I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 230: Chapter 146: Ranked First on the First Day

Actually, a swarm of swimming crabs had gathered on the seabed. At first, the jig lure scared them off, causing them to scatter, but then they were drawn back to it.

One bold crab even climbed right onto the jig.

Feeling a slight weight on the rod, the fisherman on the boat thought he had a bite. He lifted the rod to set the hook and reel it in.

Even a small one was a catch, and as long as it could be sold, he wouldn’t complain.

But as soon as he lifted the rod, the line went slack. The hook had come loose.

This was his first time failing to set a hook since binding with the game. Little did he know, it wasn’t a fish at the bottom at all, but a mischievous swimming crab.

When he yanked the rod, the crab had simply let go with its pincers and scurried away.

However, half a minute later, the rod signaled another bite.

”WHIRRR... WHIRRR...”

The rod bent sharply. This was no ordinary fish—it was clearly massive.

Gu Nan hadn’t expected such a sudden turn of fortune. He quickly jerked the rod to set the hook.

He felt an immense, heavy force. The line spooled out, not fast, but with unstoppable steadiness. The great fish on the other end was clearly not a fast swimmer, but when Gu Nan braced the rod and tried to crank the handle, he couldn’t stop it at all.

He had felt a force like this before, from a two-hundred-jin, blue-bodied Large-spot Grouper.

But the fight felt subtly different. Groupers liked to dive for holes and anchor themselves, but this fish wasn’t doing that. Instead, it was cruising along the seabed, heading for open water.

’If this is a grouper, I’m going to make a killing,’ he thought. ’If not, this should at least be enough to take first place.’

If any other contestant managed to catch a fish over two hundred jin tonight, Gu Nan would have no choice but to call them a legend.

Unlike the cobia from earlier, this fish couldn’t be reeled in quickly. This was destined to be a long-haul fight.

Watching this, the two boatmen were left speechless.

In fact, they were secretly hoping it was a Giant Grouper. Giant Groupers were a Class II protected species, and one caught out here was unlikely to survive the trip back to shore. Therefore, Gu Nan’s only option would be to release it.

A released fish wouldn’t count toward his score; catches only counted if they were brought to the pier for the official weigh-in.

While Gu Nan was locked in a struggle with his big fish, many other contestants were also having good luck.

Some lucky contestants had run into schools of greater amberjack. While these fish normally weighed only about ten-odd jin, larger ones could exceed fifty.

Ones over a hundred jin weren’t unheard of, but they rarely ventured into inshore waters unless conditions were unusual.

Others were specifically targeting bonito, as a large one could also weigh over fifty jin.

On the first day, all the contestants were playing it safe, trying to secure a decent rank first. Once they had a baseline score, they could spend the next two days specifically hunting for monster fish.

Half an hour later, Gu Nan was drenched in sweat. ’This fish has incredible stamina,’ he thought. ’It’s been this long and it still has energy.’

It wasn’t a fast swimmer, but the fight it put up was no less intense than that of a typical game fish.

Of course, Gu Nan was also holding back. While the game system wasn’t much help in this competition, his fishing rod itself was a huge advantage.

The reason he’d been able to land the cobia so quickly earlier, letting it run until it was exhausted, was all thanks to this rod.

But with a fish he clearly couldn’t just muscle in, he had to drag out the fight. This would make him look skilled, but not unbelievably so.

In terms of his own physical strength, he would have had no problem. But his special rod set had a massive stamina-draining effect on the fish. ℴℴ𝘮

The only reason the fish had lasted for half an hour was because he was intentionally going easy on it.

After another half-hour-plus of struggle, everyone on the boat could finally make out the fish’s silhouette in the water.

Its shape, like a giant palm-leaf fan, left everyone stunned. Was it a massive ray, or perhaps a devil ray?

But there are many species in that family, and quite a few of them grow to enormous sizes. Since the fish hadn’t fully surfaced, no one could yet be certain of the exact type.

Gu Nan put his back into it, cranking the handle rapidly, and finally pulled the behemoth completely out of the water.

Seeing its brownish-yellow color and shape, they realized it was a giant stingray.

The stingray is a type of ray that can be found in both saltwater and freshwater.

They typically inhabit sandy or muddy bottoms near the coast, where there is an abundance of crabs for them to eat.

Summer was the peak season for stingrays. Smaller ones had tender, delicious meat, but one this large was usually tough and didn’t sell for much.

The two boatmen were a little disappointed. Since it wasn’t a Giant Grouper, Gu Nan’s score was sure to be outstanding. Barring any surprises, he was a lock for the top three; he might as well have one hand on the champion’s trophy.

Unless a huge Marlin appeared in these inshore waters, very few fish could top two hundred jin.

Stingrays could grow up to 300 kilograms—or 600 jin. By that standard, the one Gu Nan had caught was merely a young adult.

One of the boatmen got busy. A stingray’s tail is venomous, and getting stung was no joke, so he had to be extremely careful.

First, he used a gaff to stab the fish in the head and kill it.

Only after the fish was completely dead did he attach two large hooks to the crane’s line.

A stingray’s tail is long, but it’s thick at the base and thin at the tip. It wasn’t strong enough to winch the fish aboard.

They had to secure the large hooks into the fish’s body to lift it whole.

Gu Nan put down his rod and went to help. He sank a gaff into the fish’s body and lifted it slightly, allowing the boatman to secure the crane hooks.

Working together, the two of them finally managed to get the fish onto the deck. Its massive body took up nearly the entire aft deck.

Gu Nan grabbed a knife, cut off the barbed tip of the tail, and threw it overboard to prevent anyone from getting accidentally stung.