About Kingfisher Pools
Where our carp fishing adventure began

Welcome and thank you for browsing our website my name is Mark Doran and my wife Claire. We are the owners of Kingfisher Pools, exclusive carp and catfishing holidays in France.

Like most anglers owning their own piece of paradise with big carp swimming around is what we can only dream about. We dedicate a lot of time and effort into making Kingfisher Pools, and our dream, as perfect as we can. Not everyone gets to live their dream, so making ours as good as we can is our number one priority. It is not all about the biggest fish in the lake, but ensuring there are comfortable swims, the venue is clean and tidy, and most importantly a safe and pleasant atmosphere to be in.

Born in Surrey my fishing days started since the age of 6, spending valuable time with my Dad, who taught me not the latest rigs and how far he could cast, but what I believe the most important skill in angling, water craft. Catching gudgeon and perch still gives me as much pleasure as being connected to a 70lb plus catfish. Fishing to me is about spending quality time relaxing with family and friend's, and building fond memories. My angling days were really always about pleasure fishing, myself and Dad would always get up before light, and turn up at our day ticket water at 4am in the morning. Dad being a postman he was used to it, me being a moody teenager wasn't! The apprenticeship I served on my fishing trips were always eventful and rewarding, match fishing, learning the waggler, feeder and pole, were all valuable lessons. Then I started my trips to Ireland to put all these methods to use. This was a fantastic time for me, however catching 100lb bags of bream in wind and rain soon took its toll, swapping this for warm sunshine and lazy days catching big carp and catfish, which is when we discovered France and believe me, we never looked back.

PBS for me have reached a respectable 43lb carp and a 135lb catfish, Claire's stand at catfish to 61lb and carp to 36lb and I'm sure you would agree, not to be sniffed at. Still today we share those same memories from when I was a young boy.

Where is all started late evenings at my local day ticket water, I never looked back.

Crucians like this were hard to find.

Secret trips to a hot spot on the River Thames were fantastic, foot traffic on the bridge above, people shouting "your mad mate, you won't catch anything in there!". Well little did they know.

Trips to Ireland were great times for me, achieving 100lb+ bags of bream will be a memory forever.

Claire's 61lb cat, Mirror 43lb, 135lb cat, Kingfisher Mirror 30lb

Moving on into Fishery Management is a whole new level and making important decisions can make or break a venue and it is not a move to be taken lightly. We just hope that those decisions we do make are the right ones for ourselves and our guests, to enable Kingfisher Pools to flourish, and keep our dream alive.