Chapter 771: Chapter 441: Difficult Fishing Conditions (Part 2)

Seeing this, many people might be puzzled. Didn’t the fish go to the bottom? They should start eating the bait soon, right?

That’s not the case. Common freshwater fish like carp and crucian carp are among the lower vertebrates, aquatic cold-blooded vertebrates. Their actions are mostly controlled by reflex and instinct, without much conscious thinking.

Everyone understands reflex — reacting to stimuli, let’s leave that aside for now.

Let’s talk about the instincts of fish.

Fish live in water, and their actions are constrained by a few instincts engraved in their genes.

The first is the survival instinct. In harsh environments, fish will try to find places more suitable for survival, such as gravitating towards light, warmth, and oxygen.

The second instinct is the reproductive instinct. During breeding season, influenced by hormones, fish will migrate back to shorelines to find nests and grassy spots.

The third instinct is the feeding instinct. When hungry, they will look for food. They might stay when they find a rich feeding spot.

The priority of different instincts varies, with the survival instinct being the top priority.

Specifically, in a harsh environment, fish reduce feeding to conserve body functions to cope with low oxygen, high pressure, and high temperatures.

The fish in the mixed-fishing pond where Zhang Yang and his team are fishing are in a slightly relieved "stress" state from extreme low oxygen conditions. Factors like bait spots, food, and atomization rarely impact them to gather and start eating.

After so much discussion, one might ask, if all these delicacies don’t work, how should we fish at this time?

The correct approach is to find the fish!

Find a place where the environment is more suitable for the fish to start feeding, find the water layer where active fish are distributed.

The typical methods of finding fish include "tethering frogs" and "big flying lead."

At this moment, Zhang Yang, after observing for less than a minute, confirmed there were no fish in the nest spot in front of him and decided on using tethering frogs next.

Zhang Yang placed two soybean-sized bait balls barely covering the hooks and cast his rod to a nearby spot in front of him.

In a close spot, there might be fewer fish, but possibly a few active ones, which are Zhang Yang’s targets.

Zhang Yang focused intently on the bobber, changing the landing spot of the double-hook bait repeatedly.

One cast, two casts, three casts. After several changes of location, there was still no movement.

Looking up at the situation of other anglers nearby, had it been yesterday, someone would have caught a fish within a minute. However, today, with thirty or more people fishing in a large competition venue, everyone was staring blankly.

Could tethering frogs fail too? Is the situation that challenging?

Zhang Yang felt a bit heavy-hearted. If the fish were so reluctant to bite across the entire pond, that’s not good for Zhang Yang either. If it came down to sheer luck, Zhang Yang wouldn’t have any advantage.

Just as Zhang Yang sensed this wasn’t going well, while changing fishing spots with tethering frogs, the bobber lightly twitched when it just settled and quickly returned to normal.

An ordinary angler might overlook such a subtle movement, but not Zhang Yang, who keenly noticed it.

Seeing a bobber reaction indicated there was indeed fish in this spot. The action occurred after the double hook reached the bottom and the bobber had flipped, implying the fish were likely at the bottom.

Zhang Yang held the rod slightly, gently lifted it, but the fish didn’t bite. He tried coaxing again, still to no response.

After two attempts, Zhang Yang memorized the position, changed the bait to smaller pieces, and cast again to the previous spot.

Fortune favors the attentive: after several tries, Zhang Yang finally got the first bite.

After the bobber reached position, it paused for about three seconds before slowly dipping with a tiny black mark action.

Yes, you didn’t see wrong. It was just a small dark mark in the middle of the bobber’s indicator. Zhang Yang saw no rebound after the dark mark appeared and decisively lifted the rod to hook the fish.

The force underwater transmitted through the fishing line to the rod tip, then from the rod to Zhang Yang’s hand.

There was a bit of weight to it!

Zhang Yang initially judged that the fish wasn’t big, estimating it to be around three ounces.

In such difficult fishing conditions, catching a fish was no easy task. Zhang Yang carefully bent the rod, slowly bringing the fish to the surface.

A slender native crucian carp appeared before Zhang Yang.

On a regular day, Zhang Yang would effortlessly bring this size crucian carp to the surface with a slight arm lift, not even bothering to use a net.

But today was different. Among shorties, the tallest stands out; having hair means you’re not bald. Zhang Yang cautiously scooped up the fish with a net and relaxed only after removing the hook and placing it in the fish guard.

Well, at least it’s a start. While most anglers were still figuring out the situation, this was a major lead.

After unhooking, Zhang Yang decisively switched to a rig targeting crucian carp.

Main line 0.8, sub line 0.4, size 3 sleeve hooks. Bobber takes 1.7g lead, adjusted to three bobber indicators, fishing at three and a half indicators.

Under normal circumstances, the most common fish in mixed ponds are carp of various sizes, ranging from two to three ounces to half a pound or more. This group of fish is most numerous.

After tethering frogs for so long without carp biting, it tells a story.

As is known, carp and crucian carp differ in tolerance to low oxygen; crucian carp better withstand low temperatures and low oxygen. Zhang Yang switched to a rig for crucian carp based on the crucian carp he just caught, concluding that the carp wouldn’t bite easily.

The detail of the crucian carp biting the bobber shows the problem: a subtle dip, just a small dark signal. Zhang Yang’s rig might be slightly large; another reason is the activity level of the crucian carp isn’t great.

From this, Zhang Yang quickly deduced a highly probable judgment: the tethering frog not getting bites could also be due to the rig being too coarse, preventing the fish from eating the bait properly.

So Zhang Yang quickly switched to a crucian carp rig, added soft bait, and tethered frogs again in a circle.

With the finer rig, there were indeed new results.

On the first cast of the second round of tethering frogs, the bobber gave a slight dark dip. Zhang Yang waited for two more seconds, and there was another soft bite.

Lifting the rod to hook the fish, he successfully caught another one!

Continual practical attempts proved Zhang Yang’s judgment right. At the nearby spot, some crucian carps did bite; however, their bite strength was minimal. After switching to a smaller rig and soft bait combination, the fish’s biting actions emerged.

Having figured out the precise fish situation, Zhang Yang was now confident.

Holding the rod, he tried each spot in turn, gathering three more fish from the nearby area.

Within ten minutes of the competition starting, Zhang Yang already had five fish in hand, while most participants hadn’t caught a single fish yet.

After making sure there were no more bites around his fishing spot, Zhang Yang decisively slid the lead sink down to the bottom of the bobber seat.

The soft bait with big flying lead, searching through the entire water column.

Proven fact, Zhang Yang’s adaptation was correct again.

Most crucian carps in the mixed pond weren’t eating at the bottom but staying about thirty to forty centimeters above it.

Under normal fishing circumstances, the lead would quickly pull the rig through the fish layer. Even if the fish wanted to eat, they couldn’t catch up due to their slower swimming speed.

Adjusting to the big flying lead method changed everything. The bobber flipped early, and the twin hook bait lost significant speed, slowly descending among the fish layer. When a fish was ready to eat, it could easily bite the bait.

After switching to the soft bait and big flying lead method, Zhang Yang steadily caught four more fish.

By 18 minutes into the competition, Zhang Yang had nine fish in his fish guard.