As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 116: Chapter 113 Wrestling Pike in the Water [Additional 10,000 Reward Chapter Three]

Chu Mingcheng, holding the lasso, measured the space and found the crevice to be quite narrow and a bit tricky.

The lasso wasn’t practical, so he had no choice but to use his hands instead.

As he slowly approached, the crucian carp seemed unaware of the danger until the next moment when its head was pressed hard against the rock.

Its dorsal fin spread out as its tail desperately thrashed.

“Hiss~”

A burst of pain shot through the palm of Chu Mingcheng as he exhaled a stream of bubbles; the crucian carp’s spines had pricked him.

But he couldn’t worry about that now. He hung the lasso around his body and, using both hands, he grabbed the fish and secured his fingers around its gills. The fish couldn’t escape now, and its struggles quieted down considerably.

Chu Mingcheng then secured it with a lively fish clip and hung it on himself.

He had successfully caught a crucian carp that was definitely over a pound.

But he couldn’t worry about being happy at this point. First, he swam to the surface, then took off his gloves to check his hands for injuries.

Upon finding his hand wasn’t pierced, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After inspecting the gloves and noticing a small hole, it seemed the dorsal fin was somewhat blocked by the glove; otherwise, the fish’s spines would have definitely pierced his hand.

Putting his gloves back on, he dived back into the water to continue searching for a second fish, but after scouring the area below the creek mouth, he found none—it appeared they had been fished out in the morning.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Ɲονǥο.сᴑ

In that case, Chu Mingcheng could only search along the body of the mountain slowly.

An eight-tael crucian carp?

Not interested!

A pound-sized grass carp…

Still a bit small.

Two taels of crucian carp…

Even the fish fry were appearing.

After leaving the creek mouth, the fish were either too small or other types that were not large.

However, Chu Mingcheng didn’t even realize as he searched along the mountain contour, he eventually came to a small bay area.

Unable to see the terrain underwater, he stumbled upon a hidden reef.

Many small fish swam above the reef, leading him to think he might find a big fish here.

Upon approaching, Chu Mingcheng spotted a robust fish slowly moving along the bottom rocks.

It looked like a Black fish and quite a large one too.

This fish wasn’t bad, he thought, as he took the lasso and carefully approached.

The water was somewhat dark, making it hard to see, but as he got closer, he realized it wasn’t a Black fish. From the way it slithered, it resembled a snake.

But he was certain it wasn’t a snake, as a snake couldn’t be both short and thick; perhaps it was a freshwater eel instead.

Seeing this, he placed the lasso in front of the fish, planning to slowly loop it over its head, but as the fish continued to move towards him, he decided to wait for it to swim into the lasso on its own.

After waiting quietly for a short while, the fish actually swam its head into the lasso, and Chu Mingcheng immediately pressed the switch.

The lasso abruptly tightened, and only then did the fish realize its plight, writhing desperately, muddying the water around it.

Chu Mingcheng started swimming towards the surface, as it was too dark below to see the fish clearly.

“Damn~”

Barely reaching the surface and gazing at the lasso, he couldn’t help but let out a curse.

A pike eel was struggling under his lasso—had he really taken it to sell, his days in Xia City might have been numbered.

He quickly opened the lasso and released it.

Pike eel, also known as snake mackerel, is a wild species on the brink of extinction and protected at the national level.

Although pike eels can now be bred, some people release young eels into reservoirs, raising them in a way that makes them not much different from wild ones in quality, commanding prices comparable to those of Earth Dragons.

If purely bred, of course, the price is much cheaper.

Cursing his luck under his breath, Chu Mingcheng shook his head and continued looking for his target fish.

Shortly after, he found a three or four-pound grass carp resting under a rock crevice.

He successfully looped the lasso around its tail, but the grass carp, being three or four pounds, proved too strong and Chu Mingcheng couldn’t hold on to it immediately.

