[flatliner]

frothey, on Feb 8 2008, 11:36 AM, said:

Keep it to personal experiences lads ;)

Cant get more personal than the posts to date Dave :thumbsup_anim:

[frothey]

Keep it to personal experiences lads ;)

[Chan]

:smartass:
There's always room for debate here.

Dreamlakes staff are welcome to join the forum and air their views in a positive way. :thumbsup_anim:

[haulincavalier]

I have seen threats being made to punters tellin them they will smash up the feckin camera if ya dont put it away!!!!
On a very very difficult week when only 9 fosh caught on lake 1 between 16 anglers we had 2 baliffs fishing the lake!!!!!!!!
When a baliff who was fishin next to me caught a 46lb mirrior i asked him where he had it from and his answer was "in the feckin lake mate" now thats feckin helpfull innit.
Also that week which was at the end of the season that neo wrote about i counted 18 dead fish on lake 1 alone i didnt walk round lake 2 so i will not speculate how many floaters were on there.
I few guys i knew when on the week before me and they said that they had had 2 bonfires that week to burn the dead fish!!!!!
We where all on the phone whilst in france complaining to the DL office only to be told there is no problem and we have only lost 5 fish all year What a load of bull.
I will never return there which is a shame as i fished there every year from 1999 to 2005 sometimes twice a year, thank the good lord i discored LQ

[flatliner]

I fished it in 2002, got a cancelation so was really cheap, think I paid £275 for the week, only thing was that the place available was on their new lake DL5. All it was was a rectangle cut out in the ground. They had a lodge there and a shower. You had to get picked up for breakkie and evening meal and driven to the main lodge. Baliff for that week for DL5 and DL4 wasa guy called Addy, top bloke and top angler, although very young.

Their baliifs are on site for the whole season and they get a week or two off, but otherwise they are bivvied up all time and they have to keep moving their gear to whatever lake they are on the following week.

One thing that did impress me was their stock pond! fecking huge and I mean HUGE god knows how many acres but I would say at least 500. Only baliifs allowed to fish it though with a bivvy permantly on it adjacent to lodge.

The lodge closed at about 9pm so if you wanted beer or snacks you had to buy yhtem bofore hand. The lakes to be on were DL1 and DL2, but chatting to other anglers the pegs and draw eere fixed. Lote of regulars there, I also saw dead fish on three of the lakes.

Tactics were bath tubs full of maggots scattered over the lake bed. I only had boillies :lol:

I found it very clicky, Matt was Ok and the owner Xenon visited the complex during the week. Also got a lot of the local old bill coming to the lodge for coffee.

They used two coaches, both with trailers and the gear was thrown on i kid you not. When we arrived at the complex there were a few broken bivvays and bedchairs and some very unhappy anglers!

All in all not a pleasant experience, but for £275 cant really complain that much, altough If I had paid the full whack I would have been a tad more disappointed.

Thier coaches get turned over regularly at Dover and one of the drivers got a speeding ticket on the way home. :lol:

Would I go back? Not a fecking chance, but if you dont exeprience these places you will never know!

This post has been edited by flatliner: 01 February 2008 - 09:57 AM

[neo]

i fished DL in june 2005..........the faciltys and food are good for the amount of anglers present.......but the rest is just crap and i really dont understand why people go there...........its over run with catfish and LOADS of fished died in DL1.....something to do with sceptecemia we was told.........but was even worse when the management tried to tell me it was 3.........because thats what matt told them............i saw 50+ fish floating..patcog saw plenty 3 weeks before and another CF member reported loads dying in july still.............DL'S solution..............put 50 more fish in and be done with it............ :thumbsup_anim:

That complex could easily be changed...........remove the current baliffs and the clingons who follow them for the free fishing..........drain lakes and remove catfish.........apply the bait rules with no exceptions which will not happen whilst matt and crew are there.............things were supposed to change last year and the year before but still the bad reports come back......... :lol:

[Joss]

colin333, on Jan 28 2008, 12:01 PM, said:

Joss we have to let people know what occurs there.

