Chapter 025: Meeting Colleagues

By the time Lin Yang arrived with his gear at Hua Jian's area, the man who had just come down was already busily setting up.

The opponent's fishing equipment was quite sophisticated, but the attire he wore, in the eyes of those in the know, was somewhat nonsensical.

He wore a Fahrenheit cap on his forehead, a fishing-themed SPF shirt from Dawa for the activity session, and a sunscreen mask with Dawa's logo, though anyone savvy could tell right off it was a counterfeit.

It had just dawned, yet he was already wearing large sunglasses, almost completely covering his face with the mask.

Unlike the average angler, he also had a tripod half-submerged in the water before his fishing box, with his phone already set up for live streaming, presumably waiting until the bait was settled to start the broadcast officially.

Lin Yang didn't expect this person to be a broadcaster too.

But then he thought about it and wasn't surprised anymore. Nowadays, no matter the industry, many people were into shooting videos and live streaming. Furthermore, fishing is a very time-consuming leisure activity, and streaming could alleviate boredom, pass the time, and possibly even earn some money.

In the beginning, Lin Yang had the same idea.

What Lin Yang did not know was that this man was named Zhang Qiang, who ran a small wholesale department in the next town and also had a few display shelves selling fishing products.

Most of his shop's products were mainstream items, but because he had been in business for many years and went fishing frequently, plus being quite skilled in fishing, he gained some popularity among local anglers, and thus ventured into live streaming.

Speaking of Zhang Qiang, he was quite a clever businessman with a strong adaptation ability to various information. He started fishing live streams early on when live streaming was just picking up.

Because he started early, although the content of the live streams was average, he persisted over time and had accumulated seventy to eighty thousand followers, making him a "celebrity" angler in the local fishing community.

Zhang Qiang had been playing at the upstream reservoir lately, and only after hearing from a friend that Large Crucian Carp were caught here yesterday did he get up before five this morning and, as he hoped, secured the best spot at Hua Jian.

Unexpectedly, not long after he arrived, he encountered Lin Yang, who had caused quite a stir the day before.

Now at Hua Jian, a space less than thirty meters apart, sat two fishing broadcasters.

However, Lin Yang didn't feel anything special about it—it was just live streaming, after all, as long as they didn't interfere with each other.

While waiting for the bait to settle, several groups of anglers came one after another, and by half-past seven, the place was almost filled with anglers.

Over these two days of fishing, Lin Yang had met quite a few fellow anglers and occasionally greeted some of them.

He wasn't shy about responding appropriately, and when the opportunity was right, he even took the chance to promote the secret bait from his own 'little yellow cart.'

About fifteen minutes after he finished baiting, schools of fish gradually began appearing in the baited spot. Lin Yang glanced at the time, with twenty minutes left until eight, and set up his phone to officially start the live stream.

"Wow, starting the broadcast so early today, not bad, host."

"Hehe, finally got a front-row seat."

"Has the host caught any fish yet? What's the situation now?"

A minute into the broadcast, the viewer count surpassed 50, mostly familiar faces, who all received a system notification because they had set up special follows.

"Good morning, everyone, I'm back again. Came early today, arrived here at Hua Jian before seven, and it's just me and the big brother next to me for now. The bait's all set, just checked and we've got fish schooling, no rush now, let's wait for some more viewers to join, then we'll start fishing."

[No fish goes empty]: "Reporting to the host about the results, I received the bait you sent yesterday evening, couldn't resist, went night fishing to try it out, from seven to eleven, four hours, caught twelve Crucian Carps, compared to my fishing buddy who only caught one, the difference is obvious, the effect is amazing!"

"Damn, the guy upstairs is stirring up envy again."

"Wanted to buy some yesterday afternoon but found out it was sold out, luckily the host restocked in the evening, otherwise, I would have had to wait a bit longer."

"Damn, the host gained over ten thousand followers in just a day or two, you're too awesome, just yesterday morning you had just over ten thousand, now it's almost twenty thousand."

"Haha, won a bottle of bait in a giveaway, used just over two yesterday, still can use it two or three more times."

While they were bragging and chatting, a sudden sound of lifting the rod echoed, the big brother next to him broadcasting had caught a fish.

His rod had a softer tuning, the force used to hook the fish was fierce, and when the fishing line was rapidly pulled out of the water, it produced a thrilling sound that perked up any angler.

Hearing the sound, Lin Yang reflexively turned his head to look.

Zhang Qiang's rod curved in a perfect arc, quickly pulling up a Crucian Carp weighing about three or four liangs.

"Did someone catch a fish? I just heard the sound of lifting the rod to hook the fish."

"I heard it too, the host isn't so effective today; others have caught fish, and you haven't had any action yet."

Lin Yang smiled, "The one who just caught the fish was a fellow angler next to me, it's cold today, the fishing filament I'm using hasn't warmed up yet, let's wait a little longer, no rush."

