In someone else's spot, fish have already begun to gather, and the bait's atomization continues unabated. Trying to steal the fish from their spot is very difficult.
As the old saying goes, if you can't keep up at the start, you'll always be behind.
The match has reached the forty-eighth minute mark.
On Zhang Yang's side, fish have begun to bite again, successfully landing the second silver carp. Meanwhile, Xu Xiao, who's been casting relentlessly, has yet to catch a fish.
This Xu Xiao is really tenacious; nearly an hour of casting with no bites, yet he shows no signs of giving up. The frequency is almost unchanged from the start; he's gone through the bait box repeatedly, using up the silver carp bait. He's completely set on competing with Zhang Yang!
With two silver carp weighing over ten pounds each in hand, Zhang Yang comfortably maintains an absolute lead in fish count, controlling the rhythm of the competition leisurely and steadily.
Persistence pays off, and as the match reaches an hour and a half, Xu Xiao finally manages to attract fish to his spot and hook one!
Seeing the first large silver carp caught, Xu Xiao almost burst into tears.
No matter how good one's mindset, this exhausting method is hard to endure. If it weren't for a stubborn spirit refusing to give up, Xu Xiao might have conceded earlier.
Starting from Xu Xiao's first silver carp catch, he finally gained a slight recovery in his fishing spot condition. Over the next hour, his catch rate gradually matched Zhang Yang's level.
You'd see the two of them: one catches a fish, the other follows suit; every ten minutes or so, one lands another, and then the other matches.
From an initial catch count of 2:0, it gradually developed to 3:1, 4:2, 5:3.
Throughout this process, Zhang Yang maintained a lead of two fish in count,
until the match reached two and a half hours, with Zhang Yang securing six fish, while Xu Xiao next to him only had four fish in his net.
A large basin of silver carp bait was mostly consumed under Zhang Yang's high-frequency casting regimen, but the bite rate at the fishing hole had slowed considerably, with nearly twenty minutes passing since the last fish was hooked.
Zhang Yang glanced at the time and shook his head slightly at the tired state of the fishing hole.
In the next second, he decisively lifted the fishing rod, placing the whole rod in the fish bucket behind him, and without hesitation, switched to a backup rod.
Zhang Yang judged that the surrounding silver carp had basically been caught and, seeing the fishing conditions deteriorate, decisively adjusted his fishing method.
Abandoning silver carp, Zhang Yang pulled out a fist-sized ball of red bait from his tackle box, switched to small hooks and fine lines to fish near the bottom, and targeted crucian carp!
Though no crucian carp had been stocked on the course, the natural density of native crucian carp in the river was decent. Zhang Yang tilted his fishing spot direction southward by about one meter to avoid the silver carp hole, casting casually about a dozen times, and soon the bobber began to show slight movements.
After a few more casts, the bobber dipped lightly and then sank, bringing up a crucian carp weighing around three ounces.
From the moment this crucian carp was hooked, Zhang Yang began catching fish in quick succession, one after another, with intervals between catches not exceeding three minutes.
The size of the crucian carp was slightly smaller than Zhang Yang predicted, not reaching half a pound, averaging around two to three ounces, but Zhang Yang was quite satisfied.
Looking around, whether on the East Bank or the West, ninety-nine percent of anglers were struggling with few bites, while Zhang Yang could occasionally land a small crucian carp.
In half an hour, Zhang Yang caught a total of fourteen crucian carp, fetching over three pounds more fish than anyone else.
At this point, Xu Xiao, due to being two fish behind in count, couldn't muster the courage to adjust and ended up sticking to his strategy blindly, failing to catch the fifth large fish by the match's end.
As the whistle sounded, Zhang Yang naturally put down his fishing rod, flexed his wrists and arms, and relaxed his neck and shoulders, waiting for the staff to weigh the catch.
Xu Xiao, who had drunk before fishing and boasted loudly, had long sweated away the alcohol smell during the intense casting, looking drenched as if he'd been fished out of the water, with sweat soaking through his sun protection clothing and displaying a damp imprint.
Seeing Zhang Yang's relaxed state next door, Xu Xiao, somewhat dejectedly, put down his rod.
