The Folly Lakes near Peterborough runs exclusive-booking sessions on carp to 38lb, catfish over 60lb and pike to 24lb

The Folly Lakes near Peterborough isn't a walk-up day-ticket water, it's booked exclusively, which means when you're on it, you're the only party fishing that lake, not sharing pegs with whoever else turned up. Sessions run in fixed blocks, either four weeknights (Monday 2pm to Friday 9am) or three weekend nights (Friday 2pm to Monday 9am), which is a structure built around serious multi-day carp and catfish campaigns rather than a few hours after work.

The fish themselves are the real draw: carp to 38lb, catfish over 60lb, and pike with the biggest caught so far weighing 24lb. That's a genuinely specimen-class stock across three species rather than one headline fish propping up the venue's reputation, and it puts The Folly in different territory from a general day-ticket coarse water, this is aimed squarely at anglers targeting big individual fish over a multi-night session, not a relaxed afternoon's fishing.

The site has history worth knowing if specimen carp fishing interests you beyond just the current stock list: the clay pits at Maxey, and owner Nick Cesare, are part of carp fishing's back-catalogue, with well-known anglers having fished the venue over the years. That kind of pedigree tends to matter to the specimen-carp community specifically, where a lake's history and reputation carries real weight in deciding where to book a session.

If you're planning a serious multi-night carp or catfish campaign and want genuinely big fish without day-ticket crowding, this is worth a look, but go in with the right expectations: no walk-up access, no short sessions, and a location just outside Peterborough on the A15 Glinton Bypass rather than anywhere near Kent, so factor the travel into whether a multi-night exclusive booking makes sense for you.