NOVPUB
Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Who Are Those Two People in the Middle of the North Shore?
In 2012 in W City, the black pit fishing method was still in a relatively primitive budding state, with the boss stocking fewer fish. Unless anglers were incredibly lucky, it was generally very difficult to experience the excitement of catching carp continuously.
Most ordinary anglers spend a few dozen yuan to fish, catching three to five fish in the main competition or one or two in sneaky sessions, and they’re pretty satisfied.
At that time, catching carp continuously was a very luxurious experience.
Zhao Bingguang had played in the rod pit many times, but this was the first time he experienced the exciting fishing scenario where bait was thrown into the water, and the fish bit immediately. He was unusually excited, and the right hand holding the rod couldn’t help but shake.
People who don’t fish simply don’t know how exciting the rush is when getting bites with every cast; it’s a feeling of adrenalines rushing, making your whole body feel like it’s boiling with enthusiasm.
Old Zhao caught six fish in a row at the edge of his fishing spot, with the cigarette in his mouth already burned down to the filter and he couldn’t even spit out the cigarette butt as his left hand trembled while baiting.
Zhang Yang noticed his abnormality, grinned and said, "Don’t get so excited! It’s just a small situation, really not worth it!"
"Damn thrilling! This is worth more than 120, even 200 would be justified! I’ve got another one!" As he spoke, Old Zhao cast his rod again to hook a fish.
However, he was a bit unlucky with this cast; the fish slipped off the hook and escaped soon after being pulled out of the water due to a shallow hook.
"Damn it! I got the bite too hurriedly, and the fish ran off like a slingshot!" Old Zhao muttered.
Zhang Yang reminded, "Take a break, your pace is a bit fast. Replenish the fishing spot a few times and rest a bit! The fish are in the spot, eventually, they’ll be ours, they won’t run away!"
"Okay, listening to your command, let’s replenish the spot a few times!"
With Zhang Yang’s reminder, Old Zhao and Zhang Yang alternated between replenishing the spot to attract fish and kneading bait to catch fish, bringing several carp up from the fishing spot, firmly controlling the fishing rhythm of the spot.
After a while more of fishing, Old Zhao had caught fifteen or sixteen fish with a 3.7-meter carp rod and his arm was already sore.
"I can’t take it anymore, switch with yours! This 3.6-meter rod is a bit soft, after casting for so long, I can’t take it anymore!" Having had his fill of excitement, Old Zhao finally couldn’t bear it and reminded Zhang Yang to switch.
"Then you take a short break, help me replenish the spot! I’ll fish a few!" Zhang Yang changed the bait on the next cast to kneaded bait, taking over for Old Zhao.
Despite Old Zhao having caught nearly twenty fish from the fishing spot, the density of the spot remained under Zhang Yang’s control. As fish were caught, new fish were lured in by the Triangle Cannon without significantly decreasing the numbers.
After Zhang Yang switched to kneaded bait and began fishing, he caught a fish on his first cast, smoothly controlling and retrieving the fish.
With one round, he lifted the fish above water, then quickly ran it alongside the surface to the net at his feet.
With his left hand holding the net, he extended and retracted the net, scooping the fish inside like pulling a drawer, then pulled the net back with his foot hooked on the net handle, placing the net head on top of the fish holder.
His right hand gripped the rod tightly, his arm raising the main line in tautness, while his left hand straightened the fishing line, pressed on the hook shank to easily unhook, baited twin lines and cast into the water again, with a graceful and swift flipping net motion, the fish in the net responding quickly into the fish holder.
In comparison to Old Zhao occasionally losing fish, Zhang Yang’s success rate in landing fish was much higher, catching fish after fish in similar floating situations and timing. Zhang Yang placed six fish into the holder consecutively, with each hook penetrating accurately at twelve o’clock in the fish’s mouth.
After catching eight fish in a row, Zhang Yang consciously slowed his pace.
The fish bites at the spot slowed a bit, indicating a reduction in fish numbers and necessitating further spot replenishment to attract fish, else the bites would stop after a while.
"Switch back to me?" Old Zhao asked when he saw the situation.
Zhang Yang shook his head, "Don’t grab the bites for now! There are fewer fish in the spot, the longer we fish, the more dispersed the fish will become! The south bank also started catching fish, each of us casts fifty times, grabbing all the fish we can from around us into the spot! Fish the second half!"
"Alright, listening to you!"
Having previously suffered twice by not heeding Zhang Yang’s advice, this time Old Zhao executed orders accurately.
When they said fifty casts, they meant fifty casts, double-hook Triangle Cannon, cast and lift, following Zhang Yang’s casting frequency as closely as possible.
When a person focuses on doing one thing, time passes quickly. Old Zhao didn’t realize how long had passed; when he habitually lifted the rod to straighten the line and prepared to mold the Triangle Cannon again, he found his once-full tray of scatter cannon emptily used up in the high-frequency cast.
"Hey Zhang, how many casts have we made? Damn, all the scatter cannon in the tray have been used up!"
This was the first time since Zhao Bingguang fished in the black pit that this happened; he always had leftover bait whenever he fished, and using up a full tray of bait through casting was unprecedented for him.
Zhang Yang grinned, "I’ve done forty-three casts here! You should be around thirty-seven! There’s still bait in the tray behind us, use it boldly, if it’s not enough I’ll prepare more!"
"You’ve set frequencies apart from me so much! I’m going to catch up with a few casts!" Old Zhao muttered, turned to scoop up bait from the tray into his own tray, and continued casting vigorously.
By this time, more than an hour had passed since the fishing started at twenty past six.
The increase in fish stocking proved very effective, with all south bank anglers starting to cast and having at least four or five fish.
With fewer people on the north bank, presenting relative advantages, anglers in the northeast and northwest corners each caught seven or eight fish.
However, with a total of eight hundred pounds of fish being caught by so many people, most of the new fish released were snatched by anglers.
Gradually, everyone’s fishing spot actions became rarer, and Zhang Yang knew that for normal anglers, this fishing competition’s rush phase was over.
The next fishing situation would become slower and continue until the next morning when there might be fish resuming their bites after resting overnight.
The rush phase was over for everyone else, but it didn’t mean Zhang Yang’s competitive fishing phase was also over.
Each angler casting Fifty Triangle Cannon times, with two people fishing one spot, equals a hundred Triangle Cannon baiting amount.
In the context of widespread soft paste bait fishing, the lure effect of so many Triangle Cannons was extremely apparent.
As a result, after eight o’clock when everyone’s spots generally died down, people noticed that Zhang Yang and Zhao Bingguang in the middle of the north bank still had fast fish bites; one fish after another, they consistently caught fish.
On the south bank beside Wang Jun, Qian Wenbo used the advantage of the slipping radius of his 4.5-meter rod to successfully shadow Wang Jun next to him, making Wang Jun stop catching fish.
Yet his catch wasn’t much either because of a terrain platform at the 3.6-meter fishing location, whereas the 4.5-meter spot was on a slope, making it harder to gather fish.
Noticing the situation on the opposite bank, Qian Wenbo took out a cigarette pack while distributing cigarettes and whispered to his companion: "Hey, Lao Duan, do you know those two guys in the middle of the north bank? It’s already this hour, they’re still catching fish quickly!"