"How did you know the silver carp had been fished out?"
Without prelude, Xu Xiao abruptly asked Zhang Yang.
"Huh? Talking to me?" Zhang Yang turned and pointed at his nose, somewhat surprised.
In Zhang Yang's understanding, Xu Xiao usually acts aloof with unfamiliar anglers, not expecting him to speak up after the competition.
"Yes! What's your name, buddy? I want to ask how you knew the silver carp had been fished out? I noticed you switched to fishing crucian carp in the last half hour!"
As Zhang Yang replied, Xu Xiao added a few earnest words, his inquiry tone quite sincere.
Zhang Yang grinned: "I'm Zhang Yang. What's your name, buddy?"
"Xu Xiao! But you haven't answered my question yet! What did you say your name was?"
Xu Xiao introduced himself, barely registering the initial response, before suddenly catching on, speaking a bit stammering.
This guy next to him was Zhang Yang, ranked number one? Didn't realize he was so young in person.
"I'm Zhang Yang, right? Is there a problem? I wasn't sure the silver carp stopped biting; I just felt the bites stopped, so I switched!
Anyway, with a lead of two fish, catching up in half an hour would be hard for you, and none of the other anglers in my group seemed like threats to my weight!"
Zhang Yang shrugged, giving a half-truth explanation, which, while not entirely honest, was satisfactory enough for Xu Xiao not to find fault.
"Aren't you afraid I might catch up at the last moment or even surpass you?" Xu Xiao asked, somewhat unwilling to give up.
Zhang Yang nodded, responding with an unusually confident tone: "Of course! I was aiming for a win in this match, and I'd be scared if you surpassed me!
But I hadn't caught anything for almost twenty minutes; your chances of surpassing were slim!
So I gambled! I had the advantage with two fish in hand; the odds favored me winning! You see, in the end, I won the gamble!"
Xu Xiao wanted to extract some useful tips from Zhang Yang, but ended up hearing "gamble" as advice.
But Zhang Yang's logic was so clear that there was no flaw to pick.
As the saying goes, you chat fishing skills, I discuss probabilities. Hearing Zhang Yang's answer, Xu Xiao felt at a loss for words.
"Alright, great! Learned something from you!"
Xu Xiao nodded repeatedly, a nameless sense of frustration welling up inside, oblivious to the weigh-ins not yet completed, he pulled out a cigarette and lit it for himself.
"Hey! Angler, the results haven't been tallied yet; smoking is not allowed during the match!"
Before finishing a cigarette, a reminder sounded beside him, as the referee and another young staff member approached to weigh the fish.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot!"
Xu Xiao snapped back, harshly extinguished the cigarette on his shoe, instinctively pocketing the stub.
Soon, the results of the fish catch were tallied.
Xu Xiao's total weight was 41.5 pounds, while Zhang Yang, with six big fish plus more than ten crucian carp, had a total weight of 66.9 pounds, surpassing Xu Xiao by 25.4 pounds!
Looking at the total weight in hindsight, even if Xu Xiao matched Zhang Yang's catch count, the odds of winning would have been below 30%.
Zhang Yang signed the results sheet, then skillfully packed up his gear. Before leaving, he waved to Xu Xiao: "I'm off, buddy! See you next time!"
"Goodbye!"
Despite feeling slightly defeated, Xu Xiao reciprocated the cordial farewell, not exhibiting too much poor sportsmanship, watching Zhang Yang depart.
As Zhang Yang walked away, Xu Xiao observed his half-tangled fishing setup,
"Damn it, what a lousy catch!"
Annoyed, Xu Xiao crumpled the fishing line into a ball, briefly hesitating to suppress the impulse to toss the setup on the ground, instead pocketing the hopelessly tangled line.
Ten minutes later, Xu Xiao carrying a tackle box and rod bag returned to the parking lot, where Liu Wenjun was already out and greeted him proactively.
"How did the match go? One point?"
Xu Xiao shrugged, lacking the confidence he had before fishing.
"Don't mention it, I drew next to Zhang Yang and got schooled by that guy!"