"In this competition, the three of us will adopt three different strategies. I’ll continue targeting catfish, since they’re the easiest to catch for achieving results and can secure a baseline for our total score.
I’ll try to catch a big catfish; that would essentially ensure our score for this round.
Xiao Zhang, you’re responsible for boosting our score’s upper limit, so you’ll use a long rod and bait with snails to focus on big carp. If you can catch a big carp over a hundred jin, we’ll basically secure a top ranking this round.
Xiao Liu, you’re responsible for using bait to catch other miscellaneous fish. The more and bigger the fish you catch, the more you can enhance our score’s lower end. Use a versatile rod; you may catch all kinds of fish. If the weather is favorable, you might even catch big carp or grass carp."
As Deng Guang spoke, the cameras zoomed in on the Tianyuan Team’s three anglers and their bait equipment.
Deng Guang used an 8.1-meter rod, with a 5+3 line setup, and bait from his own brand, targeting catfish with a semi-water technique and frequent casting, a typical catfish fishing method.
As for Xiao Zhang, he was heavily chumming a spot, using a nine-meter long rod with snail bait, focusing on bream.
Of course, using snail bait also has a slight chance of catching other fish species, as carnivorous and omnivorous fish like carp also eat snails, but the probability is quite low.
Given the competition time is only 4 hours, the chance of catching a bream is also limited.
The reason for this rod setup, as Deng Guang mentioned, is to gamble on achieving a high score for their team.
The third angler, Xiao Liu, used a 6.3-meter rod with generic commercial bait.
Generally, many amateur anglers also prefer this type of bait, which is versatile for various fish species, but the downside is it often attracts small fish.
However, in this round, any fish can be counted towards the score, so even catching small fish isn’t wasted effort.
Of course, only the biggest fish of each species can be recorded for the score.
With the camera and Deng Guang’s instructions to his teammates, the tactical plan for Deng Guang’s Team became clear.
Xia Xiaoxue, who has been hosting the program for a long time and is a professional angler, also commented.
"After watching Deng Guang’s arrangements, our fellow anglers should also feel that the tactics adopted by Deng Guang and his Tianyuan Team are relatively balanced, aiming to cover multiple fish species.
Of course, their primary target fish are mainly two types: catfish and bream.
Catfish can be considered their mainstay, ensuring the team’s basic score, as carp and bighead carp are essentially two types of fish.
Also, while fishing for catfish, other species might also be caught.
In general, catfish and bighead carp are relatively larger, so achieving good results with these fish means the team’s total score won’t be too bad.
That’s why Deng Guang personally handles this part, while bream catching has a bit of a lottery element.
I think, in just four hours, catching a bream in such a large open-water lake isn’t easy and might not even be possible.
Therefore, I believe Deng Guang has such expectations, which is why he assigned someone to mainly fish for bream. If they can’t catch any, it’s normal; if they do, it’s a significant gain.
As for the third angler, as mentioned by Deng Guang himself, they target various fish to slightly increase the team’s total score.
Generally, this ordinary fishing method doesn’t usually produce too many surprises."
Xia Xiaoxue’s analysis made viewers in front of their TVs, computers, and phones nod in agreement.
The analysis was spot-on, and many marveled at how Xia Xiaoxue is becoming more professional.
"At first, I watched Xia Xiaoxue mainly for her looks and hosting skills, but now, she’s truly a professional angler."
"This analysis, isn’t it comparable to those so-called experts in the live stream?"
"I never watch those experts’ commentaries, only Xiaoxue’s."
"Same here, apart from the streams of my favorite anglers, I only watch Xiaoxue in the official broadcast; she’s a dream girl for anglers, with her looks, talent, and fishing knowledge!"
"....."
At this point, Xia Xiaoxue continued analyzing other teams’ tactics one by one.
Of course, after the detailed introduction of Deng Guang’s Team, other teams were only briefly mentioned.
Under her guidance, the strategies of several major teams were presented to the viewers.
Generally speaking, there were some differences in emphasis.
As mentioned earlier, Deng Guang’s Team strategy focuses on catfish for the foundation, bream for high scores, and other miscellaneous fish to boost the lower end.
Liu Changgan’s Team is noticeably different.
All three in Liu Changgan’s Team chose long rods, with Liu Changgan himself using a mix of his own aromatic and savory bait, plus some special small bait, forming a multipurpose bait.
He directly fishes in mid-water.
His method is somewhat similar to Deng Guang’s.
According to Liu Changgan, he too primarily focuses on catfish.
Any anglers familiar with Liu Changgan and his bait know it has a major feature.
The catfish bait doesn’t catch catfish, yet other baits catch catfish like crazy.
This all-purpose bait with a savory and aromatic mix, plus his unique small bait, means you could potentially catch anything.