Fishing Livestream
Chapter 398 - 398 387 Solid Fundamentals

398: Chapter 387: Solid Fundamentals 398: Chapter 387: Solid Fundamentals “See the rim of this teacup?

With a 3.6-meter short rod, if you can hit the target eight times out of ten casts, that means your basic skills are up to par, and you can start Bait Opening for the next part of the training,” Yang Wenjian said.

Upon hearing the instructor say this, Yue Feng felt a slight stir in his heart.

It wasn’t just Liu’s brother and the others who used this method to test an Angler’s basic skills— the instructors at Hua School followed the same approach.

“Well, that sounds great, I’ll give it a try first!” As soon as the instructor finished speaking, Zhao Zheng raised his hand to indicate that he wanted to attempt it.

“Who else wants to try, come with me!” The instructor called out and turned, taking the cup with him as he left the fishing spots of the Practice Pole Pond and headed toward the open space nearby.

This basic skill of casting into the rim of a cup is quite difficult for the average Angler; most of the trainees just turned their heads to watch the spectacle.

Only a sparse seven or eight people stood up from their seats—without saying, these were the individuals who previously had a solid foundation and felt they had a fair chance at succeeding.

Yue Feng, Qin Hu, Mu Jie, Zhao Zheng, Zhao Zhe, Chen Chen, and a guy around thirty named Guan Ping’an.

Guan Ping’an, another owner of a fishing gear shop, stood around 175 cm tall, with a square face and a usually low presence.

It was unexpected that he would join in the excitement.

“Instructor, can I try a couple of warm-up casts first?” Zhao Zheng got the rod and shamelessly asked.

“Sure, everyone can have three warm-up casts before their official attempts, but no interruptions allowed once you start for real!”

Zhao Zheng had the confidence to try not merely because he was audacious.

He had specifically practiced this skill when training basic capabilities with a friend before.

However, the bowl they used at home for eating was slightly larger than the instructor’s cup.

Zhao Zheng soon began his attempt.

He pinched the leader line in his left hand, and after a few motions with the rod in his right to get a feel for it, he cast briskly.

Clang!

The Lead Skin hit the edge of the thermos cup and bounced off—his first warm-up cast failed.

The cup’s opening was small and the cup was taller than the ceramic bowl, so the difficulty was indeed greater.

Zhao Zheng didn’t get discouraged after the first failure and slightly furrowed his brow to reflect before quickly trying a second time.

The first attempt had just missed by a smidgeon.

The second time he cast, he adjusted the force of his right hand slightly upward, and sure enough, it worked.

Clang, another sound.

This time, the lead weight didn’t deviate and landed accurately inside the cup rim.

Having found the right feel, Zhao Zheng tried a third time and hit the target again.

After hitting the target two times in a row, Zhao Zheng had essentially found his groove.

He nodded at the instructor and said, “Then I’m ready to start!”

In what followed, Zhao Zheng’s rod rose and fell repeatedly as he cast toward the cup time after time.

Except for one cast that failed when it hit the cup rim again, the other nine attempts were all successful.

“That’s good!

Go across to the other side for pole practice, and don’t stand too close to others; it’s hard to manage!” The instructor waved his hand, signaling that Zhao Zheng had passed.

“Alrighty!” Zhao Zheng responded and turned to head toward his gear, finally liberated!

“Who’s next?” The instructor glanced over and swept his eyes across the group.

Yue Feng had stood up last and so naturally placed himself at the end of the line, and Qin Hu stepped forward to take the rod next.

It was clear that Qin Hu’s basic skills were quite good too.

After a few warm-up casts, he also managed nine successful casts and went away as he wished.

The success of the two guys gave a lot of confidence to those lining up behind them.

However, this task tested solid skill, not luck; without true proficiency, confidence did nothing to enhance performance.

Next up were Mu Jie, Zhao Zhe, and Chen Chen, who each took turns trying their hand at the task.

After three warm-up opportunities, none of the three guys had quite found their groove, with only Mu Jie performing slightly better by succeeding on one attempt.

Once the competition officially began, he failed six out of ten tries.

As for Zhao Zhe and Chen Chen, their performance was even poorer.

It looked easy enough, but after trying hard a few times, they both kept failing one attempt after another.

Following three continuous failures after the competition kicked off, they just gave up on the remaining seven attempts and admitted defeat outright.

In the end, only Yue Feng and Guan Ping’an were left.

“Guan, you first!” Yue Feng said graciously.

Guan Ping’an nodded and took the fishing rod from the instructor.

To everyone’s surprise, Guan Ping’an’s casting was incredibly steady; not only did he hit the target on all three warm-up attempts, but his accuracy was even better than Zhao Zheng’s.

How could you tell?

It was like shooting a basketball—some make a bank shot for two points, while others sink nothing but net.

Guan Ping’an was the latter, landing the lead sinker right in the middle of the cup every single time, with the sound it made each time having a slightly different nuance.

The subsequent ten test casts were nothing to speak of for him; they posed no difficulty whatsoever.

“Old Guan, that’s some skill you’ve got there, you must have really put in the hard work!” Instructor Yang Wenjian couldn’t help but exclaim.

Guan Ping’an smiled modestly, “I did train for a while indeed, Instructor.

I’ll be heading off then, Yue, good luck!”

Yue Feng nodded and took the rod from him.

The test was down to just Yue Feng and the instructor, with a bunch of other students turning around to watch the spectacle.

“Let’s go straight to it!” Yue Feng called out, skipping the warm-up and starting his casts, each as precise as the last, never missing the mark.

“Damn!

The class leader is so badass, he doesn’t even need a warm-up!”

“Awesome!

Just as skilled as Brother Guan, clearly a pro who’s practiced!”

“Damn it, makes you feel useless in comparison.

No wonder he’s the class leader!”

The onlookers muttered amongst themselves, once again Yue Feng scored full points for showing off.

However, since he had already experienced this back at Star Moon Lake, there was no ripple of excitement in Yue Feng’s heart.

“Thank you, Instructor, I’m heading over to the other side!” Yue Feng handed the rod back to Yang Wenjian and turned to leave.

“What’s the rush?

Let’s chat for a bit!” said Yang Wenjian.

“Hm?” Yue Feng was puzzled, marked by a row of question marks in his head, wondering what the instructor was getting at.

“Old Guan had tried out at Tianyuan before, so I can understand he might have some fundamentals, but how did you manage to do this?

Can you tell me?” Yang Wenjian couldn’t contain his curiosity.

Yue Feng scratched his head, “Oh, that.

Well, previously, I had a bout with a local competitive angler over little crucian carps with a hefty bet—loser calls the winner ‘Daddy’.

I was afraid to lose, so I trained my casting basics at Star Moon Lake for a while.

Later, I started doing live streams, fishing and all that.

I kept up the practice consistently and over time got the hang of precision casting!”

This explanation might have convinced anyone else, but to Yang Wenjian, it remained somewhat suspect.

Why?

Well, it was simple.

Yang Wenjian had seen too many fishing novices, and while achieving a passing grade in casting was not hard, reaching the extreme precision that Yue Feng and Guan Ping’an demonstrated wasn’t something attainable with just a short burst of intensive training.