As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up-Chapter 129 - 123: Understood the Joy of Fishing

Chapter 129: Chapter 123: Understood the Joy of Fishing

“Fish, why aren’t you coming up yet, fish!” Clutching the fishing rod with both hands, several minutes passed without a bite, prompting Jiang Luoluo to start muttering.

“Ah Cheng, do you always have to wait this long when you fish?”

“Pretty much. When the fish are biting well, they keep coming, but today we didn’t specifically look for a good spot, so it’s not surprising the fishing is a bit off,” Chu Mingcheng said with a smile.

“So, I don’t understand why you people love fishing so much,” Jiang Luoluo said, tilting her head in bewilderment.

But the next moment, her fishing rod suddenly twitched.

Seeing the tip of the rod dip sharply, Chu Mingcheng quickly said, “Lift the rod, you’ve got a fish on!”

...

“Eh, eh, eh… really?” Jiang Luoluo, somewhat flustered, hoisted the rod up in a somewhat comical fashion, but she managed to hook the fish.

“That’s it, you’ve hooked it now. Just turn that handle and reel the fish in,” Chu Mingcheng reassured her, seeing the rod wasn’t pulling too much and knowing it was a small fish.

“Oh, oh, oh~” Jiang Luoluo put down the lifted rod and began reeling in the line, unaware that lifting the rod could have brought the fish up faster.

But with a small fish, it didn’t much matter; reeling it in would do the trick.

Jiang Luoluo steadied the rod with her left hand. For Chu Mingcheng, it might be a small fish, but the sea fish was fierce and, coupled with the softness of the rod, she found it a bit hard to handle.

Whenever the rod was pulled downward, she instinctively lifted it, while her right hand kept winding the line.

After a little while, a beautiful parrotfish, white in the body with a pale yellow tail, was brought to the surface under the lights.

“It’s up, it’s up, and the color of this fish is so pretty!” Jiang Luoluo was thrilled to have caught her first fish hands-on.

Chu Mingcheng, who had by then picked up a landing net, scooped the fish out of the water.

“Not bad, it’s a parrotfish, but I’ll have to check which type exactly.”

Chu Mingcheng now recognized most fish, but with so many species and classifications, it was normal not to know the exact scientific name.

The fish’s mouth was a typical parrot’s beak, and recognizing that was enough.

He placed the fish on the ground and went into the cabin to fetch a book, a comprehensive guide to marine life in domestic waters.

He located the section for parrotfish and, after flipping through it briefly, found the species.

“What fish is it?” Jiang Luoluo asked curiously as she approached.

“Here, it’s called the long-head parrotfish or long-snout parrotfish. Probably named for its longer beak compared to the common parrotfish,” Chu Mingcheng explained as he pointed at the book.

“This fish is quite good, suitable for frying or grilling, or even as an aquarium fish.”

“Aquarium fish? No wonder it’s so beautiful,” Jiang Luoluo nodded in understanding, then joyfully went over and grasped the fish, attempting to remove the hook. Yet, seeing the fish’s somewhat dangerous mouth, she hesitated to proceed.

Chu Mingcheng put the book aside and took a hook remover from the tackle box: “Use this to take out the hook without hurting your hands.”

As he spoke, he inserted the hook remover into the fish’s mouth, clamped onto the hook, and gently pulled it out.

Jiang Luoluo nodded, showing she had learned something new, then she personally placed the fish into the live well.

“How does it feel to catch a fish?” Chu Mingcheng asked with a smile, seeing her apparent delight.

“Not bad at all!”

“Do you find it boring?”

“Not at all!”

“So, do you now understand the joy we Fishing Men find in it?”

“Of course I do!”

Jiang Luoluo nodded repeatedly, the instant joy of catching the fish fulfilling her both physically and emotionally.

Thus, she also had come to understand why, although fishing was Chu Mingcheng’s profession, he could still find pleasure in it.

Having successfully drawn the young girl into the fold, Chu Mingcheng felt quite satisfied and then went to his own rod to focus on fishing.

He was experienced now and still hadn’t caught a fish; he couldn’t let a newbie show him up!

