Chapter 384: Chapter 233: Tactical Deception
After a few more minutes, the referee’s starting gun fired, and the competition officially began.
The anglers around the pond lowered their rods in perfect unison, and for a long time, none of them lifted their rods.
Zhang Yang followed the same approach, not even bringing any wet dispersant. He kneaded two peanut-sized jelly baits onto the double hooks and cast them into the spot, his eyes fixed intently on the bobber’s movements.
The bobber turned over, but there was no movement,
its first movement completed with a slight pause, the timing was normal.
The second movement began without any reaction until the double hooks reached the preset fishing depth at the bottom.
From the moment the bobber was in place, Zhang Yang silently counted numbers in his mind, counting from one to ten, and then gently flicked his wrist to lift the rod.
With bait already prepared at his fingertips, the next cast was aimed at fishing a nearby point using "frog stabbing" technique.
In the following five casts, Zhang Yang tested the nearby points around the fishing spot and the normal front positions, but there was no response from the fish.
The fish conditions, for which Zhang Yang had some vague expectations before the competition, turned out to be worse than anticipated. Zhang Yang had an uneasy feeling.
While Zhang Yang was continuously trying to analyze and assess the fish situation, he suddenly saw an angler on the northern bank opposite hooking a fish!
Having a fish on the line was the best signal, and Zhang Yang couldn’t even spare a glance for his own bobber, focusing intently on the angler opposite, hoping to catch some hint.
The angler on the opposite side knew the fish were hard to catch in this competition, and every fish was precious, so he was very careful when retrieving the fish, using a net to safely scoop up a more than half-pound carp, quickly placing it into the fish keeper.
On the second cast with bait, Zhang Yang observed that the opponent was using pulling bait, with two hooks carrying very small soybean-sized bait balls, and flicked them out with a wrist movement.
In those brief ten seconds, Zhang Yang’s mind was quickly analyzing.
Catching fish at the right moment suggested that there was likely fish willing to bite in the pond.
Using pulling bait and small bait balls to catch fish could indicate that the motion occurred during the descent.
From this, it could be inferred that the fish might not be taking bait at the bottom.
Zhang Yang patiently continued observing the opposite angler. The bobber’s fishing depth was too far for Zhang Yang to see clearly, but from the moment it entered the water, Zhang Yang was silently counting numbers in his mind.
After two consecutive empty casts, and when the opposite side made the fourth cast, Zhang Yang counted to the 13th second as the opponent lifted the rod and hooked the fish again!
If just one fish was hooked, it could be due to many factors, even just good luck, but after four casts, catching two fish consecutively, when most of the pond had no bites, was very telling.
Seeing this, Zhang Yang instinctively moved the lead mount to a position below the float mount.
The top-tier big flying lead, searching the entire water layer.
After pushing the lead mount to the top, Zhang Yang originally intended to pull two smaller bait balls to try locating the fish layer for bites. He suddenly thought about Liu Xiaoyun sitting next to him.
So Zhang Yang mischievously restored the lead mount to its original position, took a larger bobber from the float box, and promptly replaced it without changing the lead.
The bobbers in Zhang Yang’s hand were models he was thoroughly familiar with. He knew exactly the difference in how much lead each different number of floats would eat.
This number one float was replaced with a number two, increasing the lead load by about 0.5g.
Seeing this, someone might ask, what’s he trying to do? If the big flying lead could catch fish, why not use that method? Why change the float? What’s the point?
If it were not Liu Xiaoyun sitting next door, Zhang Yang definitely wouldn’t do this. He’s digging a trap for Liu Xiaoyun.
As a skilled competitor who holds the title of Second-level Competitive Fishing Master, being observant and alert during the competition is a basic operation,
If Zhang Yang caught a fish using the big flying lead method, within a few rods, Liu Xiaoyun would be keenly observing next door and immediately adapt his tactics.
In such challenging fish conditions, relying on basic skills for a competitive advantage is very rare, as even fully fishing a round might not yield a few bites. As the greatest threat to Zhang Yang in the same group, as long as he could tactically mislead the opponent once, Zhang Yang could gain a huge advantage.
Changing to a larger bobber can roughly be seen as reducing the lead by 0.5 grams. This method, like fishing with a big flying lead, also achieves the effect of increasing the settling time of the bobber.
However, from the perspective of observing from the side, it’s difficult to identify where the problem lies.
Moreover, Zhang Yang used jelly bait with an extremely light weight and unbeatable palatability, achieving the purpose of tactical deception.
If Liu Xiaoyun noticed the details of Zhang Yang’s successful catches, he would most likely think Zhang Yang was fishing with normal kneaded bait at the bottom, and if copying the same thought process, this round of fishing would be wasted!
With this in mind, Zhang Yang set aside the regular bait and kneaded two normal-sized jelly baits onto double hooks and cast into the water.
With the larger bobber and extremely light jelly bait, sure enough, the trajectory of the bobber’s descent slowed considerably after it flipped over, particularly during the small gap between the first and second descent positions, the timing stretched at least twice as long.
At a position about ten centimeters from the bottom, Zhang Yang noticed a slight pause on the bobber, not caught, which soon returned to its normal path.
In such difficult fish conditions, any abnormal float signal in the descent can be seen as a sign of fish activity. Missing the strike was fine; Zhang Yang changed to the number three float on the next cast and cast out again.
The lead intake of the number three float was at least one gram more than the initial number one float, making its settling speed even slower after entering the water.
With this adjustment, it indeed made a significant effect. After a few more casts, there was a slight pause on the descent, showing a small faint movement of half a point.
Zhang Yang struck with the rod, and the feeling of having a fish on passed through the rod tip; he had opened the account!
Having identified the position of the fish layer and initially understanding the relationship between the bobber’s lead intake and the bait weight, Zhang Yang had sufficient assessment of the fish conditions for this round.
So, he decisively lowered the float mount by ten centimeters, adjusting from normal bottom fishing to fishing ten centimeters off the bottom.
With the large enough lead on the bobber, and the light weight of jelly bait, even with kneaded bait, the buoyancy of the bobber could still carry the weight of the double hooks.
In the next few casts, Zhang Yang made slight adjustments to the size of the bait balls, and when fish took bait again, the faint half-point movement turned into a half-point jerking action, having essentially smoothed out the fishing method suited to the current fish conditions.
Thus, in less than five minutes of fishing, Zhang Yang began to slowly land fish, though at a very slow catching efficiency.
When Zhang Yang caught his second fish, Liu Xiaoyun next door still hadn’t figured out what the current fish conditions were.
But, just as Zhang Yang anticipated, Liu turned his attention to Zhang Yang, silently observing.
Kneaded bait fishing, watching the fishing set-up, the position of the bobber and water line, normal bottom fishing!
The frequency of catching fish was slow, but every now and then, a fish would be hooked.
By looking at it this way, the answer was clear: his lack of bites, while the other was catching fish, the problem was likely due to the bait’s state or flavor.
Gathering incorrect intelligence and making wrong judgments ultimately led to incorrect results. A miss by an inch, a miss by a mile.
Liu Xiaoyun set aside the bait he prepared and started busying himself again with the fishing box.
Sitting next to him, Zhang Yang noticed Liu Xiaoyun was re-preparing his bait, and with an expressionless face, let the corners of his mouth slightly curl up; the tactical misdirection had succeeded!