The Top Fishing Master

"Let's go, Brother Yang, let's go sign up."

Wang Feng said as he took Lin Yang to a temporary outdoor tent to register.

The registration was simple; just to record your name and mobile number and pay a registration fee of two hundred yuan, Wang Feng quickly paid the fee for both of them.

Then each received a plastic bracelet to wear on their wrist and a brochure that basically contained some rules of the competition.

The competition lasted for seven hours, starting at 9 AM and ending at 4 PM.

It was a pairs competition, and the result was determined by weighing, with the heaviest catch winning one hundred thousand yuan and 10 National Competitive Fishing Points; the rest followed similarly.

Of course, only the top three would receive prize money; the rest of the anglers might as well have spent two hundred yuan on a ticket.

As for choosing the spot, they would wait until just before the competition began to draw lots, which also prevented some anglers from preparing spots in advance.

"Brother Yang, how does it feel to participate in a fishing competition for the first time?" Wang Feng offered Lin Yang a cigarette.

"Haha, not bad, but there are a lot of people. Isn't there a limit on the number of competitors?"

Lin Yang waved his hand, looking at the continuously arriving vehicles and asked curiously.

Wang Feng replied, "There is no cap on that. As long as you pay and register, the number of spots will keep increasing. This reservoir is vast, it's not that easy to fill up, but of course, registration closes an hour before the competition starts."

The two chatted, and soon it was 8:30 AM, with only half an hour until the start of the competition.

After a verbose speech by a balding middle-aged leader on the stage, the contestants began to draw lots for their fishing spots.

Wang Feng, being the leader of their duo, went up to draw.

"Spot 99, over on the south side, we need to walk for a few minutes, let's go."

Following the movement of the crowd, Lin Yang and Wang Feng found their assigned spot, marked with the number 99.

Upon reaching the spot, Wang Feng laughed helplessly, "Ah, Brother Yang, it looks like we might be working in vain this time."

"What's the matter?"

"Old sayings go 'fish in narrow places from wide spots and in wide places from narrow spots,' and if not on a protruding spot, then find a curve; ideally, stay at the corners of a square pond or fish in the middle alongside straight banks."

"This Binjiang Reservoir is a plain reservoir, and our spot is on a straight line—Hua Jian, curves, we don't have any of that. It's hard to expect good catch."

Hearing this, Lin Yang just laughed. He looked at the fishing spot in front of him and found it quite appealing: the terrain was flat, which made fishing convenient.

"Hey! Brother Yang, what a coincidence, you're here for the competition too!"

No sooner had Lin Yang set down his fishing gear than a chubby middle-aged man not far away called out to him.

He looked towards the voice and saw it was Si Ge, whom he had just met a few days before; he smiled and responded, "Yes, what a coincidence, Si Ge, you're here too."

Brother Aquatic, a local well-known fishing enthusiast, was also taking part in the competition, so Lin Yang was not surprised to see him.

"The spot you guys drew isn't very good; you'll have to put in extra effort!" Si Ge laughed as he looked at where Lin Yang and his partner were standing.

Lin Yang glanced at Si Ge's spot, which was several meters further out front, evidently a better spot for catching fish.

"It's okay, we'll just treat it as a leisure fishing outing. The scenery here is pretty nice anyway," he consoled himself.

While chatting, both teams started their final preparations before the competition.

Wang Feng had thoroughly prepared various fishing gears, while Lin Yang only brought two bottles of his homemade Crucian Carp bait.

This time, Lin Yang was undoubtedly targeting big fish.

After all, the competition was based on total weight, so catching bigger fish would be a clear advantage—one big fish might weigh as much as ten smaller ones.

Moreover, he could always activate a buff for catching bigger fish. Even if they had a poor spot, it would still give them some edge over others.

Since the reservoir was large and the competition was a pairs event, the fishing spots were not fixed; a region less than ten square meters was marked with lime, within which contestants could freely fish.

Lin Yang didn't have a fishing platform, so he chose a spot that was relatively deeper.

Meanwhile, Wang Feng set up his fishing platform using a four and a half meter Crucian Carp rod to fish for smaller fish; from his perspective, thinking about catching big fish in this location was out of the question.

Moreover, a critical point was that he had seen Lin Yang's live stream before and knew the effectiveness of this Crucian Carp bait, and therefore, he had decided to focus on Crucian Carp.

If they could keep catching fish continuously today, they might still place high.

On the other side, Lin Yang wasn't thinking that much and pulled out the eight-meter-one rod that Wang Feng brought, and started tying the fishing line.

He was determined to target big fish, so the longer the rod, the better—provided you could cast it out.

Because of the reservoir's size and the long fishing duration, larger pellets were mixed into the bait to keep the fish around.

He set up the live streaming equipment, started the live stream, and sat waiting for the competition to begin.

.....

With the sound of a starting pistol in the distance, the fishing competition officially kicked off, and over a dozen drones meant for aerial photography soared into the sky.

