Chapter 365: Chapter 223: Same Fish Situation, Different Strategies_2
With the midday temperature so high now, the fish conditions can be foreseen to definitely be affected. That’s why Zhang Yang didn’t rush to create a fishing spot to attract fish after starting to fish, but rather gathered some intelligence to make an initial judgment and then adjusted reactively.
The strategy of planning before taking action as described in military tactics is exactly the current situation.
The next few minutes indeed confirmed Zhang Yang’s judgment.
He cast five successive lines, each time using regular baiting and casting into the water, letting the fishing tackle complete the full travel process, and waiting several seconds after the double hooks reached the bottom to confirm no movement, before pulling the rod back up to switch bait and cast another line.
The test fishing situation was even worse than Zhang Yang’s initial prediction. In five or six test casts, not even a proper bobber movement was observed.
Not only did Zhang Yang see no actions, but Liu Xiaoyun next to him adopted a strategy similar to Zhang Yang’s. Including the angler on Zhang Yang’s other side, with over ten casts already made, not a single fish was caught.
Seeing this, Zhang Yang’s expression became slightly grim; the most concerning situation had arisen—poor fish bites at this time!
For top fishing experts like Zhang Yang, fast-paced fishing tournaments are relatively easy, without the need to consider strategic responses and tactics. Just relying on solid basics, he could remain undefeated!
But now, with unfavorable fish conditions and noticeably fewer bites, Zhang Yang’s basic skills’ advantages cannot be demonstrated.
With the next cast, Zhang Yang adjusted the landing point of the double hooks in his fishing tackle without hesitation, from around the eight-point mark in front of him to a closer point at his feet.
Poor fish bites can be solved by targeting frogs; it’s a tried and true tactic used by seasoned competitive anglers. Simply changing the fishing spot can uncover places where fish might be hiding—simple, efficient, and very useful for judging and responding to difficult fishing conditions.
With the hot weather now, the water temperature in the pond is high, and there might not be fish in the spot directly in front,
while a closer spot is different; near the shore, the water temperature is relatively lower, and sometimes crucian carp hide here to cool down, yielding positive results for targeting frogs.
With this psychological expectation in mind, Zhang Yang cast the first line, steadily placing it vertically with his hand and kept his gaze fixed on the bobber’s movements, not missing any subtle actions.
After Zhang Yang made this adjustment, he guessed correctly—the bobber began a second sway and then showed a small acceleration motion. Zhang Yang saw that the bobber signal wasn’t crisp, so he didn’t pull the rod, allowing the tackle to continue moving until it reached the bottom.
Having action is good; not catching fish isn’t scary, what’s most feared is using all methods with the bobber not responding at all.
Zhang Yang deliberately waited a few seconds and found no further bait pursuit actions, so he gently lifted the rod tip, allowing the tackle at the bottom to rise again and repeat the previous second sway of the leader line.
At the location of the earlier acceleration action, the same bobber signal appeared, and Zhang Yang sensed something and made a judgment.
Based on experience, Zhang Yang guessed that the attack on the bait was triggered at about thirty centimeters above the bottom.
The fish aren’t at the bottom, with insufficient appetite to chase down and eat the bait,
showing they’re staying in the areas off the bottom, snatching a bite as the bait passes by the nearby water layer, not chasing after it and just abandoning it, indifferent.
Having made an initial analysis and judgment on fish conditions, Zhang Yang promptly began making response adjustments.
Firstly, with poor fish activity and reluctance to eat bait, the leader line setup used in the morning naturally wasn’t sufficient. Zhang Yang changed the morning’s 0.4 leader line and No. 4 sleeve hook setup to a 0.15-size leader line and No. 3 fine-earth sleeve hook.
With the leader line changed, Zhang Yang made subtle adjustments in the baiting technique, making the bait balls slightly smaller for better entry.
Having completed tactical adjustments, Zhang Yang targeted frogs again and cast to the earlier position where bites occurred.
The small bite action remained indecisive, the bobber signal hovered between faint signal and small acceleration, still not able to chase down.
