Ballast Pit Tonbridge & District Angling & Fish Preservation Society

One of the oldest of the Society’s still waters and still bearing its original name was dug around 1842 to provide material for the Tonbridge to Redhill railway embankment, which runs alongside. This was the main London to Dover line for nearly 30 years before the tunnels each side of Sevenoaks were dug. This four acre lake was back in the 1880’s, shared between the Angling society and Tonbridge skating club, as it froze firm enough to skate on almost every year up to the early 1900’s.
The Society finally managed to purchase the Pit outright in 2008. The “Pit” has an average depth of four feet, the bottom is generally silt and there is some weed and lilies which make the water look attractive. The water is popular with Carp anglers with a large number of doubles; twenties and a sprinkling of fish over 30lbs. It also has a good head of other fish, notably large Bream and Tench. 100 lb bags of Bream have been known.
Quality Roach, Rudd, Perch and Pike are also regular visitors to the landing net, although the larger Tench and Bream tend to be caught on boiles due to the quantity going into the water. All methods will catch and sprayed maggots will bring a host of silver fish into the swim. Ground bait feeder can produce large nets of Bream. Pole fishing for silver fish and Bream can become explosive if a Carp or large Tench picks up the hook bait.