As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: The True Fish King

The fish was in its explosive phase, and Chu Mingcheng didn’t rashly yank the rod to reel in; instead, he first tugged with the fish for a while.

It wasn’t an especially large fish, but he had already caught several over ten pounds and had plenty of experience; now it was a tug-of-war between him and the fish.

When the fish is not small, and one’s own rod isn’t stiff enough, a quick battle is basically hard to achieve.

Some people might say that with a fishing rod worth a few dozen dollars, or even a bamboo pole, they could catch a fish of ten or twenty pounds.

It’s not wrong to say so, after all, some fishermen don’t need a fishing rod to catch fish; with a small boat, they can go to the open sea and directly pull in Golden Spearfish or large Marlin with their hands. @@novelbin@@

However, the iron rod Chu Mingcheng was currently using did not possess this ability; he had to honestly play with the fish, which might take ten or even twenty minutes.

The fish he was catching was very fierce; if he didn’t hold on to the handle, a lot of fishing line would be pulled out.

He didn’t know how long it had been, but Chu Mingcheng finally felt the force in his hands diminish.

Seizing the opportunity, he lifted the rod and pulled up some fishing line, rotating the reel to retrieve some of the line.

Now he had to quickly reel in the fish; only when it’s on board does it belong to him.

He Zheng, who had sensed the commotion, came over, and upon seeing the red figure on the water, he immediately burst out with a swear, “Fuck, a sea red spot this big?”

A sea red spot, its scientific name being the Seven-band Grouper, is one of the four famous fish.

This type of fish has been successfully farmed, but wild sea red spots are rare and thus very expensive.

Those less than one pound, around seven or eight taels, can sell for about one hundred and eighty.

Once over a pound, the price doubles instantly, selling for over three hundred; and the larger it is, the more expensive it gets.

He Zheng’s swear word immediately aroused the curiosity of everyone on board; when they left their tasks to come over and look, they were all stupefied.

“Sss~ I’ve been fishing for more than ten years and have never seen such a big sea red spot. The biggest one I’ve seen before only weighed six pounds and eight taels, and a boss bought it for eight thousand.”

“Eight thousand? Then this one has to be at least ten thousand!”

“I estimate it’s more than that. Five or six pound sea red spots are rare, but occasionally they’re still found on the market. This one looks to be at least ten pounds. With rarity comes value; it’s hard to say what price it could fetch.”

The discussions amongst the anglers reached Chu Mingcheng’s ears. He had not expected to catch a sea red spot; he thought it might be a Cod or a Sea Bass!

According to the anglers, six pounds eight taels could sell for eight thousand; wouldn’t his catch then sell for twenty thousand?

Even if it wasn’t twenty thousand, there would definitely be fifteen thousand. After all, this kind of item might not surface once in a year, or even several years.

Therefore, he became even more cautious and attentive.

Being able to catch such a large sea red spot was definitely an object of envy for everyone.

With envy comes jealousy – some were probably hoping that fish would shake off the hook.

One of the men volunteered to take up the landing net and said, “Let me help you get it up.”

“I’ll do it,” said He Zheng, after glancing at him and taking the landing net from his hands.

Chu Mingcheng was invited by him, and even if this sea red spot wasn’t sold to him, his yellow croaker would be.

Having drifted at sea for so many years, he had seen all sorts of people and could tell right away what this man’s intentions were.

The man, whose net was taken away, didn’t show any difference in his expression, but in his heart, he silently hoped that He Zheng would slip up and the fish would shake off the hook.

But his disappointment was inevitable; when the fish was pulled up next to the boat, He Zheng deftly and swiftly scooped the fish and lifted it on board.

Only then did Chu Mingcheng breathe a sigh of relief and wipe the sweat from his forehead.

It wasn’t the physical exertion from fishing that tired him, but the intense nervousness from the fight. A fish worth at least fifteen thousand — when had he ever fought such a lucrative battle?

He Zheng removed the fish hook and quickly instructed the owner of the boat, “Ah Jie, get your oxygen pump out.”

“Right away!” The man named Ah Jie quickly brought out the oxygen pump and then found a fish box.

He filled it with some seawater and then started the oxygen pump.

By this time, He Zheng had already removed the fish hook and weighed the fish with a fish controller. It weighed a full ten jin and three taels.

Being over ten jin immediately upgraded its value to a higher bracket.

Fish caught in upper waters didn’t need to be decompressed, so He Zheng brought the fish into the cockpit and placed it in the fish box before calling out to Chu Mingcheng, “Ah Cheng, come down to the cockpit, I need to talk to you.”

“Okay.” Chu Mingcheng had just replaced the worn leader line and agreed with a nod, then walked over.

He knew this was about discussing the sale of the fish. He certainly intended to sell it; as long as He Zheng offered a reasonable price, whom to sell it to didn’t really matter.

When Chu Mingcheng came over, He Zheng didn’t play any tricks and got straight to the point, “Ah Cheng, I won’t mention the procurement price. I’ll first see who among the bosses I know offers the highest price.”

“If the price satisfies you, I’ll take one thousand. How does that sound?”

After thinking it over, Chu Mingcheng said, “Brother He, how about this— I’ll set the price at twenty thousand. If the price you negotiate is higher than twenty thousand, you can keep the excess. What do you think?”

The price of twenty thousand was already quite high. Even if he were to ask the group of bosses in the chat group, he was confident he could sell it for fifteen thousand, but twenty thousand might be stretching it.

Secondly, it was also giving face to He Zheng.

If it hadn’t been for his call to come fish for yellow croaker, he would never have caught that sea red spot.

He Zheng was somewhat astonished by the price and then gave a wry smile, “You’ve really put me in a difficult position with that price of twenty thousand… Never mind, let me see if I can find a big spender!”

For a price above twenty thousand, some hotels needing fame might well pay a handsome amount for a trophy fish.

And some bosses showing off to guests wouldn’t mind spending a bit more than twenty thousand.

But all this required luck, as even wealthy people don’t like to be taken for a ride, so whether he could sell it for more than twenty thousand depended on whether any of his contacts would be willing to buy.

Chu Mingcheng wasn’t in a hurry to go fishing again. He waited in the cockpit and took the chance to rest a while.

After a short while, upon seeing He Zheng sending messages with a smile on his face, he had an idea of how things were going—it seemed that twenty thousand was secured.

Indeed, He Zheng put away his phone and said with a laugh, “I’ll take it for twenty thousand. I’ll transfer the money to you when we count the yellow croakers.”

“Great, then you go ahead with your business, Brother He. I’m going to continue fishing.” Chu Mingcheng was quite happy, too. Twenty thousand for a single fish was quite the earning.

However, thinking about that fifty thousand worth of Seven-band Grouper from the day before, that one was even more appealing.

Not only was the selling price high, but it was also big, surely making for a great catch.

As he continued his pursuit of yellow croaker, without realizing it, with another yellow croaker squawking as it came up, Chu Mingcheng found his stomach grumbling along.

He hadn’t eaten much for dinner and now it was one in the morning, so it was normal to be hungry.

He dropped the yellow croaker into the fish box and checked his catch, which was already about half a box, roughly twenty jin or so.

These were all wild fish. Meanwhile, to the side of the fish box, a few larger yellow croakers were casually piled up.

These few received such treatment because they had escaped from the net pen. Their fins were short and their bellies big, which clearly indicated they hadn’t been out for long and didn’t have high commercial value.

Chu Mingcheng took an insulated bucket out of the tackle box, intending to fill his stomach and take a rest.

The other anglers were still fishing non-stop, with practically no rest taken.

They were certainly motivated by his catch of the sea red spot!