And if the Company comes on and refutes it fair enough

i'll only state what i know first hand as fact fella

[colin333]

I wonder if the people who supply their fish know what is happening there and do they care.



Joss we have to let people know what occurs there.

And if the Company comes on and refutes it fair enough

[colin333]

Got this from an Irish site.

After returning from a weeks fishing at Dreamlakes in France,
I have copied below a letter of complaint that i have sent to their head office of all the weeks events.

After what we have experianced please do not go!!!!



'Dear Sirs,

Having just returned from a weeks fishing on Dreamlakes 2 I feel it appropriate to contact you to outline quite a few problems / inappropriate situations we found ourselves in through poor and unprofessional on site management.

We arrived at the complex at 6.30am on Saturday morning whereupon the peg draw etc… took place. We were then informed to report to the lodge at 10am for breakfast. We were expecting to be taken through the Health and Safety procedures but unfortunately this never materialised. I asked a member of staff what the emergency procedures were and he said he did not know!!

On Saturday evening a member of our party fell ill and my father went to contact a member of staff for help. The staff member that my father managed to get hold of was called Matt. Matt organised for a taxi and accompanied my father and uncle to the hospital. After being seen by the doctors, my uncle was given the all clear to return to the lake but was told that if he fell ill again to report back to the hospital immediately. Once my father and uncle returned, they were saying that they were happy with Matt’s quick and positive attitude and fast actions. How wrong could we be!

Unfortunately on the Sunday evening my uncle once again fell quite ill and we had no other option but to go and get help and get him quickly back to the hospital. Once again my father went in search of a member of staff for help. To our relief Matt appeared to be on duty again and stated he would make a few phone calls and come and inform us what the plan of action was. After 30mins had past and my uncle getting worse by the minute, my father went to find Matt to see what was happening. Matt said he was still making phone calls and would come back to us. After approx 2.5hrs Matt came back and said the hospital was closed and that we were miles away from anywhere. Matt said that if my uncle got worse during the night there wasn’t much you could do!! My father went back to see Matt and see if there was anything we could do. After considerable time, a taxi was organised to pick us up and take us to a medical centre. This time around Matt decided not to attend and my father and uncle were sent to a French speaking hospital on their own! Luckily they found an English speaking doctor and everything ended up being ok. But it could have been so much worse and we can not believe that a representative of Dreamlakes did not attend.

Monday came and went and finally we started to enjoy our holiday. We were catching fish and everybody was happy. Not for long though!

On Tuesday evening approximately 7pm music could be heard coming from the bailiffs accommodation. As I was fishing peg 1 (the nearest peg) I could hear the music quite clear but it was just about at an acceptable level. As the night wore on, the music was turned up to an intolerable level and with the combined shouting / antics of what appeared to be all members of staff we felt we had no other choice but to go over and ask if the music could be turned down as now the time was 11.30pm!! We did not ask for the music to be turned off (of which we would have been entitled to!) only for it to be turned down as I could not sleep and had no chance of catching any fish!! When we went over we were confronted by aggressive members of staff who could not believe we were trying to spoil their fun! Matt said it was his birthday and that they were all celebrating. Another member of staff by the name of Neil stated that they work 24/7 and that they are entitled to have fun on their nights off. I’ve not come all this way for them to behave like this. It was quite clear that all members of staff were drinking and therefore the question I would like to ask you is: ‘who was in charge in a sober state incase of an emergency?’ It appeared nobody was!! We have not paid nearly £2000 between us for an outside music festival. Other members of their party started insulting us further by asking questions such as: ‘what time do you go to bed?’ and ‘what music do you like?’ ‘we can put on what you like’. This sort of rude and abusive behaviour is totally unacceptable.

The music was turned down eventually and we made our way back to our bivvies. As we were walking back, an irritated and extremely aggressive Matt shouted that we would be kicked off the site the following morning and that he would be taking us to the station. We were in utter shock and disbelief! We were threatened to be kicked off the site for asking for the music to be turned down to an acceptable level whilst on our holiday! Even now whilst writing this, I still can not believe what happened. Disgraceful is the only work I can use to describe this.