The organizers were livestreaming the competition online, so these drones were put to good use capturing good shots for later video editing.

Furthermore, the drones had another purpose: they helped to prevent any unfair practices among the anglers.

Following the sound of the starting pistol, Lin Yang and his partner also raised their rods and began fishing.

At that moment, Lin Yang's bait was a pack of green grass pellets. Since the competition lasted seven hours, he opened the whole pack, filling a full bait container.

The fishing chair he was using now came with some very complete accessories, an umbrella holder, a fish guard stand, and a bait tray—all of these were included.

The Binjiang Reservoir covered an area of nearly one thousand acres, not too large, but definitely not small either, and it was Lin Yang's first time fishing in such a large body of water.

Though he lacked experience in reservoir fishing, he understood that fishing could be both difficult and simple—it was all about luring the fish under the water into the baited area and then fishing them out.

So, as usual, he didn't worry about whether fish had entered his baited area or not, he first took several casts to lay a layer of bait, accelerating the process of attracting fish.

After casting continuously for a few more minutes, he switched to smaller bait, kneading two pieces of bait slightly larger than soybeans and threw them into the water, then he calmly waited for the fish to bite.

Several minutes had passed since he started the live stream, and gradually one to two hundred viewers had trickled into the live stream room.

Lin Yang glanced at the screen and greeted the viewers in the live stream room, "Good morning, welcome to the stream."

Fishing without Leaving Empty: "Looking at the surroundings, has the host changed locations?"

"Yes, we have a reservoir fishing competition here today, so I came over," he replied.

Air Force Commander: "Nice, the host can even compete."

"Haha, just for fun, anyone can register as long as they pay, there are no restrictions," he explained.

Then Lin Yang started talking about the competition and the fishing technique he had chosen in the live stream room.

He was chatting away.

A short distance away, Si Ge was also live streaming; he was using a 7.2-meter pole and explaining while he cast.

"Folks, today I'm using a 7.2-meter long pole. Although it's quite long, it's just enough for Catfish fishing," he explained.

"Mainly because it's a bit windy today, a 7.2-meter pole isn't easy to cast, and even with my skills, I can't cast sitting down today but have to stand up to accurately reach the spot," Si Ge added.

As he spoke, Brother Aquatic stood up and cast another line, the bait ball tracing a beautiful arc and precisely landing in the baited area right in front of him.

"Not bad at all, such precision with a 7.2-meter pole, worthy of brother Si Ge."

"This is a 7.2-meter pole after all, Si Ge's fishing skills have improved, very precise casting."

"Although he's casting while standing, there's still the wind."

"Wondering what pole length others are using, how they're casting their rods."

As Si Ge continued streaming, he also paid attention to the comments in his live stream room and became curious when he saw the viewers' questions and began looking around.

"Since everyone's curious, let me show you what kind of rods they are using," he said.

With those words, he slowly turned the camera around.

About three hundred people were participating in the competition, most of them using poles longer than 5.4 meters.

Since they were fishing for Catfish, facing such a large body of water, the longer the pole, the better, especially since the shallow water near the shore was quite broad.

When the camera panned over to Lin Yang, and he saw him using an 8.1-meter pole, Si Ge was stunned.

Even though he had only known Lin Yang for a few days, he knew that Lin Yang had not been fishing for long, unlike the seasoned anglers who had been fishing for five, six, seven years or more.

At that moment, the viewers in Si Ge's live stream room were in an uproar.

"What's going on? Why is that guy using such a long rod?"

"That must be an 8.1-meter rod, I've been fishing for twenty years, I still have that much judgment."

"Damn, what's this situation, such a strong wind and he dares to use an 8.1-meter rod?"

Not only Si Ge and his live stream viewers were shocked, but many other competitors who saw Lin Yang using an 8.1-meter pole were also giving sidelong glances.

In the midst of many people discussing, Lin Yang once again pinched a piece of bait.

Then, he settled comfortably back into his fishing chair, right hand holding the rod and left hand gripping the eight-character ring, lightly flicked it.

Whoosh.

The rod sprung up elegantly, and the bait in his left hand transformed into a streak of light and precisely landed in the baited area right in front of him.

"This...."

At that moment, Si Ge was utterly dumbfounded, casting an 8.1-meter rod sitting against the wind?

When had Xiao Yang's fishing skills become so impressive?

A few days ago, he thought Lin Yang's continuous catches and fish protection was related to his specially-made rice wine bait, which indeed had miraculous effects as he himself had experienced.

But now, a novice who had only been exposed to fishing for a short while, was able to cast an 8.1-meter long rod while sitting—can you believe that?

Many viewers in his live stream room who witnessed this scene also widened their eyes.

"Damn, did that person just complete a cast sitting down?"

"That's an 8.1-meter pole, and there's wind...."

"So awesome, looks like this person is a pro."

"I know him, he's 'Xiao Yang Fishing,' also a streamer, I even bought a bottle of bait in his room."

"Room number please, I want to check out his stream."