The Top Fishing
Chapter 94 - 094: The Big Fish Piles On

Chapter 94: Chapter 094: The Big Fish Piles On

"Crap!" he cursed in frustration.

"Damn, are the fish always this irritable?"

"Seems like the people are pretty irritable, too."

"The guy just now was a bit too hasty; he lifted the rod with such force that the sound of the rod stopping made my heartbeat race."

Seeing the teasing comments from the viewers in the live stream, Lin Yang planned to explain to them the techniques for handling big fish, which could also be edited out and uploaded as individual videos later.

"For smaller fish, they don’t have much power, so they are generally easier to control. Thus, for common species like the crucian carp and young carps, you don’t need to pay too much attention during the fishing process—you can just rely on the performance of your equipment to pull them out. But to catch big fish, you’ll need to start paying attention to techniques and details."

First thing first, let’s talk about the basic rig setup.

For example, the rod I used today is a nine-meter giant pole, with a 4+3 line set up and size ten Ishiyane hook, paired with a Losing Hand Rope; fishes up to twenty to thirty pounds should not be a problem. Personally, with a bit of luck, I could handle up to fifty pounds.

Secondly, concerning the core details of avoiding cut lines and losing fish—casting.

If you’re fishing for big fish, remember not to cast a full rod.

Casting a full rod allows the hook to reach farther, no problem there, but once you hook a fish, it’s very passive, because you can’t lift the rod. In such a scenario, you’re relying solely on the strength of the fishing line, without the rod’s flexibility coming into play.

"When the rod is horizontal, the strength of the fishing line is actually quite low because when tying the hook, the horizontal and vertical wraps of line are perpendicular to each other. The angle at which the force is applied when the rod is horizontal causes the strength to decrease sharply due to cutting.

Many times, you might experience accidentally hooking the bottom. If you straighten the rod and pull with a light force, you can easily cut the hook off, and that’s the principle behind it."

Thirdly, the force and timing of setting the hook after hooking a fish.

When fishing for big fish, it’s better not to set the float too high. I personally prefer to set a low indicator to catch at a high indicator and let the double hook lie flat.

When the big fish enters the nest, it stirs up the water flow and bait with greater strength. If your float is set too high, it’s easy to witness misleading actions that are not actual bites.

Lifting the rod to set the hook might result in either a miss or hooking the fish on its body, scaring the fish off and losing the chance to catch it altogether.

The normal practice is to give the fishing line a proper pause, wait for a clear bite signal from the float, such as a significant continuous dull bite, a sinking float, and then lift the rod.

If your line and hook are relatively big, you can even count one, two, three after the float goes under before lifting the rod; this will increase your success rate.

The fourth point covers the method of playing the fish. If you’re lucky and you’ve set the hook, lifting the rod and if the fish is behaving, you’ve already got more than a 60% chance of landing it.

After you’ve lifted the rod, if possible, try to step back to give yourself some buffer space.

If the fish struggles, you can step forward to dissipate the thrust, then continue with your previous strategy.

At this point, someone might ask, "What if I don’t have time to step back and the fish surges forward?"

The simplest method is to attach a Losing Hand Rope. If the rod gets pulled horizontal, just let go of the rod and use the Losing Hand Rope to maneuver with the fish. As long as the timing is right, most crises can be overcome.

These are the main points you need to pay attention to. Does any water friend have any questions?"

After Lin Yang finished explaining, the viewers began to flood the chat.

"A 4+3 setup can handle twenty to thirty-pound fish quite stably? There’s also a chance for fish under fifty pounds? Then why does my 8+6 line snap the moment I lift the rod, even for fish that barely weigh ten pounds?"

"I’ve also snapped 10+8 lines before. It feels like sometimes the line’s strength doesn’t come into play at all."

"Not to argue, but I’m skeptical about the 4+3 setup the host mentioned. It feels fine for handling three to five-pound fish, but it tends to snap quite easily with larger ones."

"Could it be because the host uses more expensive lines? The usual lines I use cost two yuan per meter and are much weaker...."

Lin Yang glanced over the barrage of messages and replied, "Let’s first address the issue of the line snapping. If it snaps instantly, it already indicates one thing: something is definitely off in the way you lift the rod to set the hook.

Without going into anything else, even now, if I use a 0.8 sub-line to catch the carp I just had, it wouldn’t snap the moment I lifted the rod—that’s an issue with the force used when setting the hook.

Setting the hook too harshly, with too high of an acceleration, will naturally cut the line when the instantaneous tension exceeds the limit.

And then there’s the issue of casting a full rod; without any room for the line to buffer, it’s particularly easy to cut the line directly on the fish’s mouth.

This problem is a personal one; it is affected by the size of the fish and the strength of the line, but those factors don’t have a major impact.

As for the 4+3 configuration, if the 3 size leader line is tied properly, its tension value can reach at least around 5 kilograms, roughly 10 pounds of resistance. Using that for catching twenty to thirty-pound fish has a very high success rate, especially now in spring when the water temperature is lower and the fish are much weaker.

Someone else asked whether it’s because I use more expensive lines that are much stronger, hence influencing the outcome. Indeed, higher-priced lines do have better quality and performance, especially in terms of stability, with less fluctuation. However, the difference in strength compared to cheaper lines is at most 10 to 20%, which does have an effect on fishing but is not significant."

