However, the wild ones not growing large doesn't mean all sharpbelly can't grow large, there's another possibility.

When Brother Yan was stocking other fish fry, some large sharpbelly fry might have mixed in! There aren't many predators here, so there's a chance they survived and grew!"

After listening, Xiaohui nodded thoughtfully, "Uh, that seems quite reasonable!

I saw a news story online about someone who raised fish fry at home, one of the fry was a Dace.

It ended up eating all the fish in the pond like a Water Tiger! When the water was drained, the Dace had grown over thirty pounds!"

Zhang Yang shrugged, "It's just a reasonable guess, the actual situation is unknown. The fish's strength is waning, and I estimate it will belly up in about ten minutes, then we'll have a live reveal!"

Indeed, Zhang Yang's judgment was correct. In the cold spring water, the fish quickly tired out. In less than ten minutes, the fish, exhausted from the back-and-forth struggle, couldn't maintain its swim posture and gradually floated up.

The fish was long and slender, its densely packed scales glistened under the sunlight. Its length appeared to exceed seventy centimeters, and its large mouth opened and closed in an exaggerated manner — what else could it be but a sharpbelly?

"Whoa, it really is a sharpbelly! So big, it looks almost a meter long?!" Xiaohui exclaimed, excitedly standing up upon seeing the fish.

Zhang Yang calmly called out, "It's definitely not meter-sized, get the net, prepare to scoop the fish!"

"I'll do it, I'll do it! Xiao Yi, you keep filming steadily, I'll scoop the fish!"

Xiaohui eagerly got up, grabbed the net from behind him, and joined Zhang Yang. He half-submerged the net into the water, waiting for Zhang Yang to lead the fish into it.

The fish was already belly-up and completely exhausted. Zhang Yang effortlessly pulled it into the net, and Xiaohui swiftly lifted it, successfully scooping the fish!

Carrying the net pole, they brought the fish ashore, where the four of them eagerly gathered around.

Upon close inspection, the scales on the large sharpbelly didn't look as white in the light, but were densely packed and very solid, presenting a unique beauty.

Holding the fish in hand, its actual length appeared slightly larger than estimated in the water. Zhang Yang measured it with his finger, finding it to be almost 80 centimeters long. Weighing it through the net, it seemed to be about five to six pounds, feeling quite heavy in hand.

At this point, someone might complain, an eighty-centimeter sharpbelly only weighs five to six pounds?

Indeed, wild sharpbelly tends to be relatively lean, while those with a large belly, either are full of eggs during breeding season, or are the result of artificial feeding in captivity.

This sharpbelly, Zhang Yang estimated, took about five to six years to grow this large.

After appreciating the catch, Zhang Yang carefully removed the two hooks from its mouth.

After removing the hooks, Zhang Yang took special care to check if there were any injuries or remaining hooks inside the fish's mouth.

After a thorough search, he found nothing.

Unless the hook was swallowed deep in its throat, it's pretty certain that the first fish that got loose after cutting the line and the one caught were not the same fish!

This also means there's likely a certain distribution of large sharpbelly in the reservoir.

Thinking about this, Zhang Yang felt an exciting rush coming over him.

For an ordinary domestic angler, crucian carp is the first love, the childhood sweetheart, and possibly the one true love lasting a lifetime.

But a large sharpbelly?

It's like the dream lover, elusive and hard to come by, a chance encounter worth boasting about for years, or even a lifetime.

No matter how enticing the resources of large crucian carp here are, once word gets out, ordinary fishing friends will be enviously eager to catch some.

Even so, compared to the potential meter-sized sharpbelly, they're left in the shadows.

"Haven't you removed the hooks? What are you examining?" Brother Cheng asked curiously when he saw Zhang Yang still observing the fish's mouth.

Holding the fish, Zhang Yang replied, "I was checking to see if this fish was the one that got away earlier! The mouth is uninjured, so it's not!

There could very well be a certain population of large sharpbelly in the reservoir, just fishing for crucians feels too limited, how about we challenge the meter-sized sharpbelly?"

