I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: June Pomfret Season

”My setup cost more than ten thousand yuan. Why don’t you try it? I guarantee you’ll reel in a fifty-pounder with ease!” Guo Xiao, not to be outdone, immediately offered up his own boat rod.

Wang Junhe immediately stepped forward, pushed him aside, and retorted, ”What does a fifty-pound fish have to do with your rod? We’re on my boat today. If he’s going to swap, he’s swapping with me.”

”Hey, look! The guys on that boat over there seem to be catching pomfret!” Just then, Gu Nan pointed to a fishing boat about a hundred feet to their left. Onboard, three anglers had just pulled in small pomfrets, one right after the other.

He wasn’t trying to change the subject—that was really what was happening.

It wasn’t just the boat on their left. Anglers even farther out seemed to be catching pomfret too, though they were too far away to make out more than the vague shape of the fish.

Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao stopped their bickering. Wang Junhe hurried into the cabin to grab a pair of binoculars, saying, ”I actually spotted two silver pomfrets on the fish finder. Let me check on the other boats. If everyone’s catching pomfret, it means a school has moved in. We’re going to make a killing today!”

”It’s June, so the pomfret are migrating to the coast to spawn. This has to be it,” Guo Xiao said confidently, a grin spreading across his face. ’Who wouldn’t be thrilled to run into a school of fish?’

He forgot all about wanting Gu Nan’s rod and immediately started changing his rig.

The rig for silver pomfret required a few adjustments. Most aren’t very large, usually weighing just a few ounces to half a pound, so the line and hook didn’t need to be that big.

Gu Nan stopped casting as well and swapped out his leader line and bait.

He also tied on a spherical slip float, which would allow the sinker and bait to hang suspended in the water.

Silver pomfret schools generally congregate in the mid-water column, anywhere from 100 to 230 feet deep, so float fishing would be more effective.

Once Wang Junhe confirmed with the binoculars that it was a school of silver pomfret, he immediately started the engine and went looking for their position.

The school was enormous, and with so few fishing boats around, they easily found a good spot.

The fish finder was lit up with silver pomfret, a truly ridiculous number of them.

The anglers who had been rock fishing on the shore were now being picked up by fishing boats one by one. While you could certainly catch silver pomfret from the reefs, it was far less efficient than fishing from a boat.

The chum spot Gu Nan and the others had just set up was now a waste. But it didn’t matter; they could just chalk it up to feeding the fish.

The group chummed the new spot and, without waiting for it to disperse, immediately started fishing.

Gu Nan gently flicked his rod, casting the baited hook out. He didn’t cast far, just fifteen or twenty feet in front of him.

The float bobbed on the surface of the sea. The new chum hadn’t had time to work its magic yet, so he wasn’t sure if the fish would bite.

Just as he was thinking that, the float on the water’s surface abruptly vanished. The line, which had been relatively slack, was suddenly pulled taut and yanked away.

He’d thought the bite would be slow since they’d just chummed, but he’d hooked a fish on his very first cast.

SWISH~

Gu Nan lifted his hand, raising the rod, and then rapidly cranked the reel handle to bring in the line.

Behind him, Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao hadn’t gotten a single bite. It looked like the theory about his fishing rod improving one’s luck was about to be proven true.

I have to say, even though the silver pomfret was small, it put up a decent fight.

Gu Nan could clearly feel it pulling, but unfortunately for the fish, the difference in strength was too great. He yanked it straight to the surface.

Wearing cut-resistant gloves, he reached out, grabbed the line, and lifted the fish aboard.

He didn’t do a lot of Taiwanese-style platform fishing, so he wasn’t familiar with the habits of those anglers, but he himself always wore cut-resistant gloves when he fished.

He even put finger stalls over his exposed thumb, index, and middle fingers, so he often just grabbed the line directly by hand.

Why go to such lengths?

It was mainly due to a bad habit of grabbing the line impulsively. He’d cut his fingers before and had learned his lesson the hard way.

The catch was a small, palm-sized silver pomfret. Gu Nan opened the lid of the nearby cooler and tossed it inside.

There was no water in the cooler, just a thin layer of crushed ice. Wang Junhe had prepared two chests of it that morning specifically for this.

”That one’s about half a pound. Nice, you got one so fast.” Guo Xiao was a little envious, but his eyes were glued to Gu Nan’s fishing rod.

Neither he nor Wang Junhe had gotten a bite yet, which made his stare at the Fengqi Fishing Rod all the more intense.

Gu Nan shuddered. It felt like his wife was being coveted by the proverbial man next door. He quickly turned to shield the rod with his body. No time to be smug, he had to get back to it.

He cast his line again, and not even twenty seconds later, another fish was on.

It almost felt like he was fishing with some kind of ”guaranteed catch” buff active.

Less than a minute later, he’d reeled in another silver pomfret. The gazes of the two men behind him, who still hadn’t had a nibble, grew even more heated.

To be honest, Gu Nan was a bit puzzled himself. It didn’t make sense for him to be getting bites when Wang Junhe and Guo Xiao weren’t.

The Fengqi Fishing Rod’s special properties only affected fish from the Fengqi Coast. To any other species, it was just a very sturdy, user-friendly rod. It had a little bit of ”black technology,” but not much, and certainly no attribute that increased the hook-up rate.

’So, does this mean my fishing luck has suddenly changed?’

’It makes sense, now that I think about it. My luck exploded and I got bound to that game-like system. It’s not surprising that my fishing luck would improve after that.’

By the time he pulled up his fifth silver pomfret, Wang Junhe couldn’t take it anymore.

He immediately reeled in his line and walked over to Gu Nan, putting on an air of wanting to discuss business. ”Ah Nan, I just thought of something.”

”So, I’m treating some clients to dinner tomorrow to talk business. There’s a restaurant that lets you bring your own ingredients. You have any high-end seafood you could recommend?”

”Oh, is that right? Well, I’ve got Tai Star Garoupa, rose-colored grouper, and Blue Star Nine-spine Sea Perch—all high-end groupers. You can come by the shop to pick some out. I’ll give you a good price.”

Gu Nan had assumed he was going to ask to borrow the rod again and was already planning on letting him use it for a bit. He never expected him to bring up buying fish. ’In that case, I’ve got to recommend the best fish in the shop!’

A fishing rod isn’t a real wife, after all. Letting a friend try it out is no big deal.

Normally, you couldn’t tell there was anything special about the rod. It just felt nice in the hand and was exceptionally sturdy.

”Awesome. I haven’t been to your shop in a while, and you’ve already stocked so many kinds of grouper. In that case, I’ll buy one of each tomorrow. We can have them cooked a few different ways.”

Wang Junhe was a little surprised to hear that. The last time he’d been to the shop, he hadn’t seen any particularly high-end seafood.

Still, he magnanimously declared he’d take them all. After saying that, his expression shifted, and he asked with a shameless, wheedling tone, ”So, uh, seeing as I’m giving you so much business... how about you let me try out this rod for a while?”

”Sure. Just let me reel this one in first,” Gu Nan agreed readily, at the same time deftly pulling in another silver pomfret that had just taken the bait.

Guo Xiao, who had been eavesdropping from the side, had his eyes light up. He immediately chimed in, ”Ah Nan, I’ve got some business tomorrow too, so I’ll need to buy some fish from your shop. I’ll even introduce you to a few old gourmands who love seafood. How about you let me try out the rod after him?”

”Of course, of course. Let Brother Wang have a go first, then it’s your turn,” Gu Nan agreed with a grin. He hadn’t expected his made-up, superstitious excuse to yield such an unexpected windfall.

As expected, fellow anglers were a generous bunch—especially wealthy ones.