The Top Fishing
Chapter 449 - 212: Sailing and Fishing_3

Chapter 449: Chapter 212: Sailing and Fishing_3

At that moment, as the lure hit bottom and the line stopped running, he felt an enormous force coming from underneath the water within a second.

This sensation far exceeded the power of the Big Mouth Bass he caught earlier. If he discounted the rod’s tension effect, with his extensive experience in lure angling, he estimated that this fish was at least seven or eight pounds.

The drag, which had previously been adjusted, began to scream as line ran out uncontrollably; the force underwater vastly surpassed the drag’s limit, lending the drag almost useless now.

When targeting fish species ranging from one to three and a half kilograms, Lin Yang would use number two PE line.

The number two PE line typically had a breaking strength of around 20 pounds, but any fishing line he used was endowed with a line-protecting buff, which improved its performance by about twenty percent. This meant the actual breaking strength of the line was close to 24 pounds.

With the strength of this line, relying on the rod and reel to handle a fish under thirty pounds was pretty easy.

Now, the weakest part of the entire fishing setup wasn’t the line, but the smaller size three treble hooks he had hastily changed to.

Facing such a huge impact, Lin Yang wasn’t sure if these slender hooks could withstand it.

"Captain, bring up the anchor, I’ve hooked into a super big fish," he said, while adjusting the drag to slow the line running out and hailed the captain.

The hook was too small; fearing it would straighten if faced with a direct confrontation, he tentatively tightened the drag to slow down the line. He needed to buy time for the fishing boat to retrieve the anchor.

The captain had also heard the frenzied sound of the line running out, and immediately complied with Lin Yang’s instructions, starting to bring the anchor back up.

In about twenty seconds, the anchor was retrieved, and over half of Lin Yang’s line had been stripped from his reel, leaving less than fifty meters remaining in the spool.

"What comes next?"

Lin Yang said immediately, "The hooks are too thin, I’m afraid they might get straightened, so I need your help to pilot the boat and chase the fish. Drive the boat in the perpendicular direction to where the line is taught, and I’ll start retrieving some line before proceeding to the next step. The fish is very strong, we need to be careful...."

It sounded complicated, but it’s essentially the same principle as the figure-eight method used in fighting big fish; controlling a fish at ninety degrees is far more effective than at zero or 180 degrees.

Both veterans of their trades, once Lin Yang shared his thoughts, the captain instantly understood, nodded his ok, and started moving the boat.

Seeing his series of responses, the viewers in the live broadcast became excited once again.

"Whoa, did the host hook a big one again?"

"Is it possible that Master Lin is just acting again to fool those foreigners?"

"It must be real, guys. Look, the host was all smiles just now, but his lips are pursed now. He’s clearly gotten serious."

Under normal circumstances, even while playing a fish, Lin Yang would still sneak peeks at the comments in the chat if he got the chance.

But this time, he wasn’t feeling too confident.

The line was definitely not going to break; using the maximum strength PE line to prevent snagging and losing the bait meant that compared to the ultimate tension the hook could withstand, there would be quite a surplus. His only fear was that the treble hook might fail.

After snagging the bottom, it wouldn’t take much force to straighten out the fishhook, much like how in freshwater platform fishing, using a size three sleeve hook to catch a thirty-pound fish would leave one with no confidence at all.

Though he was nervous inside, his face remained quite composed. The captain started the boat and steered it to one side.

While maintaining a ninety-degree angle between the direction of the fish and the line, Lin Yang reeled in the line at a steady pace, loosening the drag at the slightest hint of movement, trying to balance the tension as much as possible.

Under his extremely cautious handling, the ferocious strength of the fish after being hooked was, remarkably, stabilized.

About seventy meters of line had been retrieved onto the spool, surviving the most dangerous first phase of the fight with the fish.

The crisis, however, was not yet over.

After traveling a few hundred meters, the captain suddenly alerted him, "Mr. Lin Yang, there’s a shallow area ahead. We can’t let the boat pass over it. If there’s an obstacle in the water, we might run aground."

Indeed, Lin Yang glanced in that direction and saw that about seventy to eighty meters ahead, there was an area where the water color was different, with water plants peeking out from under the water in a few places.

