Baulking With Betalin

Baulking With Betalin

On our latest angling adventure, Steve Clarke and I went to fish an Embryo lake for the first time. We made our way through flooded roads and lanes between Swindon and Oxford to arrive at the gates to our destination—Baulking Lake.

As you drive up the lane to the lake, it looks every bit of its 20 acres, but even with the overcast skies, it also looked as exciting a challenge as I’d hoped it would be, even if we were getting to the end of the summer and moving into autumn!

A lap of the lake revealed the location of a large group of the 580-plus inhabitants. Within a 15-20 minute period, we saw around 20 shows, so our initial swims were chosen, and the rigs were primed and set.

The kit was quickly retrieved from the van, rods were set, and within thirty minutes, the rod with the zig was away, and we welcomed our first, of what we hoped would be many, Baulking Carp in the form of a spirited Common.

Over the next few hours, we had a further four bites, with two Mirror Carp to add to our tally before the rain moved in again, and we hit the lunchtime lull. We saw this as an opportunity to get some bait into the area, so a spod mix of boilie, pellet, and Betalin-enhanced sweetcorn was mixed together with lashings of CFood oil  for good measure. However, it was another 20 hours before we had any more action.

After heavy rain overnight, we awoke to a very moody sky with low clouds. We could see the occasional fish ‘crash’ on the far side of the lake, so a move was discussed. Instead, we refreshed the baits, recast the rods, and got the kettle on to accompany the sausage sarnies.

Just as the breakfast stuff was cleaned and packed away, the conversation turned once again to a move. But before any decision was made, the left-hand rod with the zig was away again.

The fish was unhooked in the net, the rod was quickly recast, and this then triggered carnage as the same rod tore off again, recast, tore off again, and then this was repeated another five times in a crazy 50-minute spell before it all went quiet again.

We sat it out without a bite for another three hours, and then, seeing the fish making their presence known on the opposite side of the lake, we retrieved the rods, threw some buckets and basic kit onto the barrow, and followed the fish. The effort was only rewarded with an absolute soaking as the heavens opened once again before we returned to base camp for the evening as we moved into our last night.

Once again, it rained all night, and the morning greeted us with misty rain and multiple shows in front of Steve’s swim. However, despite topping up the free offerings on the bottom, it was the zig rig that went again as we added another two early morning Carp to our tally, which turned out to be the last fish of the trip.

The weather was forever changing during our trip, with mainly rain and wind, but the warm sunny spells definitely triggered a feeding spell, with the fish constantly on the move following the wind. We managed to accumulate 19 bites between us, landing most of them, and are already looking forward to a return trip to put to the test what we have learnt.

Mark