I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 352: Chapter 233: A Big Fish with Super Endurance?

As night fell, the deck of the Nanchen was filled with the smoke of a cookout. A large grill sat in the middle, roasting several fish.

In the kitchen, Yi Chen was showing off her skills, frying, stewing, boiling, and steaming. Xu Zhina and Jin Enfei brought out one delicious dish after another, placing them on the table on deck.

A little while later, the long table—made by pushing eight folding tables together—was laden with all sorts of delicacies.

For the first day, everyone had agreed to have a big feast to build up their energy for the fishing to come.

Gu Nan was busy as well. He generously took a Golden Clam that weighed a little over three pounds and sliced it into sashimi.

He wasn’t one for fancy plating; he simply arranged the sliced fish side-by-side. Yi Chen then took the head and bones to make a soup.

"Alright, cheers~"

Once Yi Chen finished up in the kitchen and came outside, they all poured themselves some beer. Six glasses clinked together with a series of crisp CLINKs.

Even though they were planning to fish through the night, having a little beer was perfectly fine!

As for the three women, their tolerance for alcohol was probably even better than the men’s.

Gu Nan took a sip of beer to wet his throat and was the first to reach for the Golden Clam, dipping a piece in wasabi and soy sauce.

A couple of chews later, he was impressed. ’The meat of most snappers and sea breams is usually quite flaky, but this Golden Clam was firm and springy.’

’It was addictively delicious, and the fat content was incredibly rich.’

’Gu Nan had never tried bluefin tuna, but he was sure even the fatty belly of an albacore couldn’t compare to this.’

"This fish really lives up to its online reputation—a thousand yuan for half a kilo! It’s so smooth and tender," An Jun marveled after taking a bite.

’It really paid to have a friend who was a fishing fanatic.’ ’He realized that over the past few months, he’d eaten all sorts of seafood he’d normally never get to try. He’d learned a lot about fine seafood.’

All six of them had gone spearfishing today, and naturally, everyone had caught something.

So everyone contributed fish from their own catches, making for one hell of a satisfying dinner.

Even with the large appetites of Gu Nan and the other guys, they still had more than half the food left over. They would have to save it for a midnight snack or for the next day.

The three women went to clean up while Gu Nan went to start the fishing boat, preparing to find a spot to do some night fishing.

’This was the best time of the evening; he wasn’t about to waste it just traveling.’

The resources around this deserted island weren’t particularly great. The biggest surprises had been Yi Chen’s Tiger Stripes and his own three Golden Clams.

The fish finder hadn’t shown any especially large schools of fish, so he kept an eye on it from time to time as he piloted the boat.

The equipment on the Nanchen was leagues better than on his old, smaller boat. The fish finder not only had a wider detection range, but its display could also show the scale and size of fish schools with considerable accuracy.

The fish finder on his old boat could only give a rough estimate of a school’s numbers and the size of the fish; its accuracy was terrible.

His current model was one of the most advanced on the market, so of course it was much more effective.

He navigated southeast. The depth of the water below fluctuated, but he found no schools in the shallows. Some of the deeper areas, however, seemed quite active.

After a full hour and a half of sailing, with the time approaching 9:00 p.m., Gu Nan finally found a promising location.

He steered the boat directly over the school of fish, then dropped anchor and killed the engine.

The water here was over eighty meters deep, and the school was on the seafloor. They would clearly be going after deep-sea fish.

"Did you find a school?" An Jun and Ye Jing came to the helm to ask, feeling the Nanchen come to a stop.

Gu Nan pointed to the fish finder. "There’s a school on the bottom, and it’s a decent size. You guys can go get ready. Just focus on bottom fishing."

"The biggest fish I’ve detected so far are in the thirty-to-forty-pound range. The smallest are one or two pounds, but the majority are around three to five pounds. Think about what size you want to aim for."

Speaking of which, Gu Nan’s own fishing rods gave him a significant advantage; he could occasionally land a huge fish even on a small hook.

The fishing lines from his ’game’ came in different thicknesses, but there weren’t nearly as many models and styles as in the real world.

Gu Nan usually used a thicker line. After all, even when he was targeting small fish, he’d occasionally hook a big one. A line that was too thin would snap, even one from his ’game’.

After hearing about the school, An Jun and Ye Jing nodded and hurried to the storage hold to get the electric reels they’d prepared.

Gu Nan didn’t follow them out right away. First, he switched on the fish-luring lights and lowered them all into the water.

If there happened to be any tuna nearby, the lights might draw them in.

Even if there weren’t any tuna, the lights would attract small squid, which made for excellent bait.

When it comes to tuna fishing, you can never have too much bait.

After setting up the luring lights, he finally brought out his three golden fishing rods. He would handle two, and Yi Chen would take one.

The other four each manned an electric reel.

’Gu Nan took a special look. ’They’re all loaded,’ he thought, ’using Daiwa 800MJs. Their power is comparable to my own electric reels, not strong enough for a massive tuna.’

They set up their rigs with bait cages and large lead sinkers, then filled the cages with Antarctic krill.

To make things convenient, Yi Chen, along with Jin Enfei and the others, had also cut up some sardine meat to use as bait.

In the pitch-black night, only the lights of the fishing boat illuminated a small patch of the sea. Seven rods were lined up in a row. Everyone baited their hooks and cast their lines, but after five or six minutes, there wasn’t a single bite.

But the fish finder clearly showed fish below. They figured the bait must be the problem; perhaps the fish down there weren’t interested in frozen sardines.

Or perhaps it was cool down on the seabed, so unlike on a hot summer day at the surface, the fish didn’t feel like having a ’cold’ meal.

"Strange... The fish finder shows plenty of fish. Why aren’t they biting?" An Jun was growing impatient. Since he wasn’t a hardcore angler, he had the least patience of them all.