Personally I feel that waters that are free to fish can offer some of the best sport. For example I remember my older brother taking me spinning for perch for the first time to a free venue. Probably one of the greatest days fishing I can remember. Although this water has since been turned into a nature reserve and fishing is no longer allowed. Other great sessions of free waters have been extremely cheap, just the cost of a pint of maggots. And again fishing rights to this water have recently been bought by a club.
My local commercial carp fishery charges around £6 per day, which is not bad but I prefer to go around 8pm, fish a few hours for free and catch more in those last few hours than people had managed in the previous 14 or so.
If anglers are willing to do some research and spend time fishing unknown venues then very good, cheap fishing can be experienced. Although don’t expect it to last for long! As soon as the word gets out a club will come in and do the inevitable of transforming it into a commercial carp lake!