Lin Yang talked at length in the live streaming room, but Wu Tian, who was nearby listening, could not help but feel contempt.

What kind of nonsense is this, saying you can catch dozens of pounds of fish with a number three sub-line? Isn’t this pure baloney?

Pure deception with a twisted theory; even boasting should have some sort of draft, shouldn’t it?

Just as he was gearing up to confront Lin Yang face to face, Lin Yang’s float started to move again.

The float in front of Lin Yang was vibrating gently back and forth, bobbing slightly, and from time to time, solitary bubbles would rise from beneath the water.

Lin Yang interrupted his speech, reminding, "Pay attention, we’ve got fish coming to the bait!"

No sooner had he spoken than the four-eyed float bobbed sharply, moving to the full extent of three eyes. Before anyone could react, the remaining red top also vanished from the surface. The float had gone under!

"Don’t rush, count to three silently, and go for it!"

Lin Yang held the rod with one hand, gripped the handle with his palm, and braced the rod against his forearm, exerting a slight force from below.

He jerked the rod to hook the fish, and he hit the mark!

The moment Lin Yang hooked the fish, he felt like he had snagged a rock or some debris underwater; the fish didn’t seem to move at all.

With such a bite just now, it was definitely the action of a fish feeding. It couldn’t possibly be snagging the bottom.

The lack of movement only meant one thing: the fish was huge, it was "planted."

"Damn, it’s planted, it’s a big fish!" Lin Yang exclaimed, instantly wrapping both hands around the rod, squatting in place.

"Is the streamer now going to give us a live teaching session on how to catch big fish, right after explaining it?"

"What does ’planted’ mean? Can some experienced angler explain?"

"’Planted’ means the fish buries its head in the sand or mud and doesn’t move. Only big fish do that!"

Lin Yang crouched and bowed with the rod, holding his position for about thirty seconds. Still, there was no sign of strength from the fish below.

Seeing this, he gripped the rod tightly with his right hand and began rhythmically slapping the rod handle with his left.

"If you’ve hooked a big fish and it ’plants’ itself, don’t hurry to pull it up, and don’t easily decide whether you’ve snagged the bottom. Under the current circumstances, if it weren’t for the clear black float bite just now, I would have thought it was snagged. What should we do now? Just like I am doing, slap the rod..."

"Then the vibration of the rod will move the line. The hook inside the fish’s mouth will also feel this stimulation, and usually, after being slapped for a while, the fish can’t take it anymore and will start to move."

No sooner had he finished these words, the fish underwater indeed began to stir, moving toward the deeper parts of the water.

Seeing this, Lin Yang resumed his two-handed grip on the rod, slightly easing the rod forward to relieve some of the force.

But the big fish underwater seemed to have no intention of turning around; it kept surging forward.

Lin Yang’s rod was pulled down at a remarkably steady pace. In less than five seconds, it looked like the rod would be pulled parallel and the fish would escape.

Lin Yang reacted quickly and naturally let go, allowing the rod to be pulled towards the deep water.

"This is what I just explained about releasing the rod. Using the elasticity of the Losing Hand Rope to unload the force can greatly reduce the chances of the fish escaping. What we need to do now is to straighten out the Losing Hand Rope, be careful not to get it tangled or knotted, which could affect the line release.

Normally, if the fish isn’t too big, it will slow down after dashing for ten or twenty meters. We’ll wait for it to slow down, then we can start reeling in."

This time, Lin Yang’s judgment seemed a bit off...

The speed of the fish’s forward dash didn’t slow down. Instead, it kept plunging deeper into the water. With the 30 meters of Losing Hand Rope nearly gone, the big fish still showed no signs of stopping.

"Damn, Uncle, bring me a Losing Hand Rope. The fish is too big, and I’m about to run out of 30 meters of rope!"

Seeing the risk of the line breaking, Lin Yang couldn’t care about appearances anymore and urgently called out.

Yang Xincheng, hearing the shout, immediately brought over his own Losing Hand Rope.

This was a box-type Losing Hand Rope specifically for reservoir fishing, similar to a tape measure stored in a box that retracts automatically after use, very convenient. Judging by the model, it should be a large 50-meter Losing Hand Rope.

With the Losing Hand Rope in hand, Lin Yang quickly tied a secure knot and continued to let out line, releasing over ten more meters before the fish’s first forward dash finally began to slow.

Lin Yang: "I was a bit off in my judgment just now. This fish is probably bigger than I expected. The first charge took it over 40 meters away. Now, let’s try reeling in a bit and see how it reacts."

Lin Yang managed the Losing Hand Rope with his left hand while evenly pulling in with his right. The elasticity of the rope transmitted the force bit by bit, and after a slight tension, he slowly pulled the rod back.

"Now you have to be careful because the fish is a bit larger than expected, so when playing the fish, be on your guard.

The first rule of big fish fishing is to be steady. It’s better to be conservative and cautious than to take risks. For example, right now, don’t be in a hurry to grab the handle, but continue to observe the fish’s reaction. I predict that when the fish gets a bit closer to the shore, it will make another push for strength."