As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 49: Chapter 49 Teaching Fishing

“Ah Cheng, when it comes to fishing, you’re the best. You’ve already caught a sea bass so quickly, this one probably weighs about eighty catties,” Zhao Jun said, growing eager to fish himself.

He was a tender newcomer, who had just started to tie his line and hook while Chu Mingcheng was already fishing, his movements awkward and slow.

“It’s not that I’m good at fishing; it’s just that the fish under the pier are abundant. Anyone could make a catch here.”

Chu Mingcheng smiled, tossing the minnow near the pier to continue fishing.

Although he had just caught a sea bass, it didn’t mean he understood the situation at the bottom.

This time, he let the minnow sink for twenty seconds, reaching a deeper location.

Sea bass may like to swim near the surface, but there is a common situation in the fishing world: the bigger fish of the same species usually swim in deeper waters.

If there are bigger fish in the deeper spots and the fish are biting well, he would definitely choose to fish in the middle to lower layers.

The process was the same as before, but his luck wasn’t as good. Just as the minnow ascended to the surface and Chu Mingcheng prepared to let it dive again, a sea bass intercepted it.

This one was even smaller than the previous catch, just over half a catty. He released such small fish back into the water.

Zhao Jun was astonished to see this: “Ah Cheng, why did you release the fish?”

“I don’t have any financial pressures in life. The fish is too small. It’s better to let it grow. Brother Zhao Jun, just focus on your own fishing; don’t worry about me.”

Chu Mingcheng had decided to do this on his own, and it was not right to impose his choice on others. @@novelbin@@

Zhao Jun had the pressure of supporting a family, and it was understandable for him to keep whatever he caught.

Now seeing Chu Mingcheng release the small fish, if Zhao Jun caught excessively small fish and decided to release them, that would be great, but no one else had the right to demand what he should do.

The fishing conditions under the pier were indeed good. They couldn’t see it, but if they were to dive, they would see groups of fish swimming back and forth beneath the abandoned pier and the bridge.

In deeper locations, there were many big fish schooling together.

Fishermen rarely caught big fish; it seemed they all hid over here.

Zhao Jun baited his hook with a red shrimp he had previously caught and kept in his home freezer. Not long after casting, he hooked a three-catty sea bass.

With a catch worth a hundred and twenty, Zhao Jun couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear.

Chu Mingcheng was still testing the fishing conditions in deeper waters. After five or six minutes, his rod suddenly felt a tremendous pull, jerking his hand with its strength.

This pulling force!

Chu Mingcheng swiftly lifted his rod, and the newly bought iron-board rod instantly bent into a full moon, looking as if it could break at any moment.

The rod trembled continuously, and the fishing line was pulled from the reel, emitting a “ziiiing” sound.

Chu Mingcheng was in no rush to reel in the line, holding the rod and watching the handle turn slowly.

The drag had been set to maximum, with each second swiftly depleting the fish’s energy.

He also adjusted his position to capture a close-up shot of the line being pulled out with his head-mounted camera.

After three or four minutes, when the fishing line stopped pulling, Chu Mingcheng started to reel in the line and lift the rod.

The fish was clearly exhausted. He had deliberately let it run initially, and the fish hadn’t gone far, just about thirty meters.

Now that the fish started to rest, not reeling it in would mean it could actually escape.

However, as soon as he began to reel in the line, the fish, agitated, started to run even faster and fiercely.

Chu Mingcheng could previously control the fish with one hand on the rod, but now one hand was insufficient; he needed both hands to maintain control.

The iron-board rod was strung with the fishing line recommended by the shop owner, an 832 with a diameter of 0.8.

Whether it was as good as the shop owner had claimed would become clear after today’s catch.

The fish under the water was strong, though it couldn’t compare with the green spot, or the big fish that had snapped the line last time while rock fishing, but currently it was the third strongest in terms of pulling power for sea fishing.

The solid rod couldn’t directly pull the fish back but had to exhaust its energy by playing it.

After seven or eight minutes, the fish at the bottom was finally pulled to the surface, lying on its side and resting, completely out of energy.

A large sea bass, over half a meter long.

Chu Mingcheng pulled it to the side of the boat and then used a fish grip to clamp its lower lip and lift it.

“Plop plop~”

As the sea bass was lifted, its tail thrashed wildly, splashing water all over him, but this was normal for a fishing man like Chu Mingcheng, and he didn’t mind.

He checked the weight shown on the fish grip, a little over three kilograms, not bad, a sea bass weighing more than six Jin could sell for over two hundred RMB.

The sea bass caught after autumn was the best to fish for, also when they were at their fattest and most delicious. If he could catch six or seven more of this size, he would break even.

The water conditions were now mostly understood, and there was no need to use live bait since minnows could be caught naturally.

In just half an hour, Chu Mingcheng caught another two sea bass, one three Jin and the other seven Jin.

The fish were biting well for him, but Zhao Jun was having some trouble.

He had lost his hook three consecutive times, frantically sweating profusely.

“Brother Zhao Jun, is there some problem on your end?”

Chu Mingcheng had actually noticed his hook coming off early on.

The first time he thought it was just a beginner’s lack of experience, and losing the hook is quite normal for novice fishermen, so he hadn’t paid it much attention.

For the next two times, he was busy playing the seven Jin sea bass and didn’t have time to care for it.

“There is a bit of a problem; maybe my hook is too small. The fish bites, and I don’t get to reel in much before the hook comes out,” Zhao Jun hurried to reel in his line and showed Chu Mingcheng the hook when he came over.

Chu Mingcheng looked at the hook; it was a size five thousand again, perfectly fine for fishing bass, so it must be a technical issue.

So he took the fishing rod and said, “Let me try fishing for a bit.”

Zhao Jun stood aside, watching his technique closely.

“Brother Zhao Jun, your fishing rod is quite good, you could fish deeper. Fishing too shallow might attract only small fish that aren’t good at taking the bait.” Zhao Jun tied a small sinker to the end of the main line.

Chu Mingcheng opened the north line and observed the speed at which the fishing line was unspooling, getting a rough idea in his mind. The descent was a bit faster than with the minnow.

He silently counted to ten in his head before shutting off the spool and stopping the line from unspooling further.

After a short wait, Chu Mingcheng’s rod dipped, and he immediately lifted it up sharply, the tip of the rod making a “whoosh” sound as the line tightened.

Zhao Jun saw this and his eyes lit up, “Ah Cheng, is there some trick to that move?”

“That’s called setting the hook. Sea fish strike hard and usually swallow the hook whole. But at that moment, the hook actually isn’t buried deep. We lift the rod to drive the hook deeper so that it’s harder for the fish to spit it out through coughing gills.”

“Of course, when we’re fishing we must always put pressure on the fish. When it makes its first burst of speed trying to escape, we don’t need to fight it too hard. Just pulling and tugging with the rod to exhaust its strength is enough.”

“When you feel the fish stop and rest through the rod, that’s when you lift the rod to bring the fish closer and reel in the line.”

“Actually, the 16-character strategic principle used in ancient warfare can also apply to fishing, of course referring to when we’ve caught big fish. For small fish, there’s no need for that, just pull them up directly.”

Chu Mingcheng explained, all while his hands never stopped. The fish that had taken the bait wasn’t small, and felt heavy to reel in.

He was using Zhao Jun’s rod, not his own, so he couldn’t fully let loose and had to slowly play the fish to avoid any issues with the rod.

As a result, it took more than ten minutes to pull the fish to the surface. The moment he saw it, Chu Mingcheng was a bit surprised; he hadn’t expected there to be such a large sea bream in these waters.