davew

I too live in Cornwall, have you managed to get hold of Kenny yet? I have left several messages but so far nobody has called me back. I used to run Etang Des Moulinots in France before selling up to another couple in 2012 and they have been using Kenny's baits as their house bait

Sad to hear about your losses, the decent venues have looked after their customers during this difficult period, some have not!!! The properly registered venues (for French tax purposes) and I would think Bills Lakes fall within that category have received Government support (similar to the UK system) so there is very little if no excue to treat customers better. As a former fishery operator in France (retired now), my best suggestion would be to report your story to the wide carping world, forums, magazines etc., it probably won't get your money back but at the very least it will put people off going to money grabbing venues who simply don't care about their customers! Good luck!

Whatever size lake you might consider taking on, be prepared for the worst scenario i.e. a complete fishkill which can happen when you stock a lake or add carp to an existing stock, I know!!! Good luck whatever you decide. I operated a 19 acre lake for 11 years and after the initial disaster turned it into 1 of France´s premier venues, virtually full every week 2 years in advance with no advertising having been done for over 10 years!

These people are so obvious, may well be a nice lake but not impressed with the picture of the fish, sorry! Smufter as you said the lake is being promoted everywhere by the same person/s.

If you have booked a holiday with this company/person for 2019 or the following year(s), sorry to tell you that you have probably lost your money, the man in question has done a runner and the Dutch police have apparently issued an arrest warrant. There is a thread on the carpforum.co.uk which provides more information and the carping adventures website was still up as of yesterday. It would be a good idea if you contact the lake owner direct to see if your money was forwarded to him, but from what I have read from a lot of sources, I doubt it!! There is talk that the guilty party has misappropriated over 220k. Disgusting!!

Over 5 years late in posting, but if the carp are tasting your bait and swimming off, you are using the wrong rigs (lol)! Have you ever heard of the hair rig?

Do a search on the internet, there is a site which shows legal areas to fish on rivers in France including night fishing, sorry but can't remember the name. Not sure about how the carp stock has been affected in the Meuse, for many years teams of anglers were hired to plunder the river and pass on their catches to local lakes (not all English owned)!! Good luck!

Expecting 45 acres for just the 4 of you, probably better that there were more anglers on the lake even though it turned out to be a hard week.

7 reels??????????????? Sounds like my sort of lake, have a great trip m8!

Josh I think you are asking the question too far in advance of your planning trip, a lot can change in that time. There is a wealth of information on the internet, good luck if you decide to go.

I will look forward to reading next years report, assume Darren will be back there next year?

Well done Mark, apparently Aaron had a 50 as well, though I haven't seen the photo. The fishery is going from strength to strength, 19 50's out in May which is a record for 1 month, expect you will be planning a return visit?

Etang des Moulinots which is now under new ownership, only 3 1/2 hours from Calais and plenty of big fish, beautiful setting, good facilities and great hosts. I spent 11 years there so I know it pretty well.

Kathy and I decided 2 years ago that this year would be our last season and we have now finalised the sale to Terry and Wendy Wills who will be trading as WT Fisheries and will be taking over the venue with effect from November 2012. Further information will be updated on our website in the next few days. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers for their support over the past 11 years and wish them every success in future holidays at Moulinots.

Good luck (again)!!

Hi Kim (Mrs Rusheslake), can you add any info to my posting? Hope you are having a good year.

I wish you all the best but just a little friendly warning, you must be taxed under the French tax system as an employee of the owner/operator of Crete Lakes. I am not an expert on this subject but I do know (from my own painful experience) that all lake operators in France "must be tax registered in France" and in time this will be enforced! Don't know if you know any of the bailiffs at Dream Lakes, but I am told they have to go back to the UK every 4 or 6 weeks to avoid contravening French legislation. There are many illegal lakes operating here according to the French tax authorities, that I am now an expert on!! Anyway hopefully you won't have any problems and that the owner/operator of Crete Lakes is properly tax registered in France. Good luck m8!

The normal pre set walkie talkies would not be a problem, there could be a problem with the top of the range radios where frequencies can be altered and might interfere with other services. Not heard of any problems in the 10 years I have been living in France.

Cheers for that Keith, perhaps I should do the opposite here then and introduce more male fish as the past couple of years I have had spawning casualties and perhaps the proportion of male to female carp needs readdressing. Have a good year!!

I hope Keith that as also 1 of the old school and more recognised and established fisheries in France you will respectively respond to this comment and treat it in the context that it is presented. I have been reading your comments on this and other forums over the past 3 months and these days I choose or am forced not to reply (on 1 forum anyway), on this occasion and forum that I am invited to post, I am really interested in why you have again mentioned you are trying to remove fish to improve the biomass? Yes I and most other fishery operators know that a lake will only support so many fish and although we would all like to operate a lake full of really big fish, in my opinion if the smaller male fish are removed this can only lead to more fatalities to the larger female fish during the spawning months. I can't exactly remember and quote a comment that you wrote a couple of years ago, though at the time I did think it wasn't a bad idea, sure it was to do with removing the smaller male fish, I never tried to do that, but now I do think that if I had, it would have been a big mistake!! Spawning casualties have been on the increase (in my area) over the last couple of years and that includes my own venue, even though I have never removed any of the carp, perhaps you have carp that breed and the small carp survive, something that doesn't happen here due to the stock of pike, perch, grebes and carp eating their offspring. I do not profess to be an expert as a fishery manager, just 1 of the fortunate few to be doing it, so I am really interested in more info? We haven't always seen eye to eye, but on this occasion perhaps an informative conversation would be useful.

No I do not own Vallee Lakes!

At my lake the fishing in August is usually better at the end of the month as the weather starts to cool down (a little).

Dave Lane actually went to Vallee Lakes.... there must be plenty of better places offering a free trip according to forum reports??? Did he publish a report on his visit, that would be of great interest to a lot of people owners and customers alike.

I am not sure I would consider the Champagne region as a suitable area at the end of February. We used to open at the beginning of March but the cold conditions usually resulted in the lake being frozen or when it was fishable very few fish were caught. In the past few years we haven't opened the lake until the beginning of April, something that a fair number of other venues have followed suit. I think Western France would be a safer bet if you really want to go in February.

Ralphj, time perhaps for me to jump in and use my accounting skills, Keith's statistics show that almost 1 in 8 fish caught this season have been over 40lbs and over 60% of the total fish caught have been over 30lbs, a very creditable result for any lake!! Not allowed to quote my own results as a non advertiser!! It all takes time, patience, belief and a lot of money!!