As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Leave Two Jin (Extra Chapter, Please Follow)

After looking at the secret fishing bait Yao Xin sent, Jiang Luoluo found that the preparation of this bait was quite troublesome.

The main ingredient was oatmeal, which had to be steamed until cooked, and then peanut powder and potato starch had to be added with a certain ratio, roughly 4:1:0.5.

Then, the mixture would be seasoned with egg milk essence and orchid fragrance, needing to emit a faint scent of egg and milk before it was suitable.

Next, the mix was to be steamed again and then laid out for a period of time to allow the oats to ferment until they acquired a mildly sour sweet taste, the stronger the smell, the greater the attraction for the stream rockfish.

“Sister Yao, since it’s so troublesome to make, why don’t we just not fish for this species?” @@novelbin@@

Yao Xin shook her head and smiled, “Let me put it this way, I have a group, all gourmands. Some people want to eat a certain type of fish, they’ll specifically ask me to go fishing for it, and the money they offer is quite good.”

“I love fishing, and this allows me to both fish and earn money, so of course I’m in!”

Chu Mingcheng suddenly understood why the fishing for stream rockfish was so complex, and why she had specially made the trip here.

At this point, He Zheng and Xu Fang were already prepared to start fishing, and Yao Xin stopped explaining and began tying the fishing lines and hooks to get ready for fishing, meanwhile she gave some of the secret bait to Chu Mingcheng.

Fishing for stream rockfish wasn’t just about the challenges of climate, time, habit, and bait, but the technique was also important.

For fishing in this pond, the muddy water technique was used, which was in fact the tight-line fishing method, a type of bottom fishing specifically targeting fast-flowing waters.

Yao Xin had already informed him of the fishing rods and line setup, Chu Mingcheng added a weight, but didn’t attach a float, made a bait nest, and started using the secret oat bait directly.

He rolled the bait into mung bean-sized balls and hung them on the hook, just exposing the tip of the hook.

Then Chu Mingcheng cast his line into a slow-moving, sandy bottomed part of the stream.

After casting, he would rely on the fishing line and rod tip to judge whether a fish was biting, and if the line suddenly tightened and then relaxed, or if it twitched, he needed to immediately lift the rod.

This was Chu Mingcheng’s first time fishing for this kind of fish, and he was more focused on it than Yao Xin and the others who were more relaxed.

After ten days of learning, he had gradually come to enjoy fishing as a leisure activity.

While waiting for a fish to bite, he wouldn’t pull out his cellphone to read novels like he did initially, but would wait patiently because he found that the period of waiting for a fish to bite was in itself a kind of anticipation and pleasure.

The pond was not small, and there was a sizable distance between the four of them.

At that moment, He Zheng suddenly jerked his rod and pulled a small fish that broke the water surface.

The fish wasn’t large, about the size of ten centimeters or so, but the smile on his face suggested it was indeed a stream rockfish.

One would have thought Xu Fang, who had started earlier, would be the second to catch one, but it was Chu Mingcheng who got lucky.

Seeing that the fishing line had suddenly tensed up, he immediately raised the rod and saw a small fish in the air flicking its tail so quickly that he couldn’t clearly make out what it looked like.

He lifted the fishing rod high to let the fish come near with inertia, then reached out to grab it.

This fish didn’t seem to have anything special about it, and its mouth didn’t appear to glow, so he didn’t know why it was called a light-lipped fish.

However, there were six vertical black stripes on its flanks, perhaps it was this feature combined with its delicious taste that earned it the title of stone fish.

Seeing that Chu Mingcheng had so quickly caught a fish, Yao Xin shouted out, “Ah Cheng, is it a stream rockfish, does it have black stripes on its flank?”

“It has black stripes, it’s a stream rockfish!” Chu Mingcheng shouted back after placing some stream water into a fish container and tossing the fish in.

“Good, catch more, whether or not I can complete today’s task depends on you guys.”

Yao Xin had already made it clear that if the amount of fish they caught wasn’t enough, she would buy some from them.

She offered one hundred yuan per tael, and Chu Mingcheng was naturally willing to sell.

One fish was around two to three taels, and it generally took three to five fish to make a tael, so he had to work hard!

Chu Mingcheng re-baited his hook and continued fishing, simultaneously rolling the oat bait into little pellets to save time later.

