davew

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!

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.