Chapter 141: Chapter 133: The Opportunity to Strike It Rich Overnight?
Chen Yang steered the boat to the deepest waters near the solitary island, where the sonar fish finder indicated a plentiful supply of fish.
First, he used Shrimp Brick combined with cut squid to create a bait spot, but baiting required time to wait.
Therefore, Chu Mingcheng chose to start with the Iron Plate rod first, attaching the Iron Plate Bait and knocking the bottom, to have some fun.
Although the sonar showed many fish, it was now afternoon, and while there were plenty of fish, it was uncertain whether they would take the bait.
If they didn’t take the bait, then he would only have the option of fishing by force to make them land.
For his main line, Chu Mingcheng chose a number 4 PE line, with a 12-pound test carbon leader.
...
He threw the Iron Plate down into the water; the Iron Plate Bait sank slowly. After letting out about thirty-five meters of line, the fishing line finally stopped.
Once the Iron Plate Bait hit the bottom, it provided him with clear feedback.
Chu Mingcheng quickly reeled in five circles of line, causing the Iron Plate Bait to leap upwards sharply, then letting it sink naturally.
He slowly lifted and lowered the fishing rod, reeling in the line, allowing the Iron Plate Bait to display natural movements in the water, aiming to allure the fish.
After repeating this several times, when he lifted the fishing rod again, and the Iron Plate Bait paused, there was a sudden obvious hit.
Then he lowered the rod, but the Iron Plate didn’t sink.
Chu Mingcheng knew a fish was about to be hooked, preparing himself; the next moment, the tip of the rod plunged down sharply.
The rod was soft, and the line not thick, so he could feel the fish’s strong pull quite noticeably.
He lifted the rod and gave a tug, then started to reel in the line using the crank handle, though with some difficulty. Therefore, from time to time, he assisted by lifting the rod with his right hand to give the fish a tug.
Judging by the pull, he estimated the fish was over five pounds but definitely under ten.
Having fished for so long, Chu Mingcheng considered himself quite experienced by now.
The fishing rod creaked with the strain; every time a fish made a run, he had to give some line. It took him about ten minutes to bring the fish up from the depths.
It seemed to be a sea bream, its yellow specks glistening in the sunlight.
It wasn’t a common fish, and Chu Mingcheng took a moment to recall that it was a Pepper Diao.
It was a splendid catch; a live one could sell for a hundred and twenty yuan per pound while frozen would only fetch seventy.
He scooped it up with a net, removed the Iron Plate to weigh it, and found it to be seven and a half pounds; that was one-tenth of the day’s fuel costs covered.
He put the fish into the live fish tank, took out another fishing rod, tied the line, attached the squid strips, and placed the fishing rod into the rod holder.
Fishing with two rods increased the chances of a catch, while the Iron Plate Bait continued to knock the bottom.
After a little while, there was no movement from the Iron Plate rod, but the other rod had a hit.
Chu Mingcheng swiftly placed the Iron Plate rod into the rod holder and picked up the other rod, giving it a lift; it wasn’t heavy, indicating it wasn’t a large fish.
But that didn’t matter, as long as there were fish biting.
He wound the handle rapidly, feeling the fish darting around below; the resistance alternating between light and heavy.
Unsure of what species it was, with such an unusual manner of swimming, it somewhat resembled the lobsters he had once caught in Xisha.
Wait… lobster?
A spark of excitement shone in Chu Mingcheng’s eyes; he had actually planned to catch some lobsters today, and hooking one now would be perfect.
Soon enough, a familiar silhouette surfaced.
Indeed, it was a lobster, and not a small one; it was about the size of a two-pound Mimao Lobster he had caught before, but Chu Mingcheng’s face fell into a look of disappointment.
Because it was a Floral Dragon, also known as a Jinxiu Lobster.
Farmed Floral Dragons are edible, but wild ones are classified as a national second-tier protected species.
In truth, if he ate it secretly on the boat, nobody would know. But Chu Mingcheng had his principles.
Since it was protected, he wouldn’t touch it.
Jinxiu Lobsters from Huaxia are protected, but that doesn’t mean they are protected in other countries. He knew he would have a chance to taste them someday.
