Location in South East:
Court Lodge Down, Hawkenbury Road, Bells Yew Green, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England.

Contact:
01892 616424

Day Tickets:
* Day tickets cost £7.00 for one rod for 12 hours [07:00 - 19:00] and £10 for two rods. Concessions available for juniors, OAPs and disabled anglers at £5 for one rod and £6 for two. Permits for non-fishing spectators cost £5.
* Night fishing tickets [19:00 - 07:00] cost £15.
* Half-day permits [13:00 - 19:00] cost £5 for one rod, £5 for two.
* Specimen Lake tickets cost £15 for three rods [07:00 - 19:00] with night fishing tickets [19:00 - 07:00] costing £20.

Facilities:
Three car parks, food bar open all summer and at weekends during the winter, toilets, disabled swims and life belts.

Best Baits:
corn, worms, meat, maggots, casters, breadflake.

Getting There:
Follow the A21 from London to Hastings and at the Pembury roundabout, turn right. Follow this road until you reach a T-junction, then turn left. The fishery is 100yds on the right.

Frant Lakes Fishery offers coarse fishing on eight lakes, three ponds and a stretch of the River Teise.The fishery boasts just about every British coarse fish that swims and all eight lakes hold carp to over 20lb.
Lake 1 [The Skirmish] has a long thin island running through the middle and the average depth is five feet.The carp in lake 1 average 7lb but there are ghost carp to 20lb along with roach, rudd, tench, crucian, perch and bream.
Lake 2 [Stumps] named after the stumps that protrude from the water, has a wide main area one end, narrowing at the other. There are no islands but the lake has plenty of features such as overhanging trees and bushes. Holding similar species and weight to Lake 1, it holds carp to 30lb along with many low doubles.
Lake 3 has a sunken island 30yds from the near bank with two bays on the far side. Carp have been reported to 25lb with shoals of silver fish present too.
Lake 4 [The Car Park] is stocked with carp to mid-twenties, loads of bream to 5lb, roach to 1lb 8oz, perch to 4lb as well as rudd, tench, crucians and goldfish.
Lake 5 [Waterfall Lake] is the smallest lake [about half an acre]. It has a long thin bay at one end and a waterfall at the other. It contains carp to 20lb, masses of silver fish, tench and perch.
Lake 6 has few features apart from some overhanging trees and bushes. Containing carp to 20lb, a goof head of crucians to over 2lb, bream to 7lb, tench to 5lb as well as shoals of rudd, roach and perch.
Lakes 7 & 8 [Snags] are named after the sunken trees present in the lakes. Although difficult to fish, these lakes hold some of the biggest fish on the complex. Carp reach over 30lb, there are lots of bream and perch to 4lb. The lakes also hold tench, roach, rudd, crucians, goldfish and the odd chub to 3lb. There are also rumours of huge catfish.
The River Teise has ben stocked by the fishery with carp, goldfish, roach, rudd, bream, barbel, perch, chub and dace. This is an ideal venue for the match angler who can fish a pole across the far side under the overhanging trees.
Three Ponds all hold plenty of fish. These are best fished with a waggler or small whip with corn, worms, meat, maggots, casters or breadflake.


Reader Review - Keith Crowder- April 2008
Went to Frant Lakes for the first time on Monday (to be honest it's the first time i've fished in England). Me and my mate pulled out 37 fish about 10 4.5lb to 9.1lb carp and 20 odd bream. Had a brilliant day and has given me the bug to take it up regularly. Security guard was very friendly and it seems very well run. Other anglers were keen to offer advise and let me know what they had, had. Over all a very memorable experience.

Reader Review - Steve - April 2008

When I'm not off on my specimen hunting French trips I always use Frant as my home fishery, even thought it's not a renowned carp specimen complex, I merely use it because I'm usually guaranteed a relaxing hassle free session, regardless of if I catch or not. The surroundings are pleasant, and its relatively quiet, the vast majority of other anglers that I have spoken to are friendly and helpful. The staff are also friendly and helpful, the on-site snack bar is very handy, and run by an amicable chap more akin to a stand up comedian. A mobile security guard does a once nightly visit around the car parks, which is reassuring. Paul, one of the owners, who we see more of, is very accommodating, and with the help of his family goes out of his way to see everyone has a good session, even though it seems (in a cheerful way) that he has a blasé attitude to complaints he does give them attention and gets them resolved.

The complex is well looked after and the toilets/wash areas are always clean and tidy. There are a few swims dedicated to the disabled angler with bank-side parking, along with some smaller lakes for juniors, most of the car parks are not too far away from the lakes. There are plenty of fish to go around including a few big'ns. Personally I've never blanked (well, once maybe) and my personal best for that fishery is a 27lb mirror, but I have seen a couple of bigger ones pulled out.

Overall it's an ideal place to fish and in my opinion well worth a visit.

Reader Review - Anne - November 2007
Half day tickets are available at Frant Lakes as my sons and I have used them since we first came to the lakes around June this year.

As we have football in the mornings at the weekends we have only ever used the half day ticket and have paid monies to many people in the ticket office. We have found both Mr Bowman and his wife to be most helpful and polite on this our first season of fishing. Bailiffs have also taken the time to offer us advice and tips to make the most of our time at the lakes.

We would highly recommend these beautiful well stocked lakes and hope that the previous review has not put people off.

Reader Review - Jel Holyoake, Kent - May 2007

This may sound silly but what planet do some fishery owners live on??

I recently went to Frant Lakes off the A21 in Kent. I arrived at 2.45pm and wanted to single rod surface fish the 'snags' (specimen lake) until the complex closed, 7pm. I was told by the bailiff that I would have to pay for an entire day, £15. I told the bailiff it was only for a few hours but he insisted that the owners would not let me fish unless I paid the full price. As there were only 3 cars in the car park I could quite clearly see that the complex was empty, but my £7.50 wasn't enough.

Are they so detached from reality that they can't understand that some people only wish to fish for half a day and that on most waters there is a half day ticket policy.

I went down the road to Elphicks where I was sold a ticket for £6 and had 20 fish. I like Frant Lakes, but I think I'm going to struggle to go back there, a place I have intermittently fished over the last-at least 15 years when Les Bowman (the present owners father) ran it.

How times change. When Les knew I was coming down by train he used to pick me up from the station and chuck my bike in the back of his little white van with his Alsatian. They were the times when the complex was struggling for anglers and he was consistently fighting the council for planning permission. I was also the person whom he asked to tell all my friends that Frant was back on it's feet years ago when they had a big fish kill after witnessing the first 20 out, they thought all the big fish were dead.

Sometimes the little £7.50's are better than the no pounds-no pence at all, and us people who get the odd half day off can fish at a fair price.

Please note the views expressed on these review pages are not necessarily endorsed by Fish South East.