Fishing Livestream
Chapter 694 - 694 681 Coming Out on Top

694: Chapter 681: Coming Out on Top 694: Chapter 681: Coming Out on Top The lure hit the water, and Yue Feng began to silently count the time it took for the bait to sink—1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7—it took a full seven seconds before he felt the lure hit the bottom.

Yue Feng instantly judged that the water depth at this spot was slightly deeper than most of the places he had tested the day before, approximately two and a half meters.

Barely lifting the rod to prevent the bait from lying on the bottom too much and getting snagged, Yue Feng quickly manipulated the water drop wheel to start the variable-speed reeling.

The smaller lure had a much more agile swimming posture in the water compared to the larger one previously used.

Under Yue Feng’s control, it displayed accelerations, suspensions, risings, and fallings—various swimming stances.

After searching with one cast, he didn’t discern any attacking movements.

Yue Feng began to reel in to make another cast.

But just as he had retrieved the line halfway, he suddenly felt a slight weight on the rod tip—something was attacking the lure.

Bigmouth bass weren’t only active at the bottom; they moved on the surface and mid-water as well.

Yue Feng didn’t care what kind of fish was biting; he paused for half a second to let the fish bite firmly, then he set the hook—fish on!

The force from underwater wasn’t too strong, only slightly resistant.

Soon, Yue Feng brought it up.

A fish with a slightly wide and flat shape, covered with numerous blue-black round spots, was reeled in.

Yue Feng recognized this fish, having caught it during his test fishing the previous day.

The locals called it a mei bass, a predatory species that wasn’t very large but had a strong predatory instinct.

Since it wasn’t the target species, Yue Feng pulled the fish to the edge of the water, unhooked it, and released it back into the water, then he cast again towards another spot.

Perhaps the first catch brought Yue Feng good luck; as soon as the lure hit the bottom on his second cast, he felt a heaviness on the rod tip—a fish was attacking the bait near the bottom, and he had a bite.

Being able to attack the lure at a depth of over two and a half meters, the likelihood it was a target Big Mouth Bass was quite high.

Yue Feng fought hard, setting the hook and bending the rod.

This fish was much stronger; as it fled, it initially pulled the drag that Yue Feng had tuned, causing him to lock it down a half turn tighter before he got the fish under control.

The rod’s action was half a model too soft, which slowed down the control efficiency slightly, but Yue Feng didn’t plan to switch rods.

With not so many fish for anglers to compete over, and a strategy to play for success rate, a slightly softer rod had a higher margin for error.

After two rounds, the fish underwater was finally subdued.

Yue Feng repeatedly lifted the rod, reeled in, and soon brought the fish out of the water.

The target species, the Big Mouth Bass!

When the fish was by the boat, Yue Feng used a net to scoop it up.

Then, with a fish controller, he clamped its mouth, removed the hook, and showed the catch to the live broadcast audience.

Yue Feng: “Brothers, this is our target fish for today’s competition, the Big Mouth Bass!

This fish has an extremely wide distribution in the United States, is very hardy, feeds fiercely, and its flesh is very delicious!

It can be said that its status in the American fishing community is akin to that of the crucian carp in our domestic Taiwan Fishing circles!

It’s the target species for the nation’s fishing sport!”

“Holy moly, that guy’s mouth is huge!”

“Indeed, the mouth is big.

Compared to that mouth, the lure Feng’s using seems a bit small.

Two sizes bigger, and it would still easily swallow it down!”

“Does the fish we caught meet the standard to keep?

It feels like it should weigh at least a pound!”

Yue Feng casually took out a measuring ruler from the side and measured the fish’s length.

The standard ruler was about four centimeters shorter than the fish, which meant the fish exceeded the minimum length by four centimeters, qualifying it as a valid fish for the competition.

“The fish is four centimeters longer than the standard size, one valid fish!

We’re lucky, off to a good start!

Now, let’s put this fish into the live fish bucket on the boat!”

Yue Feng greeted everyone and placed the fish in the oxygenated live well on the boat, then continued to fish.

Big Mouth Bass have a certain sense of territory; as adults, they mostly act alone, so it’s hard to catch many fish at one spot, and in relatively sparse areas, you might catch a big one and then not find any more of the same kind.

Yue Feng then cast a few more rods to search the surrounding suspicious area of the spot but without any catch.

So he called out to the Captain to keep moving forward and search for new spots.

Having caught a fish that met the size specification at the first spot, Yue Feng was indeed lucky; out of all forty boats in the competition, less than half had found their first spot, and Yue Feng was the only one who had caught a qualifying fish.

While Yue Feng was putting the fish into the live fish bucket, the recording equipment installed on the boat automatically transmitted the general details of the catch to the competition staff.

In fact, measuring the fish with the ruler just now was a standard process of the competition.

On the staff’s backstage system, with the first catch on record, not considering weight, Yue Feng temporarily topped the leaderboard with a score of one fish.

The competition staff were right: the region around East Bank Middle Waist was a good location.

The fishing boat had been going for less than five minutes when another potential fishing spot caught Yue Feng’s eye.

“Uncle David, could you please stop here for a moment!” Yue Feng immediately signaled the Captain to slow down.

“Stop the boat?

Have you spotted something?

It’s at least a ten-minute ride to our next recorded spot.

If we waste too much time on the way, other anglers might beat us to other spots!”

Concerned about time-wasting, Captain David reminded him.

Yue Feng nodded, “I understand what you’re saying!

I just spotted a suspicious area.

Let’s cast a few lines to check it out!”

“Alright then!” The Captain respected Yue Feng’s decision, after all, David’s boss Lawrence had instructed everything in the competition be directed by Yue Feng.

After the boat stopped, Yue Feng began searching this new spot once more.

But this time his luck wasn’t as good, and as soon as his first cast hit the bottom, he realized the lure was snagged when he started to retrieve.

He had a vague feeling when the lure hit the bottom that it wasn’t the kind of hard, rock-and-pebble ground, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there might have been tree branches or other debris down there.

“Drat, snagged, it’s never longer than three seconds of being suave!” Yue Feng grimaced and joked, raising his rod horizontally and pulling on the PE line with his hands.

“Be careful with safety, Brother Feng.

PE line can be very sharp when wet, and it’s easy to cut your hands if you handle it barehanded!”

“Getting snagged while lure fishing is normal; I once set a personal record of losing seven VIBs in an hour, over a hundred bucks’ worth of lures gone just like that!

And that’s when I haven’t even started using the really high-end stuff; imported lures can cost a fortune each!”

Yue Feng: “The bros in the live stream are right, I do have to be careful when getting snagged.

But the lures I’m using are small, and the triple hooks finer, so the resistance isn’t too strong.

I reckon, nine out of ten times the lure won’t get lost.

It’s more likely that the triple hooks will just get bent out of shape.”

As he spoke, the tense fishing line underwater suddenly went slack – the hook was free!