“Off you go!” He removed the hook and moved to the other side of the boat, releasing the lobster back into the sea.
He hoped it wouldn’t come back; if it did, he might be tempted to enjoy an afternoon snack.
As bait began to take effect, the chances of hooking fish with the baited rod increased significantly. Chu Mingcheng stowed away the Iron Plate rod and focused on fishing with the baited rod.
Perhaps due to the rocky seabed, the fish he caught today were all sea breams.
Apart from the Pepper Diao, there were True Sea Breams, Yellowfin Snappers, Silver Breams, and the most numerous Black Sea Breams.
By three o’clock, Chu Mingcheng had an approximate count of his catch: twenty-one in total.
The smaller ones were just over a pound, like the two Silver Breams and three Yellowfin Snappers.
The larger ones weighed five or six pounds, including Black Sea Bream and True Sea Bream. He had caught one Pepper Diao earlier with the Iron Plate, but it hadn’t made another appearance.
Packing up the fishing rod, Chu Mingcheng donned a wetsuit and strapped on a spearfish.
He didn’t wear any other gear, including the spear gun.
Oh, and he brought an underwater camera.
In places like coral reefs or rocky reefs, fish usually hide away, so a spearfish is more effective than a spear gun.
Chu Mingcheng first dove down to the waters beneath the boat, curious to see the underwater environment with so many fish caught here.
Upon reaching the seabed, he found that visibility was poor, only five or six meters.
However, with the rocks abundant and hiding spots plentiful, it was no wonder there were so many breams.
He also felt lucky that he hadn’t snagged the bottom despite the environment.
Removing his spearfish, he got ready to hunt a few fish here.
Yet before finding any fish, he stumbled upon something else worthwhile.
At the side of a rock, he found a massive sea snail. He stretched out both hands but couldn’t lift it.
He then braced his feet against the rock and managed to wrench it free; the snail was so large, it required both hands to lift.
This was a major score—a Coconut Snail, possibly over twenty pounds.
Chu Mingcheng felt thrilling excitement, not so much at the prospect of the Coconut Snail fetching forty yuan per pound, potentially selling for over eight hundred yuan.
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But because a Coconut Snail carried a small chance of containing a precious Mei Le Pearl.
Such a large Coconut Snail was a rare find even in national markets, and he felt the odds of discovering a Mei Le Pearl were very high.
Chu Mingcheng had no time to care about anything else; he immediately cradled the Coconut Snail back to the boat.
He first weighed it and to his surprise, the snail’s weight exceeded his expectations, reaching twenty-six pounds. It was a treasure.
He added some seawater to the fish box and supplied it with oxygen, then carefully placed the snail inside to ensure its wellbeing.
Whether he could become rich overnight depended on this very snail.
After that, Chu Mingcheng dived back into the water to continue searching for more Coconut Snails. It didn’t make sense for there to be just one on the seafloor!
Indeed, there were more than one Coconut Snails on the seafloor. Within just ten minutes, he found three more.
However, they were not as big as the first one; each was estimated to weigh only about seven or eight pounds.
The net bag could just fit them, so he placed them inside for now.
Regrettably, he didn’t find any more Coconut Snails afterward, and as he swam around, the fish hiding in the area had pretty much scattered.
With no target for fishing, Chu Mingcheng had no choice but to swim towards the nearby coral reef.
He didn’t snorkel on the water surface since there was no one else around; he directly swam over on the seafloor.
After swimming out five or six meters, he suddenly stopped.
There was a creature with a strange appearance crawling in front of him, a Pipashrimp that, although not high in price, was just as tasty as lobster.
Its size was quite decent, about as large as his palm.
These creatures didn’t move as fast as lobsters, making it easy for Chu Mingcheng to press down on it, then grab and put it into the net bag.
Soon after, he encountered another one. It seemed he had entered the lair of the Pipashrimps!
Chen Yang and Zhang Wei were coming in the evening. He originally planned to catch lobsters, but now he had something even better.
The taste was good, and the price was reasonable, making it less painful to use for entertaining guests~~
On his way to the coral reef area, he caught a total of three Pipashrimps.
