Although Li Xiaopeng occasionally hooked up a Crucian Carp or a small Carp, it didn’t significantly affect their overall team ranking in points.
The competition had been going on for about forty to fifty minutes.
Lin Yang and his two teammates had collectively pulled in nearly a hundred small fish, but the gap in scores with other teams was widening.
They started with the highest points for fish caught but gradually dropped in the rankings, even though their fishing rods were non-stop, they were continuously overtaken by other teams in total points.
Due to Lin Yang’s recent high popularity and attention, many viewers chose to watch their fishing perspective.
"I’m dumbfounded, Master Lin isn’t seriously planning to keep drawing blanks, right? At this rate, even advancing to the next round will be a problem."
"Honestly, if he changes his strategy and switches rods quickly, it might still be possible; otherwise, relying just on another teammate definitely won’t work."
"I came here to learn techniques, but Master Lin is just showing us how to draw blanks...."
Many viewers in the live comments criticized their fishing method; to many, it seemed they were likely going to fail this competition.
Today’s competition lasted a total of four hours, and more than an hour had already passed.
All teams had made some gains since any of the participating team, placed elsewhere, could be considered top-notch anglers.
Wang Bo and Tai had decent fishing skills too, but when fishing with Lin Yang, this led to the perception that they weren’t as competent. Over time, however, their fishing had also greatly improved.
Even if their fishing skills were good, the three of them together were still ranked over two hundred, slightly behind Lin Yang’s team.
The team currently in first place was still Tianyuan’s youth team, after all, being one of the top clubs in the nation, their professional participation felt like bringing a gun to a fistfight.
The three members of the Tianyuan Team used rods of 7.2 meters, 6.3 meters, and 4.5 meters, virtually covering long, medium, and short distances, hence covering most fish types in Erhai. All three were continuously catching fish, making their points rapidly climb.
Another outstanding team was the one led by Xiao Ai, consisting of three beauties.
Their strategy was clear: concentrate forces on bottom fishing in near water. All three 4.5-meter rods focused on a single spot, targeting the most common Crucian and Carp.
They were in rapid fishing mode; usually, within 30 seconds of casting, they would get a bite. While most were Crucian Carp scoring only 0.5 points each, their fast catching rate was an advantage.
Crucian Carp, being smaller, could be quickly scooped and landed, saving a lot of time compared to catching bigger fish. Their team was currently ranked second among all teams.
However, their rank was bound to slowly drop, as the three girls might lag in stamina in the latter part, and also because excessively fishing for Crucian and Carp could deplete the spot, attracting fish from surrounding areas.
Regardless, their current ranking ensured their advancement into the next round, placing them in the top 120.
In other popular teams, two were notably trailing this round, which surprised many viewers and competition commentators.
One was Lin Yang’s team, for reasons that need no elaboration.
Lin Yang, possibly the most skilled individual in the field, had chosen from the start to use a 3.6-meter short rod to aggressively catch small fish. Although his team had caught the most fish in terms of numbers by far, they were relatively behind in total points.
They hovered dangerously between 150 and 200 in ranking.
The other underperforming favorite was Team 36, consisting of three influencers each with a million followers.
It wasn’t that they weren’t catching fish—on the contrary, they had a blast today—but their points were still outside the top 200.
The reason was simple: they had chosen the wrong fish species for the day. Their technique involved using long rods to catch Catfish halfway in the water.
It must be noted, Erhai’s resources are excellent; Catfish are plentiful and large, with 36’s team managing to catch three Catfish over 20 pounds in such a short time.
However, precisely because of this, their time spent handling the fish was extensive, but even a 50-pound Catfish only scored three points in this round, a very low return on effort.
As a result, their team ranked very low.
The same technique for Catfish was also chosen by Wang Bo’s team, though whether due to skill or luck, they caught uniformly sized fish which took less handing time, resulting in their rank fluctuating around 150th, very close to Lin Yang’s team.
As the competition time passed halfway, the commentators from the competition organizers were heavily discussing these two underperforming favorites.
"It’s unexpected, in just the first round today, both Team 36 and Team 128 have made serious errors, landing them in the back of the rankings. Given everyone’s high skill level, a small mistake can likely cause a lag in the final ranking and result in elimination. I advise the team captains of these two teams not to be stubborn and to adjust their fishing strategies quickly...."
However, though this advice was offered, in reality, Lin Yang and his teammates couldn’t hear any of it during the competition.
They all chose to continue fishing according to their own plans.
As time went on, three hours had passed in the blink of an eye.