As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 97: Chapter 97 Red Fin Whistling Fish

Chu Mingcheng’s sudden change of heart brought the smile back to Jiang Yuqi’s face.

“Great, great! Then it’s settled.”

“Right, Brother Ming, you have to teach me how to fish, and how do I operate this fishing reel?”

“Brother Cheng???” Chu Mingcheng suddenly shivered and quickly said, “You can call me Brother Ming or just Ah Cheng, but please don’t call me Brother Cheng!”

Ever since he accidentally watched a certain anime, he felt a chill around his neck whenever someone called him that, as if his head was no longer his own.

Jiang Yuqi tilted her head, not quite understanding, but obediently called him Brother Ming.

...

After all, Chu Mingcheng was several years older than her, and she felt a bit embarrassed to call him by his first name.

One taught and the other learned, and soon, the Sky had arrived at its destination.

Jiang Yuqi knew the basics of baiting and adding Antarctic Shrimp to the shrimp cage, but now she needed to learn the movements of the fishing rod when a fish was hooked, and that required actual combat.

Chu Mingcheng threw his own bait into the water, just set the height above the bottom, and then heard Jiang Yuqi’s excited voice.

“I’ve got a bite, the rod is moving, should I press this button?”

Chu Mingcheng glanced over and saw the fishing rod bending slowly and then lifting up, which was clearly caused by the ocean currents carrying the lead sinker at the bottom, completely different from the movement of a fish on the line. He explained the difference.

“A fish on the hook doesn’t act like that, it will vibrate continuously, and the shaking frequency will speed up!”

Jiang Yuqi suddenly realized, then somewhat embarrassed, smiled: “Oh, so that’s how it is!”

But the next moment, she noticed her fishing rod tip vibrating rapidly: “Hey, hey, hey, is this a bite?”

“Yes, hurry and press the button.” Chu Mingcheng was slightly surprised, not expecting her to get a bite so soon.

Today they were using Antarctic Shrimp Bait, so it was unlikely that live bait tangling the line would occur.

If anything got tangled, it would be his line with Jiang Yuqi’s.

The electric reel made a whirring noise, and Chu Mingcheng checked her reeling speed, noticing it wasn’t very fast.

And while reeling in, the rod suddenly sprung up.

“Huh, what’s happening?”

“Damn, it got off the hook, maybe you didn’t press the button in time, and the fish managed to spit the hook out a bit, it wasn’t hooked deeply enough.”

“Oh, how could this be!”

Just as she was getting excited about catching a fish, it got off the hook, leaving Jiang Yuqi feeling downcast.

However, she had a good attitude, not really being a Fishing Man, and she bounced back in no time, reeling in the line and re-baiting with Antarctic Shrimp.

Chu Mingcheng had previously taught her how to bait properly, and this time she did it without any issues.

As she threw the baited hook into the water, it didn’t take long for the rod tip to tremble again.

This time, she responded promptly, pressing the button as the rod tip trembled and bent, then stared closely at the number displayed on the reel, which indicated the water depth.

Another bite so soon after the last, while he hadn’t had any action, made Chu Mingcheng unable to help asking, “Ah Qi, is this your first time fishing?”

Jiang Yuqi shook her head: “No, I’ve fished once before while collaborating on a video shoot. Everyone else kept catching fish, but I only caught one.”

Learning that it wasn’t her first time fishing, Chu Mingcheng breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, there was no beginner’s luck anymore, otherwise, he would have considered changing fishing spots.

After all, the terror of a beginner’s luck was such that he had no interest in watching others catch a bounty while he came up empty.

As if to prove Jiang Yuqi’s point, his rod also began to show signs of a fish on the line, so he promptly pressed the button to reel it in.

And the power difference between the two electric winches became apparent; his winch, with its greater power and faster retrieval speed, caused the fish to surface first.

The first one caught wasn’t a Stone Fish, but a brilliantly red fish.

“Wow, what a beautiful fish!” Jiang Yuqi couldn’t help but exclaim upon seeing the fish Chu Mingcheng had reeled in, “It must be delicious!”

“…”

Chu Mingcheng was somewhat speechless, no wonder she’s a food vlogger; she must have turned her hobby into her profession!

Ever since meeting Jiang Yuqi, he had realized that eighty percent of what occupied her mind was food.

Though he made mental jabs, he still assessed the fish he had tossed onto the deck.

This was a Red Fin Whistling Fish, which he heard was once one of the main economic species in the South Sea of our country, and the initial output must have been quite high; perhaps this was the ruby fish the workmen were talking about.

The one he caught was about fifty centimeters long, weighing around six or seven jin, and it even added a bit of experience to his High-quality Aquatic Products Atlas, clearly marking it as a high-quality fish.

Through the early morning fishing and this afternoon’s catch, Chu Mingcheng’s experience in the High-quality Atlas had also increased by a considerable amount.

[High-quality Aquatic Products Atlas (Level 1)]

[Current Experience: (73/200)]

[Usable Tools: Hands, Fishing Gear (hand-line available), Harpoon (includes fish spear and lasso, etc.), Long Line Hook (unlocked)]

[Fish Gathering (Level 1): Within one’s own range, there is a 1% chance that aquatic products meeting the high-quality criteria will be actively attracted, thereby appearing within the host’s line of sight (they will still run away if startled by the host)]

[Influence Range: 10 cubic meters]

[Note: Only those defined as high-quality aquatic products by the Atlas can increase the experience of the High-quality Aquatic Products Atlas]

[Deliciousness: +1% (Fish with higher fat content and better meat quality will be preferentially attracted)]

[Size: +1% (Larger fish of the same kind will be preferentially attracted)]

From twenty-five points to seventy-three points, it seemed that this trip to Xisha might offer a chance to reach level 2.

Chu Mingcheng called a workman over and asked him to bring a large square foam box.

Since today’s fish were not expected to be particularly large, he would fasten them with ties and let the workman store them in the icehouse once the box was full.

While the workman’s foam box had yet to arrive, Jiang Yuqi’s fish was already at the surface—a Red Fin Whistling Fish that was just slightly smaller than his catch. It seemed the area where they were fishing had a group of Red Fin Whistling Fish below!

Tasting the joy of harvest, a delighted Jiang Yuqi held the fish high for her assistant to snap a photo, as this was the first time she had caught such a big fish.

Chu Mingcheng referred to these as small fish because, in the Xisha environment where he fished, there were too many strong contenders, making five or six jin fish seem small by comparison.

Along coastal areas, fish weighing less than eight taels per jin were the norm.

If there were schools of fish below, the subsequent catches wouldn’t be too bad.

Chu Mingcheng and Jiang Yuqi occasionally brought up a Red Fin Whistling Fish, nearly the same size and caught with the same bait, resulting in a similar number of catches.

An hour passed, and Chu Mingcheng had caught a total of five Red Fin Whistling Fish, including the first one, all around five or six jin in weight.

Jiang Yuqi had caught three, also roughly the same size.

The fact that she caught two fewer wasn’t because Chu Mingcheng had better luck; it was due to the differing efficiencies of the electric winches.

After catching those eight Red Fin Whistling Fish, the schools of smaller fish at the bottom seemed to have been fished out, as Chu Mingcheng didn’t hook any more fish for the next half-hour. @@novelbin@@

If he wasn’t catching fish, naturally Jiang Yuqi wasn’t either.

Looking around at other spots, Chu Mingcheng noticed that some fishermen were still catching fish. Logically, with everyone chumming and sinking bait at the bottom, there should have been a gathering of fish under the boat.