Zhou Chu nodded in agreement and said, "Indeed, it feels really good and doesn't stick to my hands! I just wonder how the fish will react! I prepared it according to the proportions given by the boss, and the bait smells quite authentic!"

Zhang Yang heard their comments and grinned: "Of course! That's what you call upgraded bait! If its performance hasn't improved, it wouldn't be an upgrade! Are you all ready? Shall we set a time to start the battle?"

"Wait, give me a moment! I haven't finished yet!" Han Qiang hurriedly shouted, speeding up his stirring action.

This guy didn't quite trust Zhang Yang's water ratio suggestion, so he used his usual habit to hand mix the water, resulting in a bait that absorbed too much water. It seemed like the ratio was enough, but after letting it sit for a few minutes, the bait turned too dry. He had to adjust by adding water a second time, and the bait ended up falling apart in his hands due to mismanagement of the ratio.

"Qiang, oh Qiang, how embarrassing! It's a good thing you didn't livestream today! Otherwise, you'd tarnish the prestigious reputation of our black pit fishing community!"

Wang Yan mockingly 'lamented' and delivered a fatal blow to his best friend.

"Who knew the water ratio would be so high! I'm testing it for you guys!

We're a team, right? Everyone has their own roles. You all followed the boss's water ratio suggestion, making identical bait, which makes the testing too monotonous!"

Han Qiang had his own twisted logic and stubbornly argued.

Zhang Yang took out his cigarettes, distributed them again to the guys, and lit one up himself: "Strong Brother is right! Let's wait a bit; it's fine, no rush!"

With the attention of the three, Han Qiang took a few more minutes but finally completed the bait preparation. After adjusting with the added water, the bait looked good—no lumps like the old yellow face bait. It was softer and stickier with more kneading, and its overall performance significantly improved.

Ready with the bait, Zhang Yang set a two-hour alarm: "Is everyone ready? Shall we start?"

Wang Yan was the least compliant, clutching a large bait ball in his hand, and shouted, "Start!" At the same time, his bait ball was tossed into the water in front of him.

A four-and-a-half-meter fishing rod, for these fishing veterans, casting is as smooth and effortless as it gets.

Seeing Wang Yan the first to cast and bait the area, the others quickly followed suit and cast into the water.

Zhang Yang, a bit slower, pressed the countdown button and then commenced with rod after rod of double hook Triangle Cannon for continuous bombardment.

At the May Day Quick Fish Carnival, quite a few three-year-old carp were released into the reservoir. During the competition, some of these carp were caught, but the overall fish yield was less than 50%.

After over a dozen days of rest and with the reservoir water temperature gradually rising, the activity of the remaining carp began to increase.

The recipe for Yellow Storm 2211 bait mainly targets farmed carp, incorporating a plethora of quality components like soymeal and wheat germ into the base bait, resulting in a faint bean scent in the bait's original flavor.

However, to mask the bait's base formula ingredients, Zhang Yang had Old Wang consciously add some auxiliary ingredients to hide the smell. Adding flavor profile components, this original soybean aroma became undetectable to humans.

Just because human noses can't detect it doesn't mean fish can't sense it. Real ingredients make compelling bait, naturally enhancing fish attraction effectiveness. After about fifteen minutes of casting, there was movement in the bait area.

Zhang Yang, since opening the rod, has not used the method of creating a bait area with lead bits; instead, he continuously bombarded with double-hook Triangle Cannon. His bait water ratio was slightly higher than the other three, preparing a wet loose state bait.

The reason was simple: within the recipe bait, a portion of the ingredients were larger crushed particles that didn't absorb enough water, hence floating after entering the water, presenting a dynamic fish attraction effect. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

This characteristic is highly advantageous for fishing active quick fish under specific fishing conditions, rapidly attracting fish schools to the bait area. However, in the current reservoir conditions fishing stock old fish, it might be unsuitable, as sticking to the principle of bottom fishing, larger particles settle at the bottom, yielding better results.

If you look, after a while, Zhang Yang's bait area began showing activity, while Wang Yan and the others hardly noticed any bobber movement; instead, numerous floating broken bait particles appeared on the water surface.

"Hey, something's not right, boss! Why's the bait floating?" Wang Yan was the first to spot the issue, feeling a bit confused.

"Yeah, mine's floating too! I wouldn't have noticed if Wang Yan hadn't mentioned it! Quite a lot is floating as well!"

"What's going on, boss?"

Once Wang Yan noted it, the other three saw numerous floating broken bait particles near their positions and by the water's edge. These floating objects had begun to slowly absorb water due to saturation, displaying a vibrant color reminiscent of Marukyu's bait when saturated.

Zhang Yang's lips curled slightly: "Didn't you check the bait's ingredients and particle sizes before preparing? These are the larger particle ingredients inside!"

"They're floating, we can't settle the bait area! I thought these particles should settle in the water!" Wang Yan scratched his head, realizing Zhang Yang was teasing subtly.

"They can settle the bait! Look at my spot, when tossed in, it doesn't float!"

While speaking, Zhang Yang pinched two standard Triangle Cannon and tossed them into the bait area, demonstrating on the spot.

The trio stared at Zhang Yang's bait area, straining their eyes but saw no floating particles, finally convinced.

"What's going on? You really have a trick to this!" Han Qiang scratched his head, still not comprehending.

"It's about the water ratio! I prepared a wet loose bait! You guys probably have dry loose bait!" Zhang Yang revealed the essence with one sentence.

"Damn!" Wang Yan muttered, immediately adjusting the bait. The other two stopped fishing and assumed the same stance.

While Zhang Yang chatted with the guys, the bobber began showing clear signal movements. As soon as the double-hook Triangle Cannon landed, within not even three seconds, there were two consecutive favorable downward pulls.

Rod raise, fish strike, go!

A heavy hand sensation came from underwater as Zhang Yang bent the rod naturally, right hand holding the rod, left hand resting on the rod tip's upper end.

"Haha, first strike! Two big pulls in a row, exciting!!" Zhang Yang announced cheerfully while leisurely maneuvering the fish.

The three guys squatting miserably, adjusting bait water ratios, watched Zhang Yang being the first to hook a fish, feeling quite downtrodden. Their earlier ambitious words were still vivid as this slap in the face came quickly.

After recalibrating their bait water ratios and comparing with Zhang Yang's wet loose bait state, Wang Yan finally returned to his fishing spot.

Zhang Yang, calmly maneuvering the fish, easily brought up a hefty four and a half kilogram carp.

"Got one! Hurry up, guys!" Zhang Yang grasped the fish's gill cover behind its position and displayed it to everyone, refraining from keeping the fish but tossing it back into the water.

Since catching the first fish, Zhang Yang smoothly transitioned into his formal battle mode.

Although the bite rate within the bait area wasn't very fast, there was often a bite within five or six rod casts. Thanks to the consistent baiting earlier resulting in the fishing hole gradually snowballing.

The four of them fished side by side, with Zhang Yang maintaining a steady slow-bite pace, while the other three encountered a 5:0 situation. Only Zhou Chu, furthest outside, managed to catch two fish, while Han Qiang and Wang Yan, next to Zhang Yang, were left in a slump. After half an hour, they began slowly opening their rods.

Naturally, the catch results weren't surprising; they couldn't outdo Zhang Yang from the same starting point, and with Zhang Yang already ahead, they couldn't catch up afterward.

The two-hour fish catch concluded with Zhang Yang having 14 large carp in total, while Han Qiang, at the bottom, caught only four fish—a mere fraction.