The Top Fishing
Chapter 249 - 158: Fungi and Fish

Chapter 249: Chapter 158: Fungi and Fish

Time passed slowly; the first match was nearing its end, with less than 20 minutes remaining. At this point, the rankings of the various teams seemed to have settled.

Just then, the main camera of the show suddenly shifted back to Lin Yang’s team.

"They have a bite, look, Master Lin’s team has a bite!"

"Haven’t they been catching fish all along? Whether it’s White Fish or Catfish, or even Mai Sui, what’s there to be excited about?"

"This time seems different, it’s a fish I don’t recognize, wait... it’s two kinds!"

This time, Lin Yang and Yue’er almost simultaneously caught fish, but the fish they each landed were two different, rarely seen species.

With the camera focused on them, everyone could see the special types of fish they had caught.

Lin Yang caught a 20-plus centimeter long fish that looked very much like a common Carp, but this fish had a much larger head that made it look almost awkward, as if deformed.

"It’s a Big Head Carp! A rare endangered fish species unique to Yunnan Province, even more precious than the Seven-star fish, and they actually caught it."

At that moment, Li Xiaopeng, who had been continually catching Crucian Carp and Carp, also showed a face full of joy, as if he had won a lottery jackpot: "Hahaha, we caught a Big Head Carp, it seems we’re on a lucky streak."

On the other hand, the fish hanging on Yue’er’s hook was another unusual species, and she hadn’t even reacted yet.

The fish she lifted was slender and rounded, with delicate white scales all over its body, looking like a beautiful silver dagger.

"Brother Yang, what kind of fish is this? I’ve never seen or recognized it."

Not only did Yue’er not recognize this peculiar fish, but many anglers watching live were also puzzled as they viewed the strange little fish on the big screen.

"The expert who just recognized the Seven-star fish and Big Head Carp, come out and identify this one."

"I’m the one who recognized the Seven-star fish and Big Head Carp, not quite an expert, but this fish looks a bit like the Bow Fish described in books...."

"This is the Bow Fish? One of the Four Famous Fish? No way, the competition is almost over and we finally see an Erhai Bow Fish?"

As these two rare fish species were caught, the atmosphere at the venue soared to new heights.

Almost no one had expected that these two extremely rare fish species would be caught by the same team at the same moment.

The main attraction of this competition was the special fish species, and by catching two fish with the highest points, Lin Yang’s team naturally drew a lot of attention.

The show’s referees quickly swarmed in, and the judge experts on-site confirmed that the fish caught by the two were indeed the Big Head Carp and the Bow Fish.

After the identification, Lin Yang and Yue’er, under the camera’s focus, released the two fish back into nature immediately.

As both were precious and rare species, to avoid accidents, they didn’t even proceed with the fish protectors. After recording the scores, they immediately released the fish back into the water.

This approach was well-intentioned by the organizers and was highly praised by the audience on-site and those watching the broadcast.

With Lin Yang and Yue’er each catching a Big Head Carp and a Bow Fish, some spectators who had been skeptical of their team were now reversing their judgments.

Earlier, many people had said Lin Yang was dragging them down and that strategic mistakes would lead to their downfall. But now, they had caught the only Erhai Bow Fish caught in the entire competition, a fish worth 10 points only found in the Erhai Water Area.

The Erhai Bow Fish, along with Dianchi Golden Line Barbel, Fuxian Lake Anti-wave White Fish, and Lugu Lake Split Belly Fish, are known as Yunnan Province’s Four Famous Fish species.

Though a single Erhai Bow Fish and one Big Head Carp were not sufficient to completely turn around their team’s fortunes to lead the rankings, the instant 15 points were still very helpful to their ranking.

Their ranking immediately improved significantly, moving up from a mid to lower position to within the top hundred.

In this way, as the first of four matches, even if they were slightly behind the leading group, performing well in the following three matches could still provide Lin Yang’s team a chance to achieve a good ranking in the end.

At least they had secured their advancement to the next round of this match.

Since this round of the competition was almost over, the temporary rankings were roughly the same as before.

Unless another team, like Lin Yang’s, also managed to catch one or two of the most special fish species, it was hard to achieve a significant turnaround.

But so far, only Lin Yang’s team had caught an Erhai Bow Fish. With rare species like the Seven-star Fish and Big Head Carp, among the 900 contestants, less than ten had been caught, with most of the competitors mainly catching Crucian Carp and Carp.

With just the last few minutes of the competition remaining, the team currently leading was the Tianyuan Youth Training Team, followed by the team of the short-statured Xiao Ai, with other teams led by fishing experts not far behind.

While many had thought Lin Yang’s team would falter, they had now successfully escaped danger. As for another team composed of three internet-famous anglers with millions of followers, they completely failed, even though they started the competition boasting about handling big fish. Despite catching big fish, they lost the match.

Similarly, Wang Bo and his teammates, who also chose to target large species, surprisingly ranked around 110th. They had chosen to catch Catfish, earning 3 points per Catfish; they didn’t encounter any large Catfish during the competition, catching fish mostly between 5 and 15 pounds. This helped them save a lot of time.