This is a typical shallow water area.

"Head towards the northwest direction at one o’clock, we can’t go any further forward," Lin Yang immediately reacted.

"But there are those guys’ boats over there, could there be a risk?" the captain worried a bit.

"There’s also a risk, but it’s always better than a definite problem, trust me," when choosing the lesser of two evils, one side is bound to have issues, while the other has some risk, the choice was an easy one.

While the captain was adjusting the course, Lin Yang once again slightly redirected the front end of the fishing rod to the other side.

This is just like playing with fish, exerting force from one side can still have a certain effect on controlling the fish.

The direction, which was almost perpendicular at nearly ninety degrees, became an angle of about fifty degrees after the adjustment, instantly reducing the dragging force on the underwater fish.

When changing the direction of force, that is the most dangerous time, if the fish suddenly gains speed, it can easily get out of control and escape.

Luckily, the fish underwater did not take the opportunity to exert force, but rather maintained its previous underwater posture.

It wasn’t until the captain had adjusted the heading to avoid the shallow area that Lin Yang let out a sigh of relief, the second barrier was passed.

Smith, about fifty or sixty meters away from their fishing boat, quickly noticed the situation with Lin Yang’s fishing boat.

The boat belonging to Pete adjacent to Smith’s vessel, almost abreast with it, also noticed the issue almost immediately.

"Did they hook a big fish? Smith, what do we do?" Pete asked.

Squinting, Smith glanced over and said in a tone almost devoid of warmth, "Maintain a stable speed and reasonable distance between boats, and leave the rest to God."

This so-called leaving it to God was practically a ’death sentence’ for Lin Yang and his crew.

Normally, even during a competition, if someone hooks a fish, others nearby are supposed to avoid it if possible; with a fifty-meter maneuvering distance, a deviation of around forty degrees from the course, it is very easy to avoid, but Smith did not intend to make way.

So, the live stream soon showed a scene that greatly angered people.

Lin Yang’s fishing boat was adjusting its heading to avoid the shallow area, while the several following boats did not make any apparent avoidance moves, the closest distance between two boats was less than ten meters, which for fishing boats, is a considerably dangerous proximity.

"CNM, these foreigners are really fucking annoying."

"Domestic anglers, no matter where they fish, are always one big family, always ready to help each other when needed. Look at what happens abroad, in the so-called land of freedom and democracy, the United States. When they see the streamer has hooked a fish and needs to adjust their course, they turn a blind eye, utterly shameless."

"You’re wrong there, it’s not that they’re turning a blind eye, it’s clearly intentional. Not helping is one thing, causing trouble is another; they were probably hoping the streamer’s big fish would get away, such bad behavior."

"Luckily the streamer is skilled, and also lucky. Now that we’ve passed this risky section, we should be safe."

"I’ve recorded this. I’ll bypass the firewall later and upload it online for everyone to see."

As the live stream viewers were filled with righteous indignation, Lin Yang’s fishing boat successfully navigated through the narrow, perilous area, and there was less than thirty meters of line left in his spool.

"Lin Yang brother, are you alright?" Wang Feng asked Lin Yang, relieved to have finally passed the dangerous area.

Lin Yang nodded, "It’s alright. I feel the fish’s strength is beginning to wane. I’ll try to reel in a bit and see how it reacts."

Hearing this, the captain at the bow also timely slowed the boat down.

Soon, as the speed of the fishing boat came down a notch, Lin Yang used both hands to control the fishing rod, slowly pushing it upwards, lifting the rod before slightly pressing it down again. Taking advantage of this very short interval, his right hand coordinated the reeling in, collecting the half meter or so of the fishing line pulled back by the rod’s resilience into the spool.

With this technique of retracting about half a meter of line per cycle, he managed to retract over twenty meters. The fish underwater’s strength had obviously diminished, the intervals between its exertions grew longer, and the resistance while reeling in grew smaller.

Yet even so, Lin Yang still dared not handle it roughly, fearing all his efforts would come to naught.

And so, with the captain’s experienced coordination, the angler’s control, and an extremely conservative strategy, the big fish underwater remained under Lin Yang’s control.