Chapter 347: Chapter 214: The Skill is Not Just for Show_2
Zhang Yang stood straight with his back straightened, his left hand loosely holding the leader line, while the wrist and arm of his right hand collaborated to exert force. With what seemed like a light flick, he cast the fishing gear out.
Despite at least a level three southern wind blowing head-on, after Zhang Yang cast the line, the bait’s landing point was right in front of the fishing spot, almost unaffected by the external wind force.
After casting once, Zhang Yang didn’t wait for the fishing gear to properly flip and land, he quickly lifted it up and repeated the process again.
Watching clearly, Meng Fan observed that the bait’s landing points for both casts were definitely no more than ten centimeters apart. Even though he prided himself on understanding Zhang Yang’s fishing skills, he was still amazed by this technique.
"Do you still doubt whether others can achieve this?" Zhang Yang put down the fishing rod and looked calmly at Meng Fan.
"Uh... How did you do that? Why do I always seem to lose control when I cast?"
With the boss personally demonstrating, Meng Fan didn’t dare to retort, scratched his head, and when asking, his tone was a little uncertain.
Zhang Yang explained: "First, let me tell you why I asked you to practice this basic skill of long rod casting!
In competitive fishing, a 5.4-meter fishing rod is generally considered a long rod, mostly used in mixed fishing events!
The fish in mixed fishing ponds are usually old and elusive, and they are very particular about the delicacy of the fishing gear, the weight and state of the bait!
Maybe you can also cast accurately with a three-gram lead bobber, but can light-mouthed or weak-mouthed fish manage to suck it in?
The reason to start with casting practice is to solve your fishing basics problem.
The premise for all adjustments is that your casting must be accurate, you need to meet tactical requirements, and bait and chum must be concentrated to lure fish faster than others!
In leisure fishing at black pits, it doesn’t matter if the casting is a bit scattered, as there are more new fish, and the difference won’t be too apparent.
But in the Competition Pond, a tiny deviation can result in a huge difference!
Now that I’ve explained why you’re practicing this way, let me tell you how I managed to cast accurately!
The first requirement to get good at casting is a correct sitting posture. Only a standard posture can stabilize your muscles.
If you’re bending over one moment and sitting sideways the next, your muscles won’t stabilize, can you perform steadily?
Re-sit according to my standards!"
"Okay!" Meng Fan obediently sat back on the fishing box.
"Spread your legs naturally, keep your feet firmly on the ground, straighten your back. The standard is that the force should be applied along the body’s central axis, specifically at the trapezius muscles on both sides of the lower back!"
As Zhang Yang spoke, he corrected the small details of Meng Fan’s mistakes, and quickly Meng Fan was sitting straight on the fishing box.
"With the basic posture qualified, the next key point is the casting force posture!
There are two normal high-frequency casting postures: a horizontal cast and a vertical cast. The difference is that a horizontal cast sends the fishing gear out in a horizontal line, while a vertical cast sends it out vertically, similar to cracking a whip!
In terms of speed, casting vertically is faster, but I don’t recommend training this way because it is harder to control the feeling of force, and it’s more suited to full rod casting, which isn’t good for further refining skills! So just use horizontal casting!
After explaining the casting posture, let’s talk about the specific force application method. When casting, hold the leader line or the figure-eight ring with your left hand, and use the upper arm to drive the forearm, with the forearm cooperating with the wrist to complete the force action as a whole!
In this process, the upper arm mainly provides the initial casting force, the forearm provides the latter part of the force, and the wrist is responsible for fine-tuning the aerial posture of the fishing gear!
If you can’t cast accurately, the core reasons are twofold: each time the muscle force size is different, and the adjustment response to resistance and influence is too slow. There’s no good solution to this except through sustained training to form muscle memory!
Now let’s talk about how to deal with this situation with a small lead weight and wind. One word: lead!
You need to roughly judge the lead amount of the fishing gear’s aerial posture to overcome the wind’s influence on it!
This aspect can’t be specifically quantified; you have to continuously find that feeling under consistent standard postures. After casting accurately a few times, remember that feeling and continuously reinforce it!