While speaking, he took a convenience bag from his embrace to show everyone.

"What's this method? Can't you use the bait as soon as it's prepared? What's the point of waiting for it to become like hair?"

Lin Yang explained, "If you're just kneading the bait, it doesn't matter, but when pulling the bait in colder temperatures, the activity of wheat protein is slightly worse. It takes longer for fibers to form properly. I personally recommend that when you start pulling the bait, it's best to use warm water or, like me, tuck it close to your body after mixing to keep it warm, so that the bait comes out in a better condition."

"Cut it out, no need for all that trouble. Just add more fiber powder to the bait, right? We've already spent money on the bait, the fiber powder cost is negligible, and you're even selling bait yourself. Why so stingy?"

"Add more fiber powder +1, I usually do it that way myself."

"I do it that way too."

"Me too....."

And sure enough, Lin Yang glanced at the public chat, and there were quite a few viewers who used this method.

He grinned and shook his head, "Using it that way might solve the problem temporarily, but it's not a fundamental solution. Initially, the bait is perfect when mixed, but after a while, it becomes too fibrous. It ends up being gloopy like snot, and in severe cases, you might not even be able to pull it out at all, completely ruining the state of the bait."

"Huh, how do you know? The bait I prepared was just like that. It was fine for an hour, then the quality became really poor later on. A friend told me I had bought fake bait. I even bought it from the internet specifically, but it was still the same, no difference at all."

"What's the situation, host? Could you explain it to us, brother? I also faced such troubles, the bait became very difficult to use later on."

Lin Yang explained, "The ability to pull the bait into clumps mainly depends on wheat protein, which is the component of the fiber powder. This should be common knowledge. However, the activity of wheat protein is affected by temperature, which many anglers might not know."

"In the summer, fibers form very quickly, and the bait can be used in a few minutes, but in early spring, the water temperature is too low, and simply mixing and using immediately doesn't work."

"As I mentioned earlier, the best way is to mix the bait with some warm water or, if you're feeling lazy, keep it in your pocket to use your body heat to let the fibers develop. The reason you couldn't use it later is that the proportion of fiber powder was too high."

After hearing his explanation, many viewers in the livestream had an epiphany.

"Ah, so that means using more fiber powder like before was wrong? Damn, I was duped by the owner of the fishing store."

"I understand now, there really is a technique to it, learned something new again."

"A little trick with each line, fishing becomes hassle-free from now on, feels like I've improved today."

Lin Yang added a reminder, "Adding fiber powder needs to be done in proportion; you can't just blindly add more. A general ratio of about 15%-20% is usually sufficient. For typical wild Crucian Carp bait, it already contains fibrous components, unless the water is especially deep, you don't need to add extra fiber powder."

Lin Yang's fishing techniques were quite standard and uncontroversial, but to Zhang Qiang's ears, listening nearby, they sounded a bit uncomfortable.

He also had the 'bad habit' of adding fiber powder into bait for slower fiber formation, which for him was considered common-sense knowledge.

Many anglers come to his store to buy bait and ask about this issue, and his solution was also to recommend adding fiber powder, which also helped increase the sales of fiber powder bottles.

But now, listening to this, the idea itself seemed fundamentally wrong, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.

After talking about it, Lin Yang's bait had mostly finished developing its fibers.

He took the bait out of his pocket, pulled it apart with both hands to inspect it, checking the newly formed fibers' length and density, which were appropriate and evenly distributed, and it was now ready to use.

"Alright, viewers, our bait is ready, let's officially start fishing!"

Lin Yang pressed a fist-sized bait ball onto the all-magnetic bait tray, pulled the double hooks close to the water surface, and two round, fuzzy bait balls stuck perfectly to the hooks, in an ideal state.

The bait was ready, but after trying over ten casts, the float strangely had no bites.

The viewers, who were initially prepared to watch a continuous stream of double or flying Crucian Carp, were now baffled.

"???"

"What's happening, host?"

"Honey, why aren't the fish biting today?"

"Didn't the host just say it was a feast for the fishes? Were you lying?"

"It's over, the livestream has gone off the rails. Have others fished them all away? People nearby started catching them earlier."

Lin Yang scratched his head and took a look around the feeding spot. A short while ago, there indeed seemed to be plenty of fish signs, but now, looking again, the fish signs were decidedly sparse—the fish were gone!

Ever since he started using his homemade secret bait, his wild fishing performance had been very steady, which was the main reason he was confident in livestreaming.

What Lin Yang didn't know was that not far away, Zhang Qiang was using bait bought from his livestream, using the same nest materials. Zhang Qiang's location was farther out and he was the first to start catching fish, the small advantages cumulatively making a difference.

"That shouldn't be." Lin Yang scratched his head, staring inquisitively at the water in front of him.