Chapter 388: Chapter 235: Extreme Fish Situation_2
Soon, the preparation time was over, the starting gun sounded, and the competition began!
Zhang Yang casually grabbed two bait balls the size of soybeans, flicked his wrist, and cast the rod into the water.
From the moment the bobber turned over, Zhang Yang’s attention was entirely on the movement of the float.
Even though he was prepared for the poor condition of the fishing, he still underestimated the difficult situation when actually fishing!
At the start, after casting seven or eight times in succession, Zhang Yang didn’t see a single bite.
This scene was eerily similar to the start of the last round.
Could it be another futile round?
Zhang Yang frowned slightly, his eyes darting around, trying to gather useful information from other anglers.
He scanned around within his field of vision but didn’t see anyone catching fish, and Zhang Yang helplessly pouted his lips, directly shifting to a heavier lead, searching throughout the possible strike zones.
One cast, two casts, three casts.
After another seven or eight casts, Zhang Yang still had nothing.
In competitive fishing, it’s not scary if you see different float movements but can’t catch fish; what’s terrifying is when there’s not even a nibble despite using all techniques, with no feedback of any fish caught.
Without feedback, there’s no way to adjust strategies, and at this time, it tests an angler’s experience.
Seeing the situation, Zhang Yang decisively adjusted the size of the bait ball from soybean-sized to mung bean-sized, barely hanging off the hook tip.
He cast the rod into the water again, hoping that the bobber could give even a slight signal response.
With the bait smaller, the time for the bobber to flip into place was slightly extended, and it was precisely this tiny difference that allowed Zhang Yang to notice a faint signal action.
Near where the bobber was about to settle, it paused for about a second, then continued to descend to the preset fishing depth.
By this brief pause, Zhang Yang knew there were fish at the bottom trying to bite, but for some reason, they couldn’t hold on or swallow the bait!
As long as there’s information, things are manageable. Seeing this, Zhang Yang decisively lifted the rod and grabbed the spare rod from behind.
The setup of 0.4 main line, 0.2 subline with No. 3 fine sleeve hook was clearly too big for this fishing match.
He switched to a main line of 0.3, subline of 0.08, No. 2 sleeve hook, and lead-eating 0.9g bobber, an extremely fine fishing setup, and Zhang Yang baited the hook with a tiny amount again and cast into the water.
The 0.08# subline could be said to represent the thinnest fish line available presently, with a significant enhancement in softness compared to the 0.2 subline, which was already a top-level setup amid such extreme fishing conditions.
It takes someone of Zhang Yang’s caliber to confidently use such finesse gear, less experienced anglers would feel the hook cut without even sensing resistance upon lifting the rod.
With the bobber carrying less lead, the line setup finer, and the hook smaller, each segment seemed to have only minor differences, but accumulating all these factors together resulted in a noticeable change in outcome.
After changing the fishing setup, Zhang Yang tentatively cast a few more times.
Finally, the eagerly awaited bite came.
A slight pause on the bobber’s path was followed by a subtle slide down.
It was precisely this tiny float movement that prompted Zhang Yang to decisively twitch his wrist gently and raise the rod to strike the fish!
He hit it!
Cautiously lifting the rod slowly, Zhang Yang raised the fish out of the water and brought it back.
Finally managing to catch the first fish, the value of this fish was significant, and Zhang Yang steadily handled the fish with his hands without even using the blocking needle, directly grabbing the fish to unhook it and putting it into the fish keeper.
The hook was shallowly caught but positioned accurately, almost at about 12 o’clock, and given the current situation, Zhang Yang was quite satisfied!
With the extremely fine line setup, every subtle fish bite action was maximally revealed, enabling Zhang Yang to find the correct way to catch fish amid nearly desperate extreme fishing conditions.
In fishing competitions, it’s always about finding the right method and strategy. Once the trick is figured out, everything becomes relatively simple.
Zhang Yang’s all-out lead cast normally into the water, continuing to raise the rod quickly for the next cast after the bobber reached the preset fishing depth, maintaining this constant dynamic search frequency for fish signals.
The result? It was acceptable.
While most anglers were at a complete loss, Zhang Yang had sequentially caught three fish over fifteen minutes, whereas the neighbors on either side hadn’t even started casting.
While Zhang Yang steadily figured out the fish condition and slowly but stably caught fish, Liu Zi, in the neighboring competition, didn’t have such a bright prospect.
The position at the entrance on both sides was worse than the spots Zhang Yang had been at before, with location advantages absolutely bottomed out, also affected by the entry of athletes, which could be said to be the worst position at the pool.
In the equally unresponsive state of beginning fishing, Liu Zi lacked Zhang Yang’s abundant experience.
He continued casting with large bait and heavy lead but didn’t catch a single fish. Due to lack of experience, he didn’t notice the brief pause effect in the bobber near the bottom. There was no strategic adjustment aimed at this detail.
After many attempts without results, Liu Zi gritted his teeth and used the last tip Zhang Yang had told him before the competition.
Switch to the large new Kanto hook, start snagging!
Yes, you read it right, it’s snagging the fish!
By competition rules, athletes are not allowed to deliberately snag fish, but enforcing this regulation is actually quite difficult.
What’s considered deliberate snagging? The discretion is very broad.
As long as the angler doesn’t go overboard, usually the referees won’t penalize for deliberate snagging.
On the other hand, at this difficult stage of the competition, the organizers don’t want the athletes to end with a large number of zero catch ’egg-eating’ contestants, so in most situations, snagging behavior is mostly condoned.
Liu Zi decisively cut off the original sleeve hook and replaced it with a No. 2 new Kanto hook.
The next step involved adding lead directly to the bottom, with two jujube-sized bait balls on the double hooks, and casting directly into the nest.
After a short period of repeated fishing release, the fish in poor condition won’t eat, or although they have a desire to eat, they can’t physically manage to swallow the food.
In such situations, either they huddle in a corner remaining motionless, or they pick up scattered food scraps around the nest.
If they stay stationary, even a big hook snagging wouldn’t have much chance, but as long as there’s some activity around, snagging fish becomes theoretically possible.
There’s a saying, "Adjust five, fish eight, with enough tension," it sounds absolute, but the general direction is correct.
With added lead, the double hooks rest on the bottom; if a fish accidentally clashes with the line, any float action might allow snagging a fish by quickly raising the rod.
Liu Zi did exactly that, waited a few seconds after casting, lifted the rod for bait change if there was no movement, and cast the second rod at a different spot.
At this point, the value of Zhang Yang’s pre-competition high-standard and strict casting basic skills training became apparent; the casting spot was accurate enough to almost perfectly execute the angler’s spot request.
After casting more than a dozen times, busying around for seven or eight minutes, Liu Zi finally saw a clash action.
With youthful quick reflexes, Liu Zi had been holding out for this moment; upon seeing the float move, he decisively lifted the rod to strike the fish!
Lucky for him, catching the fish on the first attempt.
The No. 2 new Kanto hook was attached by the pectoral fin of a carp, pulled up by Liu Zi in reverse gear.
This snagged fish landed, relieving half of the tension in Liu Zi.
This single carp about a pound might be worthless under normal circumstances, but in this tough fish condition competition, it was enough to beat more than half of the competing anglers in the group.
The old saying goes, "With fur, it’s not a bald head," illustrating its truth vividly at this moment.
The sweetness spurred Liu Zi to find his motivation and he continued casting quickly.
The second one
The third one!
By the end of the competition, he had snagged four carp into the keeper!
The casual reminder from Zhang Yang before the competition gave Liu Zi, facing the extreme fish condition, a lifeline to survive!