After more than half an hour, Zhang Yang finally distributed the celebratory drinks, and thanks to the award ceremony posting the rankings, some spectators were drawn over there.

Running a bit late, Zhang Yang and his assistant loaded the fishing gear into the car and headed towards the gathering point.

From a distance, he saw that Wang Yan and YOYO's group had already assembled, with YOYO and the sisters Xiaowei holding hands, chatting and laughing, seemingly not affected by any rule-breaking incidents.

"Boss! Awesome job catching that big carp!" Wang Yan saw Zhang Yang approaching and raised his hand to toss him a cigarette.

Zhang Yang took the cigarette, lit it with his lighter, and smiled, asking, "How about you guys? Did you catch anything?"

Wang Yan grinned widely: "Haha, with the bait you made, it's like giving wings to a tiger!

I just checked the single fish weight ranking, you're first, YOYO's second, that Liu Feng is third! Brother Chu is fourth, Han Qiang got fifth, and I performed averagely, ranking eighth!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yang instantly understood why YOYO was in such a good mood; her results were valid, securing her second place.

In this case, the first and second places were taken by Zhang Yang's team, with only Beijing's Liu Feng snagging third, nearly sweeping the top positions.

"The award ceremony is about to start, let's get our awards first, and discuss other things later! Let's celebrate tonight!" Zhang Yang pointed not far away.

"Let's go!"

The group strolled to the makeshift award stage, where over a hundred people had gathered.

Since there was an award ceremony yesterday, everyone was more relaxed today; this was just a commercial event at a private pond, so the atmosphere wasn't too serious, the host began warming up the crowd, and there was still a bit of noise.

The opening remarks ended quickly, and the award ceremony officially commenced.

Before the winning anglers received their awards, Lao Ma, who looked somewhat upset, took the microphone and stepped onto the stage.

"Sorry, can everyone quiet down!! Before we start the awards, as the organizer, I want to clarify something first!"

Seeing Lao Ma on stage, the crowd quieted down immediately, going silent in the blink of an eye.

The awards have already started, what is Lao Ma clarifying? Some people, unaware, were puzzled by his actions.

Once the crowd quieted, Lao Ma spoke into the microphone: "After six or seven hours of fishing, our second-day competition is now complete.

However, during the competition, there was a small incident that led many anglers to question our rules and refereeing decisions in the event's WeChat group. I'm here to publicly respond to these questions!

This morning, YOYO, a female angler competing at our pond, caught a big fish of over 20 pounds. Being limited in strength, she was exhausted after bringing the fish to shore, and when awaiting the referee to weigh it, she used her foot to stabilize the fish!

This scene was captured by spectators and questioned whether the fish's score should be invalid according to the rules!

After thorough communication with the arbitration committee, finally, we did not uphold the related queries and deemed the fish's score valid!

As everyone knows, female anglers are rare in our fishing community, and when they achieve something, we shouldn't demand the same standards as we do from men!

Moreover, the rule about fish touching the ground not counting was initially made to protect the big fish from damage, essentially safeguarding the pond's interests. As the owner, I benefit most from this rule.

YOYO's actions in the video, exhausted, protecting the fish with her shoe, clearly intended to prevent ground damage to the fish!

Thus, from this perspective, her actions align with our rule of fish not touching the ground.

I've preserved all related video evidence as proof, and if any angler contests our final decision, they are welcome to take legal action with arbitration bodies or the People's Court!

If the court rules against us, I, Lao Ma, will bear all consequences alone!"

Hearing Lao Ma's resolute speech on stage, the crowd instantly grew noisy.

Being particular about such trivial matters really seems petty, especially since the only ones who care about this scoring are Liu Feng, who ranks third, and for other anglers, it's irrelevant.

From this perspective, Lao Ma's remarks were internally supported by ninety percent of the anglers.

Seeing the crowd quiet down again after a brief stir, Lao Ma nodded to the host beside him: "Alright, I'm done speaking, let's continue with the award ceremony, congratulations to all who participated in the competition and achieved great results!

If you were unlucky, don't be discouraged, we'll continue hosting such pond events! Just go for it!!"

Lao Ma stepped down, and quickly the host began distributing awards by descending order of scores.

Almost the same as yesterday's process; the difference today being Zhang Yang's team had better results. As they went on stage to receive their awards, their Famous Fishing Tackle Company sun protection clothing and the yellow Storm bait packaging drew everyone's attention.