Unfortunately, the stream rockfish were currently at level 0, with no property enhancements, and relying solely on Yao Xin’s bait, it seemed impossible to achieve a constant bite effect; it took about three to five minutes to catch a stream rockfish.

During this period, there were also other miscellaneous fish that the aquatic guidebook didn’t even display. He exactly reached 20 experience points, meaning he had now caught twenty different kinds of aquatic creatures.

The only thing that made Chu Mingcheng feel somewhat dissatisfied was that his fishing rod wasn’t quite up to par.

He should have prepared a softer carbon fiber rod. With a better sensitivity, he would more acutely notice whether a fish had bitten.

Fortunately, today’s catch was rather good, but of Yao Xin’s trio, only He Zheng was more efficient. The other two had worse luck, and switching spots several times didn’t yield much improvement.

They fished until noon, and Chu Mingcheng’s fish box was now one third full, packed tightly with stream rockfish, though they were all fairly small, none reaching twenty centimeters.

By now, the temperature had risen, and he hadn’t had a bite for about ten minutes.

Yao Xin put away her fishing rod and came over, “Not bad, not bad. Thankfully we called you over today, otherwise just relying on Brother He, we wouldn’t have been able to complete the task!”

“As long as I can be of help,” Chu Mingcheng smiled and put away his fishing rod.

The four of them packed up and descended the mountain together. Yao Xin took an electronic scale out of her car and weighed the fish on the spot to pay them.

Chu Mingcheng had a total of seven jin and three taels, amounting to seven hundred and thirty yuan.

But since this was his first time catching these fish, and having heard that the flesh of the stream rockfish was tender and delicious, he wanted to try it himself. So he asked, “Sister Yao, how much do you need to make it worthwhile?”

“As much as you’ve got, though at least twenty jin. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I’ve never eaten this type of fish before and was thinking of keeping two jin to let my parents try it. The three of you together have about sixteen or seventeen jin, which should be enough. Just leave me two jin!”

“Tsk, I was wondering what it was! Sure, I’ll leave you two jin.”

“Thank you then!”

“Don’t mention it. I should be the one thanking you. You’ve really helped me out big time!”

Earning five hundred and thirty yuan for the morning was not too bad, and Chu Mingcheng declined Yao Xin’s invitation for lunch.

Mainly because whenever Xu Fang conversed with Yao Xin, his glances towards Chu Mingcheng made him feel uncomfortable, so he chose not to join them.

Watching Chu Mingcheng drive away, He Zheng commented with a laugh, “That young brother is quite discerning.”

Yao Xin knew what he meant, and was slightly speechless, while Xu Fang secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Chu Mingcheng’s appearance really put a lot of pressure on him.

On the road, Chu Mingcheng was thinking about inviting Zhang Wei and Chen Yang for fishing and camping here next time.

Trying to make money from fishing stream rockfish wasn’t really promising, but coming here to play, bringing along a barbecue grill, and grilling freshly caught fish would certainly be interesting.

He had plenty of time, he could come at the end of this month or early next month when the temperature would be suitable and the fish wouldn’t be hard to catch.

Suddenly, the smiling face of Jiang Luoluo came to mind. Camping with her would definitely be fun.

What a pity~

Long-distance relationships were too hard, and he didn’t want to tie Jiang Luoluo down to this small place, nor did he want to be too far from his parents.

Given that he was their only child, they probably wouldn’t agree to let him stay in a different place for a long time.

He found a place to eat lunch since the afternoon wasn’t a good time for fishing. Chu Mingcheng then used the tracking feature on the Fushouluo pane that he hadn’t had the chance to use before.

Once he used the feature, the aquatic guidebook gave him a specific route directly in his head, which allowed him to find his destination with almost no effort—an unharvested rice paddy.

Entering someone else’s rice paddy recklessly was not good, but on the bank of the adjacent irrigation ditch, he could see some Fushouluo.

Chu Mingcheng got a bag from his car; it was left over from the last time he sold black fish and still had plenty.

Then, he started picking up Fushouluo and their eggs along the ditch with the bag in hand.

The density was not very high, clearly these pests that ate rice were regularly cleared, but unfortunately, they couldn’t be completely eradicated.