Watching everything, Wei Jiaguo’s mouth curled into a slight smile, then he thought of his son and grandson, whom he barely saw all year due to their packed schedules, and shook his head at the thought of such a tiring life. What’s the point!

The fishing rod trembled — hey, he had a bite!

Wei Jiaguo came to his senses, exhilarated, as food arrived at his doorstep, too valuable to be wasted.

The pull wasn’t strong though the weight was decent; his experienced self knew immediately what it was.

Leisurely, he turned the handle, quickly reeling the fishing line back into the spool. The creature about to surface became more apparent with each turn.

As a few tentacles peeked above the water, realization flashed through his eyes — it was a large octopus.

Looking to be about a pound, it would make a fine dish to accompany drinks.

For Wei Jiaguo, fishing wasn’t about making money, but capturing joy.

Secondly, it was about the ingredients, satisfying his personal culinary desires.

Now over sixty, his appetite wasn’t what it used to be, and he didn’t know how many more years he could eat.

While he still could move about, he needed to make the most of it.

As Wei Jiaguo pulled the octopus out of the water, Jiang Luoluo caught sight of it and exclaimed, “Huh, you can even catch octopuses?”

“What can’t a Fishing Man catch?” laughed Chu Mingcheng.

That’s how it is in the ocean. If it were in a ditch, you could end up hooking even a sanitary pad.

“Haha, fishing is indeed quite interesting, like guessing what’s in a blind box. Until you pull it up, everything is unknown,” Jiang Luoluo suddenly felt that she could occasionally fish to relax after getting tired, as it was a great leisure activity.

Now, having a boat also presented an opportunity to learn diving, which she had considered since Chu Mingcheng bought the boat.

Having someone so adept at swimming by her side, she didn’t have to worry about her safety.

After Chu Mingcheng caught two more fish, Jiang Luoluo, who had been quietly waiting, felt her rod twitch again.

This time was interesting; as the rod shook, Jiang Luoluo, startled, quickly lifted it.

From watching Chu Mingcheng fish twice, she had learned she didn’t need to lift the rod too high, just a forceful upward lift would do.

Then she began reeling the line in, but this time the sensation made her feel something was off.

Before, when fishing, you could clearly feel the fish struggling and resisting, but this time there was only a slight sense of weight.

“Ah Cheng, I feel something’s off with this fish; why isn’t it moving at all?”

“Could you have hooked an octopus?” Chu Mingcheng looked at her fishing rod and guessed.

“Eh, is that what it feels like to catch an octopus?”

“I guess so. After all, when an octopus is hooked, it can’t scurry around like fish do; it can only get tangled in the line and be pulled up, which is why you might feel a bit of weight but no struggling.”

“You’re right…” Jiang Luoluo was about to agree when what surfaced were two swimming crabs holding onto the bait, and they weren’t small either.

Chu Mingcheng’s guess was instantly proven wrong, and he looked somewhat embarrassed. Then, seeing her smirk as if she was about to tease him, he quickly reminded her, “Hurry and pull it up, or the crab will let go and escape!”

“Oh, oh, oh, oh!” Not bothering to mock him, Jiang Luoluo quickly lifted the fishing line.

One of the crabs had not fully emerged from the water before it let go of its claw and escaped, causing her to exclaim in disappointment, “Ahh, my crab ran away!”

Fortunately, one crab was a bit dumber; it was hauled onto the boat, and only when its feet hit the deck did it release its claw.

“One escaped; what a pity!” Jiang Luoluo was very frustrated. If she hadn’t been focused on teasing Chu Mingcheng about being proven wrong, she might have caught both.

At that moment, Wei Jiaguo came over and picked up the crab, turning it over to inspect, “This crab is quite plump, nice!”

“Eh, Grandpa, how can you tell?” Jiang Luoluo, now distracted, asked curiously.

Chu Mingcheng leaned in; he knew how to tell if a green crab was plump, but he wasn’t sure if the same applied to swimming crabs.

Previously, when making orchid crab pot, two of the crabs had less full meat, which was somewhat disappointing.

