Big!

Very big!

Extremely big!

A huge fish head broke the surface, a mouth big enough to fit a fist, the wide upper body with black spots mixed into a grayish base color—what a big bighead carp!

The fish wasn't ashore yet, but based on his own fishing experience, Old Liu estimated this fish had to be at least six or seven jin at the very least—one fish weighed as much as two young carp. In a weight contest, landing this fish would be like giving Zhang Yang wings.

What really made Old Liu's liver tremble wasn't just that.

Zhang Yang had switched to bighead/carp amur and hit his target fish. This stuff either doesn't show, or when it does, it's usually in schools. With the first one in hand, there might very well be a second, a third, and who knows how many more after.

Liu Wenjun also had no idea how big the size gap was between the big and small ones in the bighead/amur school in this reservoir.

Up to now, one of the buddies teamed up with Old Liu had landed a carp of over thirteen jin and was temporarily holding the record for the heaviest single fish.

If Zhang Yang's luck kept up, even that single-fish weight record might not stay in Liu Wenjun's little team's hands.

No way, he couldn't just sit and wait for death, he had to think of something! Ideas were spinning at high speed in Liu Wenjun's mind.

When real money's on the line, Old Liu's bottom line is pretty low. Otherwise he wouldn't be using little tricks like lead-skin nests. After hesitating for a few seconds, Old Liu made up his mind.

"Xiao Zhang, do you still have any extra garlic powder and strawberry essence? Can you lend me a bit?" Old Liu couldn't care less about keeping up appearances, he thickened his skin and went to Zhang Yang to borrow stuff.

Hearing Liu Wenjun ask to borrow things, Zhang Yang froze for a second and gave Old Liu a meaningful look.

"Teacher Liu, we're in the middle of a competition right now! At this critical moment, you ask me, should I lend it, or should I not?"

Zhang Yang didn't reject him outright, instead giving a vague, ambiguous answer.

Between adults, if there's no clear, definite yes, it's basically a tactful no. Zhang Yang handling it like this wasn't inappropriate at all.

"Listen to yourself, we're bros, and you're drawing such a hard line? If you've got any extra, sort your brother out. I'll remember the favor!" Old Liu refused to give up and was still trying to fight for it.

Zhang Yang cast another rod, shrugged with empty hands: "There are still several hours until the end of the competition. I didn't prepare that much, I might not even have enough for myself! You'd better ask the brother on the other side."

Well, that was it—rejected to his face, the last shred of face torn right off.

"Alright then!" With things said to this extent, if Liu Wenjun kept nagging it'd just be asking for humiliation. He nodded and kept quiet.

Zhang Yang glanced at him from the corner of his eye and thought to himself, "One second ago you were tripping your bro up, messing with me with that lead-skin nest, and now you want to borrow flavored additives? What are you thinking? I might be young, but I'm not a dumbass."

He was still distracted by his thoughts when the bobber flipped after entering the water and very quickly gave two consecutive, solid pause-bites.

Lift the rod, set the hook! Let's go!

Another bighead/amur with almost the same feel as the last one took the bait. Zhang Yang immediately applied side pressure and led the fish out of the swim.

Wooo wooo wooo

The fish swam in the water, pulling the line and rod to make a series of buzzing hums. This sound was like a spell, drawing in every angler nearby who could hear it.

He'd just hooked a big fish, and then another right after! How are people supposed to live with this!

Seeing Zhang Yang hook into a second bighead, Liu Wenjun's last trace of hesitation vanished without a trace.

He stood up, took light bran and Snowflake Powder and other state baits from his tackle box, then pulled out the basic yellow base mix and started mixing at once.

Without strawberry essence and garlic powder, it's not like other things won't work—shrimp powder, medicinal liquor and the like, mixed into bighead bait, as long as the atomization is good, can still have some attraction effect.

Two bighead fish landed in such a short interval meant there was definitely a school in Zhang Yang's swim now. Even if he couldn't out-fish Zhang Yang, at the very least he could mess things up for him.

Just like that, very quickly Liu Wenjun poured all the light bran and Snowflake Powder from his box into the basin, then added a small portion of basic yellow base, plus a bit of Marukyu's masterpiece "Matchless Under Heaven". He added water and stirred, whipping up a big basin of super-light, glaringly white, neither-here-nor-there bait.

While Liu Wenjun was mixing bait, the second bighead on Zhang Yang's side had basically burned out its stamina. After several rounds of back-and-forth playing, the fish slowly rose to the surface.

Zhang Yang calmly drew the fish in front of him again, grabbed the landing net handle with his left hand, pushed forward then pulled back—let's go!

The second bighead slid into the keep net easily, another five or six jin in weight.

Over the next forty minutes, the fish activity on Zhang Yang's side clearly picked up.

On average, every seven or eight minutes he'd get a bite. Aside from the occasional missed strike, most of the fish were these five- or six-jin bighead carp.

In less than an hour, Zhang Yang had brought up seven fish. His total catch weight had increased by at least more than thirty jin.

By comparison, things were a bit rough for Liu Wenjun next door.

He'd turned all his state baits into a light, well-atomized homemade bighead bait, but because he lacked the high-efficiency flavor and had started building his swim later than Zhang Yang, he kept pumping the rod with his head down and still hadn't gotten his target fish.

An hour went by just like that, and before they knew it, it was already 2:30 in the afternoon.

At this point, the constant casting finally paid off a bit.

Old Liu finally got a bite, lifted the rod, set the hook—fish on!