Zhang Yang also shook his head, "Who knows! It's not surprising to have grass carp in the reservoir. Maybe it's just that the temperature at noon is a bit higher, and the small grass carp start to feed!"
"That's possible too! This fish is only about two and a half pounds; just the right size to make sour fish back home!" Old Zhao echoed.
Originally, everyone thought it was just a small probability event that happened to catch their attention, but Wang Yan, who had returned to the fishing platform, cast a few more rods and caught another fish!
"Damn, did we hit a grass carp nest? What's going on?"
Zhang Yang, seeing the second fish clearly, while complaining, began to think rapidly in his mind.
Something's wrong, very wrong!
The West Warehouse District of the reservoir has a large number of aquaculture cages, while the East Warehouse District has always released silver carp fingerlings. They were just harvested at the end of last year, and this spring they opened up fishing at a low price.
People might ask, since they've been harvested, why did they only catch silver carp and not capture the big crucian carp too? Wild crucian carps weighing half a pound to over a pound are no less valuable than silver carp!
There is a reason for this.
It's not that the reservoir management doesn't want to catch them, but it's very difficult to do so.
The reservoir area has relatively deep water levels and a large area. Capturing the upper layer of silver carp is simple, but large crucian carp usually move in deep water areas, and whether using trawling, gill nets, or other common fishing tools, they have almost no way to catch these big crucian carp.
Dragging a net over the upper layer can catch a small portion, but it's almost impossible to be as simple and efficient as catching silver carp.
It is precisely because the input does not match the output that the reservoir opens fishing at a relatively low price.
If there are a lot of young grass carp weighing two or three pounds in the reservoir, the reservoir owner would suffer a big loss with only a thirty-dollar fishing fee per day for unlimited catch.
Just as Zhang Yang was pondering what went wrong, Meng Fan also caught a fish.
Another grass carp, slightly smaller than the previous two, only about two pounds.
In a reservoir environment, small and medium-sized grass carp like to move in groups. The repeated catches of grass carp in this area indicate that a group must have arrived.
"Zhao, do you have the fish pellets used for making nests in your car?"
Zhang Yang had a vague hypothesis he needed to verify.
"Yes, there's still half a box in the back seat, bought it last year and haven't finished it! What are you planning to do? Using pellets to make a nest for grass carp?" Zhao Bingguang quickly reacted, already keeping pace with Zhang Yang's thought process.
"That's right! This is a rare opportunity; grass carp like to be in groups. I'll see if I can attack these grass carp!"
"The car's not locked, go get it yourself!"
Zhang Yang strode toward Zhao Bingguang's CR-V, quickly finding the loose Tonwei 127 fish breeding pellets under the back seat.
These 6mm diameter breeding pellets are very cheap; a pound costs just over a dollar, and they're cost-effective when mixed with other rice for making wine as bait during casual fishing.
Zhang Yang took out the box and the baiting scoop from beside it.
He set up a folding seat, then casually scooped dozens of pellets with the baiting scoop. With a flick of his wrist, the pellets flew toward the nest point ahead under the influence of inertia.
"What are you doing, President Yang? Didn't we just bait the spot before lunch, and you're baiting again?" Wang Yan couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Slow down your casting rhythm for a while; I'm testing something!"
In this test, Zhang Yang casually tossed some pellets every now and then, and in less than ten minutes, the area around the nest started to boil!