King of the Wilderness

In the evening, Lin Yu’an crawled into the shelter made of Willow Branches; despite being busy, he didn’t let the charcoal in the metal bucket go out, instead, it continued to emit a reassuring red glow and warmth.

Compared to the bone-chilling cold wind outside the shelter, this place was simply paradise!

He rubbed his somewhat frozen hands and sat back on the makeshift stool, casting his gaze towards the ice hole he had pinned his hopes on.

While undertaking the grand project of setting up an underwater net, a simple fishing rod he crafted by hand was firmly supported by a device he also crafted himself.

After returning to the shelter last night, he didn’t rest. He selected three straight sticks, each about one meter long and evenly thick, from the spruce tree trunk.

Using a hand saw, he sharpened the ends of these three sticks into points to better anchor them in the snow or ice crevices for stability.

Next, he began to craft the core of the entire structure, the tripod knot.

He laid the three sticks tightly side by side on the snow, took out a segment of durable nylon rope, and first used a double knot to securely fasten one end of the rope to the top of one stick.

Then, he tightly wrapped the rope horizontally around the three parallel sticks about seven or eight times, forming a sturdy ”binding ring.”

Afterwards, he threaded the rope end through the gaps between the sticks, repeatedly crossing and tightening it in a figure-eight pattern.

Each pull was with all his strength, binding the three separate sticks into an inseparable whole.

Finally, he locked the rope tail securely with several half knots.

Picking up this bundle of sticks, he pulled the middle stick backward while the other two naturally spread forward.

A stable equilateral triangular base for the tripod was completed.

This morning, he placed this tripod standing over the back of the ice hole.

Then he placed the simple fishing rod horizontally at the ”V” shaped fulcrum created by the two legs at the front of the tripod, with the rod tip naturally hanging towards the ice hole.

Lin Yu’an used a small backup thin rope to connect the rear end of the fishing rod to the tripod’s back leg for secondary fixation, providing unparalleled stability to his fishing rod.

The hook, laden with the plump Hairy Scale Fish, under this foolproof setup, had been waiting underwater for hours.

By logic, in such a precisely located ”fish hideout,” there should have been some harvest already.

Filled with anticipation, Lin Yu’an stepped forward and gently grasped the fishing rod.

There was none of the expected weighty, struggling pull from a fish. He gave it a little tug; the fishing line was weightless, with no additional heft.

Slowly pulling the fishing line out of the ice hole, the end of the line still carried the carefully chosen robust Hairy Scale Fish bait perfectly intact on the hook.

It hadn’t even been tentatively nibbled.

Lin Yu’an gazed at this solitary bait, silent for a moment; his fixed camera had been working all along, perfectly filming the Fisherman’s embarrassing miss.

He cleared his throat and faced the camera, wearing an extremely professional expression as he analyzed the reasons for his failure with gravity.

”Having nothing doesn’t indicate anything after all, I was outside busy setting up nets, not here to personally guard it.”

”This doesn’t reflect my real skills; if I had been here the whole time, given my experience, today I surely would have caught something!”

”Hmm, no bite was within my expectations.”

”The reason, well, there could be several. The pressure, definitely the pressure! Today’s pressure might be lower, reducing the water’s oxygen levels, greatly suppressing the fish’s desire to feed. They prefer staying still rather than actively foraging.”

He paused, adding another reason to absolve himself completely: ”Certainly, there’s also the relationship between water temperature and fish metabolism.”

Lin Yu’an pointed at the ice hole beneath his feet, ”This fishing spot’s water depth exceeds five meters, a typical deep pool area.”

”In winter, the water temperature at the bottom of deep pools remains stably around 4 degrees Celsius, ideal for fish to overwinter.”

”My bait is hung about half a meter above the bottom. The fish here, their metabolism has already dropped to minimal levels, like they’re in semi-hibernation.”

”They might only need to feed once a day, perhaps even only once every few days; expecting a fish in ’energy-saving mode’ to actively swim up to chase a morsel not by its mouth has very low odds.”

”So today’s outcome has nothing to do with fishing techniques! It’s purely dictated by fish physiology! Passive fishing is gambling on the million-to-one chance.”

After such a concluding statement, his face brimmed with confidence, the calmness of everything being under control seemed to convince himself!

Lin Yu’an turned around, looking at the peaceful ice surface, and continued: ”Moreover, this precisely proves the absolute necessity of all my tasks today.”

”Under-ice fish, in winter, to save energy maximally, have their metabolism and activity dropped to the lowest point.”

”They are content staying in the comfortable deep-water zone of 4 degrees Celsius, like they’re in semi-hibernation. Their reaction to external food lures is extremely sluggish.”

”Attempting to obtain stable food through ’fishing,’ which relies on fish actively seeking bait, is inefficient and fraught with uncertainty. We cannot afford to wait, nor gamble.”