The energetic young man seemed not to recognize Zhang Yang, and was quietly complaining to his companion about something, his tone a bit aggressive, mixed with some uncouth words.
But his companion serving him did not argue back, carrying the fishing box and rod bag like a lackey, enduring the curses without a word.
Seeing this special neighbor's behavior, Zhang Yang felt conflicted, no wonder he was so arrogant and domineering this morning, turns out he is usually indulged.
However, despite his thoughts, Zhang Yang didn't take it too much to heart; Zhou Yu beats Huang Gai, one willing to hit, one willing to take it, other people's business, Zhang Yang couldn't care less.
At the fishing spot, Zhang Yang took out the basin for bait mixing to start the pre-match preparations.
The rules of this car fishing competition aren't strict, and there aren't many requirements for baiting methods, allowing hand-thrown bait, bomb throwing, without limiting the type of bait or the frequency of baiting.
The distance between anglers at their spots is about five meters or so, not as close as in a competition pond or a regular dark pit.
Zhang Yang's conventional fishing strategy is actually quite simple; to get results, the target fish species for fishing are primarily the stocked farmed fish, mainly carp.
So Zhang Yang prepared a whole basin of small yellow powder, weighing about six to seven pounds. Initially, after a moderate baiting, he began to quickly cast with scattered bait, using an aggressive fishing method to start.
Landing big fish might require luck, but when stocked fish are biting, setting up a strong early fish-catching strategy is the most sensible competition idea.
The competition rule limits the longest rod use to seven meters two, Zhang Yang initially didn't use the rod at this length, his main combat rod is five meters four, and he prepared a seven-meter-two rod as backup.
Apart from the scattered yellow powder and the regular dough bait made by adjusting the yellow powder, Zhang Yang additionally prepared a batch of bait made with Li Dayu hemp ball glue, in case the bites aren't good, offering a contingency plan.
Zhang Yang's fishing preparations were simple, while the neighboring rugged young man was much more extravagant.
Not sure what this guy was thinking, after settling down with a junior at the fishing spot, the first thing he did was open three unopened packages of purely imported Japanese Marukyu Fish Bait, Arashi!
The distinct algae fishy smell of genuine Arashi is highly recognizable; as soon as the bait was opened, Zhang Yang smelled it and frowned discreetly.
This guy might have questionable character, but he's willing to spend on fishing. A package of genuine Arashi now retails for about seventy yuan each, and before doing anything, he spent over two hundred yuan just on three bait packages.
This is just for baiting, two packages poured into a small bucket, mixed with quite a bit of other triple-ground bait, added water, stirred, soon absorbed water and expanded into gray-green puffed particles.
The junior companion showed good judgment, doing nothing but squatting there to help mold bombs, quickly assisting the young man to process the Arashi into several fist-sized bombs.
From the corner of his eye, Zhang Yang kept observing the actions of the guy nearby, using Arashi for baiting, then what bait to fish with?
Zhang Yang was surprised by the next scene.
The guy actually used grain powder ground with a steel mill as hand food.
Stored in a transparent self-seal bag, poured into a basin with a mix and stir.
What complicated Zhang Yang's feelings the most was the grain powder seemed loose and low in stickiness, and this guy didn't use a kneading method to increase adhesion, but directly threw in a whole bottle of Lubricating Powder halfway through.
The grain powder originally had no large sheet components; with fine crumbs thrown into the Lubricating Powder, the state is predictable.
Due to uneven water absorption, the bait turned sticky and gooey, with too much Lubricating Powder added; when pinching bait with the hand, it carried long strands.
The young man seemed quite satisfied with this state and feel, after kneading a few times and confirming it could be hooked, his expression seemed relaxed.
From these observations alone, Zhang Yang concluded that this guy has a very shallow understanding of fishing but isn't short on money, definitely slaughtered like a fat sheep by someone.
Using Arashi for baiting and grain powder with Lubricating Powder for hand food, who knows which expert advised him.
While keeping an eye on the neighbor angler's setup, Zhang Yang managed the preparations at hand.
Baiting is not allowed to begin before the competition, but during preparation, the bobber can be adjusted; Zhang Yang casually calibrated the bobber adjustment, then found the depth of the water at the fishing spot.
With a five-meter-four rod, the fishing depth is around two meters eight, about twenty centimeters shallower than most fishing spots tested during the last visit, relatively flat around the baited spot, meeting Zhang Yang's expectations.
Having completed the adjustments and bait preparation, waiting for the competition start, another unexpected incident occurred.
The rugged young man's entourage knocked over the small bucket of bait Arashi while fetching water, caught off guard.
The green Arashi grains spilled over the energetic young man's shoes, also scattered over the ground. The surrounding air smelled even stronger with the special bait aroma.
"Damn! Are you blind?" the young man glared at the entourage, without hesitation, slapped him hard.
Only a crisp sound was heard; the slap was quite solid, the entourage covered his face, not daring to speak.
It took a full three seconds before he began gathering the bait scattered on the ground like a bullied wife.