The aggregates giant owns the network of former gravel pits through its Cemex Angling subsidiary.

But the company has decided the operation is not a core business and decided to offload the sites across the south of England which specialise in carp fishing.

Fishermen are now being urged to work together by the Angling Trust to buy individual sites and protect their pastime.

A Cemex spokesman said: “A difficult decision has been made to put Cemex Angling up for sale.

“As part of the regular and on-going business reviews, we have decided that angling is not core to our operations and in the current economic climate we have limited resources and capital to develop the business in the future.”

The company said it would honour existing tickets and would be selling tickets for the season ending in March 2013. Deposits for waiting lists would be refunded.

Angling Trust spokesman Martin Salter told the BBC: “It won’t mean a lot to people who are not anglers but to a lot of people these waters have become a second home.

“We are encouraging our member clubs to make bids to the agents to ensure we can do everything we can to see angling remains at these waters.

“There is a concern that if a small angling club puts in a bid for one site and a large consortium bids for a number of sites, the local angling clubs could lose out.

“The big worry for us is that this could be broken up and, although they are designated for recreational use, that doesn’t necessarily have to be fishing.

“If a new owner came along who did not think that fishing was the best use then we could lose some waters.”