This catfish had six whiskers and a dark greenish-black body, which looked a bit ugly; its nearly three-meter long body was bulbous, and one could only wonder how many other fish it had devoured.
The audience members watching the fish were excited, while others furrowed their brows.
"This fish doesn’t look like a native Chinese catfish."
"Yes, we have several different types of catfish native to China, but this one doesn’t seem to belong to any of those."
"Can catfish grow that big? It looks like it weighs several hundred pounds...."
In the midst of the viewers’ confusion, Xia Xiaoxue, who was in charge of live streaming, spoke up.
"Dear viewers, although I haven’t caught many big fish, as a semi-professional fishing enthusiast, I do have some study of fish. According to my judgment, this catfish is definitely not a native species. If I’m not mistaken, it should be an African catfish, which can grow to a very large size. This 200-pounder isn’t at its limit."
According to records, there have even been discoveries of giant African catfish weighing over 300 pounds. They can prey on animals like antelopes and deer, and for this kind of giant African catfish, consuming waterfowl and other fish species is even easier," she added.
"If this African catfish grew up in Qianxia Lake, then having grown to this size, one can’t imagine how many native fish it has harmed...."
After listening to Xia Xiaoxue’s words, the audience couldn’t help but lament; this was indeed an invasive species.
"Master Lin did great by catching it. This fish living in our local waters and feeding on our local aquatic life disrupts the ecological balance; it’s a downright nuisance!"
"That’s right, don’t release this kind of fish back. It should be humanely eradicated!"
"But this African catfish doesn’t look tasty at all; its flavor might be quite tough."
"True, I’ve eaten African catfish before, and it has a strong earthy and fishy taste. It’s very hard to eat such fish, which serve no positive purpose and shouldn’t exist in our native waters."
"Whoever released these fish into Qianxia Lake is seriously irresponsible!"
Amidst the outcry from netizens, Lin Yang didn’t release the fish back into the water but instead threw it onto the grass on the shore.
The massive catfish struggled on the shore, but it was simply too fat; it had trouble even flipping itself over, let alone jumping back into the water.
Watching the fish struggle on the shore, no one felt any sympathy. After all, a fish like this must have harmed so many native fish to grow so large; its death would save countless native fish.
Meanwhile, Lin Yang continued to cast his rod for more fishing.
At the same time, he once again used his skill to check for fish, looking for the hiding spots of big fish nearby.
After so much time spent fishing, Lin Yang’s skill of checking for fish had reached the highest level.
Because he had been deep-sea fishing recently, where the waters are very deep and vast, this skill hadn’t been particularly effective.
But now that he was back to freshwater fishing on land, this skill could be extremely effective.
Under his observation, he soon made another discovery; this time the location was nearly 200 meters away from the shore, and the water was probably more than 10 meters deep.
This distance exceeded the range of a normal lure rod.
It was too far; how could an ordinary lure rod possibly cast that far? And if it’s so far away, just reeling in would take quite some time, not to mention controlling the fish would be difficult.
Although that was the case, Lin Yang did not give up on this rare big fish. It was too rare an opportunity, and he naturally wanted to seize it.
Lin Yang cast his line a couple more times, using quite a bit of strength on one of the casts, but even with his power, the lead sinker and hook lost momentum due to significant air resistance after flying a hundred meters and fell into the water.
Unable to reach the target location, Lin Yang reeled the lead sinker back in, directly replacing the original sinker with a much larger one.
The lead sinker weighed a hefty 500 grams, or about one pound.
Upon seeing this, everyone in the live streaming room couldn’t help but be dumbstruck.
"What is Lin Yang doing? Why did he tie an actual weight to his fishing line?"
"A one-pound lead sinker is unheard of; is he fishing or trying to start a fight? If he threw that sinker, it could kill someone outright."
"I used a sinker like that 20 years ago, and it worked great. I’m 18 years old this year."
"LOL, the comment above killed me. I guess Master Lin doesn’t want to fish anymore and has switched to ’fishing’ with rocks."
"If he throws that lead sinker into someone’s fishing spot, I bet it’d enrage them to death, it’d be more explosive than throwing a brick in the water...."
Amidst everyone’s teasing comments, Lin Yang attached the lead sinker and then swung his rod out.
The massive sinker, whooshing through the air, traced a beautiful arc and flew into the distance.
meters, 200 meters....
"It’s still flying, damn! So far!"
"That’s way too far. If it were a shot put or javelin, he might have broken a world record!"
"Honestly, is Master Lin still single? How did he build such strong Qilin Arms? How many years of being single does it take to develop such arm strength?"
Moments later, with a loud splash, the lead sinker hit the water.
The distance of well over 200 meters was just right, falling just in front of the spot Lin Yang had just observed.
He waited a moment, letting the sinker and lure reach the bottom before beginning to reel in.
It took more than 10 seconds for the lure to hit the bottom; the water was deep enough that despite the heaviness of the sinker making a big splash, it didn’t scare the fish on the bottom.