Fishing Livestream
Chapter 266 - 266 265 Introductory Talk Therapy

266: Chapter 265: Introductory Talk Therapy 266: Chapter 265: Introductory Talk Therapy Everyone who signed up for the competition was a veteran, agilely packing up their gear and moving to their new spots in just a moment’s time; soon, everyone was in place.

Having just sat down, Yue Feng glanced at the angler next to him, and just as he did, the guy on his right also turned to look at him, and the two exchanged a knowing look without prior agreement.

Zhen Shuang!

Seeing the round, plump face next to him, Yue Feng was taken aback, he had drawn Zhen Shuang, the chubby member of the “Rascally Rogue Trio,” right off the bat.

“Yue Feng?

Hello, my name is Zhen Shuang, I hang out with Xiaoli!

I heard you beat Zhou Tao by hand-picking fish before?” Zhen Shuang said with a sly smile, barely hiding his sarcasm as he greeted Yue Feng.

Yue Feng nodded, “Hello, I’m Yue Feng!

Winning last time was luck, mostly because of good fortune!”

“You, keeping it so low-key!

Can still beat Zhou Tao, and you’re still a newbie?

I got into fishing late, so my skills are a bit lacking, go easy on me later, will you?” Zhen Shuang babbled insincerely.

“Heh, I’m a newbie too, please go easy on me!” Yue Feng nodded and responded with a smile.

Despite the genial small talk, the chubbier angler did not seem all that friendly to Yue Feng; talking to him made Yue Feng’s neck feel cool, a sign that the passive hostility effect from his badge was at work.

Greetings did not delay Yue Feng from making final equipment checks; casting a few empty hooks forward into the primary fishing area, he made slight adjustments to the fishing target on the float.

The fish in the number one crucian carp pit were biting well today, so Yue Feng’s trolling setup was quite bold, setting and fishing three targets.

This kind of fishing target for luring was neither sluggish nor abrupt, and it provided ample opportunities for adjustment, whether to advance or to defend.

“Brothers, ready?” Wang Xiaoli, fully prepared, asked everyone.

“Ok!”

“All set!”

“Alright, forty minutes per round, ready, begin!!”

At the signal, more than ten rods were raised almost simultaneously, then cast into the water.

Yue Feng was among the anglers casting, and as soon as the bait hit the water and the float turned, before it even settled, Yue Feng lifted the rod to flick off the bait and repeated the previous action.

Whether it’s competition or hand-picking fish, the principle is the same; the first step is to judge the fish activity you face.

The higher an angler’s fishing skill, the more accurate this judgment will be, and the better the results of the adjustments.

With previous trial fishing experience, Yue Feng had an initial understanding of the pond’s fish activity; thus, his choices after the start of fishing were quite straightforward.

He started by casting lures for about ten rods to create a fish pit, then adjusted depending on the fish activity at the pit.

The fish activity was almost exactly as Yue Feng predicted.

After casting ten rods at a consistent rate creating the pit, fish started to appear around the pit, and during the process of the float turning and settling, intermittent ambiguous movements began to emerge.

These small, subtle movements indicated fish were entering the pit.

Seeing this, Yue Feng knew the fish activity at the southeast corner should be consistent with the rest of Pond One, so he decided on his subsequent strategy: continue to increase casting frequency and press the attack.

After another ten-plus rods among the crowd of fish-handlers, a few had already landed two or three fish, but Yue Feng had not started fishing yet.

“What’s going on, little brother?

Everyone has cast their lines, but there’s still no action on your side!” At this time, Zhen Shuang, having just caught a double-tail, struck up a conversation with Yue Feng just for the sake of talking.

This kind of trash talk during fishing is a very common and effective way of distracting opponents, and Zhen Shuang, being next to Yue Feng for the first time, had already employed this master move.

Although his words were polite and seemed concerned, Yue Feng knew that the other party wasn’t harboring any good intentions.

Yue Feng shook his head, “It might be that the bait isn’t strong enough, I’ll try casting a few more times!”

Yue Feng had a clear understanding of the rhythm in his mind and wasn’t disturbed by the other’s interference, responding vaguely while his hands didn’t slow down at all.

He continuously cast his line more than twenty times in silence, and the effect was quite obvious—the stars of fish around the float visibly increased, and during the float’s turning over, the position for small actions got higher and higher.

However, Yue Feng was intent on casting to gather fish and not ready to catch yet, so up to now, he hadn’t caught a single fish.

After the float had turned over and been caught for the first time, Yue Feng knew the fish density around the bait spot should be about right, so he slightly slowed down the casting rhythm by half a beat.

The date pit-shaped comprehensive float with the bait entered the water, with the lead skin taking the main and sub-lines to the front.

Once the main line was fully taut, the float paused slightly, turned slowly, and began moving towards the fishing target.

Just as it turned over, the float paused slightly, and Yue Feng knew that a fish was nibbling, but it seemed not to be secured, so he let the line and bait continue to swing downward.

At about seven target depths, there was a strong, sudden sense of bite, and Yue Feng knew a fish had swallowed the bait.

As expected, after the sudden bite, the float’s fishing target paused for a short while, bobbing up and down for about half a target depth for a second before it suddenly bit again.

Seeing this second bite, Yue Feng knew it was the right moment.

He lifted the rod to hook the fish!

Double-tail!!

The rhythm changed, and by consciously allowing the fish to take the bait, he immediately caught a fish, and it was a double-tail.

During this process, Zhen Shuang beside him had already continuously caught four or maybe five fish.

“Yo, not bad, a double-tail!” Zhen Shuang glanced at Yue Feng’s catch out of the corner of his eye and followed up with a comment.

“Hehe, I’m just lucky!

The fish are biting!” Yue Feng grinned and deliberately prepared two moderately sized balls of bait before casting them out again.

The same bait ball, one for feeding the spot and the other for catching fish, involved different baiting methods.

For leading bait to lure fish, the primary consideration is to make it slightly larger, mainly achieved through scraping the skin of the bait, that is, separating the twin hooks and scraping the bait on the side surface.

This method produces a larger bait ball with more edges and corners.

As for the bait used to catch fish, it’s a different method.

When pressing the bait onto the hook, press slightly deeper into the center, resulting in a more unified bait ball that is also slightly smaller, facilitating the bait’s entrance and creating favorable conditions for the fish to suck it in.

Yue Feng understood these finer details quite well—the two small bait balls used for catching fish were fuzzily full and round, scattering some residue upon entering the water, leaving appropriately sized remains.

As long as they reached the target fish layer, they could be easily sucked into the mouth with a casual bite.

Another double-tail!

With four fish caught in two casts, Zhen Shuang, who had felt quite at an advantage just a moment ago, found it hard to contain himself.

He had been ahead by six fish in total, but Yue Feng caught up with four in just two casts, and both were double-tails.

Zhen Shuang hadn’t expected that the most thrilling part was still to come.