Bitfish: Hollow County

Hollow County has ten waters in it and a hundred and twenty fish. You start at Willow Pond with a cheap rod, six-pound line and ten worms, and you work your way out to the trench. Cast. Wait. When it bites you get two seconds to set the hook — then hold the reel and find out what you hooked. THE FIGHT Tension climbs while you reel and falls when you let off. Push into the red and the line frays, and it does not mend. A fish that runs hard for a long time costs you more line than a heavy one that gives up early. Rod power, line strength, hook size and what you tied on all change the math, and you feel every upgrade. TEN WATERS A farm pond, a cedar creek, a granite lake, a blackwater bog, a copper river, a harbor pier, a tidewater marsh, coral shallows and a kelp forest — and off the shelf, a trench that will not take you until you are a Rank 8 angler with a deep rig in the bag. 120…