I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 299: Chapter 199: One Look, and I Knew: The Right Fish

"A Giant Grouper? What’s going on? Ah Nan, we can’t do anything illegal!" Guo Xiao’s heart sank. He thought Gu Nan had gotten his hands on a Giant Grouper and wanted to sell it to him.

If it was caught alive, he could put it on display in his club as an ornamental fish.

A dead one wasn’t inedible, but it was a hassle. Even though he was a die-hard angler, he wasn’t about to get himself into trouble just for a meal.

Even though he knew plenty of under-the-table deals for "discards" happened, it was best to stay away if he could. If you walk by the riverside long enough, you’re bound to get your shoes wet.

Besides, it wasn’t like he’d never eaten wild Giant Grouper before. It didn’t hold that much appeal for him, really.

"What are you talking about? Chenchen and I were diving near that deserted island from last time and happened to run into that Giant Grouper you guys wanted to take back as an ornamental fish. I’m asking if you still want it."

"If you do, we’ll help keep an eye on it for now. If not, I’ll just scare it away. Otherwise, it’ll interfere with our spearfishing and foraging."

Gu Nan knew at once that he had misunderstood and quickly explained.

"Holy shit, you ran into that Giant Grouper we spent days looking for? Keep an eye on it for us! We’ll get ready and head out right away. It’ll only take a few hours by speedboat."

Guo Xiao was floored. He almost thought the Giant Grouper’s last name was Gu. How was it that he and Wang Junhe could never find it, but it appeared the moment Gu Nan showed up?

But now that they’d found it, he couldn’t let this chance slip away. After giving his instructions, he hung up and immediately called Wang Junhe.

Then, he arranged for a large speedboat and the big, custom-made container they’d had built last time specifically for transporting the Giant Grouper.

"When will they get here?" Yi Chen asked.

Gu Nan estimated the speedboat’s speed and said, "If they’re fast, around four or five in the evening."

Yi Chen frowned. "That long? Can we really keep watch on the fish?"

"We’ll do our best!" Gu Nan shrugged. They’d be exhausted after an hour of diving. How could they possibly watch the fish the entire time?

At most, they could note the fish’s general area of activity, and then Wang Junhe and the others could search for it again when they arrived.

They might even have to borrow the fishing boat Gu Nan had rented and try to catch the fish from on board.

"Luckily, groupers aren’t very active in the afternoon. This Giant Grouper on the seabed will probably find a place to rest and won’t wander off."

"We should just do what we were doing and carry on with our own plans."

"Okay." Yi Chen nodded and followed Gu Nan back into the water.

After entering the water, he took his girlfriend to the spot where the pen shells grew, then went to find the Giant Grouper’s location himself.

He soon found the Giant Grouper stationary beside a huge reef to the south, seemingly resting.

As soon as Gu Nan approached, the Giant Grouper seemed to react again, turning to face him and swimming in his direction.

’Did I encroach on its territory, making it want to drive me away?’

It was just a guess, but it was highly likely. Gu Nan quickly swam away. As long as he stayed out of the grouper’s line of sight, it would probably stay put.

That was only because it was the afternoon. If it were nighttime, it would be unrealistic to expect it to stay still.

A Giant Grouper this massive had to eat a huge amount every day; its foraging time alone could last all night.

With spearfishing no good in the south, Gu Nan could only head north. The resources there were decent, better than to the east.

The east was too open and deep, not quite suitable for him at his current skill level.

Slowly making his way to the northern side, Gu Nan noticed a lot of plankton.

The tiny organisms were like dust, obstructing his vision.

Fortunately, visibility was still around ten meters, so it didn’t affect his spearfishing.

The spot he was in was excellent—a "plowshare point," a coveted spot for any angler.

A plowshare point is a classic feature of a fish path; it’s a raised area along the path.

In nature, fish don’t just swim or forage aimlessly. Much like people commuting to and from work, they have relatively fixed routes.

And these routes are what anglers call fish paths.

Experienced anglers can easily find these fish paths, which leads to better catches.

The formation of this plowshare point blocks the routes of fish from the left or right, forcing them to turn and follow the terrain.

This concentrates fish that would otherwise be scattered along the fish path, which is why a plowshare point is known as a "golden fishing spot."

At the moment, however, there weren’t many fish here, just a school of small ones passing by. This was why he felt the resources to the south were better.

Still, the area was full of jagged, uneven rocks, making it an excellent hiding place for fish.

With plenty of small fish at the point, there were bound to be some large predators lurking here. After all, the food supply was abundant.

Gu Nan slowly lowered his head, searching for prey next to these large rocks.

By now, about a minute and a half had passed. He could stay down for another minute.

But not having a dive watch was really inconvenient. He’d probably consider buying a matching pair of dive watches for him and his girlfriend after this trip.

Just as he was thinking about dive watches, he turned and spotted a grouper tailing him, looking like it was sneaking up for an ambush.

He looked into its eyes. This was the fish for him.

He had already loaded his speargun while swimming over. Gu Nan raised his arm and fired, unceremoniously sending the fish on its way.

At this moment, an experienced spearfisherman would immediately control the fish and start swimming toward the surface, pulling the line.

The maneuver had to be fluid, with no hesitation. Otherwise, the fish would dart into a crevice, making it difficult and time-consuming to retrieve.

