Line 5, for black pit carp, it's basically the end of the line with a length of 3.4 meters, which looks quite strange.

Zhang Yang is currently using a 3.9-meter rod with 12.5H hardness. Handling two to three-pound carp is no problem, and even catching double fish occasionally is smooth as long as you control them slightly.

However, these are no longer enough for the current fish situation. Since there's an opportunity for surface fishing, Zhang Yang decided to go all out and maximize efficiency completely.

He took out line number five, then turned around and put his 12.5H fishing rod in the rod bag. After that, he took out a raw rod blank without any paint from the bag.

This rod is also 3.9 meters in size, but the tip diameter is thicker than the previous 12.5H, almost equivalent to the second section of a regular black pit rod.

If divided by the hardness of a normal black pit rod, this rod would be estimated to reach 15H, stiff in the hand, without bending when shaken.

Zhang Yang quickly attached the new rod to the fishing line, inserted the bobber, then opened another rig box and took out the pre-prepared large hook.

3.5-number rig, tied with a number five new Kanto hook.

Once the fishing rig and bobber were assembled, Zhang Yang casually threw the setup into the water. Simultaneously, he stood up from the fishing position, opened the fishing box lid, and took out a visibly thickened Flying Kicking blocking needle, along with a modified kangaroo skin rock-fishing glove.

The blocking needle was clipped onto the metal buckle of the black pit guard, completing the preparation for the Flying Kicking.

After adjusting his gear, Zhang Yang casually threw some scattered bait into the fishing spot, then cast in a hook with the large Triangle Cannon and a hook with dough bait back into the spot.

At this point, under the current fish situation, the difference between 3.0 rigs and 3.5 rigs is negligible.

The bobber entered the water, flipped over quickly, and followed with an exaggerated big pause.

Puff puff, opening and closing with an amplitude of more than two eyes.

Zhang Yang lifted the rod and struck the fish, using the rod's exaggerated waist power to directly lift the big carp out.

With this lift, there was almost no process of slipping the fish or controlling it, purely relying on the rod's waist power and the strength of the rig to confront the big carp head-on.

Once the fish flew out of the water, Zhang Yang's gloved left hand gently grasped the rig to remove the flight inertia, bringing the mainline to his rod-holding right hand, and the little finger of his right hand hooked the mainline.

Through such an operation, the fish's weight completely shifted from the left hand holding part of the line to the mainline and the rod's waist power. The left hand lined up the rig with the blocking needle, gently mounted, then pressed down.

With a thud, the extreme speed of the Flying Copy, which usually took ten seconds or more, was reduced to three seconds in Zhang Yang's hands, directly unhooking and guarding the fish.

Don't underestimate the five or six seconds saved in a fish retrieval; ten fish mean a minute, and a hundred fish are ten minutes. If you measure a whole big gun fish fishing session, the time saved alone in fish retrieval is quite astonishing.

Whether it's the casting frequency or the bait volume, both have a quantitative disparity.

After adjusting the Flying Kicking setup and equipment, Zhang Yang placed his landing net behind him, temporarily unnecessary.

Every time he baits, it involves a hook with smashed bait for striking and a hook with a large Triangle Cannon to lure and gather fish. Once the fish is hooked, it is pulled out using the rod's waist power and quickly removed using the blocking needle for efficiency at max.

At this point, it had only been 51 minutes since the competition started; Zhang Yang could foresee his frenzy in catching fish in the hours ahead.

While Zhang Yang was getting the hang of fish conditions and gradually finding his rhythm, Wang Yan, who had drawn number 11 in zone N, wasn't so lucky.

Although the south bank was in the upwind position, with some advantage viewing the bobber against the sun, the fish bites were distinctly lower in grade than the north bank.

The young man was pumped up to make a move before the competition, but despite continuous casting, the fish situation wasn't too great.

Within the first twenty minutes, neighboring anglers on both sides had caught some new fish here and there. Wang Yan knew the importance of managing the spot, using fish to attract fish to sustain momentum, so he wasn't eager to snatch new fish right away.

Around an hour into fishing, he tried switching to dough bait to catch a few casts.

There were intermittent bites, but the density in the spot was significantly below expectations. Even more unnerving was that the spot started attracting old fish, with only a few new fish caught.

Experienced black pit anglers know that new fish just added to the pit won't mix with the existing old fish for a couple of days. Analyzing Wang Yan's current situation, it's most likely that there are no new fish; only the old ones are hovering around the spot.

In such cases, it requires higher strategic decisions from the angler.

Should he stabilize the area and start with some old fish to secure a baseline catch? Or continue managing the spot, keeping the fish around the area to continually attract and gather more fish, taking a later lead by not breaking what's in place?

In the past, when Wang Yan was new to black pits, he would have undoubtedly opted to grab some fish while they were biting to ensure a baseline. But now, he decisively chooses the second option.

He continues to manage the spot, keeping the fish there, utilizing the fish-attracting characteristic to gain strength later!

Speaking of Wang Yan, another person must be mentioned.

Gong Wenyuan.

Comrade Gong was luckier than Zhang Yang's team, randomly pressing a screen button during the draw and getting a spot near the northwest corner.

Gong Wenyuan had some skills with black pits, and though not particularly extraordinary in technique, his basics were solid. Now that he's drawn a spot with dense fish on the downwind side and got the enhanced yellow storm bait prepared by Zhang Yang's team, it was like gaining wings; the fish situation's exaggeration almost made him doubt reality.

At this point, you might be curious about how intense the fish situation is for Gong Wenyuan, right?

Let's put it this way: from the moment he symbolically baited a bit at the start and his double hooks with bait entered the water, until an hour into the competition, Gong Wenyuan never reached the bottom.

Normally double-hooking dough bait with hands compacting the bait into small clumps, his bobber just flipped and tightened the waterline part before continuously jerking downward.

A lift of the rod would catch double fish, lift again, still double. After five consecutive double catches, Gong Wenyuan felt a bit overwhelmed.

When fishing for crucian carp, catching doubles can effectively improve efficiency, but frequent doubles are not a good sign in black pit carp fishing either.

Even though Zhang Yang employs a 5+3.5 violent setup, he still avoids hooking double carp when possible during the bite.

Carp are larger, each at least two and a half pounds. Vibrant and strong new fish, plus a deep water situation, make retrieving them much harder than single fish.

If Gong Wenyuan had extensive experience with this sort of cannon explosion fish situation, he might follow Zhang Yang's example and adjust his baiting technique—using a large Triangle Cannon to supplement the spot and lure fish while normally hooking dough bait for striking.

The Triangle Cannon is large; when reaching the fishing layer, much remains un-dissolved, making it difficult for carp to inhale at once, hence eating the dough bait on the lower hook. Such simple maneuvers could significantly avoid double fish scenarios.

As for Gong Wenyuan? Used to fishing in Jinghai Garden with hand-thrown bait to maintain spots, both hooks can only be used with dough bait, playing conservatively with frequent doubles.

Considering everything, Gong Wenyuan was not doing too smoothly in the early phase of the competition.

Double fish often led to broken lines when not careful, or sometimes, with bad luck, neither fish would be landed, wasting much time frequently changing rigs. A newly replaced rig could be broken again on the next cast, leading to a hectic situation.

The 2.5-number rig couldn't withstand it, switching to 3.0, then again to 3.5 only barely managed to hold the double large carp's pressure.

Yet a new problem arose; to minimize fish retrieval time, Gong's rod angle became quite large.

He thought he could slightly exert force to pull the fish into the landing net, suddenly hearing a crisp crack.

The rod exploded!