Luckily, the lasso rope was thick, so Chu Mingcheng relaxed and let the fish pull him along.

Unexpectedly, he did get pulled a little, though the speed was slower than a tortoise on land.

After a few minutes, when the grass carp grew tired from the struggle, Chu Mingcheng secured it with a lively fish clip.

The price of grass carp was cheap, even the wild ones were only ten to twenty yuan per pound.

But three or four pounds could still fetch some money, not too bad!

In the next half hour, Chu Mingcheng caught two more pound-sized crucian carps found in some aquatic plants.

Unfortunately, his efficiency was a bit slow. Judging by his current pace, he probably wouldn’t earn as much in the afternoon as he did in the morning.

As Chu Mingcheng continued fishing, he suddenly spotted a particularly large shadow flash by out of the corner of his eye.

Turning his head, he saw only a fish tail.

But the tail was very large, the kind that could knock him unconscious if it smacked him, clearly belonging to a very large fish.

This was more like it, considering it was a lake, how could there not be big fish!

Chu Mingcheng changed direction, hung the lasso on himself, and chased after it, moving extremely fast.

Soon, he caught sight of the large fish he had seen earlier.

Initially expecting it to be a blue fish, Lianyong, or grass carp, he was surprised to find it was a savage Big Eel.

Moreover, it wasn’t just a regular size; Chu Mingcheng even felt it was almost as long as himself, truly a behemoth of the waters!

However, it might have sensed the approaching danger, and as he was about to catch up, the Big Eel suddenly sped up, leaving him behind.

This left Chu Mingcheng a bit helpless; he was much faster in water than an athlete, but still no match for a real fish.

Just as the fish darted away and its silhouette was about to vanish from his sight, it slowed down again.

Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng mustered his energy and chased after it again.

But… the fish ran off again.

TM… where’s my fishing spear?

Chu Mingcheng’s temper couldn’t stand it; even if the pike was dead, it could still be sold for money.

However, he had no way to go back for his spear gun, as he knew that if he turned around, he would likely lose sight of the fish.

In the end, after chasing for twenty minutes, he chose to give up.

Although he felt little resistance in the water, his physical exertion was actually faster than that of the fish, and since he couldn’t catch up, there was no way to get the pike.

If this had been a giant stone fish in the sea, he definitely wouldn’t have let it escape, given its slow swimming speed.

“Hmm~ Slow swimming speed!”

Chu Mingcheng’s eyes suddenly lit up. He thought of the stone fish, which also swam very slowly and liked to hang out in groups.

If he encountered these, wouldn’t he be able to catch them easily?

The only thing he needed to be careful of was the poisonous dorsal fin of the stone fish, which required gloves that were not easily pierced.

Today was a bust, but tomorrow he planned to try shore diving.

If he could catch a sackful, that would also turn a tidy profit.

He went back to continue looking for crucian carp, not letting go of any that weighed around seven to eight taels or more.

Finally, around three o’clock, Chu Mingcheng’s live fish bag was finally full.

Out of a total of twelve fish, aside from one three to four-pound grass carp, the rest were crucian carp. He encountered some Qiao Zui, but they were mostly not stationary, so he couldn’t catch them.

Half of the crucian carp weighed around seven to eight taels, so the price would be a bit cheaper, about eighty-one per pound.

Just as Chu Mingcheng was about to return to the shore, he encountered the pike again.

This wasn’t it demanding he deal with it?

This time, Chu Mingcheng did not hesitate. He immediately returned to the shore, put all the fish from the live fish box into the fish box to keep them alive, and then took off his belt, placing it along with lassos back in the car.

He returned to the water with only a spear gun in hand.

By the time he returned to the spot where he had encountered the fish, it was gone, but Chu Mingcheng was not surprised.

He started swimming around in the water, searching for the big pike.

Since he had encountered it twice, that indicated the fish lived in this area; if he looked around, he might encounter it again.