The following morning we went for breakfast as usual. Anglers from lakes 3,4&5 also heard the loud music and even asked us if we had a party!!! Matt was not working this morning. We asked Neil where he was and he replied ‘I don’t know, maybe in bed’. After breakfast we went round to the sleeping accommodation to discuss with Matt what was happening. Unfortunately after several knocks on his door we received no answer and could only assume he was sleeping off the previous nights events. We did not see Matt again until Friday of which would be another memorable holiday moment!

During the course of the week, a large carp had been caught from the large stock lake and had been sacked by the bailiffs for photos in the morning. Due to it being sacked, the fish was extremely lively and the bailiff struggled to hold the fish still for the photo. For some unbeknown reason he decided to stand up full height with the fish. The fish struggled once again and in horror was dropped head first onto the gravel. In a blind panic the 2 bailiffs quickly ushered the distressed fish back into the water. We were not sure if it was even still alive at this point! We were told not to sack any fish. So why were the bailiffs able to??

Whilst on the matter of the bailiffs fishing the stock lake, they were also fishing Lake 2 at the same time. Apart from Neil, the other bailiff was always away from his rods and could often been seen running to his rods from anywhere on the site when he had a bite. Once again we find this behaviour inappropriate for fish of such huge sizes.

On a Health and Safety matter, the bailiffs regularly used a rowing boat to deposit their rigs at range when fishing the stock lake. When both bailiffs were in the boat together, only one bailiff ever wore a life jacket. There were plenty of young anglers around this week and this is definitely NOT an example the bailiffs should be setting! They are risking their lives for no reason!

On Thursday we found a very large catfish (approx 80lbs) showing signs of distress in our margin. We made several attempts to help it but without any success. We informed the bailiffs who then came and removed it. It was dragged up the bank to the patch of grass near the lodge whereupon it was hit several times over the head with an inappropriate instrument in full view of people sat at the lodge. As it was still alive after this brutality it was then hooked through its tail and lifted into a large black rubbish bin. It was then driven off somewhere.

Please could you confirm which legal organisation I can make an official complaint about fish cruelty?

At the start of the week the bailiffs asked us that if we caught any small catfish that we keep them out of the water where they could then be disposed of. We were not happy with this.

The following morning whilst having breakfast we were informed by anglers fishing Lake 1 that one angler in particular had caught 13 catfish and each one had been thrown behind his swim where they were killed and set on fire. We were also informed that these so called anglers started experimenting with different ways to kill them. The most chilling and horrific was by pouring petrol down their throats whilst still alive and then were set on fire. A child who was fishing this water was meant to have witnessed this act of evil! Unfortunately we never saw this but if we had we would have tried to stop it. This cruel person was a friend of the bailiffs and by all accounts confirmed the bailiffs knew what he was doing. Either way, this is disgusting behaviour from a supposedly premier carp fishery!

After chatting to other anglers experiencing similar troubles as us, I got chatting to a father and son who said that unfortunately they missed the coach and ferry crossing and therefore had to make their own way to the complex. They arrived on Saturday morning 15mins after breakfast had finished. Due to the fact they were hungry, the father asked the chef if he could quickly make them something. The chef said he would cook them something as he understood that it must have been a long journey. Matt overheard their conversation and ordered the chef NOT to make any food as they were late!!!! Once AGAIN we could not believe what we were listening too. Having witnessed all the above mentioned events over the course of the week, it is clearly evident that you do not have one professional person running the fishing complex and this is indeed the Dreamlakes way.

If you believe all the above is perfectly acceptable then you are clearly not fit to run such an establishment. As you can tell, we have not enjoyed our first fishing trip abroad and feel it is only right to spread the word on what is a shambles of a fishing holiday

This post has been edited by colin333: 28 January 2008 - 12:30 AM