The Top Fishing

It’s now time for the competitors to take a break, where they have an hour to rest. During this period, they can replenish their fishing spots but are not allowed to fish, and simultaneously, officials will tally up their performance over the past three hours.

Thanks to the dominance of Yellowtail, Master Zeng, positioned at number 4, unquestionably claimed the championship lead for the first three hours.

In the first three hours, he caught a total of 133 fish, with the combined weight reaching nearly 400 pounds. Of these, 129 were Yellowtail, and only 4 Crucian Carp that had mixed in with the Yellowtail were also brought up by him. The advantage was unmistakable.

Ranked second was Master Li Damao at station 3, who remained quiet until the last hour of the competition when he started to exert his strength. His successful baiting of Catfish allowed him to catch several large ones, with the total catch weighing around 320 pounds.

Ranked third was Liu Changgan at station 2, and closely following in fourth was Master Deng who had caught up later. Their catches also weighed between 280 to 300 pounds.

Wang Feng, who initially had a good start with his catch, ended up ranked eighth in terms of the weight of his catch in the first half of the competition, which was already quite remarkable. In fact, his ranking could have been higher, if not for several particularly large Catfish that showed up in his spot. These big Catfish tended to disrupt the spot significantly when caught, leading to wasted time and requiring great technical skill; one misstep could result in a snapped line or a broken rod.

After the first half of the competition, this temporary ranking surprised many people.

All one could say was that this was a battle of titans, the very charm of fishing in the wild; you really never know what fish you might catch next, nor can you predict your luck.

Competitors could only choose their starting fishing spots based on their experience; the rest was up to their skills.