In the following days, the Forward Reservoir became the main battlefield where Zhang Yang and his group fought side by side.
The weather was relatively sunny for several consecutive days, and the temperature was stable. The group arrived early in the morning at the fishing spot to bait and fish for big bream in the reservoir.
By midday, as the water temperature rose, a bit of extra bait was added, and the Grass Carp in the reservoir would start biting.
The combination of bait scoop + mature fish pellets was very effective in attracting fish, and for several days in a row, everyone caught fish in abundance and enjoyed themselves immensely.
However, the secret of catching Grass Carp at the Forward Reservoir didn't remain for long. As more anglers came after hearing the news, apart from Zhang Yang and his friends, others also caught Grass Carp near the southeast corner of the reservoir area.
Coincidentally, the guy who caught the Grass Carp knew the reservoir owner and told them about it without much thought.
As a result, when Zhang Yang and the others arrived at the reservoir at dawn on Wednesday, the owner declared a temporary suspension of fishing with fees at Forward Reservoir.
Old Zhao was a bit surprised and asked around some friends within his circle to find out what had happened.
Well, it turned out that over thirty Grass Carp cage nets in the West Warehouse District of the reservoir had been damaged by ice. In spring, the water level in the West Warehouse was low, so the owner opened the gate connecting the East and West Warehouse Districts to balance the water levels, causing these Grass Carp to swim upstream to the East Warehouse District.
Based on a rough calculation of last year's released numbers, the escaped Grass Carp numbered over four thousand, totaling more than ten thousand pounds in weight.
The reservoir's large area and the fact that few anglers came to fish during those first days before it officially opened, focusing instead on the northeast area by the dam, meant if it were a smaller location, such a large number of Grass Carp would have driven the anglers crazy.
To catch these prison-breaking Grass Carp, the reservoir owner hired people to drag nets with small boats in the reservoir area for a whole week. These workers lived in the area's prefab houses and would secretly use battery fishing in the shallow areas every morning and evening.
Due to this series of peculiar operations, by the time the East Warehouse District reopened, the density of bream had decreased significantly, making it much harder to catch.
The catch rate, which initially was fifty to sixty pounds in half a day, dropped to around twenty to thirty pounds of bream in a full day, and splitting decent catches was even rarer, with many people leaving empty-handed.
This unstable fishing situation greatly reduced the interest for Zhang Yang, who had tasted success earlier.
Originally, Zhang Yang had closed his shop to go fishing, and if the catch was good, it would have been fine; but busying for a day with just twenty to thirty pounds of bream, his enthusiasm for spring fishing gradually cooled, and he returned to his normal routine of minding the shop.
Time unknowingly moved from March to April.
Just after Qingming Festival, the spring fishing conditions for bream in the Wen River area gradually improved.
As more and more regular anglers resumed fishing, the business in the shop and company entered a period of rapid growth.
What surprised Zhang Yang the most was the secret Rice for Making Wine product, which had already gained some market impact by last October. After a few months of dormancy over the winter, its sales volume soared.
Just through offline channel restocking alone, daily sales of the Rice for Making Wine product exceeded 500 pounds, with small increases every few days as the temperatures rose.
The massive shipments quickly inflated Zhang Yang's small treasury. Currently, the average daily net profit exceeded 3,000 yuan, and after deducting various costs, the company's accounts had nearly 200,000 yuan sitting there.
With money in hand, came confidence. After discussing with Zhao Bingguang, Zhang Yang began to consider new expansion and development plans.
Having deliberated with Old Zhao, they decided to invest the money into production equipment.
After several days of research, they finally rented a workshop with an area of over 300 square meters in the town.
The new workshop installed a medium-sized mixer, along with a complete set of fully mechanical assembly line for packing and sealing equipment.
With such an upgrade, the subsequent production efficiency improved greatly, with daily output reaching at least 1,500 pounds; if urgent orders came in, workers could work an extra night shift to further increase production capacity.
This was when Zhang Yang saw the benefits of partnering with Old Zhao. Whether it was purchasing upgraded equipment or constructing new factory premises, Old Zhao handled almost everything. In less than ten days, the new production workshop was officially put into operation.
Besides Zhang Guofu and Zhang's mom, two more workers from the village were hired, marking the first transformation of the bait factory from a family workshop into a micro-production enterprise.
In the spring of 2013, Zhang Yang's bait business was literally raking in the money daily.
However, this rapid growth didn't last long, as Zhang Yang encountered his first challenging problem.
On April 16th, the improved carp bait, which Zhang Yang considered a core flagship product, had its formula cracked by a fishing expert and shared on a fishing forum.
What troubled Zhang Yang more was that in less than a week, the shops of Lang Junfeng and Ma Yuhua started selling bait almost identical to Zhang Yang's formula, and the carp bait formula from the forum suffered a sales blow.
As previously mentioned, anglers are a contradictory group. When unaware of the formula, they might not mind expensive bait, but once they know, even if it is just a few yuan more expensive, they'll find ways to purchase and mix the raw materials themselves.
Last year's first-generation formula bait faced this situation, and so did the upgraded second-generation formula bait this spring.
There are experts in fishing forums, and whether this forum member intentionally or unintentionally shared it, the result severely impacted the sales of Zhang Yang's product.