PACKAGES

The Golden Carp lake is available for weekly rent as a Lake Exclusive venue, or on an individual-swim basis.

The Cabin is an option within a Lake Exclusive booking, or available individually for the ultimate family-fishing holiday.

BOOKING 

• UK CLIENTS

We work exclusively with Angling Lines for all of our UK bookings.

For availability, pricing, package options, and to make a booking, please follow this link to our listing on their website.

• NON-UK CLIENTS

For availability, pricing, package options, and to make a booking, please follow this link to contact us directly.

ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES

• Check-in is at 12h00 on Saturday. We ask that the lead booker contact us on or before the Friday prior to your arrival to confirm arrival times. We do not open the gate until 12h00 on the Saturday, and do not accept earlier arrivals under any circumstances.

• Check-out is BETWEEN 09h00 and 10h00 at the latest on Saturdays.

• PLEASE BOOK YOUR CROSSINGS WITH THESE TIMES, AND TRAVEL TIME, IN MIND.

We understand that delays while travelling do happen, but an ANTICIPATED late arrival, or early departure (ie having booked crossing times that clearly do not coincide with our check-in/out times) WILL BE SUBJECT TO A €120 ADMIN FEE TO COVER OUR TIME.

For all early departures, the safety deposit will be retained until we have completed our usual inspection over the weekend, and be returned (less any deductions or fees) by PayPal or bank transfer. In this case, your safety deposit MUST be paid by PayPal.

• Safety deposit amount is €300/£300 PER SWIM, and an additional €200/£200 for Cabin bookings. For Lake Exclusive bookings the deposit is €600/£600 per group.

Safety deposits are OBLIGATORY and to be paid via PayPal or in cash on arrival.

LOCAL AMENITIES AND ATTRACTIONS

The village of Mareuil-en-Perigord is roughly five minutes from the lake, and has two supermarkets, a petrol station, butchers, several bakeries, tobacconists and a pharmacy.

It also has three restaurants, and a few bars, including an English-style pub, which does fish and chips, curries, etc. for takeaway.

It also has a market on Wednesday mornings.

Brantome, “The Venice of the Dordogne”, is a fifteen-minute drive from the lake and is definitely worth a visit.

There are several places of interest, including the Abbey and caves, as well as loads of restaurants (including two Michelin-star-rated establishments), bars and boutique shops. Riverboat trips and canoeing are also on offer along the river Dronne, which passes through the centre of the town.

It has markets on Tuesday and Friday mornings.

Slightly further afield are the cities of Perigueux and Angouleme, offering everything you would expect; restaurants and bars, as well as numerous family activities including go karting, paintballing, Accrobranche (a treetop assault course with rope bridges, zip lines, and swings), etc.

The prehistoric cave network at Lascaux (with over 600 cave paintings) and the fresh water “Aquarium Périgord Noir” are within an hour and a half’s drive from the lake, and are a great family day out.

The Golden Carp Lake is a picturesque and secluded big-fish angling destination, and has everything you need close-by for the ultimate French getaway.

THE FISH

Since acquiring the lake in 2015, we have worked hard to develop and maintain a healthy and growing stock of pristine fish.

In 2015 the original, unknown, stock was complimented with the introduction of around four tonnes of fish between 4 and 60lbs.

This included 15 plus fish over 44lbs, a common of over 55lbs, an impressive 51lb mirror measuring over a meter long, and 20 stunning Koi carp!

Subsequent and ongoing stockings (including several 50 and 60lb+ carp, and selective removal of over 200 smaller fish), have seen the average weights and top weights of our fish increase rapidly over the past years.

We have an estimated 120 carp in the lake, with an average weight of 38.4lbs in 2022.

Catch reports and photos from 2021-2022 show captures of individuals from the “big fish” stock of:

1x 70lb+ fish

4x 60lb+ fish

14x 50lb+ fish

38x 44lb+ fish

The current lake record (within the last two years) is the “BSM” (Big Scaled Mirror) which was caught at 70.4lbs in September 2021. It is caught regularly throughout the year, with weights fluctuating between 64lbs and its top weights towards the end of the season.

“One Job Bob” is the only resident catfish in the lake, who’s “one job” is to snap up any rogue bream that cross his path. Like our four grass carp, he is rarely caught by anglers, but on his last of three visits to the bank (in September 2022), weighed upwards of 138lbs/63kgs, and measured over seven feet long!

Anglers need to know that The Golden Carp Lake is not a runs-water.

The fish are clued-up and the lake, like all waters, can be tricky depending on weather conditions and changes in temperature.

Experienced and adaptable anglers always tend to do well on our lake, with record catches of over 80 fish in a week, and an average per-angler catch rate of 8.7 fish per week in 2021-2022.

Having never been drained, the lake contains a natural stock of pike, perch, black bass, roach, bream, tench and sun perch.

We remove a substantial amount of bream towards the end of every year, and although ever-present, they can be avoided by using baits of 20-24mm, which we recommend anyway, as these are the favourite of our resident carp!

Here are some of the latest photo's, more are available here....

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