Damn! The fish are being particular about the bait!
Zhang Yang muttered under his breath, once again pulling the rod out of the water, manually moving the position of the sinker seat up by about thirty centimeters.
As mentioned earlier, moving the sinker seat up, to fish with a little light lead, effectively increases the duration of the second sway, giving the fish more chances to engage the bait. It fits the current condition where fish give bites but don’t chase the bait adequately.
After another adjustment, Zhang Yang cast the rod into the water for a new round of attempts.
The effect was evident this time. At the location of the fish layer, the bobber mildly paused for a second and quickly showed a downward pause of about half a mark!
Feeling it, Zhang Yang lifted the rod and hooked a fish! He hit it!
Afraid to lose the hook and let the fish escape, Zhang Yang used primarily wrist strength in lifting the rod with the frog-targeting technique, carefully bringing the opener crucian carp to him.
Holding the first fish in his hand, he glanced at it—the hook was caught on the thin edge of the fish’s mouth with some leftover Lubricating Powder bait at the sleeve hook’s base.
Overall analysis showed that the fish bit the bait lightly, with relatively significant bait residue, indicating poor condition impacting the fish’s bait intake.
It’s only through proper adjustment that the fish managed to get the bait into its mouth; otherwise, slightly hastened bite action or minor adjustment disparities and this fish likely wouldn’t have been caught.
Through the first fish caught, Zhang Yang gained a clearer judgment of the fishing spot’s conditions and cast another pair of small baits to the near spot.
Catch one fish and the angler might have erroneous intelligence, but successfully catching repeated fish can stabilize the fish condition judgment.
No bites in the spot directly ahead, but actions near the feet. Given there are fish present, it certainly isn’t just one or two—it’s very likely a judgment that can be repeatedly verified.
In several consecutive casts afterwards, Zhang Yang caught another entry action, easily pulling in the second crucian carp.
"Huh?"
At that moment, Liu Xiaoyun’s slightly puzzled low voice came from beside him.
Zhang Yang looked up at the sound and his gaze met Liu Xiaoyun’s.
"Fish are near the spot, huh? No wonder there’s no activity in the fishing spot!"
Liu Xiaoyun chimed in affirmatively, promptly lifting his own tackle and, after baiting, throwing it to the near spot at his feet.
Though Zhang Yang wasn’t favorable about this guy’s character, it must be said that the competitive fishing master’s insight and reaction speed were swift. After Zhang Yang caught two fish, Liu quickly identified the issue and immediately adjusted.
With two fish advantage in hand, Zhang Yang remained calm, steadily baiting, casting into the water, and repeating the earlier fish-catching process.
While focusing most attention on bobber signals, Zhang Yang kept one eye on Liu Xiaoyun’s fishing situation.
This guy’s bobber was a long-bodied, short-footed type for bottom fishing, and after entering the water, the time to settle was much faster than the olive-shaped bobber. He repeatedly cast several times without catching any fish.
Noticing the other’s bobber detail, Zhang Yang realized that if the opponent didn’t change the bobber, winning this match should be stable. The quick-settling bobber through layers isn’t suited for this afternoon’s near spot fish away from the bottom eating scenario.
In the next ten minutes, Liu Xiaoyun’s performance was consistent with Zhang Yang’s expectations.
Focusing on targeting frogs, Liu saw a few small actions but still didn’t catch fish.
Unconvinced, Master Liu didn’t adjust the second sway length, nor did he change the bobber type. Instead, he focused on adjusting the bait’s weight and state.
The pre-prepared bait was abandoned, with new bait mixed in with reduced-weight light bran and four-season components. After readjusting, he continued the fishing attempts.
Fishing is a systematic engineering that can be said to disrupt the entire setup with one move. Not finding reasons in fishing technique but adjusting bait weight could be considered an alternative path.
With the bait weight reduced to a suitable degree, the descent speed when entering the water slowed, effectively increasing travel duration.
With such a maneuver, Liu Xiaoyun soon had his opener fish!