per person without taking into consideration,travel insurance, additional car insurance, breakdown insurance. fuel, food, bait and lets not forget the wine. I think at the moment psycology wins.

Off Subject here. Don’t forget that as of 01st July you must carry a hi-vis jacket in the car when travelling in France.

Hi Phil

Thanks for reminding me about the Hi-Viz jacket, I had seen them but hadn’t registered when they became compulsory. I understand a fire extinguisher is also required now?

After I first replied to your question it occured to me that actually there are many holiday venues in the UK that have fishing as part of the facilities on offer. People book a chalet near or next to a lake or river and get to fish it while they are there. These tend to attract people who go on holiday and who might choose to fish while there, rather than those of us who go on holiday specifically to fish.

Hi Phil,
I would say that the simplest answer to your question lies in the fact that France is a far bigger country than ours and as such there is much more available water for people to buy and set up the type of venues you are talking about.

Most of the waters in the U.K. tend to be tied up by syndicates or clubs as soon as they become available (if they are any good). In fact here in the Midlands I can think of very few waters apart from one or two stretches of canal or river that aren’t club or syndicate owned. Although in saying that I do believe that Rob Hayles hires some of his big carp waters out exclusively on a weekly basis (check out his website).

Not all of the clubs are expensive, in fact if you look at clubs such as Burton Mutual, Prince Albert, B.A.A and Stoke Anglers (to name but a few) they have loads of waters on their books for as little as £30 a year. Because of the numbers of waters they have available you can very often have say a 20 acre between of couple of anglers.

As regards to exclusivity of waters, a lot of clubs lease waters out for matches or for the day (i know that this is something that specimen groups like the barbel catchers for example take advantage of when organising ‘fish-ins’ etc.) There is nothing to stop you leasing a water for a few days for a ‘match’ between your mates.

As I said at the start there are far more available waters in France, so it stands to reason that there will be a lot more of the type of venues that you are looking for. But if you look around there are still plenty of relatively quiet Club waters around and I am sure if you made a few enquires you would find one that would lease you a water, maybe not for a week but for a few sessions.

Cheers,
Pat

Hi Ian here
Here is a slightly different take on things and i am going to risk sounding like a grumpy old git. the reason why there are very few waters like the french ones in the uk is because of greed and apathy on the part of land and lake owners. Look at how the majority waters in france are run, clean, tidy fish well cared for with good rules. Now look at a lot of day ticket waters here over stocked lakes and i use that term lake lightly, poor fish health banks full of beer cans and other crud and hoards of unsupervised kids running amuck with the owner who could not give a fishes nipple save the ten quid pocket money hes taking off the kids to be there. Sound like a water near you ? The very well run FISHERIES and there are some excellent ones here in the uk are over fished and taking a lot of money on the bank so dont see the need to go to the hassle of trying to get planning permission for this and that and then theres health and safety to contend with not to forget insurance etc once the fishery owner has got over his depression hes faced with the cost of putting the facilities in place.
In france there is room for the one man band and his family to make something special sadly that is not the case in the uk, which is why we flock to french waters in our droves.
cheers Ian

What fantastic comments I’ve read from all of you. Some very valid points have been raised and a great deal of information which I can use, especially the possibilities of renting for a long weekend (cost allowing). Ian, I know what your saying about some of the day ticket waters. There is a (popular) venue close to me that has several lakes including a carp lake. I went for a recce there to see what it was like. The sight before me left me in no doubt that this was one place I would not be fishing and genuinely felt saddened by the treatment the fish were being put through and the condition they were in. Anyway I’m going off subject here so I won’t say anymore, other wise I will have to put it in the ramblings section.

Thanks again everyone

Hi all

Interesting points and firstly I fully agree with Shaun and Elie. I really feel as though it is a holiday whenI am in France (and I don’t get the wife nagging me to come home early dto do the gardening etc)LOL.

I respect your points Ian but there are a couple of things that play a part in the way fisheries are run here and abroad.

1) Until recently there was a huge difference in the cost of buying carp in the UK compared to in France and also it still is far easier to purchase larger specimens in france as they have been commercially farming them on a large scale for many years.

2) Many French venues shutdown from the end of October through to the end of March and thus have time to carry out work on facilities etc

The condition of the fish is largely down to us ther anglers and not the Lake owners. I have seen many anglers equally drunk whilst fishing in France as in the uk. Samantha’s blog on Carp care is something that we should all adhere to.

Lake rules vary in the UK as much as in France and many waters here have banned leaders, lead core, Longshanks etc. How many french venues have banned nuts and other particles that if prepared badly can cause harm.

All that said you are dead right about some fisheries being soley money motivated and that is unfortunate. We don’t have to go to these venues though.

Cheers

Jamie