Chapter 357: Chapter 219: Practical Fish Wrestling_2
Overall, it was mostly amateur anglers of non-professional level, with only Ding Wen and Chen Xueqiang having some technical prowess.
As the organizer of the fish-off, Ding Wen magically pulled out a deck of cards from his pants pocket and marked the seat numbers with a marker in front of everyone. Soon, everyone gathered to start the random draw.
Zhang Yang had no concept of nervousness for this level of fish-off, deliberately held back a bit to draw last, keeping most of his attention on Meng Fan and Little Brother Liu Zi.
Strangely enough, just before, Meng Fan and Liu Zi seemed uneasy and anxious, but when it was time for the draw, they appeared calm, getting into the zone as they drew.
There were 15 participants in total for the fish-off, Zhang Yang casually drew number 12, and Liu Zi and Meng Fan’s seats were pretty ordinary too, neither on an empty side. Overall, everything was quite standard.
"Let’s set it straight, fellas. We’ll stick to competition rules—target fish can be drawn at frequency, but can’t bait a second time! Count small crucian carp tails! If anyone has questions, better speak up now, because once we start, no changes allowed!"
After everyone settled in their seats, Ding Wen shouted out to check for any objections.
"Come on, Master Ding, don’t waste your breath, we’re all seasoned here. What’s the point of all this chit-chat? Set the timer, get ready to start!"
"Exactly. If there’s really an objection, minority yields to majority. We’re all familiar faces; who’d fuss over this small prize?"
A few friends sitting next to Ding Wen laughed and teased, then pulled Ding Wen to sit on the fishing box.
"Alright, if there’s no objections, I’ll set the timer! Countdown from five, 54321, go!"
With Ding Wen’s call, over a dozen anglers simultaneously cast their lines into the water, officially starting the fish-off.
Zhang Yang already made all his pre-competition preparations during Ding Wen’s briefing, scraping two fairly large bait balls with double hooks and casting them into the front spot as soon as the match started.
From Zhang Yang’s understanding of the current situation of the number one pond, there aren’t many practicing anglers, so most of the small crucian carp haven’t been repeatedly caught and released intensely, making the first round’s fish condition likely decent.
With the prize allocation laid down by Ding Wen for this fish-off, it’s pretty much a winner-takes-all scenario, while the rest play for free. This isn’t often done even with slightly more meticulous fish-off rules, which is why Zhang Yang raised his concerns upon hearing the rules.
However, Ding Wen relied on himself and his partner Chen Xueqiang being the top players among the group, and being the organizer meant having a higher winning chance, hence pulling off such a move.
Given this situation, Zhang Yang certainly wouldn’t hold back, as they planned to harvest him, so how could he yield?
Considering the actual fish conditions and prize distribution rules, Zhang Yang’s initial strategy was scraping and pulling large bait, directly hitting the bobber at high frequency!
Previously mentioned, hitting the bobber in competitive fishing is a double-edged sword; when fish conditions are good, it significantly increases fishing efficiency, but if fish condition judgment is wrong and fish can’t be drawn to the surface to eat bait, it wastes a lot of time.
Zhang Yang’s team, the three brothers, were fishing for a prize of 90 bucks, so Zhang Yang definitely gave it his all. This hitting the bobber method was the most aggressive and the currently most fitting strategy. An hour-long fish-off should suffice as long as luck isn’t too bad!
From the first cast, Zhang Yang was pulling large bait with double hooks at frequency, quickly lifting the rod as soon as the setup entered the water, not caring about the bobber and lead situation, the fastest way to move more bait into the spot.
Zhang Yang determinedly went all out at the first round, and over with Meng Fan and Liu Zi, the brothers were in agreement, having briefly discussed this during bait preparation. They both decided on an aggressive fast attack fishing method.
What is aggressive fast attack fishing? It’s basically pulling large bait at high frequency to gather fish.
The general direction aligned with Zhang Yang’s bobber method, only it didn’t insist on drawing fish to the surface. Once the fish density reached a certain level, they’d start catching fish.
In the southeast corner, because it’s far from the entrance, this spot remained undisturbed from anglers.
This equaled normal fish activity in the practice pole pond, slightly better off than the repeatedly caught fish near the entrance with mouth injuries.
Thus, the brothers’ strategies were spot-on, with no commonsense mistakes.
Local anglers all had some familiarity with the number one pond at Li Yuan Fishing Ground, so in the first five minutes of fishing, everyone’s strategy was largely similar—quick frequency to gather fish, with hardly anyone slowing down for catching.
Even though the tactical approach was generally consistent, it didn’t mean other aspects were too. In terms of bait mix, Zhang Yang and his brothers used a significantly different formula from the rest.
At a glance, the entire bait group showed a vibrant red color after absorbing the scarlet pigment, with shrimp powder comprising a substantial portion, deadly effective against relatively unfinicky small crucian carp.
Although Zhang Yang didn’t give Meng Fan or his brother pointers, his prior influence subtly shaped their understanding and judgment, giving them a considerable advantage in bait use alone.
Small crucian carp are pragmatic fish; wherever there’s food, they’ll be attracted, and when food is plentiful, they’ll choose their favorite taste for gathering.
Though everyone mainly used savory scented bait, overall, Zhang Yang and his team’s pungent savory flavor was more prominent.
Meng Fan, his head down, drew his rod for five minutes, after dozens of casts, his spot showed noticeable fish moves toward the bait. He glanced around subtly, noticing no one hooked any fish, so he wasn’t rush in catching, continuing at high frequency.
Liu Zi, however, wasn’t as seasoned as Meng Fan. As the bobber move increased with constant casting, he could not resist and caught the bait slightly late, catching his first fish.
With this fish, Liu Zi started entering fish-grabbing mode first, consciously pulling rounded bait balls for better fit to crucian carp’s mouth.
Seeing Liu Zi catching first, the neighboring anglers couldn’t contain their pace, began catching fish too, quickly influencing those further away, thus everyone’s fishing rhythm shifted noticeably from the fish gathering phase to fish grabbing.
Among everyone, only the anomaly Zhang Yang, upon noticing others starting to grab fish, knew it was more appropriate, subsequently slowed half a beat and glanced at the bobber’s post-flip actions, continuing to cast to gather fish.
Soon everyone began frequently catching fish, indicating a speedy fish condition and feasibility of hitting the bobber!
The bobber action began around ten centimeters from the bottom, indicating the fish density at the water bottom was far from needed for bobber fishing, so the spot needed continued maintenance.
Minutes ticked by in the competition, and unknowingly, fifteen minutes had passed since fishing started.
Currently, the entire fish-off team was catching fish at high speed, with Meng Fan and Liu Zi particularly impressive in catching speed.
Yet Zhang Yang, maintaining the same frequency from the start, the bait ball on his food box visibly shrinking a circle.
He wasn’t ready to engage because the fish layer height wasn’t enough.
Twenty minutes.
Twenty-five minutes.
At the half-hour mark, Zhang Yang’s pre-set alarm vibrated.
With half the time gone, he pulled two new bait balls to cast into the spot, once again observing the bobber action.
After half an hour of high-frequency casting, the fish density at Zhang Yang’s spot reached an alarming level, with the hooks being grabbed before the bobber flipped.
He tentatively pulled the rod to hook fish, feeling strong force from the rod tip.
Even before the fish surfaced, Zhang Yang knew he had caught two fish this time.
With the fish gathered sufficiently, it was time for battle!