I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Yi Chen Goes Beachcombing Again

The art of fishing is filled with countless details. Different conditions demand different choices, and every type of fish has its own specific method.

Gu Nan had done a lot of rock fishing, so he was familiar with the fish near the coast.

If he were to try platform fishing or deep-sea boat fishing, he wouldn’t be nearly as proficient. Still, he was certainly far better than any beginner.

When he saw the float begin to move, Gu Nan finally raised his rod to set the hook.

There wasn’t much of a pull, so the fish was clearly not very big.

After a standoff of a few seconds, Gu Nan pulled the fish to the surface. He then lifted his rod and reeled in quickly, swinging the fish directly out of the water. For small fish like this, using a landing net was more trouble than it was worth.

"Whoa, not bad. A yellow-footed seabream." He held up the small fish, which couldn’t have been more than half a pound, unhooked the lure, and tossed it into his livewell.

Yellow-footed seabream is the local name; its scientific name is Yellowfin Gidai.

They’re often found along the coast alongside black porgy, but they’re much rarer, which makes them much more expensive.

During the current fishing ban, they could sell for eighty to a hundred at the seafood market. The price mostly depended on the size—there was a huge difference between one weighing a few ounces and one weighing over a pound.

However, Gu Nan’s luck seemed to be holding strong today. His next two catches, though not the special fish from the Fengqi Coast, were both yellow-footed seabream.

The biggest one actually weighed over a pound—the first he’d caught since his seafood shop opened.

The bite was pretty good that evening. He didn’t catch any more Yellowfin Gidai, but he landed plenty of black porgy. Unfortunately, they were all on the smaller side, with none weighing more than a pound.

The time quickly passed ten-twenty. The waves seemed to be growing more turbulent, each one larger than the last. High tide was clearly rolling in.

Gu Nan was on the outer edge of the breakwater, and the spray from the crashing waves was already splashing against his pant legs.

He immediately decided to change spots. Packing up his rod, he got on his trike and moved to the inner side of the breakwater.

As a veteran rock fisherman, he knew that the fishing on the inner side was best when the tide was about halfway in.

He was fishing close to the shore, so there was no need to aim for deeper water. He wouldn’t even have to change his A-Bo float; the fish would come up to chase the bait.

It wasn’t just Gu Nan who moved; the other two fishermen from earlier had done the same, relocating to the inner side.

Once he found a new spot, he started by chumming the water again.

He waited a little while until the tide felt like it had risen enough, then cast his line.

The bait had barely hit the water when he got a bite, and it was an aggressive one.

Gu Nan set the hook and, with a flick of his wrist, swung the fish right out of the water.

He brought it closer for a look. It was a black porgy, even bigger than the ones he’d caught on the outer side—this one was nearly a pound.

The fish had clearly moved into his chummed area. Now it was all about how fast he could pull them in.

Gu Nan rarely encountered a frenzy like this, but he had plenty of experience for it.

When the bite was this good, you didn’t want to waste time playing the fish. A thicker leader line and a stiffer rod to just yank them out was the way to go. ’A size 2.0 rock fishing rod would feel perfect right now.’

And Gu Nan’s rod was something else entirely. It could feel as soft as a size 1.0, but its actual strength surpassed a size 3.0.

The black porgy were biting so furiously that even the fish from the Fengqi Coast were appearing less often. Almost every catch was a black porgy.

This went on for half an hour. Only after Gu Nan had caught more than twenty black porgy did the proportion of fish from the Fengqi Coast begin to rise again.

Before he knew it, he had completed his daily quest. His Gold Coins had reached 1,300, enough to buy the new fishing line.

After losing that big one, Gu Nan understood the importance of good fishing line. He’d hold off on buying bait for now and get it tomorrow instead.

He checked the time—it was already past eleven. He’d caught plenty of fish for one day, so he decided to pack up his rod and head home.

He’d sleep early for the next couple of days. After that, his schedule would free up.

...

Some distance from the breakwater was a small patch of sandy beach.

The beach was tiny, only a dozen meters wide and dotted with jagged rocks.

Few people ever came here. It wasn’t a good spot for fishing—the water was too shallow.

As for beachcombing, there were certainly people who did it around Yangjiang Port, but they usually went elsewhere. The most common spot was the island, where the resources were more plentiful.

When Yi Chen got home from work that evening, she chatted with her grandmother for a while, telling her about her day. Once her grandma got too tired to stay up and went to bed, Yi Chen went to her room and started scrolling through videos.

However, since she often went beachcombing whenever she had free time, she had already watched many videos on the subject to learn new techniques.

And sure enough, the algorithm, sensing her interests, was now feeding her a stream of beachcombing videos.

Yi Chen had originally sworn off beachcombing after falling into the water last time. But today, she saw a video of someone taking a slotted spoon, scooping into the sand on a submerged beach, and rinsing it in the seawater to reveal all sorts of clams.

In no time at all, they had over a pound of them. The sight made her heart race with excitement.

’The rocky areas are dangerous, it’s easy to slip and fall into the sea, but a sandy beach is safe!’

Yi Chen thought about the shop’s earnings for the day and felt a pang of envy.

’Over four thousand! Even after costs and taxes, she figured Gu Nan must have cleared at least a thousand. That’s thirty thousand a month!’

’If I could earn that much every month,’ Yi Chen thought, ’I could confidently tell those two parents of mine who barely pay me any mind: I can live just fine without you. In fact, I can live even better than you.’

She had grown up with her grandparents, like a feral child with no parents to speak of. It would be a lie to say she felt no resentment toward them. What child doesn’t want to be doted on by their parents?

The desire to go beachcombing resurfaced in Yi Chen, mainly because she realized that by working at the seafood shop, she could easily sell whatever she found on the cheap to the vendors she knew at the wet market on her way in each morning.

Even if the haul was small, an extra twenty or thirty a day would be nice. She wouldn’t even turn her nose up at ten.

At that thought, Yi Chen couldn’t stay in bed any longer.

She got dressed, her small, white-socked feet tiptoeing quietly downstairs.

On the ground floor, she found her waterproof boots, grabbed a bucket and a slotted spoon from the house, and opened the door, preparing to slip out.

But the old wooden door wouldn’t cooperate. CREEEAK. The sound was piercing in the quiet night.

Yi Chen froze. Her heart instantly began to pound. THUMP THUMP THUMP.

She held her breath for a long moment. When there was no sound from her grandmother’s room, she finally let out a sigh of relief.

Closing the door, thankfully, was silent. It only ever creaked when she opened it.

Once away from the house, Yi Chen hurried toward the coast. Yangjiang Port had its own public beach; though not large, it was still a popular spot for people to visit in the summer.

However, since the cross-sea bridge was built, most people went to the beach on the island, since it was larger and the water was a bit clearer.

But Yi Chen had no plans to go to that beach tonight. It was too far for her; without an electric scooter, it was at least a forty-minute walk.

So she had to settle for somewhere closer—the area near where she’d fallen into the water before. There was a tiny patch of sand there. Maybe she could find something.

’Sometimes, you can find the best things in places no one’s bothered with for a long time.’

Yi Chen reached her destination. Following the method she’d seen in the video, she waded into the sea, used her slotted spoon to scoop up a mound of sand, and then gently shook it back and forth in the water.

Once all the sand had filtered out, her eyes lit up. There, in the slotted spoon, was a large clam.