Unfortunately, unlike lobsters, these don’t count as high-quality aquatic products and who knows how long it would take to upgrade his ability by trying to catch them manually.
Chu Mingcheng hadn’t looked at the Water Produce Handbook for a long time and now took the opportunity to take a glance.
[Water Produce Handbook (Level 1)]
[Current Experience: (33/60)]
[Unlocked Fishing Tools: Hand, Fishing Gear, Harpoon]
[Highest Produce Level: 50]
[Unlocked Produce: 1 Mud shrimp, 2 Crucian Carp…]
[Special Ability: Free Swim]
Unexpectedly, he had unknowingly caught thirty-three different types of aquatic produce, and it seemed that he would soon advance to level two!
He was somewhat looking forward to the abilities the next level would provide.
As for high-quality aquatic products, he had sold a lot of catches recently for a fair amount of money, but they were all large-sized, so the experience points did not increase much.
He was still at level 2, with 167 experience points, 133 points short of leveling up.
After checking the handbook, Chu Mingcheng began to scour the area of the coral reef.
His location was between the open sea and the coastal waters, where the coral reef areas were still very rich in resources.
After all, fishermen wouldn’t just dive into the water; their main targets were fish.
Therefore, Chu Mingcheng found quite a few horse manure sea urchins in this area. These urchins had a very wide distribution.
They could live on the shore and in water depths of five thousand meters but were primarily concentrated in shallow water areas.
However, these urchins didn’t cluster in groups; they were scattered here and there.
After picking up two, Chu Mingcheng could no longer see any within his field of vision.
But he didn’t leave to continue searching for these urchins because he was attracted to a small hole at the bottom of the water in front of him.
Scratching outside the hole was an especially large Mud shrimp, estimated to be the size of his forearm.
He had only seen such a large Mud shrimp in videos, and it made him drool with desire; it was just too enticing.
However, this was not the so-called rich shrimp commonly found in the market. Its back had alternating yellow and black stripes; it was a Ban Qin shrimp.
The creature was a fine one but impossible to catch with bare hands.
Even if he managed to catch it, injuries were likely, so it seemed he had to bring over the lasso.
Luckily there were plenty of things in the net bag, almost filled up, so going back wouldn’t be a waste of time.
Chu Mingcheng temporarily retreated, returned to the boat with his catch, placed everything in the fish box, and set off again with a lasso and some Squid meat.
When he got back to where he had first seen the Ban Qin shrimp, it was no longer there.
Chu Mingcheng wasn’t surprised; it probably went back into its cave.
Next, he took out a piece of Squid meat, swam to the entrance of the hole, surrounded it with the lasso, and then placed the Squid meat next to the lasso rope, weighing it down with a small stone.
After patiently waiting for a while, sure enough, the Ban Qin shrimp was attracted out by the Squid meat at the entrance of the cave.
As it crawled halfway out, Chu Mingcheng immediately pressed the button and the lasso contracted sharply, capturing it.
By the time the Ban Qin shrimp realized what was happening, it was too late, and no matter how much it struggled, it could not escape.
Chu Mingcheng opened the net bag, put the lasso and the Ban Qin shrimp inside together, and held the opening of the bag.
The lasso was loosened, and the Ban Qin shrimp darted around inside for a short while before calming down.
Chu Mingcheng slowly pulled out the lasso and continued looking for the next target. There were many good things here, and catching more would allow him to keep some for himself.
At the same time, the net bag was not as conveniently carried as before, and he was a bit worried about the Ban Qin shrimp attacking him through the bag.
The mantis-like arms of the creature were fiercely strong, usually used to knock on shells.
Finding two more horse manure sea urchins, allowing for one each, Chu Mingcheng discovered another Mud shrimp hole.
Using the same tactic, the owner of the house returned with a small Sea Snail in its mantis-like arms, having been out foraging, only to find a trap set at its doorstep.
This Ban Qin shrimp was smaller but still about twenty centimeters long.
Ignoring the Squid meat and backing halfway into its cave, Chu Mingcheng pressed the lasso’s button and successfully captured another one.