After swimming nearby for four or five rounds, Chu Mingcheng finally encountered the pike again.

This time, he couldn’t let it escape again.

Previously, approaching within about five meters would cause the pike to flee, so this time Chu Mingcheng didn’t get too close.

Instead, he moved to the side of it, stopping at a distance of about eight meters.

He pulled back the rubber band and raised the spear gun to aim.

“Bang~ Whoosh~”

The arrowhead instantly penetrated a spot just above the fish’s brain, leaving a clear trajectory.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t even have time to reel in the line, as he quickly chased after the pike as it fled, reeling in the line as he went.

His shooting accuracy was still not high, owing to the few fishing hunts he had been on.

But even without a direct hit, the fish was significantly startled.

This time, it burst forth at high speed, and Chu Mingcheng quickly lost its trail.

Seeing this, he could only slow down, reel the arrowhead back in, and continue searching for the pike.

He searched for a long time but did not find the pike again.

Chu Mingcheng surfaced, took a breath with some disappointment, and ultimately the fish escaped!

Checking the time, it was already past three-forty. He had no choice but to dive back into the water and swim quickly back.

However, as he was passing by a mountainside, he caught a glimpse of a silver-white shape below the cliff wall in the corner of his eye.

Suddenly, he slammed on the water brakes…

Unable to stop in time, he shot out five or six meters before just managing to come to a stop.

Looking back, he found the pike hiding there, clinging tightly to the wall, not moving at all as if it had been severely frightened by the earlier chase.

But its immobility now made it easier for Chu Mingcheng to hit it.

Pulling back the rubber band to cock the gun, Chu Mingcheng raised the spear gun and pulled the trigger again.

“Ding~”

The arrowhead penetrated through the belly of the pike and struck a rock, causing the pike to dart out in pain. The force was so great that Chu Mingcheng could barely hold on, and he almost dropped the spear gun.

The reel rapidly lost half of its line. Seeing this, he grabbed the fishing line with one hand while keeping up by kicking his legs.

The line on the spear gun was thick, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t break, and in the water, no man could outmuscle a big fish.

If he wasn’t careful, the fish could drag him into deeper water and drown him.

At this point, Chu Mingcheng was keeping up to avoid breaking the line, while also not moving too quickly, letting the fish drag him along rapidly depleting its strength.

This was somewhat similar to tunny fishing, but for tunny fishing, a thicker line setup is prepared.

And unlike Chu Mingcheng, others couldn’t stay underwater for a long period and could only manage tug-of-war with tunnies while frequently surfacing to breathe.

The injured pike only began slowing down after running for about fifteen minutes, its injuries causing it to deplete its strength more quickly. Chu Mingcheng tried pulling on the line and found that he could now move it.

After that, he slowly reeled the line back in, closing the distance between himself and the fish.

As he drew closer, Chu Mingcheng was even more shocked by the size of the fish; it was almost as long as he was tall.

The barb of the arrowhead was firmly embedded, unlikely to come loose, so Chu Mingcheng boldly pulled the fish towards the shore.

Twenty minutes or so later, the fish must have run quite far; it took him more than forty minutes just to get back to the shore with the fish.

But once at the shore, Chu Mingcheng suddenly became troubled.

Damn, he had caught the fish, but how was he supposed to transport it back?

The trunk of the car was too small, the back seat could fit it, but he couldn’t move it!

A fish that probably weighed about a hundred pounds was quite a challenge to lift, even for someone like Chu Mingcheng who had improved physically; it was nothing like carrying a woman.

Moreover, the car belonged to Jiang Luoluo, and filling it with the smell of fish, even if washed out, would linger for a while.

At that moment, he felt the need for a tricycle.

In Xia City, he didn’t know many people; Jiang Luoluo couldn’t help, so eventually, Chu Mingcheng thought of Wei Jiaguo.

After much consideration, he still decided to shamelessly make a call, as, in this case, perhaps the old man was the only one who could help him.