Wang Yan rubbed his hair: "Damn! How long does it take for this to become muscle memory? Can we make it in time? It looks easy, but when I do it myself, it's hard!"
"Yeah, there are no clear markers! It's all based on feel, really tough!"
Zhang Yang: "There are markers, just not very obvious.
For instance, the cloud formed by the bait when it hits the water; if it's within about 3.6 meters, you can see it with the naked eye! Keep casting in the same spot, and the cloudy area won't disperse!
When we prepare the bait later, I'll add a bit of scarlet dye so it becomes more visible to everyone!"
"Ah, that's a neat trick!" Wang Jun cast a couple of lines to test, and sure enough, with Zhang Yang's tip, he noticed a clear improvement, though still not quite proficient.
Zhang Yang organized his thoughts and continued: "We'll stop here for the frog technique. Next up is the second move, flying lead! Watch closely!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhang Yang pushed the lead seat, originally at the bottom of the main line next to the figure-eight ring, up by forty centimeters.
"There are many ways to use flying lead, but two are quite practical. Depending on the push-up distance, I call them small flying lead and big flying lead!
Small flying lead, like just now, involves pushing it up by thirty to forty centimeters!
After doing this, the center of gravity of the tackle group will rise due to the elevated position of the lead, which prolongs the secondary swing after the bait hits the water and straightens the main line!
This manifests in the bobber, where the turning process of the bobber speeds up, but the travel time is slightly extended!
This extension provides some convenience for the fish to take the bait! With a slower secondary swing, fish that couldn't catch up with the bait can now catch up, making it easier for them to bite!
If you find during fishing that fish tend to make a move before the bobber is in place, but they can't catch it, try the small flying lead. It can generally improve the hit rate effectively! Compare your fishing lines' setup before and after the adjustment!"
With Zhang Yang's words finished, everyone got busy.
Push up the lead seat, then bait normally, cast, and watch the bobber's turning and settling process.
"Hey, the bobber's descent speed seems to be a bit slower!"
"Amazing! Mine's slower too, feels like about a second slower!"
In these detailed advanced fishing techniques, even when people saw Zhang Yang using it before, they wouldn't typically notice. Now that Zhang Yang has laid it all out, they immediately felt the difference before and after making adjustments.
Zhang Yang took a sip of mineral water and continued: "Small flying lead can be used flexibly, just make sure to steady the bite when you get it, don't let the fish escape and disturb the area!
Next, I'll focus on the big flying lead!"
While speaking, Zhang Yang adjusted the position of the lead on the bobber, pushing it directly from the bottom to the pile seat below the bobber.
With the adjusted setup, the lead is now beneath the bobber, and the more than two meters of fishing line below becomes slack, swaying gently with the wind as it has lost the weight of the lead.
"The main purpose of the small flying lead is to increase the time of the secondary swing, but the big flying lead is different! It can search the water layer height of the fish in the water and most importantly, reach far!"
"Reaching far? With the line and the rod being the same length, pushing the lead seat to the top makes it reach far?" Upon hearing this, Wang Jun, who didn't immediately grasp it, raised a question.
Zhang Yang nodded: "Of course it can!
In normal fishing setups, after the bait lands at the bottom, the angle between the airborne line and the water line is about ninety degrees, basically vertical!
With the big flying lead setup, the bobber flips immediately upon entry, followed by a prolonged settling time!
The double hooks settling late, with the bobber already flipped, leading to what situation? The water line will show a certain slope! That is, the original ninety-degree angle becomes larger, up to 120 degrees, even 150 degrees!
The total length of the fishing line hasn't changed, but because the angle of the triangle changes, the actual drop point of the bait will undoubtedly be further away!
This is middle school geometry knowledge about triangles, I don't need to explain more, right?"
"This..."
The previous part was understood by everyone, but when it came to the big flying lead, even though Zhang Yang explained it clearly, none of the four had seen what's under the water. They were a bit lost, looking at each other with bewildered looks.
Zhang Yang didn't press for an immediate understanding, simply waited, anticipating someone would ask a question.
However, no one asked this time, and Wang Yan was the first to understand.
He just took a roll of lead from his toolbox and wrapped it directly around the double hooks, then casually cast it out.
"I get it! Imagine what it would look like if my hooks with wrapped lead entered the water now!
The bobber's buoyancy is unbalanced, and the fishing line will straighten out! In the most extreme case, the line will become a slant line at the bottom of the water!
The change in tackle state that Zhang Yang talked about just now essentially means this: the bobber and lead achieve buoyancy balance early, and the remaining process involves the two baits pulling the line forward at an angle!"
With Wang Yan explaining from this angle, everyone found it quickly easier to understand.
"Got it!"
"I got it too, it's amazing that a single fishing line can hold so much knowledge, so profound yet so interesting!!"
"Damn, I think I get it too, even more complex than the force analysis we learned in physics class!"
"I get it, but there's a problem, right? The lead being so high up, how do you cast? With the center of gravity so high, it won't cast easily!"
Having adjusted his setup to the big flying lead state, Meng Fan found it very difficult to cast because the center of gravity was so high.
Zhang Yang nodded: "Actually, it doesn't matter if you don't understand the principle of the big flying lead, just know that by pushing the lead seat up and adjusting the bobber seat according to water depth, you can fish farther than others!
The challenge with big flying lead is in the casting!
As long as you have the accuracy down, reaching farther than others, then the fish situation later on is pretty much guaranteed. Avoid early disadvantages, catch a few more later, and you'll have a great advantage at the same fishing spot!
I can't help with this, only practice will do, find the feel through continuous practice!
If you don't have any other plans before the competition in the next couple of days, come practice casting by the Wen River. I'll prepare some practice bait for you, and once you master both the frog and big flying lead techniques, we're pretty much set for the weekend's competition!"
"Shit, just practice, right? Practice makes perfect, I refuse to believe we can't master it!" Wang Yan was the first to respond, diving back into casting practice.
"Exactly! Normally you'd pay to learn these techniques, but now Zhang Yang is teaching us, so let's get to it! I've got something to prove against the Wen River before fishing starts. I'm not going home until I get it right!"
"This is a rare opportunity, so let's practice!"
The four quickly agreed, and with some time left before the competition, they aimed to master the new techniques Zhang Yang taught them as well as they could.