As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 136: Chapter 129: Cause of Death: Being Bold_2

As the depth increased, after reaching a depth of over twenty meters, Chu Mingcheng no longer needed to kick his fins and could drop straight down.

The fish seemed to sense that it couldn’t escape into the deeper water, so it started to dodge sideways.

Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng flipped himself over, from an upside-down position to a vertical one, then gently kicked his fins to maintain neutral buoyancy, keeping himself at this depth of twenty-six meters.

The descent was rapid, with only thirty-three seconds having passed.

But he didn’t waste any time, aimed his spear at the Striped Rockfish to his right, and fired. Unfortunately, he had misjudged the fish’s movement, and it just managed to dodge by turning away.

Chu Mingcheng regretfully retracted the line; previously, his hit rate with mackerel had been high, with only one escaping.

That’s because the movement of mackerel was easy to predict; they generally wouldn’t change direction suddenly over short periods.

But these sea breams were different; their window of opportunity lasted only a few seconds. Whether or not he could seize the moment depended on how quickly Chu Mingcheng could prepare to aim.

Given the current situation, he needed to continue improving his proficiency, reducing the preparation time for aiming, familiarizing himself with the movement of various fish species, which would directly increase his hit rate.

He retracted the line and pulled back the sling, not returning to the surface but continuing to hunt for fish.

If it were a regular person, they would need to go up for air even if they could stay underwater a bit longer.

Fishing and hunting required leaving oneself some leeway to face various risks and the time to wrestle with fish.

But Chu Mingcheng had already gotten Jiang Luoluo to accept that he could stay underwater for five minutes, and since they had communicated earlier, he didn’t need to go up this time.

He swam around the pillar once and unexpectedly discovered that the Striped Rockfish he had missed was still there.

Daring to stay and repeatedly cross his path?

He aimed and shot again, this time successfully predicting the fish’s movement, and the fish arrow unsurprisingly pierced its body.

Scientific name: striped stone bream

Cause of death: Repeated sidestepping

After securing the fish, Chu Mingcheng checked the time; it had only been three minutes, so he could go for another.

The fish below him were plentiful; after diving a few more meters, he encountered a Black Goldfish, which was far more valuable than the Striped Rockfish, and there were several of them.

Chu Mingcheng surveyed the area and locked onto the largest one.

He dived a bit deeper to be on the same water level as the fish.

The other Black Goldfish escaped far away, but this largest one seemed to lack awareness of danger, perhaps a case of the bigger they are, the bolder?

It swam leisurely about six or seven meters in front of him, and Chu Mingcheng gladly took it.

Scientific name: Black Goldfish

Cause of death: Boldness

The time was about right, and Chu Mingcheng didn’t immediately retrieve it but pulled the fishing line and headed for the surface.

Normally, when ascending from a depth of about thirty meters, the speed should not be too fast, allowing the body and eardrums to adapt to the water pressure.

But Chu Mingcheng was almost unaffected, making a swift return to the surface.

The Black Goldfish at the bottom had no chance to resist and was helplessly pulled up, weighing about three to four kilograms—decent.

Black Goldfish is also a premium fish for sashimi, so he immediately bled it in the sea.

After four more dives, Chu Mingcheng successfully caught twelve fish, missing only twice, and the catches were only Striped Rockfish and Black Goldfish.

Because those were the only two types of high-value fish below, and there were no particularly large fierce ones.

Carrying about fifty pounds of fish, with his live fish hook already full, he simply decided to head back first and let Jiang Luoluo store the fish.

But before he even swam to the side of the boat, to his surprise, he discovered a group of jun cao fish underwater, and Jiang Luoluo had already caught one.

The jun cao fish were strong; even with the fishing rod placed in the holder, she still pulled with a face flushed red.

Upon getting closer, he realized, drifting in the water were quite a few squid chunks used as bait, which had probably also attracted the nearby school of jun cao fish.

In this case, was Jiang Luoluo still lucky?

Chu Mingcheng quickly loaded his speargun, thinking with so many jun cao fish, he might as well start with one.

He chose his target, soon spotting a jun cao fish with a scar on its flank, approximately the size of a meter.

Aiming the speargun, a bang resounded, and the spear successfully pierced the jun cao fish’s spine, also scaring away its nearby competitors.

After struggling with the fish for a while, because it was hit in the spine, it had a hard time wriggling and swimming, so it didn’t resist much.

By this time, Chu Mingcheng saw the fish Jiang Luoluo had caught was almost exhausted, though it still struggled occasionally.

He thought about shooting it with an arrow but decided first to swim to the surface and shouted to her nearby.

“Luoluo, do you want me to shoot the fish in the water for you?”

“I don’t want it, I want to pull it up myself.”

It seemed she felt the same way he had thought; Jiang Luoluo didn’t want his interference. The pleasure of fishing was indeed in this, for pulling up the catch oneself; without that, there would always be some regret.

But Chu Mingcheng didn’t head back to the boat immediately; after pulling his jun cao fish over, he threaded the fish onto the line of the live fish hook.

Then he loaded his speargun, aiming at the jun cao fish Jiang Luoluo had caught.

After another five or six minutes, this jun cao fish seemed very exhausted, unable to control its balance, occasionally swimming sideways before stopping, then being slowly pulled towards the boat.

Chu Mingcheng was grateful that he had chosen the right line assembly earlier; if he had chosen a thinner line and smaller hook, the fish would likely have escaped.

Following this, he swam to the side of the boat where Jiang Luoluo locked the drag force and passed down the landing net.

Chu Mingcheng directly grabbed the fish and pressed it into the net, resulting in the fish struggling again, splashing water all over him.

Annoyed, he hugged the fish’s head with one hand and with the other formed a fist, “bang bang,” he struck twice, stunning the fish.

Even though the fishing rod was always in place in the fishing hole, Jiang Luoluo was exhausted after pulling up this fish.

Seeing his aggressive side, she couldn’t help but smile, feeling a bit of her fatigue dissipate: “This fish was unlucky to meet you, getting beaten up right before dying.”

“Whose fault is it for not behaving and going into the landing net willingly?” Chu Mingcheng placed the fish in the net and let her pull it up.

The twenty-something pound fish was still manageable for her to lift.

Afterward, Chu Mingcheng swam to the back deck and handed her the jun cao fish he had speared along with various sea bream hooked alive.

“Luoluo, keep some of the squid on our boat as bait, and chop the rest into chunks. Scatter them occasionally to keep the school of fish around; I’ll dive back in to catch more.”

Hearing this, Jiang Luoluo suddenly realized, “Oh, why didn’t I think of that! Using bait to attract schools of fish not only allows for fishing but also for fishing hunting!”

“Absolutely, and fishing hunting yields much faster than fishing; today is a big win.”

This was also the main reason Chu Mingcheng didn’t think of joining her on the boat to fish; instead, he chose to go fishing hunting.

Even if a thirty-pound jun cao fish was hooked, and the fishing line held up, pulling it up hard would take about ten to twenty minutes, and it also drains physical strength.

But with fishing hunting, Chu Mingcheng could catch two or three fish, which was extremely efficient.