Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King

Chapter 878 - 586: The Cunning Big Fish (Part 2)

Maybe it was the continuous lifting of the rod that scared the fish; in the next ten minutes, after two more casts, the bobber never reacted again.

Zhang Yang wasn’t in a rush. He patiently baited the hooks, and when he was topping up for the third time, a thought struck him and he pinched a small Triangle Cannon onto the lower hook that had been left empty all this time.

When he was talking about open-pit scattered bombs earlier, Triangle Cannon had been introduced in detail; pinching Triangle Cannon with silver carp and bighead carp bait is a bit different from using yellow dough-type Triangle Cannon.

Silver carp and bighead carp bait has a lot of Snowflake Powder; the Triangle Cannon basically dissolves completely before it even reaches bottom and stabilizes, leaving almost no bait core. The only reason Zhang Yang did this was to make up for the lack of travel-time atomization after the upper-hook bait ball was pinched too tight.

Zhang Yang really guessed right. After adding a small Triangle Cannon to boost atomization, as soon as this rig entered the water, that familiar bobber behavior appeared again.

At first it was line-bumping, then there was a solid stop-bite, but after being burned twice in a row, Zhang Yang refused to fall for it the third time. Even when the bobber stopped he didn’t lift the rod; he just wanted to see what the hell was messing around down there.

The bobber dipped two marks, he let it go, then it slowly rose back to position, and after a few seconds, it gave a second dip.

He still didn’t lift the rod to strike, just continued to let it go.

When Zhang Yang let it go for the third time, the bobber behavior began to change.

The exaggerated signals like one or two marks, two or three marks, or even full black dives disappeared, turning instead into the kind of hesitant half-mark up-and-down bites that Xu Cheng had encountered earlier.

Seeing this kind of bobber movement with only half a mark of amplitude, Zhang Yang’s heart skipped a beat and he instantly realized what was going on.

He let those tiny bites go and didn’t strike, and only when the bait under the water was completely gone and the bobber rose back up in marks did Zhang Yang slowly lift the rod and gently straighten out the rig.

Then they saw Zhang Yang casually remove the large-weight bobber and swap it back for the one he’d used in the morning that carried just over two grams of lead.

After quickly adjusting everything, Zhang Yang repeated the earlier process and cast the rig back into the feeding spot.

The scattered bomb on the lower hook atomized very quickly, and after switching bobbers, the small fish in the upper layer were obviously taking more intercepts, but they were all chasing the remaining atomized crumbs. After a few shakes, the rig still managed to pass through the nuisance-fish layer in an orderly way and reach the lower position.

Because he’d switched to a smaller bobber and needed to pinch the bait more compactly, the size of the bait ball had to be reduced; at this moment the bait ball on the upper hook was at least one size smaller than when he was using the big bobber just now.

Zhang Yang already had a bit of an idea in his mind, but it wasn’t fully confirmed yet, so he could only stare hard at the bobber’s movements, looking for the right chance to lift the rod and strike.

Line-bump, big stop-bite, return to the fishing mark.

The same actions from before appeared again, but Zhang Yang still refused to lift the rod and just kept letting it go.

Persistence pays off. After patiently letting it go for a while, the bobber movement that made Zhang Yang’s heart race finally came.

They saw the marks on the water surface gently rise about the size of a small black square, then—poof—a near one-mark stop-bite.

Zhang Yang’s eyes were sharp and his hands quick; his wrist gave the rod a light flick. "Go!"

Whoosh! The fishing line sliced the water with a low whine, and a massive force transmitted from nearly four meters deep underwater onto the line, then through the rig into his right hand holding the rod.

"Fuck, still trying to run? I’ll see you run!" Zhang Yang couldn’t help blurting out a curse.

Though he was cursing, his hands never stopped moving. Zhang Yang squatted down in textbook fashion, lowering his center of gravity; his right hand held the rod, the back of his left hand braced against the middle of the handle section, maintaining a bowed-rod posture without moving.

The fish underwater was very hefty. From the resistance transmitted at the instant of the strike, Yue Feng already had some mental preparation, so he wasn’t in a hurry to drain the fish’s strength. He just focused on stabilizing this first burst of power.