Zhang Yang almost spoke these words without any pause, not needing to organize his thoughts temporarily, but rather instinctively stated the key points of casting techniques clearly.
Usually, Meng Fan’s impression of Zhang Yang was just that he cast very accurately, effortlessly casting seven meters. But he had never seriously studied the various details of casting.
Now expressed in such an objective and precise way, Meng Fan suddenly felt a sense of sophistication.
No exaggeration to say, the series of technical points Zhang Yang just spoke about casting were much more advanced than those taught by the instructor in the Zhongsheng Fishing Class.
"Why are you smiling? Be serious, did you hear that? This is a training ground; keep your playful attitude at bay!"
Seeing the corners of Meng Fan’s mouth curl up without speaking as if deep in thought, Zhang Yang straightened his face and reprimanded him with a shout.
"Hehe! I’m listening! I’m trying to understand the technical points you just mentioned!" Meng Fan didn’t talk back, instead laughing like an obedient child and nodding quickly.
"When you first start practicing and can’t get the feel, you can add a little more lead to find the feeling and slowly reduce it to the normal lead weight for balance once you find the feeling!" Zhang Yang shared another small training detail.
"I’ll try it right away!" Meng Fan decisively took out a piece of lead and added it to his fishing gear’s lead seat, trying again.
Indeed, with the extra lead weight, casting became a lot easier. After a few tries, Meng Fan quickly found some feeling.
With this insight, Meng Fan soon became absorbed in the training again.
Zhang Yang was pleased with Meng Fan’s focused training state, stood behind him watching for a while, and couldn’t find any faults, so he quietly went back to live streaming.
In the morning, Meng Fan only got up to go to the restroom once. He spent most of his time doing casting force training.
Zhang Yang had judged Meng Fan’s learning fishing spirit early on; this guy was very quick with fishing skills. After Zhang Yang corrected a few wrong details, Meng Fan quickly grasped the basics of casting. By the time Zhang Yang finished streaming, Meng Fan was already showing good form.
Although he couldn’t whip the mete further onto the water’s surface yet, casting into the wind, the bait’s scatter range had reduced from over half a meter initially to within forty-five centimeters.
While Meng Fan was engaged in the monotonous casting training, Liu Zi wasn’t idle either. Seeing no work for himself on the shore, he considerately started tidying up the board house’s cleanliness.
In the morning, he wiped tables and windows, and even the cooking utensils, pots, and pans were reorganized. The room was small, but Liu Zi had tidied it up neatly.
Seeing it was almost lunchtime, Liu Zi then considerately prepared the vegetables inside the house, peeling and slicing potatoes, cutting celery into sections, and with eggs and scallions added, at least three dishes were secured for lunch.
When Zhang Yang, Meng Fan, and the others finished their live broadcast and training, preparing to enter the house and grab a drink from the fridge, they were all stunned by the house’s condition.
"Did you clean all this up this morning?"
Han Qiang was the most surprised; he was the most rough-and-tough among them, usually just doing a halfhearted job sweeping tables and floors. So over time, the board house’s cleanliness could only be described as barely acceptable.
But now, the house’s situation had drastically changed, even the camp stools were neatly stacked.
"While you trained and broadcasted, I had nothing much to do, so I just tidied up the house casually! The sheets were a bit dirty, and since I hadn’t washed my clothes yet, I’ll wash them together this afternoon!" Liu’Er grinned lightly and said very modestly.
"Wow! Xiao Meng, you found a treasure boy! The house is tidier than if my mom cleaned it herself!"
Han Qiang immediately had a very good impression of this young boy.
Zhang Yang glanced at the prepared vegetables and nodded: "Not bad, you’ve got an eye for work! You’ve even prepared the vegetables, can you cook as well?"
Liu Zi nodded: "I can cook simple things like stir-fry vegetables and make pancakes, but nothing too complicated!"
Even a little knowledge in simple cooking was enough to surprise everyone.
Previously at the base, meals were either purchased from the village deli or cooked by Zhang Yang, the team’s central figure. Meng Fan and Han Qiang were not ones to cook at all, so now, Zhang Yang was finally liberated from the role of chef.