The morning of the twenty-ninth day, the sky was a hazy fish belly white.
Lin Yu’an didn’t sleep in, his biological clock and inner anticipation woke him before dawn.
Today is the day to test the results of his bold gamble. He put on a heavy coat and stuffed the weighty "Underwater Scent Bomb" wrapped in birch bark into his backpack.
He stepped on the dark blue snow, quickly heading towards the Ice River. When he reached the number one fishing spot, the ice fishing hut still stood silently like a sentinel, but this ti dressed in a white uniform.
"Crack—snap!"
Under Lin Yu’an’s steady and powerful turns, the sharp blades of the ice drill made a nerve-wracking grinding sound.
He didn’t bother with the previous netting hole but started a new operation directly. The spiral blades efficiently expelled powdered ice upward, appearing like a small white fountain in the headlamp’s beam.
"Good morning, folks." As he turned the ice drill, he spoke to the cara, his breath appearing like tangible smoke in the headlamp’s light.
"Today’s action plan strictly follows the ’Scent Bomb’ plan I devised last night! Therefore, every step today must be efficient, with no ti wasted."
Putting down the ice drill that had already drilled the first hole, he walked to the cara, took out the lure wrapped in layers of birch bark from his backpack.
He carefully opened a corner of the wrapping, and an overwhelming scent, mingled with blood, fernted sourness, and the unique fishy odor, imdiately perated the cold air.
"This is my masterpiece from last night. How effective it is will directly decide my fate for the next half month."
Lin Yu’an looked at the pale red bait, his eyes gleaming. "To be honest, I am a bit expectant and also a bit nervous. This is a big gamble, with stakes being all my ’leftovers,’ and I hope to win back substantial profits."
He wrapped the bait again, started explaining his strategic deploynt on the ice surface like a military officer devising a battle plan.
He pointed at the ice surface: "The key to baiting is control. If I just throw it straight from the netting hole, it will form a singular high concentration scent point underwater."
"This can indeed attract fish, but most of the scent would be carried downstream by the current, quickly diluted, with a limited range and would soon dissipate. That equals using my most precious ’Scent Bomb’ for inaccurate fire coverage."
"So, what I need is not just simple feeding, but to establish a continuously and precisely covering ’scent field’ over my net area."
"I need to create a field comprised of multiple scent sources upstream of the fishing net, allowing the scent to spread like fog, evenly enveloping the entire water area as a trap impossible to evade."
Having said this, he began to put this precise theory into practice.
Returning to his earlier position, about five ters upstream of the fishing net, he drilled three new mouth-sized ice holes in a direction parallel to the underwater net, with precisely one-ter intervals asured with his boots.
His movents were standard and powerful, each press and rotation efficiently channeling his entire strength into the ice drill, demonstrating high efficiency.
Then, he took out the large pale red solid bait, using the axe handle to give a short, forceful hit, shattering it into three evenly sized bait balls with a "bang."
"Now faced with a key issue, the bait I made is essentially held together by starch from Bulrush Root. In water, it will decompose slowly like a soggy compressed biscuit."
"If I throw it directly, given the river’s current speed, it will be completely decomposed and washed away in at most half an hour. In that case, my night’s hard work would only yield a short half-hour effect, a terribly bad trade."
He stood up, quickly scanning the surrounding natural environnt with his gaze. "I need a device. A device that can slow its dissolution speed and fix it at the desired location."
"Rember this old friend? Discarded comrcial trawl net piece." He took out a piece of the fine net from his backpack and unfolded it before the cara.
"The fifteen-ter-long stinging net underwater was cut from the most intact portion of this trawl net, which has done great service."
"Last night, I cut a part of the finer net, which is absolutely perfect material tailor-made for my plan today!"
He brought the net fabric close to the cara for a clear view of its texture. "It is tough enough, not afraid of water, with small sh to hold bait fragnts, and yet transparent enough for the scent to disperse unimpeded."
Without any hesitation, he imdiately began the preparation.
He placed all the shattered bait pieces onto a piece of netting cloth about thirty centiters square, pulled up all four corners like wrapping a dumpling.
Finally, he used a small piece of fine nylon cord to wrap tightly around the gathered net mouth, tying a secure sailor’s knot.
In less than five minutes, a slow-release bait package was thus created.
"It will serve two core functions: First, to counteract the physical scouring effect of the water flow, allowing only the dissolved scent to be taken but not the bait’s body. Second, to prevent small fish from nibbling: they can only sll the aroma from outside but can’t get at the main course inside."
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