Back to the Past to Become a Fishing King-Chapter 610 - 354: The Rule-Savvy Troublemaker (Part 2)

"It's best if you didn't understand what I said—I can hold a grudge. If anyone messes with me, I'll lodge a complaint to the very end, even if it means giving up my score!"

"What do you mean, mess with you? What grudge? Dude, you must be mistaking me for someone else. This is our first meeting!" Wang Maoqing managed to disguise himself well enough this time, preventing another scene where Zhang Yang easily tricked him into revealing information.

"Let's hope I made a mistake! Do well! Good luck!"

"Uh-huh!"

Winning without fighting is the best tactic in the art of war, yet Wang Maoqing's on-the-spot reactions were evidently strong, not showing too many flaws. This left Zhang Yang unable to tear through the facade completely and warn his opponent outright, merely giving a warning shot.

After a few more minutes, the preparation time ended, and the referee fired the starting pistol for the final match. Everyone cast their lines into the water simultaneously—the final match had begun!

The fish aren't biting well, so doing the usual nest-up tactics to gather fish virtually had no practical effect by this point in the competition.

On his first cast, Zhang Yang pushed the sinker below the bobber, using the same flying lead method as in the previous round.

The bait was fine, and the angling technique had been tested, so Zhang Yang felt confident, patiently changing locations with his casts, trying to find a spot with active fish.

However, he underestimated the difficulty of the final round's fish situation. After casting over ten times, the bobber remained completely still.

What the heck is this?

Zhang Yang muttered to himself, his gaze naturally wandering towards other anglers within his viewing range.

No one else seemed to be catching fish either. Within just the first few minutes of fishing, the anglers consciously slowed down their casting frequency.

In such tough conditions, casting frequency wouldn't make a difference, so everyone noticeably slowed down their fishing rhythm.

Can't end up with a zero-catch, can I?

Zhang Yang scratched his head in frustration, his mind racing.

No feeding activity indicates no active fish nearby, a bad sign.

The fishing spot itself didn't offer any advantage. If luck was extremely poor, he might not get a single bite, and any tactic could fail.

Even with such tough conditions, Zhang Yang wasn't going to give up.

After getting no reaction from casting into the distant spots, Zhang Yang mashed some bait into red date-sized balls, placing them in three spots, left, center, and right, straight ahead, creating a small nest. He then returned to the bait and began the "frogging" method nearby.

When there are no fish biting, anglers need to do two things: use some bait or added enticing scents to lure fish over.

The second thing is to actively find a spot where there might be fish.

Zhang Yang applied a plum blossom pile nest stratagem, alongside the frogging method targeting close spots, executing both strategies at once.

As long as the plum blossom pile nest lures a few fish in, or frogging yields results, at least he could break the zero-catch streak!

Finding no fish at a distance, he tried close-range. Indeed, Zhang Yang found a bite.

Near his foot, slightly to the right, Zhang Yang was frogging with his rod. Just after submerging his setup, while the bobber was still descending slowly, he noticed a significant nudge.

The action wasn't strong, about half a marker, but it was noticeably clearer than the first fish bite in the previous round. Zhang Yang didn't rush to lift the rod, deliberately letting one go.

Seeing no follow-up nibbles, Zhang Yang refrained from lifting his rod, once again flicking his wrist to manipulate the line system upward, repeating the previous double-hook entry movements.

No strike, switched bait, continued repeating the actions.

This bait-pecking action was obvious—it pecked bit but didn't take in. Normally, with bait this good and a fine line system, it shouldn't block the bite.

The cound't catch a fish, but Zhang Yang's spirits lifted with conviction about the fish condition; any movement was good, it indicated fish were near the spot.

While Zhang Yang was striving for his first catch, suddenly a splash came from Wang Maoqing nearby.

This splash made by the falling bobber seemed out of sync with the overall atmosphere of the current eighth match.

Upon hearing the splash, Zhang Yang's peripheral glance caught it.

With intentional observation, he soon found the issue.

The guy was using a massive bobber, one that at least takes three grams of lead, meant for carp.

That wasn't all—the thick pile of lead wrapped around the sinker seat was even more exaggerated.

With such heavy lead, it's no wonder there was loud splashing when it hit the water, with a sound reminiscent of stones being thrown in.

Even with Zhang Yang's extensive past experience in various competitions and encounters with sabotage, like random blasting shot spreads, scent bombs, or even fish-repelling agents, none of those posed a problem for him.

But this was his first time witnessing traditional fishing techniques used in a final competition to mess with others!

The principle was simple—such a heavy lump of lead, every cast was like tossing a stone into the water, most fish active nearby would likely be scared away by the noise.

If it works, could Zhang Yang complain? 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

To be honest, very hard!

Competition regulates the technique, with restrictions, but there's no rule about the bobber's weight, nor any on using traditional heavy lead fishing methods.

Even the head umpire were standing behind, the current situation wouldn't be enough to catch this saboteur.

"Damn! What terrible luck!"

Zhang Yang muttered in a voice almost too soft for anyone else to hear, and almost at the same time, he raised his rod and switched direction, aiming away from Wang Maoqing's casting spot.

Back to close-range frogging, after several tries, just when Zhang Yang was about to believe it was hopeless, the long-desired biting action came.

As the bobber was smoothly descending, it paused slightly for half a second before dropping by a third of a division in a gentle nudge.

This time, no delaying, Zhang Yang decisively lifted the rod, striking the fish. Gotcha!

Joking aside, with the neighbor throwing 'stones' to disrupt, each fish caught around was one few. No room for hesitating.

The rod tip delivered an encouraging tug sensation, got it!

The first fish caught could determine if it would be a no-fish or a start, so Zhang Yang carefully controlled it, taking two rounds before bringing a little over an ounce small crucian carp up.

Cautiously retrieving the fish, guiding it with the left hand holding the line, it finally reached his hand.

Removing the hook with a glance, it was hanging on the fish lip very thinly, just a bit off center from the mouth, with a noticeable tear-like injury.

A fish with an injured mouth, still hungry with the lower mouth circle not fully healed but still feeding.

This situation gave Zhang Yang a bit more confidence in the otherwise dismal fishing conditions.

The conditions were harsh, truly, but one could still catch with a firm bite, and one fish in hand meant at least no zero!

Zhang Yang placed the precious first catch in the fish keeper, and repeated his tactic, casting the setup back to the close-range.

Watching Zhang Yang start catching, Wang Maoqing next door deliberately cast in his direction again.

Splash!

Before casting, the guy sneakily stood up to survey the fishing boundary line.

From this single action, Zhang Yang could tell this guy was a seasoned saboteur!

Why say so? Random casting could easily cause disputes, especially since Zhang Yang was already wary.

Suppose Zhang Yang reported on the spot. No matter if the actual point was across the line, as long as the referee was called over, Zhang Yang insisted the opponent crossed the line and had suspicions of using improper methods to disrupt—at least they would get a yellow card for a rule breach warning.

But with that boundary-observing action, it was to avoid getting that yellow card.

Even with a complaint, when reviewing the competition footage, his standing up, observing the boundary gesture would serve as evidence for not casting over the line. Referee ruling disputes generally wouldn't support a complaint.

With poor fishing conditions, and a mischief-competent opponent nearby, how should he proceed?

The prospects for Zhang Yang in the final round seemed a little bleak.