This guy Zhang Yang has solid basic skills in striking. One obvious benefit is that after the hook set, it doesn’t cause too much pain, so although the fish underwater felt uncomfortable from the hook in its mouth, it hadn’t reached the point of going berserk to flee for its life, which naturally left room to maneuver for the subsequent playing of the fish.

Zhang Yang held his squatting, bowed-rod stalemate posture for about seven or eight seconds before the fish underwater slowly started to move, heading left instead of diving straight for the deep water right away.

Feeling the force of the fish below, Zhang Yang immediately reacted: "Young Master Xu, lift your rod and make room! This fish is a bit big!"

"Oh, got it!" Xu Cheng was on the left, practicing baiting and casting. Hearing Zhang Yang say he’d hooked a big one and needed space, he didn’t hesitate; he lifted his rod and quickly cleared room for playing the fish.

During this process, Zhang Yang gripped the rod firmly and shifted left along with the direction the big fish was pulling.

Just as he was about to lose his balance, Zhang Yang decisively tossed the rod toward the water and grabbed the safety rope hanging behind the rod handle.

"Got a big one on? How big? You even tossed the rod? Aren’t you using size 3 leader?" Xiaowei also cast a curious glance over.

As Zhang Yang worked the safety rope through his hands, he said, "Anyway, it’s not small. At the moment I struck, I honestly felt the fish didn’t lift its head. When it was moving just now, it was slow and steady like an old ox. It’s at least thirty jin, minimum!"

"Thirty jin? That big? Then you’d better be careful! Is a thirty-meter safety rope enough? Otherwise I can hook mine onto yours?" Xiaowei pressed.

Zhang Yang shook his head, and when he felt the fish’s pull wasn’t that fierce anymore, he tried retrieving some of the rope.

There was still resistance, but not too much. After a quick test, Zhang Yang pulled the rope back in and grabbed the lower end of the rod handle again.

He tentatively lifted the rod a bit; the fish didn’t struggle, so Zhang Yang took the chance to slowly bow the rod up.

The fish underwater seemed to have initially adapted to the foreign body of the hook in its mouth. As Zhang Yang bowed the rod and applied pressure, the fish didn’t react, just followed and swam upward.

Chances like this don’t come often. Zhang Yang decisively stepped off the platform back onto the bank, bowing the rod as he slowly backed up.

When playing small fish versus big fish, the emphasis is completely different. Small fish may explode with power, but their stamina reserves are low; after a few rounds they tire and go limp. Big fish are different—no matter how many rounds they struggle, it barely burns any stamina.

At times like this, a smart angler won’t choose to go head-to-head with a big fish.

Seeing this, some people might complain: isn’t playing a fish exactly about going head-to-head? Is it really possible to land a fish without direct confrontation?

Yes, playing a fish always involves a fight, but there are different levels of intensity. The best kind of confrontation uses the rig and the rod’s shock absorption and finesse to drain the fish’s strength, thereby achieving the goal of bringing it in.

A crucial factor in all this is strategic depth.

In plain language, it’s a temporary strategic buffer when the big fish exerts force.

When the big fish isn’t exerting itself, you retreat toward the bank as much as possible to leave a buffer zone. Once the fish powers up, the angler can take a few steps forward to avoid a direct collision, temporarily sidestep the peak of its power, and then, once the force eases, start the next round of confrontation.

With a safety rope as a last resort and strategic depth as a buffer, plus solid fish-playing technique, the chances of bringing in a big fish from below naturally become much higher than some hothead who just brute-forces it.

Seizing such a good opportunity, Zhang Yang unhesitatingly backed up more than ten steps. Only when the rod’s curve reached a reasonable arc did he stop.

"Boss, anything you need us to prep? Just say the word!" Xiao Yi, holding the video camera, was already in battle mode at his side.

Zhang Yang glanced at the ground behind him. "Move the bait and the mixing basin and everything else off to the side! Oh, right, Xiaowei, swap on our big landing-net head, we’ll need it in a bit!"

"Oh, oh, got it!"

Under Zhang Yang’s direction, the teammates quickly got busy.

Some cleared away clutter, others switched landing-net heads.

After less than a minute of stalemate, the big fish in the water started powering toward deeper water.

But blocked by the resistance of the line and hook, the fish felt some pain.

The next second, they saw Zhang Yang’s rod, originally raised at about eighty degrees, suddenly behave like it was tied to the back of a motorcycle, being yanked forward at high speed.