"Ugh, such a big catfish, if I encountered it while match fishing on a normal day, it would at least take a while to tire out, but with heavy equipment, it’s like a dad spanking his son, twenty seconds and it’s on the bank. Give me some face, will you."
"Nonsense, you’re using meter-long fish lips to chum the spot, what face does an ordinary catfish have? If there are loads of catfish down there, then this spot is ruined. If there’s a big fish in the spot, the catfish wouldn’t dare to compete. This spot is hardly likely to catch a sturgeon."
Lin Yang nodded, "Right, if there are too many catfish, it’s going to be tough to catch a big fish. I’ll keep casting a few more times and try."
After catching the first fish, he immediately adjusted the position of his cast, placing the drop point of the bait line setup to different places on the left and right sides of the spot.
There is a technique for angling next to a fishing spot in a dark pond, sometimes on the edge of the spot for wild large fish there can be decent catches too.
But after trying to angle for a while, Lin Yang was close to getting depressed.
The second rod, a catfish.
The third rod, still a catfish...
Over and over, more than ten rods, all catfish.
Within a seven or eight meter radius around them, almost every cast brought up a catfish.
What made Lin Yang both laugh and cry was one of the catfish, only three or four jins in size, which struggled to swallow the piece of meat and big fish hook, yet was still stubbornly brought up with the hook barely in its mouth – showing just how fierce the competition for food was among the catfish below.
He casually threw the unlucky one back into the river, shrugged at the camera, "This shallow water spot is finished, filled with catfish."
"What shall we do then? Move to a deeper area?"
"Buddha bless, I hope the deep water area isn’t also full of catfish, otherwise what’s the point in continuing this? With so many catfish around, even if I toss in more chunks of meat overnight, they’d all be gone by morning, probably only those in my pocket because they can’t swallow them would be left."
Lin Yang gritted his teeth and rehooked the meat, "Whatever, let’s give it another try. If this side is also full of catfish, then we’ll just use these catfish to create a new spot in another place and continue there, come back tomorrow, I really don’t believe it."
This ’cruel’ method seemed to have had a slight deterrent effect in the grand scheme of things.
Lin Yang used the two-point alignment method to confirm the location of the spot in the deep water area, then cast the meat-hooked assembly out again with the same old trick.
But as he retrieved the line back to near the spot, this time no catfish took the bait.
The heavy-duty rod resting on the gunwale remained silent, without a hint of movement.
After anxiously waiting for five minutes and getting no bites, he finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Finally, no catfish, it looks like making a spot in deep water is more reliable than in shallow areas," Lin Yang muttered to himself.
At this critical juncture, not getting bites actually became good news.
Catfish swarm in groups, while sturgeons, like the big guys, usually move in groups of three to five. Going so long without a bite at least meant there were no catfish around the spot, and with a bit more luck, perhaps a big one was lurking nearby.
"How long does it take for a big fish to take the bait?"
"It won’t be all morning without a bite, right? That would be a waste of Russia’s great environment."
"The person in the comment section talking nonsense, shut your mouth..."
Although no fish were caught, the atmosphere in the comments was good, with many familiar faces eagerly chatting away.
After more than half an hour with no action on the rod, just as Lin Yang was bending over to grab a bottle of mineral water, the tip of the rod moved again.
This time the rod’s nod was massive, indicating a big catch on the hook!
"Brother Yang, the rod!" Yue’er was the first to spot the sign of a fish and hurriedly alerted him.
At the sound of the alert, Lin Yang instantly looked up and reflexively grabbed the rod.
Man, a much more substantial force from beneath the water compared to the catfish he angled earlier came through.
Securing the rod, he flexed his arms and put his full strength into setting the hook, barely managing to stabilize the situation for the moment.
The rod bent into an arc under the force from below, and Lin Yang timely adjusted to ease the tension, alleviating the fish’s thrust – after about ten seconds, he finally steadied himself.
"How is it? Is it very strong?" Yue’er asked with concern.
Lin Yang felt the force on the line from the fish below, and after a slight delay, responded, "It should be somewhat substantial, but not too big. The water is quite deep, there’s resistance when pulling the fish, I reckon, at most, it’s around one hundred and eighty pounds, maybe even less."
If someone else made this claim, they would surely be roasted by the live stream viewers – telling that a fish under one hundred pounds isn’t too big would seem like showing off.
But these words from Lin Yang’s mouth didn’t elicit much reaction. After all, he had caught too many big fish before – a hundred-pound fish really wasn’t considered big.
The fish below went straight from the startled escape phase into a steady stage of exerting force upon Lin Yang raising the rod.
In terms of line tension, the clicking sound of line being pulled out hardly stopped, but the pace wasn’t fast. Lin Yang wasn’t in a hurry to haul it up with a big swing, so he slowly played out the line and reeled it back, sparred with the fish underwater.
About fifteen minutes later, he noticed that the force exerted by the fish below had greatly diminished. Locking the drag setting, he started to steadily reel in the line with larger movements.
The expected new round of frantic escapes never came, and a minute later, a yellow-brown big fish slowly surfaced.
This fish was distinctly different from typical freshwater species, with a pointed snout, a shark-like tail, a row of bony scale armor protruding along its back, and an elongated body that looked very