Chapter 353 - 233: A Big Fish with Super Endurance?

Chapter 353: Chapter 233: A Big Fish with Super Endurance?

In truth, Xu Zhina and Jin Enfei’s excitement from fantasizing about catching a big fish had slowly faded. Feeling bored just waiting, they huddled together and started chattering about cosmetics.

"Why don’t we go get some live shrimp for bait? This frozen fish meat might not be very effective," Gu Nan suggested after a moment of thought.

It wasn’t that the frozen sardines were useless; a fish would definitely take the bait eventually.

But under these conditions, the bite rate would be terribly slow. They wouldn’t catch much all night. It was better to switch to live shrimp and increase their haul.

"I’ll go get them!" At his suggestion, Yi Chen went to find three buckets, filling each with some live shrimp and placing them nearby.

Gu Nan was just about to reel in his line to change the bait when his rod suddenly twitched.

"Not bad. The bait I cast wasn’t wasted after all." Only one rod had moved. After waiting a bit and seeing no action from the other two, he went ahead and reeled them in.

Reeling in an empty hook was quicker. While Yi Chen kept an eye on the rod with the bite, Gu Nan rapidly switched the bait on the other lines to live shrimp.

Just as he cast the live shrimp into the water and let out the line, the fish on the other rod was reeled to the surface. The timing was quite a coincidence.

"Huh, a long-tail snapper! What great luck!" The fish was a delicate pink, about half a meter long, with a particularly long, slender tail tip. Yi Chen recognized the species at a glance.

"Does his luck have to be this good?" Ye Jing and An Jun were both envious. A long-tail snapper! That was like pulling an S-rank rare card on the first single draw, while they had come up empty.

You really can’t compare one angler to another. Some people’s luck is just so much better, even when fishing for fun. It’s infuriating.

Yi Chen quickly reached out and grabbed the line, pulling it up slightly to make it harder for the fish to struggle.

Beside her, Gu Nan had already grabbed the landing net, seized the opportunity to scoop the fish in headfirst, and then lifted it up.

Yi Chen grabbed the fish, removed the hook, and felt its weight. She said with delight, "A quick thousand in the bank. Not bad, not bad at all."

The others were envious, but the switch to live shrimp was clearly effective, as their rods also began to twitch one after another.

Sure enough, live shrimp worked wonders. No wonder the bite rate was so high when using them for sea fishing.

But the cost was also much higher than other baits. You really do get what you pay for.

Gu Nan had gotten the first bite, and with three rods in play, his catch rate was naturally off the charts.

He caught all sorts: golden-eye sea bream, ruby snappers, deep-sea scorpionfish, and even two amberjacks and a black-scabbard fish.

He also caught a couple of worthless ones, which he threw back.

An Jun and the others were catching the same few species. It seemed there weren’t many other types of fish down below.

After a little while, Ye Jing got lucky and caught a large deep-sea grouper, but it was a Tiger Stripes, not the more valuable seven-band grouper.

Gu Nan took a look. It was a good one, around thirteen or fourteen pounds.

But the Tiger Stripes would have to be tested. Other fishermen might just sell it casually, but he wouldn’t.

Ciguatera poisoning symptoms are agonizing, and Gu Nan wasn’t so unscrupulous as to risk it for such a small profit margin.

When fishing, you often catch small fish at the beginning, because they tend to school together.

But as you keep fishing, larger fish are easily attracted. Whether it’s the groundbait or the congregation of smaller fish, it’s all food to them.

Just then, the rod between Gu Nan and Yi Chen suddenly bent sharply, the movement immense.

Next to them, An Jun was startled. "Holy shit, you’ve hooked a big one?"

"Yeah, and look how slowly the line counter is ticking up." Yi Chen chuckled. A big fish meant big money. Unless their luck was terrible and they caught something they couldn’t sell, how could she not be happy about hooking a huge one?

Ye Jing and the others exclaimed in admiration, "Ah Nan, we’re all human, so why are you so damn lucky?"

But Gu Nan just waved his hand dismissively. "Don’t praise me just yet. Wait until we see if it’s a good fish, then you can lay it on thick!"

Everyone: "..."

Yi Chen said faintly, "I forgot to start the stream for you. You really know how to create drama for the show."

Speaking of streaming, Gu Nan paused. "Huh, that’s right. I should do a stream now that I have the new boat. It’s been over a month since the last one, hasn’t it?"

"Yeah, the fans in the group chat are all rushing you. They’re saying that in the time they’ve been waiting for you to stream, the Seven Fairies could have already given birth to the Calabash Brothers! They’re also calling you a slacker and stuff."

