[cerbfan]

Sorry to bring this up in a fly fishing forum however there are no local fishing forums that cater for coarse anglers as far as I can see.

I am very interested in opening up a commerical coarse fishery somewhere in the Aberdeenshire area and would be interested to know what the level of interest would be if I went ahead. If any of you have been to places like Magiscroft this is the sort of venue that I would be aiming for, several different lakes with different species mix and maybe a specimen Carp lake (no trout I'm afraid as they are already well catered for).

So would anyone have any opinions on this also if anyone knows any suitable sites, circa 10 - 20 acres for sale then please let me know.

[Rob Brownfield]

Am I dreaming?

I have been pushing for something like this for around 25 years! I used to run the Grampian Pike Club but my real interest lies with Carp and Tench..hence being a member of the Scottish CArp Group.

There IS a potential market up here, a relatively big one, but what tends to happen is folk move to the area with work, realise they will have to travel to catch coarse fish and end up keeping some of there gear but switching to trout etc. Having a water near to Aberden would perhaps stop folk from doing this.

A few years ago one of the local Trout fisheries talked about openning a small coarse pond and asked me to give him the names of anyone who might be interested in coarse fishing...I had a list of 72 names there and then!

I am sure you are aware of Pitfour closing, although due to restrictions, Andrew was never able to develop the place how he wanted. Thats one less water. Glen of Rothes or Kingennie are the next closest waters offering "proper" coarse fishing. It is great to have them, but thay are both Trout fisheries with a coarse pond, and sometimes the needs of the coarse anglers are perhaps not fully realised. There is also a coarse water in Portsoy, but this is just a small boating pond and gets busy with kids in the summer.

I am sure you are aware of Magiscroft and Orchill, both packed to the gunnels at the weekend and busy evening in the summer.

The Scottish CArp group have close to 200 members now, with around 20 in Grampian, which is pretty good considering we don't really have many carp!

The only other coarse water of note, Aboyne, has been pretty much poached out now. Although 100 pound bags of big Ide are possible, its no where near as prolific as it was some 5 years ago.

I believe there is space for a proper coarse fisher in Aberdeenshire (especially near Banchory ..lol) It would be slow to start with and you would have to contend with the bubble float brigade for a while, but that can be sorted with "fish-ins" and rules. Supplying whips and basic tackle for hire would give folk the chance to try it before investing in more tackle and a specimen carp water would, I am sure, go down well.

Please feel free to contact myself regarding this as I have done a lot of work in this area as I have been trying to get a carp syndicate on the go for a while..just struggling to get the right water..but the folk are there

[cerbfan]

Rob,

Thanks for the reply. PM sent.

[esoxfly]

I'd be up for it and suspect that there may be a growing market up here. 

Have you spoken to the guy who runs the tackle shop on Cullen Main Street?  I popped in a couple of summers ago only to think I had entered a different part of the country!  The place was full of coarse gear and baits.  Apparently he got a wee club going for local kids and adults and they had a successful league based on the Portsoy boating pond of all places.  This was a while ago and I've not been up for a while so don't know if it still runs. 

A good quality fishery with considerably more space than the usual diversifying trout fishery pond (no offence to Glen of Rothes - the fishing looks great but just too cramped and public for me) would be a welcome diversion. 

Good luck.
Chris

[Rob Brownfield]

Chris,
Unfortuantly that shop is gone ...not sure exactly why but he was finding it difficult to survive, not because of the lack of business, but because he was travelling down south to fish matches, think he may have been in the Scottish squad...

Portsoy angling club still have roach and carp in Loch Soy, but like many public waters arounf here, a lot of the fish have ended up on the table.

Rob

[Rob Brownfield]

Sorry..i misread your post....the Cullen shop is still there..I was thinking of the one in Banff...

[Derek 365]

Hi Cerbfan , I'd be very interested in a specimen carp lake  or any carp lake , like Rob i'm also a member of the S.C.G. and have to travel silly distances just for carp fishing .

Cheers Derek

[Iain Cameron]

Sorry to bring this up in a fly fishing forum however there are no local fishing forums that cater for coarse anglers as far as I can see.

i'm sure there will be plenty of anglers interested in a coarse fishery in this area.

... but would we also be allowed to fly fish for the carp?

cheers
iain

[Rob Brownfield]

i'm sure there will be plenty of anglers interested in a coarse fishery in this area.

... but would we also be allowed to fly fish for the carp?

cheers
iain

Iain, enough of that silly talk   If you are not busy at the weekend I think I know a place where you can try for some carp on the fly

[sightbob]

have you thought about the impact predetors would have on your stock.
we have plenty of otters, osprey, mink and cormmorants all of which would prey on your very expensive stock.
a local chap stocked his pond with carp here at delgaty, turriff and within weeks it was emptied by the ospreys and otters he wasn't very happy and tried poaching trout from my water to stop them targeting his carp but as the trout are much quicker the carp were an easy target so he gave up.
no help will be offered from the likes of s.n.h. etc , so feeding the local wildlife will come from your pocket.
just something to think about.
 
brian

[Rob Brownfield]

Brain,
Valid point, the SCG have lost quite a few fish over the years to Otters. Fencing off has helped but its not cheap. Kingennie and Aboyne both have ospreys that take coarse fish too...but at the end of the day, hopefully, since coarse fish would spawn and self sustain, the impact would not be as great as it would be on a trout water.

Places like Magiscroft and Orchill don't have a problem due to the nature of the water and the fact that they are pretty well fished every day of the week which seems to put off the Otters especially. As the anglers are bank based the distrurbance tends to send them packing after a while. Having a manager with a couple of dogs helps too

[jock]

id definetly be interested to,along with a feww others i know who would be too,goodluck mate i hope you can pull it off theres a market for it

[Kevin Moss]

Good luck with your venture hope it works for you.

[adambrain]

A coarse fishery would be magic up here, I have converted to fly fishing but given the opportunity to do both will brighten up my life. If your gonna get problems with ospreys cant you just stock the lake with bigger carp then average? i dont know how big a fish they can carry. As for the otters a couple of dogs would see them off surly. Sorry im just bored supposed to be working and my brain is storming how to sort these problems as i want this fishery to open.

[Paul Rankine]

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Fisheries/Salmon-Trout-Coarse/fishintros