Liu Xiaoyun, who was next to him, was feverishly mixing new bait, making two different flavored baits one by one to try, but the results were very disappointing.
Including the bait prepared ahead of the competition, there were already four different kinds of bait in front of him.
The weight and taste were adjusted, but no matter how he adjusted, once the bait reached the water, the bobber showed no response at all, as if it had been thrown into a fish tank.
Zhang Yang next door was catching a fish every so often, while Liu Xiaoyun had not caught a single one. After trying for a long time without any results, his mind gradually became unsettled.
For a moment, Liu Xiaoyun had an uncontrollable thought: could it be that Zhang Yang's slippery bait, shared with his teammates before the match, had some miraculous effect?
Fishermen have a common superstition about bait additives, and even masters are no exception!
When calm, Liu Xiaoyun might still maintain composure and have a relatively objective analysis of fishing.
But now, the preconceived notion combined with Zhang Yang's deliberate misguidance led Liu Xiaoyun to attribute Zhang Yang's successful catch to the special bait.
Before the competition, Liu asked Zhang Yang but he didn't spill the beans; now, halfway into the competition, Old Liu was even more helpless.
The match was only one hour long, and he spent more than half of it chasing his tail. The result of the third round is easy to imagine.
Experiencing wild emotional swings, Liu Xiaoyun fell into self-doubt after discovering all his bait was ineffective, and the latter half of the match was like sleepwalking.
Had he not gotten lucky in the last few minutes by snagging a carp as he pulled up the rod on a missed bite, he would have ended up with none at all.
In contrast, Zhang Yang, with his high understanding of the entire fishing rig system, achieved the goal of a diversionary strategy, successfully fooling Liu Xiaoyun.
The jelly bait's strong state was very friendly to the poorly conditioned fish; combined with Zhang Yang's precise grasp of the fish layer position, though the bites were slow, he managed a catch every so often, which was much faster than most average anglers.
The afternoon's first round ended in such an atmosphere; the judge's whistle sounded, and everyone put down their fishing rods.
After the third round ended, many anglers with no hope of scoring didn't even wait for the staff to weigh and tally the results; they simply withdrew and packed their things to leave.
The results of the previous two rounds were already mediocre. Having a blank third round meant the fourth round was virtually pointless; it's like scratching a lottery ticket only to reveal the "thank you for your participation" message.
Liu Xiaoyun played this round extremely poorly; upon hearing the whistle, he immediately thought of packing up, but considering he did have a fish in the keeper, he finally resisted the impulse to withdraw.
As the saying goes, if you have hair, you're not bald. The fish situation in the third round was very poor, with each group on both the south and north banks having at least seven or eight people catching nothing.
If lucky, the lone fish might make it into the top 10, and if he performs well in the last round, there's still a chance to recoup the registration fee.
"Hey, Zhang Yang! Your bait is really something!" Liu Xiaoyun put down his rod, trying to strike up a conversation with Zhang Yang.
Zhang Yang grinned and politely said, "Hehe, Master Liu, don't mock me! It's just good luck, nothing to fuss about!"
Liu Xiaoyun, with a cigarette in his mouth, questioned loudly, "Good luck? I'm afraid not!
The same bottom fishing, I've tried four or five different flavored baits here, none of which worked.
You catch one every now and then, catch one every now and then! Are you telling me it has nothing to do with bait?"
"Bottom fishing? Who told you I was bottom fishing?" Zhang Yang smiled cunningly at Liu Xiaoyun.
"Not bottom fishing?" Liu Xiaoyun was unsettled by Zhang Yang's triumphant expression.
"No, in this hot weather, fish aren't eating bait at the bottom, why insist on bottom fishing! I'm fishing off the bottom!
Don't believe me? Look, nothing's changed, right? Let me show you on the spot!"
Zhang Yang deliberately provoked Liu Xiaoyun by hanging a lump of lead at the lower hook position on the leader and throwing it into the spot.
The extra lead weight broke the balance of the rig, sinking with a whiz out of sight!
Zhang Yang lifted the rod again, pushing the bobber up to near the positioning bead on the main line before casting into the water, revealing the normal bottom fishing depth.
The bobber was pushed over ten centimeters high, meaning Zhang Yang was fishing about ten centimeters off the bottom, not actually bottom fishing.
Throughout, Liu Xiaoyun watched Zhang Yang's movements without missing a single detail, and upon realizing Zhang Yang indeed wasn't bottom fishing, felt utterly defeated.
An expert angler losing fish isn't scary, losing face in competition isn't scary, the scariest is being overshadowed in one's proudest skill by a seemingly underestimated opponent.
Zhang Yang deliberately misled his opponent to make wrong judgments, then revealed the truth once the match ended, brutally undermining Liu Xiaoyun!
Liu Xiaoyun was silent for a full five seconds, breathed heavily, spat out a curse word, and angrily threw his half-smoked cigarette into the water at his feet.