In the FTT's professional competitive bait fishing competition, the anglers are using high-end rods more than ever. The usually rare Daiwa and Shimano have nearly become standard equipment, and brands like Gamakatsu and Sudo, with rods that often cost five or six thousand yuan each, seem like cheap street goods at the moment.

In contrast, Zhang Yang's personal rod, a pure black, unpainted material rod, seemed a bit lacking in comparison, but he didn't care about the aesthetics of the paint. The team members used factory-customized hard rods, and as far as Zhang Yang was concerned, all these so-called imported big brands had inferior performance in the mixed pond.

After checking the rods, Zhang Yang put them back in the rod bag. At the entrance, a young staff member handed him a bag of unopened bait. Carrying the bait, Zhang Yang headed toward his designated fishing spot in Group H.

The fishing spot for Group H was located near the southwestern corner of the southern bank in the standard Competition Pond. Overall, the location was neither too good nor too bad, quite average.

Zhang Yang carried his tackle box to his position number 05, put down his equipment, and immediately began preparations.

The first thing was to open the bag and check the bait provided by the staff. Since it was mixed fishing, the bait included some state baits, along with several representative carp baits and black pit baits from Hua Clan. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The bait included the Black Pit Feast series, yellow-faced bait, along with whale food, snail carp, etc.

Although these baits had different names, in Zhang Yang's eyes, regardless of the name, the core ingredients of the bait remained consistent.

Following the approach he shared with his teammates yesterday, he conducted a relatively reasonable mix of the baits. After quickly determining the coarse-fine ratio, he soon started adding water to prepare the bait.

At Zhang Yang's level, regardless of whose bait is used, as long as there is specific pre-competition knowledge, preparing and using bait is generally the same. He skillfully mixed the bait proportions, added water, and kept stirring, quickly preparing the bait for fishing.

A standard rubbed bait, a wet scattered cannon with about a 0.5 water ratio. Normally, fishing involves rubbed bait with scattered cannon, which Zhang Yang mastered, setting the scattered cannon's water ratio slightly larger on purpose. This increases the error tolerance during practical use. If adjustments are needed upon understanding fish conditions, it's very convenient to reduce the water ratio by adding a bit of dry bait and stirring simply.

After preparing the mixed bait, Zhang Yang calmly began preparing other items, assembling the fishing gear, adjusting the bobber, finding the depth of water, etc., completing all preparations, placing the rod on the rack, inserting the fish guard into the socket, but without the start command, he couldn't start.

After completing all preparations, Zhang Yang consciously observed the situation of the surrounding anglers. He was lucky not to encounter any particularly skillful or fierce competitors in his group. They were all unfamiliar faces.

At this moment, according to Zhang Yang's self-assessment prediction, the probability of advancing to the second round was almost one hundred percent.

The ensuing fishing quickly confirmed Zhang Yang's pre-match prediction. After the preparation time ended, a shot from the referee's starting gun signaled all anglers to simultaneously cast their rods into the water.

The competition had begun!

With the first cast, Zhang Yang employed a fishing method using double-hooked rubbed bait, with an additional small scattered cannon, a bobber consuming 2.4 grams of lead, tuned to nine marks, fishing at three marks, a very moderate fishing plan.

Unlike the usual long-term mixed fishing competition, the first round of FTT mixed fishing consisted of thirty-minute sessions. Such a short time limited fish catches significantly, making steady housing strategy impossible. Thus, Zhang Yang's fishing tactic was more aggressive.

From the first cast, he used double-hooked rubbed bait with scattered cannon, and once the bobber entered the water, he immediately hooked if there was clear entry action, without getting caught in the mindset of steady nest management.

In the mixed pond's competition, the fish were still quite aggressive. The first cast in the water showed some minor bobber movements, and Zhang Yang slightly let go of a vague bobber signal, ultimately lacking a bite. He then directly replaced the bait for the second cast.

After three consecutive casts, surrounding fish moved to the nest area, and the first clear pause appeared.

The bobber turned over and entered the water at about six and a half marks, paused briefly during descent, then showed a clear and direct pause over one mark.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Yang reacted with a vigorous lift of his rod, reeled in the fish, and exclaimed, "Go!"

The tip of the rod gave a good force feedback; after a brief assessment of the weight, Zhang Yang judged the catch wasn't too heavy. He smoothly lifted using both arms, raising a carp slightly over one pound out of the water, creating a beautiful arc across the sky and heading straight toward him.

Zhang Yang used his left hand to grab the net rod positioned at the mouth of the fish guard, extending the net forward, swiftly capturing the carp into the net bag mid-air.

After netting the first fish, Zhang Yang kept the fishing line taut with his right hand holding the rod high, gently wiped near the fish's mouth with his left hand, located the hook shank, pressed and pulled down easily, removing the hook from the fish's mouth.

Once the hook was removed, Zhang Yang placed the net on the mouth of the fish guard but didn't rush to insert it. Instead, he first rubbed two sizes of the bait, paired with a small Triangle Cannon, and cast again.

After the cast was complete, Zhang Yang lifted the net with his left hand, swung it sideways, releasing the fish from the net into the guard due to inertia. This entire action of securing the catch was crisp, stylishly clean, without any excess movements.

Having caught the first fish using bottom contact, Zhang Yang made a Preliminary judgment, especially paying attention to the actions during the bobber's turnover trip.

As he predicted, the second fish appeared at about seven marks, presenting a one-mark sharp drop. Again, Zhang Yang caught the fish.

Having practiced black pit fishing regularly, capturing such nearly raw medium-sized carp was a zero-difficulty task for Zhang Yang.

To be blunt, in terms of mouth selection and fish retrieval fundamentals, this fishing challenge was easier than playing in the artillery field at Jinghai Garden.

At least the fish there weighed two to three pounds per tail, requiring more effort in retrieving them, whereas the currently caught carp under one pound required hardly any physical effort.

After a few fish were hooked consecutively, Zhang Yang's judgment on the fish condition was confirmed. Upon completing a new round of hook removal and baiting actions, he adeptly pushed up the lead seat by about 15 centimeters.

Real Small Flying Lead Fishing Method!

Given the high contact point of the fish, with fishing marks nine total, showing a mouth contact at around six to seven marks, indicates the fish's food-snatching layer was quite high, about seven to eight centimeters above the bottom.

The small flying lead fishing method involves appropriately elevating the lead seat, enhancing the magnitude of the secondary dropdown of the overall fishing setup. Simply put, pushing the lead seat up by a dozen centimeters effectively extends the length of the leader by the same measure.

With greater motion amplitude of the leader, the time reaching the target increases naturally. Thus, the fish biting the bait at the contact point feels more comfortable, and the bobber's response becomes more stable.

As expected, after pushing up the bobber seat, the first cast showed a mesmerizing pause over one and a half marks. Zhang Yang immediately reacted, catching another fish!

For the remaining twenty minutes of the competition, Zhang Yang maintained an average fish hooking frequency of two out of three casts, appearing leisurely without hurried fish conditions. But only Zhang Yang knew that fish-catching velocity was already impressive. With a thirty-minute session, he could catch at least forty fish, averaging eight ounces per fish, totaling over thirty-seven pounds of fish.

The first session ended amid this steadily fast, raw fish condition with minimal fluctuation. The instant the whistle blew, Zhang Yang released his fishing rod and exhaled deeply.

46 fish caught, performance was quite good!