But Gu Nan was inexperienced. He tried to retrieve the line while swimming up, but the hit grouper shot toward him and, WHOOSH, dove into a crack in the reef.

He was instantly exasperated. Even with his limited experience, he knew a fish wedged in the rocks would be a huge pain.

Gu Nan gave the line a tug and found it was, indeed, stuck.

Pulling too hard would cause the line to fray against the rocks, or even snap.

And he was running out of air. Gu Nan had no choice but to let out some line as he swam to the surface. After taking a breath, he followed the line back down.

Luckily, the crevice wasn’t deep and the fish wasn’t that big. He reached in, grabbed the fish, and pulled it out.

It was a green grouper, not very big, maybe three or four pounds.

After that short delay, the fish had lost most of its strength and barely struggled in his hand.

Gu Nan smoothly carried the fish to the surface, took out his dagger to spike its brain and bleed it, then attached it to his fish stringer.

As he floated on the surface, preparing to dive again, he suddenly spotted a large school of fish drifting with the current. He immediately took a deep breath and gave chase.

As he got closer, he realized it was a school of Sea Wolf, and none of them were small. They were swimming incredibly fast.

Not only that, but among the school was a large mackerel that stood out like a sore thumb. Judging by its length, it was about 1.3 or 1.4 meters long.

’A wild boar in a pack of wolves?’

He hadn’t expected to see such a phenomenon in the ocean. Gu Nan immediately set his sights on the big mackerel.

But with only a speargun with a one-meter range, he wasn’t sure if he could take it down.

A prize like this would be a shame to lose. Even if he couldn’t take it down, he had to try. In theory, this speargun could pose a threat to a fifty-pound fish.

Gu Nan immediately loaded his speargun and quickly closed in.

But the school was swimming fast. Even though his approach didn’t seem to alarm them into speeding up, he still couldn’t find a good distance or angle.

After a moment of thought, Gu Nan suddenly remembered that fish are very sensitive to sound.

So, he gently tapped the body of his speargun, making a "TAP TAP TAP" sound.

To his surprise, the trick actually worked. Hearing the sound, the large mackerel flicked its tail and immediately changed direction, beginning to circle around Gu Nan.

Before he knew it, it had come much closer.

Gu Nan’s eyes lit up. This was his chance.

He quickly raised his speargun and took aim, predicting the mackerel’s direction and speed.

Seizing the moment, he pulled the trigger. TWANG! The bands snapped, the spear shot out with a WHOOSH, and pierced straight through the mackerel’s body.

The next moment, however, the mackerel shot off like a rocket, disappearing into the distance in the blink of an eye. The line on his reel flew out at an incredible speed.

You couldn’t just yank on a mackerel this big. Forcing it would definitely tear the wound larger, damaging the meat and lowering its value.

Plus, the line could snap. What he needed to do was manually let out the line while swimming to the surface and engage in a fierce tug-of-war with this big mackerel.

Gu Nan had just reached the surface when his reel was completely spooled. ’As expected of a mackerel, it’s a real fighter.’

Fortunately, just as the line ran out, he successfully reached the surface and got a chance to breathe.

Holding his breath underwater, he wouldn’t have been confident in his ability to fight the injured mackerel.

Gu Nan held onto the line, letting the big fish pull him along to add drag.

But he still didn’t pull hard. What he needed to do now was wait for the fish to tire itself out. An injured fish couldn’t last for long.

Sure enough, less than a minute later, the pull from the mackerel suddenly weakened. The fish had clearly stopped to rest.

Gu Nan took a breath, put his head in the water, and started pulling the line. It was easy; there wasn’t much resistance.

He swam toward the fish, retrieving the line as he went.

You couldn’t just stay in one place and reel in the line after it’s been spooled out. A sixty-meter line would get tangled up in a huge mess around you.

If the fish suddenly made a run for it, you could get tangled up and dragged down. That could be fatal.

He kept getting closer, continuously retrieving the line. After coming up for air three times, he finally saw the fish.

As the distance closed, the fish’s appearance became clearer. Gu Nan’s eyes lit up when he saw it. It wasn’t a Kang’s Mackerel, but a Broad-barred Mackerel! This type of mackerel seemed to be more expensive.

The Broad-barred Mackerel wasn’t hard to identify; its pectoral fins were larger than those of other mackerels.

The higher price wasn’t necessarily because it tasted better than other mackerels, but mainly because it was relatively rarer.

This type of mackerel typically grew to about ten or so pounds as an adult, but the largest could reach over 1.8 meters. So, finding one that was 1.3 or 1.4 meters long was fairly normal.

Even when the mackerel was close to Gu Nan, it was still restless, flicking its tail and trying to struggle. But with Gu Nan holding the line firmly, there was nothing it could do.

Seizing an opportunity to grab its tail, he found that the mackerel had lost most of its vitality. Its struggles were weak.

He took out his bleeding dagger and spiked the fish in the brain. With a WHOOSH, the mackerel broke free again.

Gu Nan held the line and let the fish run for about ten seconds before it turned belly-up on its own.

Grabbing the fish again, he saw that Yi Chen had just returned to the boat to drop off the pen shells. He quickly swam over with his catch.

This was a perfect opportunity to show off. He had to get his girlfriend to take a picture so he could gloat a little.