On the 30th June Phil Parker put the following question to the bloggers:

OK here goes. Now I’m sure this subject has been touched before.

Why do we not have venues in the UK similar to those advertised in Angling Lines?

 In fact perhaps I should ask them this and other companies this. There seems to be a couple venues that do this but not many.

I am not knocking France or any of the lakes over there as I have fished many of them over the years and love the places I have been to. Its just that there seems to be missing opportunities which I’m sure could be grabbed.

I know there are places like White Acres and Anglers Paradise, again top notch venues but the chance to share a lake with friends on an exclusivity basis or a 20 acre lake shared between a maximum of 10 anglers has surely got to appeal. T

here must be plenty of anglers who would relish this as syndicate waters are sometimes far and few between and not within budget for many. So come on everbody lets have your thoughts, suggestions and opinions on this.

Elie Godsi offers an initial response:

Great, thought provoking question this Phil.

My initial thoughts on this is that there have been a very small number of UK venues available for exactly this type of group booking for many years. The famous Redmire Pool, Birch Grove as well as the lakes you mention have been run on this basis – you pay for the whole lake for a particular week and decide how many of you want to share the costs between you depending on what the maximum anglers allowed are. This is essentially the same basis that most of us go to French venues on, and thankfully there are companies like Angling Lines around to take all the hassle out of the whole process and also ensure the venues are up to standard.

Rob Hales has opened one or two new venues in the UK in recent years that are available for exclusive weekly bookings and I believe this is a trend that will continue and we can expect to see more waters operating on this basis.

However, there are some tensions that need resolving though, maybe some of these may be to do with people’s attitudes, I’m not entirely sure.

For a start there are a lot of day ticket/24/48 hour venues around that suit many people’s busy lifestyles and give access to loads of potential waters and big fish for anglers all over the country. And many anglers find it conceptually difficult to pay, say £250 – £300 for a week’s fishing in the UK, when they may be able to join a syndicate for a whole year for the same or even two or three times that money, or even a club water for £30 with access to good fishing. Yet strangely they don’t think twice about paying that kind of money (£30-£50 a day) when they go to France or elsewhere for a whole week, not to mention food and travel costs on top of that.

Personally if I’m going to take a whole week off work I like to make it a ‘proper’ holiday and going to France suits me, I’m not sure I’d want to do the same thing over here in the UK.

In France I love the roads, the wine, the great food and the hot weather, not to mention the chance of catching huge fish. It really was not long ago that a UK 20 was a real achievement and while that bar has been raised by 10 or maybe even 20lbs over here, that’s nothing compared to what loads of French venues now have to offer. It really amazes me how many foreign waters are producing 60 and 70lb plus fish these days – just take a look at the Angling Lines catalogue or website and it’s truly staggering.

So I agree with you Phil, there is a gap in the market for such waters in the UK. I believe we will see more waters opening up for exclusive, time limited bookings and the bigger the fish in them the more attractive, and hence busier they will be. However, in my view that UK market will remain a limited one. I’d be really interested to hear other people’s thoughts on this one.

Cheers.

Elie G

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