Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King

Chapter 860 - 576: Fishing in Deep Water

After Zhang Yang studied his fishing intensely for six or seven casts, finally, the bobber showed a slight prelude of swaying, followed by a powerful dip down, directly sinking two indicators.

This kind of bite is the standard entrance movement, and Zhang Yang, who had been suppressing himself for so long, couldn’t hold back anymore and lifted the pole to hook the fish.

The force of the underwater hook and fishing setup transferred through the main line and the fishing rod, directly feeding back into the hand holding the rod.

Got it, it has some weight!

The moment the fish was caught, Zhang Yang held the bottom of the fishing rod handle with his right hand and placed the back of his left hand slightly above the middle segment of the handle, very steadily arching the rod upward.

Catching silver carp and bighead carp, which are mid-to-upper-layer fish species, has a much lower margin for error compared to bottom-dwelling fish. So Zhang Yang promptly guided the rod to one side, pulling the fish out of the feeding area.

No matter how much bait is thrown out, once the fish is hooked, preserving the feeding zone becomes the primary objective.

Frankly speaking, it wouldn’t matter much even if the hooked fish cuts the line and escapes, but if the hooked fish is allowed to thrash wildly within the feeding zone, the newly gathered fish school will mostly be scared off and scatter, disrupting the feeding zone and wasting the effort put into baiting the spot in the middle of the night.

The hooked fish seemed not very large, so Zhang Yang used only six to seven parts of his effort to pull it out, and the fish obediently swam out with it.

"Wow, Zhang Yang, you got a fish?" Little Wei from the neighboring spot saw this scene and curiously asked.

Zhang Yang’s lips curled into a faint smile as he replied, "Just a little guy, not very big!"

After two more rounds of playing with the fish, this starter fish soon became exhausted and was pulled out of the water.

Zhang Yang’s estimation was quite accurate; the fish was indeed not big, visually gauged to be around three to four pounds, looking like last year’s release of juvenile bighead carp.

Once out of the water, the fish didn’t have much capability left, obediently being pulled close, Zhang Yang arched the rod with his right hand, grabbed the net handle with his left, deftly scooped it up in one swift motion.

After unhooking and taking a glance, Zhang Yang just held the fish gills with a towel briefly in front of the camera, then directly returned the fish to the water.

"Oh dear, why did you release the fish? Released the first fish caught?"

YOYO, who was so excited at seeing Zhang Yang catch the fish that he stood up, couldn’t hold back and loudly asked.

Zhang Yang helplessly scratched his head, "Didn’t the owner say the rules yesterday? Fish less than five pounds can’t be kept! This fish barely reaches four and a half pounds! Can’t keep it, or else, the owner might be upset!"

"You didn’t even weigh it! I feel like it should weigh five pounds!" YOYO pursed his lips, still arguing with Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang shrugged, "It’s already released, I’ll weigh the next fish! My eyes are the scales; they definitely won’t be wrong!"

"Tch, I don’t believe!" YOYO waved his hand, returned to his seat to continue rebaiting and casting the rod.

After catching this fish, Zhang Yang returned to his seat and immediately pushed the bobber seat upwards.

The depth fished earlier was around two meters, and caught those juvenile bighead carp, if continuing to fish at this water level, it would likely still be fish of this size. Zhang Yang is not those ordinary anglers; he is quite knowledgeable about the habits of bighead carp.

Bighead carp are two different types of fish, akin to a cousin relationship.

The silver carp, also known as the white silver carp, has a small head and a body covered with fine white scales, preferring plant-based plankton, mainly filter feeding, and hardly swallowing greatly.

When fishing for this type of fish, they eat bait relatively quietly and slowly, and if the bait condition control is poor and the angler lacks experience in observing the bite and bobber, it’s easy to snag it on the chin or gill rather than correctly hooking it.

Whereas the bighead carp, also called the flower carp or black carp, has a layer of black-grey spots and a large head and mouth larger than a similar size flower carp. A seven to eight-pound flower carp can easily fit an adult’s fist inside.

Compared to the purely vegetarian diet of the silver carp, the diet of the flower carp is more complex. Flower carp prefer food high in animal protein content, besides filter feeding plankton, they also feed on water-based debris, decaying matter, small aquatic insects, seeds, and so on.

The flower carp’s mouth is large and it eats aggressively. With the same bait, the white silver carp might nibble slowly at the bait residue for a long time without action, whereas the flower carp, as long as its activity level is high and feeding desire is strong, will swallow the bait whole.

In Zhang Yang’s memory, when he used to go to the reservoir with friends in his previous life, he had more than once successfully caught bighead carp by using fermented corn.

Regardless of whether the fish schools around the feeding zone now are flower carp or silver carp, they follow an almost ironclad rule: The smaller the individual fish within the school, the larger the school, whereas the larger the individual fish, the smaller the school.

Individuals over ten pounds tend to move in small groups of three to five or eight, whereas smaller fish of three to five pounds often move in large groups of dozens or even over a hundred fish. Sometimes, when active near the water surface, the ripple they create along with the subtle visible fins are a large dark area.

Moreover, there’s a crucial factor: the larger the fish size, the deeper its activity depth.

The earlier catch of three to four-pound small flower carp was not Zhang Yang’s target fish, so he promptly pushed the bobber upwards, seeking larger fish in deeper water layers, which is a very accurate and seasoned move.

From a two-meter depth, he continued pushing the bobber upwards, adjusting directly to about two-point-eight meters. Zhang Yang once again placed walnut-sized bait balls onto the hook and gently cast them into the feeding zone.