Wei Jiaguo held the swimming crab with its belly up and pointed at the patterns on its belly, saying, “First, looking at its stomach patterns; a clear pattern generally means it is full.”

“Also, this is a male crab. The sides of a swimming crab are quite pointed, and the male has fur on this flipped part. We check if the white color on the shell extends to the fur; if it reaches the fur, it indicates a top-grade crab, which is usually plump.”

“If it’s not plump, the color will be a bit dark.”

The two youngsters suddenly understood, learning how to pick crabs.

But that was just about the male crab, so Jiang Luoluo further asked, “Grandpa, how do you pick a female crab? You haven’t mentioned that yet.”

“Picking a female crab is simple, just look at the edges of the shell for any red color. The presence of red indicates the roe is full, definitely plump.”

Having learned something useful, Jiang Luoluo was very motivated, “Maybe the one that escaped was a female; I have to fish it back.”

The two men on the boat couldn’t help laughing at her spirited appearance.

Chu Mingcheng went back to fishing, but to his surprise, he also caught a swimming crab.

Next, both Wei Jiaguo and Jiang Luoluo caught swimming crabs as well.

“Grandpa, could there be a crab nest down there? Shall we try using a string hook?”

Wei Jiaguo nodded and said, “It’s possible; I think it’s a good idea.”

Soon, the two of them began to tie string hooks, and Chu Mingcheng also helped Jiang Luoluo set one up to increase her chances of catching crabs.

With the string hook set, catching crabs became a bit faster.

Occasionally a fish or two would come up, but most of the time, two to three swimming crabs were pulled up.

And then one or two would fall off as they were brought out of the water.

Overall, the efficiency increased a little, but not much.

Chu Mingcheng sighed and said, “If only I’d brought a diving flashlight, I’d have just gone down and grabbed them.”

“You might as well have prepared some crab cages,” Jiang Luoluo said, unimpressed.

“Uh… yeah,” Chu Mingcheng scratched his head.

Crab cages don’t add experience points, so he hadn’t considered them subconsciously.

But whether or not it adds, sometimes there’s no need to be so rigid.

It’s just that where there are crabs, the fish tend to be less abundant.

If he set crab cages here and went fishing elsewhere, any passing boat would likely see them and take them away.

Perhaps if they encountered someone nasty, they might even take the cages.

Therefore, in such cases, he felt it was better to dive in and catch them himself, quick and straightforward.

Time quietly advanced to ten o’clock at night, and in three hours, Chu Mingcheng had caught only five fish, but he did catch seven plump swimming crabs, with even more that were thin and small being released back.

Jiang Luoluo, who had no newbie bonus buff, caught only two fish, but she got four more plump swimming crabs than him, totaling eleven.

It wasn’t clear how many Wei Jiaguo caught, but it seemed he had a decent haul, enough to take home and enjoy for a while.

As agreed, they were to return at ten o’clock, and since Jiang Luoluo needed a good rest to continue practicing dance the next day, Chu Mingcheng began packing up the fishing rods to head back.

Before leaving, he checked the GPS to remember the location. Once he got his license, he was sure to return.

Entering the port, it was still him at the helm. Although slow, he docked the boat securely in his berth.

Wei Jiaguo took his catch and left first; there were no large catches today, so nothing particularly caught his eye.

Jiang Luoluo had already put the fish and the swimming crabs into a cooler, and together with Chu Mingcheng, she moved them to the car’s trunk.

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“Ah Cheng, what should we do with these fish and crabs?”

“They are decent fish; you can take them home and keep them. If you can’t, just freeze them and save them to eat slowly. If you think you can’t eat them all, I can help you sell them,”

“Let’s keep them then. As for the swimming crabs, I want to make poison to eat.”

“Poison?”

“Silly, haven’t you heard of Chaoshan poison?”

Chu Mingcheng suddenly realized she was referring to that.

He looked at his catch for the day, thought about it, and decided not to sell it.

He loved eating crabs, whether it was making poison or something else, it would be delicious.

The fish were also good; ever since he learned how to make lentil dry, he had grown fond of this method of eating.