The Top Fishing
Chapter 438 - 209: Continuous Fishing_2

Chapter 438: Chapter 209: Continuous Fishing_2

"Uncle, please stop at our current location," Lin Yang promptly called to the captain to reduce speed upon spotting the mark.

"Stop the boat? Did you find something? There’s still at least ten minutes to the next recorded mark. If we delay too long on the way, other anglers might get there first," the captain, an older man, warned Lin Yang, afraid that he might waste time.

Lin Yang nodded, "I understand what you’re saying. I just spotted a suspicious area; I want to cast a few lines to search it."

"Alright then," the captain conceded to his request. After all, he was just a boat captain, and all race matters were to be directed by Lin Yang and his team.

After stopping the boat, Lin Yang gestured to Wang Feng, and the two initiated a search around the mark.

However, luck wasn’t on their side this time. As soon as Lin Yang’s first cast reached the bottom, he realized that the lure had snagged when he tried to reel it in.

During the lure’s descent, he vaguely sensed that the bottom wasn’t composed of the usual piles of gravel or hard surfaces, and if he wasn’t mistaken, there might be branches or other debris down there.

"That’s it, snagged at the bottom, handsome for no more than three seconds," Lin Yang quipped with a curled lip, holding the rod horizontally and pulling back on the PE line with his hand.

Wang Feng, seeing that Lin Yang had snagged, quickly reeled in his rod, not daring to continue the search either.

"Be careful, the host. PE lines can be very sharp when wet, and your gloves are so thin, you might easily cut yourself," someone commented.

"Getting snagged while lure fishing is a common occurrence. I once set a record of losing seven VIBs in an hour. Those lures cost over a hundred bucks and just vanished. And those were not even the expensive imports, which can cost a few dozen bucks each," Lin Yang explained.

Lin Yang chuckled at the comments, "You guys are right; you do have to be careful when you get snagged. But my gloves are quite sturdy, not so easily cut through. Also, the lure I’m using is quite small, and I use a slightly thinner treble hook, so the resistance isn’t too great. I reckon there’s an eighty to ninety percent chance I won’t lose the lure, the treble hook is more likely to get bent out of shape."

As he spoke, the taut fishing line underwater suddenly slackened, the hook had come free.

Lin Yang reeled in the line and took a glance—the treble hook was indeed bent out of shape as he predicted, but the lure was still intact.

"Haha, see, I told you. Applying the logic of pole fishing to lure fishing can be quite practical. Last night when I was preparing, I manually downsized the treble hooks on the sinking pencil lure by one size for added security. Replacing a treble hook doesn’t take long, and one can quickly rejoin the battle," he said.

"Wow, that’s a slick move, host. Why didn’t I think of that? There’s a spot I often go to with lots of branches where I’ve lost countless lures. I’ll have to try smaller treble hooks myself," a viewer commented.

"Learned something new, but I have a question. Wouldn’t this modification affect the lure’s action underwater?" another asked.

Efficiently, Lin Yang took out long-nosed pliers and a new treble hook from his waist tool pack and said, "That’s a great question from the viewer upstairs. Indeed, when designing different types of lures, the counterweight of the front and back treble hooks does consider their effect on posture. Blindly swapping them without considering the practical issues could indeed cause some impact.

That requires the angler to be very familiar with their lures. What I do is to test the balance in a light-water shallow area to see the swimming action. As long as the balance and posture aren’t affected, you can give it a try.

Oh, and there’s another point to note. My lure is relatively small, and I’m not targeting very large fish. If you need to cast longer distances and use larger lures, it’s not advisable to replace them with far smaller hooks as it might lead to fish striking and getting away, outweighing the benefits.

Replacing the treble hooks is similar to using smaller hooks and thinner lines in pole fishing. The rod’s action should also compromise to a certain extent. Otherwise, if the rod is too stiff, it could tear a big hole in the fish’s mouth, and you’re likely to lose the fish..."

While talking, Lin Yang had already replaced the new treble hook, remembered where he had snagged before, and cast again towards the left side of the point area.

This time the lure reached the bottom safely, in about five seconds, in water only about two meters deep.

After three consecutive casts, covering the area in front, behind, and to the left of the mark, there were no fish strikes.

Just as Lin Yang was about to signal Wang Feng to give up searching and reel in, something unexpected happened again.

The sinking pencil lure at about one and a half meters underwater was being retrieved at high speed when it was struck at a pause during Lin Yang’s reeling in.

Was it that damn Mei Bass again?

Seeing this, Lin Yang jerked the rod tip to set the hook, but this time the force coming from the other end was much greater than the previous Mei Bass.

"Got another strike mid-retrieval, not sure what fish it is, but it’s got a decent pull, should be comparable to the previous Big Mouth Bass," Lin Yang controlled the fish while reeling in and provided timely explanations to the live stream, quickly bringing the fish to the surface.

When the fish broke the surface, with its blue-gray spotted back, slightly upturned enormous mouth, and robust body, there it was—a Big Mouth Bass.

Lin Yang finally understood firsthand what Robert meant by saying they were active throughout the entire water body yesterday. This fella wasn’t content staying near the bottom but instead swam about half a meter off the bottom. The lure was moving fast when Lin Yang had been reeling in, and a mere pause got it to take a bite, indicating that the fish was very active and eager to strike.

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