"Heh..." Gu Nan’s mouth twitched. ’For a fisherman like me, streaming every day would be the real slacking, wouldn’t it?’

’The fact that I even remembered to stream this time is doing them a huge favor.’

With an electric reel, fishing was naturally a breeze.

But the fish they were fighting now was truly massive. They had been chatting for this long, and not only had the line not been reeled in, but a lot more had been pulled out.

Gu Nan was getting constant action on his own side. Just then, his rod quivered—clearly another fish was on—so he had to reel that one in first.

The rod with the big fish was in the middle. If he went to help with it, he would be in Yi Chen’s way as she moved back and forth, which would be inconvenient.

If you don’t set the hook and reel in time when a fish bites, it could get away in seconds. So they just let the electric reel handle the big one slowly while they continued catching smaller fish.

Another long-tail snapper, a good five or six pounds. A very nice catch.

There were quite a few long-tail snappers tonight. Gu Nan and Yi Chen had already caught four, and An Jun and the others had caught some too.

This fish is difficult to catch. Usually, you’d only find them in large numbers in places like the Nansha or Xisha islands.

「An entire hour passed.」

The electric reel was already hot to the touch. Not an inch of line had been reeled in; on the contrary, another three hundred meters had been pulled out.

Gu Nan was starting to find it strange. He was the one who had set up this rod; the line and hook were supposed to drain the fish’s stamina.

Logically, after so long, even a huge fish should have lost a lot of its stamina. But he noticed the numbers on the electric reel’s screen were still rising steadily, as if he’d hooked a tireless robot fish.

"Ah Nan, this isn’t working. The fish is too big; the electric reel can’t pull it in. It’s getting so hot we need to let it rest, or it’ll be a problem if it burns out," Yi Chen said with a frown, touching the reel.

"You watch the rods on the sides. I’ll handle this big one." Gu Nan knew this wasn’t sustainable. He stepped forward to take over, turning off the electric reel first.

Seeing this, An Jun quickly added, "Don’t worry, just focus on fishing. I’ll help keep an eye on the rods over here."

Gu Nan nodded, grabbed the rod and the crank handle, and began a showdown with the behemoth in the water.

The moment he took hold, he understood why the electric reel hadn’t been able to bring it up. The thing at the end of the line was incredibly heavy, with an immense pulling force.

It was just lucky that it wasn’t fast; otherwise, the line would have been pulled out seven or eight hundred meters by now. The electric reel was no match for this kind of force.

Gu Nan strained to lift the rod while cranking the handle with all his might.

The rod bent further and further, a clear sign that he was gradually increasing the force he was applying.

Soon, the rod was bent into an inverted U-shape, and Gu Nan’s face gradually turned beet red.

His eyes were wide with astonishment. ’What kind of fish is this? With my strength, I can barely hold my ground?’

’Don’t tell me I’ve hooked a giant manta ray, or even a whale?’

But no matter what it was, he had to reel it up and see.

For now, all he could do was hold it in a stalemate and ask Yi Chen to help cool down the electric reel quickly by putting ice on it.

If he could use the electric reel in tandem, he was confident he could drag the thing up from the depths by brute force.

After about ten minutes, the electric reel had finally cooled down enough. Gu Nan eased up on his strength slightly and then switched it on.

The rod suddenly shuddered. As a new power joined the fight, the previous stalemate was instantly broken.

The scales of victory began to tip in Gu Nan’s favor. However, the line was coming in very slowly; after ten minutes, he had only retrieved about twenty meters.

His hands were already aching from fighting the beast below, and he had a feeling this fish was going to be a struggle for a long time tonight.

Another half hour passed. Just as Gu Nan was about to take a break, unable to hold on any longer, the rod trembled, and the absurd pulling force from the deep suddenly vanished.

He was overjoyed. ’The fish is finally tired!’

The fish’s endurance was unbelievable. He had never encountered anything like it. Even a Legendary marlin would be a mere peon compared to this creature.

It was only because the fish’s Power wasn’t exceptionally great; otherwise, Gu Nan wouldn’t have stood a chance of landing it, not even with his cheats.

He had been about to take a break, but now he took a deep breath, shook out his arms to relieve the ache, and continued reeling in with the electric reel.

Without the pulling force, the reeling speed increased dramatically.

But judging by the deep bend in the rod, the fish was still immense. This filled everyone on the boat with anticipation and curiosity, eager to see just what kind of fish had given Gu Nan such a difficult fight.