You'd be surprised actually, if you have the money for a ticket ready to go - ringing/emailing around sometime around January when they tend to do renewals (and nobody has any money) the amount of people on waiting lists, almost all of them don't take a ticket when their name comes up. I know a guy who runs a decent syndicate (hasse fen) who has a full waiting list - but it drives him mad with the amount of people who won't pay when the time comes.
http://lilyfisheries.co.uk/venues/hasse-fen/ - last time I spoke to him, he had a few tickets going spare, he's probably sold them now - but might be worth speaking to him next year.
I just paid my ticket for the Horton complex down near Wraysbury, I'm going to be fishing the Island lake - got my boat (Bic 245) ready, can't wait, proper serious water though - there's a legit 61lb English mirror in there, over 20x 40lb fish too. Cannot wait
Also lol @ how busy day tickets are now, I remember when they opened fishing back in 2021 in May. Our local lake had vans queuing at the gate for like 100yds the next day - the lake was already full. People driving around at 50mph trying to find a peg - it was like watching NASCAR.
Thanks for that link, might enquire - a couple of the waters they run are a reasonable drive for me.
I was looking at Horton and the other RK leisure lakes this week funnily enough, they all look incredible. I'd be way out of my depth there. 90% of my carp fishing has been on smallish estate lakes 3-12 acres or so - Farlows in Iver feels like a huge lake for me when I fish it ha
.I've fished places where you have to book a specific peg in advance, but usually when I'm more interested in a bit of a relaxation break with some bonus fishing. For more 'serious' fishing I don't want to turn up at a pre-booked peg because if the fish aren't there then the time is wasted.
Another problem with these crazy busy day ticket lakes is as you say - The constant pressure just makes what should be an easy lake pretty tricky to fish.
