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