Mixed opinions as concern over future of historic waters grows.
As concern over the future of some of the UK’s most loved waters grows, the news that the Angling Trust has made moves to help the situation in our sport’s favor has come as some comfort to anglers up and down the country.

Yesterday the Trust revealed that it has been in discussions with the agent tasked with selling a list of famous Cemex Angling waters to act as a ‘middle man’, brokering deals between the sellers and interested angling parties.

However, despite what is generally viewed as positive news, not everyone is convinced that this will be enough to save waters, which include Burfield, Frimley and Yateley amongst other historic venues.

Speaking to Total Carp, an individual who has years of experience of dealing directly with Cemex and who now holds a role within the tackle industry voiced their fears that the waters up for sale could be lost to angling for good, despite the sport’s best efforts.

“In my opinion and experience the current management at Cemex cares little for the importance of these waters to angling and will just be after the best price possible, as you would expect from a business,” said the individual who did not wish to be named. “The problem that anglers have at the moment is that we have no idea of how much is actually going to be asked for the venues, and won’t do until next month.

“There is a rumour circulating that a price tag of £37million is going to be asked for all of the waters. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but if that kind of figure is going to placed on them then angling doesn’t have a chance, and for two reasons.

“Firstly I can’t see anyone coming forward with that kind of money, even if that is broken down into individual amounts for individual waters. And secondly anyone who does look into buying the waters for that money, in my experience will not be able to make the waters pay for themselves.

“If the waters do prove to be too expensive then they could well go outside of angling or they might even just be left to go to ruin when no one buys them.”


One man who isn’t so pessimistic about the future of the Cemex venues is former general manager of the fisheries, Ian Welch, who believes that angling will almost certainly retain the majority of the waters up for sale.

“The majority of the waters in the Cemex portfolio have little value other than to angling,” Ian, who was general manager for 15years at Leisure Sport Angling and then Cemex Angling as it became, told Total Carp. “With that in mind I can’t see who else would want the waters and therefore that many of them would go outside of angling.

“My main concern is that the panic that has followed the announcement and the worry of anglers that they won’t be able to fish the waters for much longer will lead to a number of fish being moved to other waters, meaning that they will be lost to the majority of anglers. I’d also like to see the Cemex waters remain as a whole rather than be sold of bit by bit. It would just mean the average angler could buy one ticket and have a range of waters available rather than have to spend lots of money buying various club books.

“The important thing though is that they stay open to anglers, whoever owns them, and as far as the Angling Trust’s involvement goes, although I’m not the Trust’s biggest fan, I think if they can help the waters go to the right clubs and groups they will be doing a good job for the sport.”