The Top Fishing Master
Chapter 160 - 132: Hundred Pounds of Sturgeon

Chapter 160: Chapter 132: Hundred Pounds of Sturgeon

The new record was announced, and many anglers looked towards Lin Yang, with Xia Xiaoxue, whose record had been broken, also giving Lin Yang a fist pump through the air as a sign of encouragement to keep pushing.

"Wow, over 36 pounds, the host is doing great, very authoritative."

"I’m even doubting what kind of high-tech the size 8 leader line the host is using is made of, to hold a 36-pound big fish without backing down even a step, it’s simply brutal."

Lin Yang just smiled and said, "Haha, it’s alright, just over 30 pounds, not quite a big fish yet."

On his end, he was reeling in another fish and interacting with the live-streaming audience, creating a nice atmosphere.

However, the energetic young man nearby thought it was a bit too showy, almost like a provocation; he lashed out with his rod, casting it out, while muttering something under his breath.

On the other side, Lin Yang’s newly set record lasted less than five minutes before it was broken by an angler on the opposite bank.

This guy was lucky. The first fish he caught as soon as he started was a Large Crucian Carp weighing 24.7 kilograms, pushing the record up by over 6 kilograms.

Hearing about the newly announced weight, Lin Yang became a bit anxious.

In terms of total weight he still had some advantage, but the heavyweight big fish that could solidly distance him from the others still wasn’t biting, which made him a bit nervous.

He was also quick to refill his bait, having used up more than half of the pellets in the bucket in less than three hours of fishing.

Just then, a flurry of fine bubbles suddenly surfaced at the feeding spot. Lin Yang recognized them and was a hundred percent certain they were from Catfish.

A catfish in the feeding spot?

Seeing this, Lin Yang felt a bit uneasy.

Why do I say so? Because Catfish don’t mingle with other fish species, when they enter a feeding spot, they create chaos, filtering and leaping around.

And being large and schooling by nature, experienced anglers know that once Catfish enter a feeding spot, the fish in the middle and lower layers will mostly be chased away.

Lin Yang hadn’t expected that his pellet could attract Catfish.

The situation now certainly wasn’t good, he couldn’t let them stir around in the feeding spot, he had to find the right water layer and pull them up.

Thinking this, Lin Yang lifted his rod, removed the rubber band pellet from the hook, and switched to using dough bait.

To cater to the catfish’s biting, Lin Yang used a technique where he left both ends of the bait open, to allow the bait ball to disperse as much as possible.

After baiting, he changed the float to the heaviest lead-eating float in his tackle box, adjusted the float for six marks, and set the float to about one meter deep to start fishing on the surface.

Catfish are mid to surface layer fish and sometimes go to the bottom too; they generally move in schools. When they enter a feeding spot, it’s not just one or two fish. According to Boss Tang, the Catfish here were released as fry many years ago, and now they’ve gathered in Lin Yang’s feeding spot.

After roughly finding the depth, Lin Yang made his first cast.

The first cast after changing his fishing technique hadn’t even settled when the float was struck and held steady, not moving at all. Lin Yang didn’t dare to lift the rod immediately for fear of spooking the fish and blowing up the spot, he paused and observed for a second, still no movement, so he jerked the rod to set the hook.

With a whoosh, the hook hit its mark.

This was a completely different feeling from bottom layer fish—very powerful. Once hooked, it furiously charged forwards, moving much faster as it was hooked in a higher water layer, and for a moment, he even felt like he couldn’t hold the rod steady.

But he’d managed to pull a 30-plus pound grass carp up, so a Catfish shouldn’t be able to escape.

Lin Yang planted his feet in a small horse stance, gripping the rod and started fighting the fish head-on, his arm muscles taut as he held the rod steady.

The whirring sound grew sharper with the fish’s continuous surges, bending the Hanlong Pole to an extreme extent, and it took over 10 minutes of struggle before the Catfish ran out of energy and surfaced.

A huge head broke the water surface, and Lin Yang’s eyes lit up when he saw it.

It’s huge.

He scooped the fish up with his net, lifted it out of the water, a twenty-plus pound Big Flower Head, its head alone making up about one-third of its body, its huge mouth open wide enough to fit a fist.

Without weighing, he knew this fish wasn’t going to set a new record, but it did add a significant amount to his total weight.

After unhooking, he placed the fish in the keep net.

Having found the right method to fish for Catfish, Lin Yang started pulling them up from the feeding spot.

The second and third casts, each cast landed a very well-proportioned Big Flower Head weighing over twenty pounds.

Even with his strong physique, after continuously pulling up three Big Flower Heads, his hands started trembling and his legs went numb, his heart thumping wildly.

But there was a school of Catfish in the feeding spot, not just one or two.

Seeing this, Lin Yang gritted his teeth and decided to cut his main line by 50 centimeters and re-tied it. The main line was too long, making it extremely hard to keep the fish from staying under water for a long time, so he cut the line shorter for a more forceful pull.

With that thought, after readjusting his line setup, he continued fishing.

After the adjustment, indeed it was much easier; cutting 50 centimeters from the main line along with the length of the leader line was only slightly longer than the rod handle.

After hooking a fish, it would only take five to six minutes to bring it to the water surface, and then following a few forceful pulls, it would quickly roll over and surrender.

From 10:30 in the morning until almost noon, over one and a half hours, Lin Yang was almost constantly hooking Catfish, with each fish taking no more than 10 minutes to land.