Although the fake yellow storm doesn't work as well as the genuine one, its basic substance is also processed from grain materials, and as long as the technique is up to standard, it can still be used to catch ordinary fish.

That day, the fish weren't biting, no one caught anything consistently, and certainly no one had a successful haul. In this case, no one was too concerned about the effect of the bait. They called it a day early and went to find a place to drink.

The fish weren't biting, and the prepared bait wasn't even used up. Since there was no trash bin near the fishing ground, when it was time to clean up, people casually threw the leftover bait into the pond as a form of 'chumming.' This behavior was common in black pit fishing; neither the pit owner nor other fishermen thought there was anything wrong with it.

If it were just at this level, the situation with the fake yellow storm bait wouldn't have caused such a citywide commotion. At worst, if it wasn't effective, people would just switch back to the pricier genuine product.

The turning point of this matter came the day after the opening of the black pit fishing event.

At dawn, when the sky was still dim, the pit owner diligently got up early to inspect the pond, sweeping the water's surface with a flashlight a few times. He found the downwind bank filled with large white carp. After a night, their bellies had turned up, and they were dead!

If it were just one or two dead fish, it wouldn't be a big deal. Fish can die from various reasons like hooking mistakes, escaping injuries, or after getting entangled. As long as there aren't many dead fish, it's seen as normal.

Exaggeration lay in the fact that too many fish died at the downwind side. Of the over a thousand pounds of fish stock in the pond, scarcely a few were left, and most had turned belly-up overnight.

Seeing this, the black pit owner panicked. His first reaction was that someone had poisoned the pond. The oxygen pump ran all night, so if it were simply a lack of oxygen, so many fish couldn't possibly have died.

The pond owner hastily checked the surveillance footage, reviewing all recordings from the cameras from start to finish.

The result, of course, was no abnormalities, causing this lead to go cold.

As the day barely broke, anglers who came for a budget fishing deal showed up at the fishing ground. Seeing all the fish dead, they did not fish but instead joined the boss in investigating.

At this time, a fisherman with experience in the aquatic market casually mentioned something.

"Boss, seems like all your fish have bulging bellies! You can't find the reason in the surveillance footage; why not pull out a dead fish, and I'll help you analyze it!"

Since the fish were already dead, there was no harm in trying. The pond owner immediately pulled out a few fish, and with a small knife, cut one open on the spot.

Once they opened the belly, the issue was immediately apparent.

The stomach and intestines of the dead fish were filled with a large amount of bright yellow jelly-like substances, and after fermenting overnight, the smell was enough to knock someone over with a single whiff.

"Something's not right. What have your fish been eating? They literally look like jelly and have bloated to death!"

Just as they made this new discovery, the pond owner's phone rang; it was the fish dealer who collected fish the previous evening.

"Hello? Xiao Li, it's me, Old Zhou!"

"Brother Zhou, what happened to your fish yesterday? I brought them home and left them in the oxygenated truck overnight, and they all died, bellies swollen like balloons!"

Hearing this, the pond owner couldn't hold it anymore and called the police. Someone was definitely up to no good!!

The police arrived at the scene quickly, but being non-experts, they couldn't immediately determine the cause of death. After registering various information and taking the fishing ground's surveillance footage, they left.

Looking at the pond full of dead fish, Boss Zhou, who had just opened his business yesterday, felt like crying but had no tears; everything seemed to be going wrong.

On the other side, the fish dealer suffered significant losses, and after learning that the fish from Old Zhou's pond had the same symptoms and died, he quickly discussed and inquired in his fish dealer network.

Different industries have different circles. Fish dealers and black pit owners each have their own networks, and after discussing Old Zhou's tragic incident in the group, numerous feedback messages soon came from peers.

Other fishing grounds using the same batch of fish as Old Zhou had sporadic deaths others had none, ruling out the problem being from the fish source.

After half a day, more new information was posted in the group; other ponds also reported die-offs of varying scales, and the fish that died had stomachs swollen like drums, filled with that jelly-like substance.

To resolve this mystery, someone took photos to consult a friend in aquaculture and received the answer that it didn't seem like a disease but rather from eating some special toxic substance.

The fish deaths did not stop; over the next few days of fermentation, more dead fish situations emerged in the local black pit community.

The public is actually very smart; a single incident might be puzzling, but once more examples and reference ideas are presented, the truth is quickly figured out by clever people.

Sure enough, after summarizing a series of fish deaths, a very realistic conclusion was reached.

The anglers playing in the black pit used toxic yellow storm bait, and fish that ate this bait would die from bloating in a short time.

Once this was guessed, someone quickly conducted an experiment, and as expected, a healthy largemouth bass, lively and spirited, died within half a day after eating a bit of yellow storm bait; the belly bloated, and upon cutting it open, it was filled with that jelly-like unknown substance.

This caused quite a stir, and soon, an announcement was made by a pit owner in the M City black pit fishing group, receiving uniform support from all black pit pond owners in the city district.

In black pits, using yellow storm bait for fishing is prohibited. Violators must compensate for all dead fish losses and cover costs for cleaning up contaminated water, collecting dead fish, etc.

The once-popular yellow storm bait, within less than a week of the fish death incident, triggered a chain reaction, nearly fatally impacting the sales of genuine bait.

From offline sales outlets to manufacturers, information transmission is somewhat delayed, but a week was enough for Zhang Yang Company to get the news.

Several distributors reported to the company that local black pits had banned yellow storm bait. It was rumored that fish caught with it would bloat to death.

When Zhang Yang first heard this news, he was fairly dismissive, thinking that black pit owners would say anything to prevent anglers from catching too many fish, much like the most recognized lie that red worms pollute water.

Red worms are clearly midge larvae that grow in natural waters, present wherever there is water in large rivers. There's never been a case where fish died from eating them, but in black pits, they're blamed as the cause for bad water. In the end, isn't it just to limit anglers' catches? No matter how effective the bait, they limit it, for mostly the same reason.

But this time, Zhang Yang's judgment was wrong. After receiving more and more feedback from distributors in different regions, Zhang Yang finally realized this was a real issue!

From information collected online and in various groups, the situation was almost identical. Fish that consumed the yellow storm bait died in nearly identical ways.

Ordinary people might not understand what the jelly-like content in the intestines and stomach is, but Zhang Yang knew. Wasn't it just expanding powder that absorbed water to near saturation?

Expanding powder, mentioned in earlier sections, is a chemical gel composed of high-absorption resin (SAP), polyacrylate (whether potassium or sodium), and polyacrylamide copolymers, naturally a white powdery crystal.

When used in small amounts in bait, it can significantly reduce bait weight and increase smoothness. Jelly bait is made by adding this ingredient.

Fish can't absorb or metabolize this substance. If the content is too high, it causes death. A few years ago, jelly bait was used, but recently, it has been banned in dictated battles by fishing associations due to explicit directives, and no one uses it in competitive fishing anymore.

Its limited usage currently is primarily in red worm pull, with small quantities, not enough to cause fatal impacts.

The company's yellow storm bait did not use this stuff. The high expansion ratio production process doesn't involve this substance at all. How could feedback from various regions suggest that this stuff is in the bait?