Brother Cheng looked at Zhang Yang, "A meter-sized sharpbelly? Using short rods with commercial bait? Sounds pretty challenging!

If not, we could head down the mountain to buy some lure equipment to try out? I know someone who's quite good at lure fishing, but I've never tried it myself, do you know how?"

Zhang Yang nodded, then shook his head, "I know a bit about lure fishing, but it's not necessary!"

In spring, the water is cold, the fish are inactive, the density is low, it's not guaranteed to fish well!

Even a hand rod could catch them, but it's a bit bloody and inhumane!"

"Huh? What new trick did you come up with? How does fishing relate to bloody and inhumane?"

Zhang Yang glanced at the crucian carp in the fish guard, saying, "This thing is a predatory fish and is very sensitive to meaty bait!

I've seen someone before using fried bran mixed with scraps of shrimp and some corn as bait to lure sharpbelly, and the results were pretty good.

We don't have shrimp scraps, but we have crucians. If we mix crucian meat with commercial bait and old corn for luring, I guess it could work!

Ideally, the best bait for catching sharpbelly is loach, but it's not easy to find in the wilderness!"

After hearing Zhang Yang's words, Xiaohui was the first to express his support, "Then what are we waiting for? Do it!

Many southern anglers on the forums brag about catching meter-sized sharpbelly, and now that our reservoir may have them, why fish for crucian?

If we catch a meter-sized sharpbelly, I can brag to my friends too!

I once had iced sharpbelly at a restaurant with friends before, and this creature, with its clove-like meat, tastes much better than crucians!

However many large crucians you catch, you can't take them all, but a sharpbelly is different, they're delicious to eat yourself and prestigious to gift!"

Cheng also nodded, "Then let's give it a try! We're just idling! You two hyping it up has sparked my interest too!"

The three anglers quickly reached an agreement, and Zhang Yang immediately put the plan into action.

He grabbed over a dozen large crucians from the fish guard, butchered them on the spot, and cut the fish into blood-soaked strips.

Once the strips were ready, he added a large amount of commercial bait as the base with a little clear water. After some adjustments, a batch of bloody, unconventional luring bait was prepared.

To adjust the weight of the bait, Zhang Yang mixed in some preserved corn and a bit of honey date paste, giving it a bizarre aroma of grains, honey dates, fermented wine, and fresh bloody meat.

With the bait prepared, Zhang Yang took out the luring spoon and patiently started trying.

He attached two balls of kneaded bait onto his hook and cast it into the target area, using the luring spoon to scatter small amounts of the bloody bait around the target every half a minute, methodically maintaining this rhythm.

After luring for an hour and a half, the areas on both sides where Cheng and Xiaohui were fishing stayed quiet, and they weren't in a rush, mostly chatting with Zhang Yang while holding great expectations for the central area meant for sharpbelly.

But this time, luck wasn't on Zhang Yang's side, and the attempt to lure while fishing failed!

For an entire morning, Zhang Yang used up a full basin of bait bits, yet no sharpbelly took the bait, and the fishing spot returned to the silent state of no bites and no fish bites from the day before.

Could something have gone wrong somewhere?

As Zhang Yang tried different things, he pondered, attempting to find clues and answers.

It wasn't until noon when Brother Yan called everyone to eat that Zhang Yang still hadn't figured it out.

However, catching a large sharpbelly in the morning was quite surprising to Brother Yan. Upon inquiry, he mentioned that he had never specifically purchased large sharpbelly fry, nor did he know that sub-meter sharpbelly existed in the reservoir.

Originally, with all his attempts failing, Zhang Yang would have adjusted his target fish and continued fishing for large crucian carp.

But during lunch, Brother Cheng unexpectedly brought up Zhang Yang's plan to lure sharpbelly.

"You guys talked about using cooked bran and shrimp scraps for luring sharpbelly? We don't have scraps, but how about dried shrimp? We have dried shrimp in the kitchen! Dried shrimp should be much better than scraps, right?" Brother Yan confidently asked.