The Top Fishing
Chapter 156 - 130: Spirited Young Man_3

Chapter 156: Chapter 130: Spirited Young Man_3

Utilizing the rod’s strength and the line’s intensity, guide it to swim back and forth tirelessly, exhausting its energy. Once it runs out of energy and flips over, we can scoop it up with the net."

"That’s the figure-eight fishing technique for you, so vivid. The host’s demonstration of fish-playing technique looked quite reasonable and smooth, and I’ve learned another trick. Every day I watch the live stream I learn something valuable, amazing."

"The fish don’t seem too aggressive today, do they? We’ve been fishing for nearly an hour now, and haven’t seen many big catches."

Just as a live stream viewer was complaining about the poor fishing conditions, the angler at number 45 right next to Lin Yang’s spot, with a whoosh, lifted his rod to set the hook—and he made it.

This angler appeared quite young, not much more than 20 years old, thin as a bamboo pole, and dressed in rather flashy clothes. To use current slang, he looked like a spirited youngster.

Skinny jeans, loafers, a slicked back pompadour slathered with gel, exuding a scent of vanity, with a sun-protective shirt that revealed a hint of a tattoo at the neck, and over it a brightly colored ice-silk sun-protective shirt—very flamboyant, but clearly one size too large.

It was obvious that he was lured in by the promise of a BMW as a prize, hoping to try his luck here. In fact, most of the 300 participants held the same motive: all were here to take their chances.

Lin Yang’s motive was similar—he too was here for the X5, except he wasn’t relying on luck, he was directly aiming for the goal.

At that moment, this spirited youngster made the very mistake Lin Yang had emphasized in an earlier tip about fishing techniques: overfilling the reel.

After hooking the fish, he became extremely passive, gripping the rod with both hands, frantically lifting it, but mostly maintaining a horizontal position which rendered the rod’s strength useless and greatly decreased the line’s intensity.

After a two-second stalemate, the leader snapped, the guy stumbled slightly, and nearly fell over.

"Dammit! My leader was a size 10, and the fish still got away, what kind of shitty line is this? Paid 10 bucks a set, said it’s the best, and it’s just trash; screw it, I’m switching to a size 12, see if you can run from that!"

After the spirited youngster’s fish escaped, he muttered a few words to himself and began to curse without any decency.

Still not feeling relieved after cursing, he cleared his throat, coughed, and spat a thick gob of phlegm onto the water’s surface right in front of him.

Lin Yang had no problem with him dressing like a spirited youngster, nor was he greatly affected by his foul mouth, but when he saw that loogie, he was utterly defeated.

And what would break him happened shortly thereafter.

After the youngster snapped his hook and the fish escaped, he took a huge baiting spoon and started to replenish the bait over his spot, with bait raining down like a downpour.

Then something astonishing happened.

The spirited youngster cast his line quite ordinarily, and after the float flipped, it was descending smoothly when suddenly, it veered off to one side.

Such a movement clearly wasn’t a bite. Any sensible angler wouldn’t lift the rod in this case, since startling the fish and wrecking the baited area was not worth it.

But he did lift the rod regardless, still with that signature double-handed, brute-force aim-for-a-miracle hook setting technique. A sharp slicing sound rang out as the hook found its mark.

The newly upgraded size 12 leader indeed showed much greater strength. Once the fish was hooked, it began to madly dash towards Lin Yang’s direction.

Even with just a visual estimate, Lin Yang knew the hook wasn’t set in the mouth but likely snagged on the tail since it wouldn’t swim so rapidly otherwise, like an arrow released from a bow.

The two spots were about four to five meters apart. By now, Lin Yang had to split most of his attention on this troublesome fellow next to him, so as soon as he realized what was happening, he lifted his rod to avoid a line tangle disaster.

He did everything he could on his end, but the other party was less than sportsmanlike.

Noticing the fish wasn’t darting into deeper water but was heading towards the left, the spirited youngster deliberately angled his rod to one side, letting the fish scurry in the buffer zone between their spots.

Seeing this, Lin Yang couldn’t hold back, "Hey, mate, control your fish—it’s close to my baiting spot!"

"What’s the rush? It’s still several meters away, do you even know how to fish? Let it go for a round first, then I’ll take care of it!" The spirited youngster responded rudely, with a bit of profanity.

Lin Yang almost laughed at such bizarre fish-playing logic, frowning without a word.

He thought he had seen it all, but the worst was yet to come.

In such a situation where the fish flees sideways, the proper way is to tilt the rod 90 degrees to either side to control the direction, but this guy, out of time, lifted his rod upward instead, eager to bring the fish to the surface as quickly as possible.

If the hook was set in the mouth and the fish wasn’t too big, such a move wouldn’t be an issue. But snagged on the tail with a strong fish? That’s a problem.

Losing the rod’s ability to buffer, it turned into a tug-of-war.

At a spot about two meters from Lin Yang’s spot, the fish snapped the hook and ran, the water’s surface frothing with bubbles.

"Damn, it got away again!" The spirited youngster cursed once more.

Lin Yang already had a low opinion of him, and after witnessing the young man’s incompetent actions, his annoyance grew. Hence he couldn’t help saying, "Next time be careful; who plays a fish in someone else’s spot? It doesn’t matter if your fish gets away, but if you blow up my baited area, how am I supposed to fish?"

"Like I wanted it to get away? Losing the fish burns me up. Don’t keep yapping at me." The spirited youngster stared at Lin Yang, eyes blank, his face bearing the look of the streets as if about to whip out a machete the next second and start a fight.

"Heh, okay."

Lin Yang scoffed coldly. If it weren’t for the competition and the live stream, he would have walked right over and kicked this good-for-nothing into the water.

He held back for the moment, refraining from further argument.