The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 148: A Profitable Night at Sea

After lunch, once the dishes were cleared, Jiang Luoluo pulled out her laptop to watch a show she had downloaded in advance. It wasn't because she was anticipating a lack of signal at sea, but simply because she hated waiting for buffering when she wanted to fast-forward.
The historical drama, however, wasn't about clashing swords and armored cavalry, nor was it filled with political intrigue. It was all about the female lead's all-consuming, dramatic romances. The sheer cringe made Chu Mingcheng's skin crawl, and he quickly escaped to the deck to fish.
Fishing was much more comfortable. At least the fish were straightforward: either they came on board, or you went overboard.
Today's timing wasn't ideal. Normally, you'd set out early in the morning and arrive around eight or nine to have a decent chance at a good haul.
The afternoon bite was genuinely poor. Even with suitable temperatures, it wasn't the fish's feeding time.
He scattered some chum, cast his baited hook into the water, and waited a long time before a five-jin sea bass finally took the bait.
The number of fishing boats on the sea had dwindled significantly; clearly, some had already left.
Chu Mingcheng went back to the cockpit to check the fish finder and saw that the school had mostly dispersed.
He figured the remaining boats were hanging around to try and add a little more to their day's earnings and wait for the night bite.
Now, Chu Mingcheng had two choices: either head somewhere else to look, or wait here.
He had already been driving for over three hours to get here today, burning through more than two thousand yuan in fuel.
Continuing the search wouldn't guarantee finding another school, and he might end up losing even more.
After a moment's hesitation, Chu Mingcheng decided to stay. At least he could catch some sea bass to recoup some of his costs and gain a little experience.
Without disturbing Jiang Luoluo, who was still engrossed in her show, he went back outside to continue fishing.
He set up two rods in the holders to increase his chances.
After about seven or eight minutes, the boat rod was the first to react. The bite was fierce, and Chu Mingcheng immediately grabbed the rod to set the hook.
The fish ran hard, the reel screaming as line peeled off.
From the feel of it, Chu Mingcheng judged it to be a sea bass, about the same size as the last one—around five jin.
Sure enough, when he pulled it up, it was indeed a four or five-jin sea bass.
The sea bass migrating for the winter were certainly not small, typically running this weight. The smaller ones had probably stayed behind in the shallower coastal waters.
As he continued to chum the water to keep the fish around, Chu Mingcheng's spot started to pick up.
With two rods, he was getting a bite every three or four minutes. He'd pull one in, and a moment later, the other would get a hit. He was suddenly busy.
Within two hours, he had caught a total of thirteen fish. The quantity was decent, but what was really nice was that each one weighed between three and five jin.
They weren't all sea bass; there were some golden pomfret as well, likely stragglers from the main school.
Jiang Luoluo finished her show and started editing the videos Chu Mingcheng had filmed. As she worked, she noticed something strange. Some of the spearfishing footage seemed to have been roughly edited already, with some jarring transitions.
The video had indeed been edited. When Chu Mingcheng was spearfishing alone, he rarely surfaced for air.
He had considered that Jiang Luoluo might be the one editing most of his videos in the future, so he had pre-processed them.
It was fine for her to know he could hold his breath for five minutes while moving, but if she knew he could last for two hours, she would definitely think he was some kind of monster.
By the time she had finished editing all the footage from this period, it was already past five in the afternoon.
Jiang Luoluo stretched, her graceful curves on full display.
She found an umbrella, walked out of the cockpit, and first checked the livewell, finding it was quite full of decent-sized fish.
But compared to when Chu Mingcheng was spearfishing, the haul was much smaller.
This made Jiang Luoluo frown. If this was all they caught, they might just barely break even today.
"Ah Cheng, is the fishing not so good today? I see you've caught a lot of sea bass, but no more golden pomfret?"
"It's mainly because we set out too late. If we had left early in the morning, we probably could have made a few thousand," Chu Mingcheng said with a hint of resignation.
He had been a professional angler for too short a time; he still had to rely on others for information about fish run routes and timing.
Secondly, leveling up his Aquatic Species Codex also took a lot of time.
"But today's not bad. I wasn't expecting to make much anyway. I mainly came out to check the migration route Agong gave me."
Jiang Luoluo nodded in understanding. If he really wanted to make money, he would have gone south to some coral reef to hunt for premium fish.
But even if he was going the premium route, it didn't mean he would give up on high-yield species.
"Are you hungry? I'll go make dinner. We can eat and then continue with some night fishing. I'll fish with you for a while."
"Night fishing? It gets really cold at sea at night. Maybe we should skip it?" Chu Mingcheng saw that it was already five o'clock and had been planning to pack up and head back. He hadn't expected Jiang Luoluo to suddenly suggest night fishing.
"It's fine. I planned ahead for night fishing and brought warm clothes. We need to remember that when we go out to sea, we need to turn a profit. If we don't even make five hundred, it counts as a loss."
"Uh… alright then. You go make dinner, I'll keep fishing."
Chu Mingcheng was a little amused, but since Jiang Luoluo was being so considerate, how could he refuse? So what if it was night fishing!
After dinner, the sky was completely dark.
Jiang Luoluo also put on her raincoat and joined Chu Mingcheng to fish.
This time, her luck was a bit better than in the morning. The moment her baited hook hit the water, she had a bite.
When she pulled it up, it turned out to be a croaker.
"Ah Cheng, is this a croaker?"
"Yes, it is. I didn't expect to find croakers in this area."
Chu Mingcheng nodded repeatedly. He had been planning to fish the middle water column, as sea bass rarely appeared in the upper layers at night, but he hadn't expected a school of croakers to show up.
Croakers were also a migratory species, but unlike golden pomfret and sea bass, they stayed deep during the day and rose at night.
Secondly, they didn't gather in large schools, usually traveling in small groups.
He quickly scattered some Antarctic shrimp to chum the water and attract any nearby croakers.
There was indeed a school of croakers lingering near their boat. When the Antarctic shrimp drifted down, they immediately turned and swam over like sharks smelling blood.
Upon finding the food, the school of croakers began to enjoy the free meal.
With their limited brain capacity, they didn't notice or care that with every free meal, their numbers seemed to dwindle.
Among them, a half-meter-long croaker swallowed a small Antarctic shrimp, then turned to find something dangling in front of it.
It smelled familiar, like food.
If it was food, it was meant to be eaten.
But the next moment, a sharp pain in its mouth jolted its nerves, making it instinctively struggle to spit out the foreign object.
Then a powerful force suddenly pulled at it.
Its body, which had been swimming toward the depths, was brought to a halt, and the foreign object in its mouth pierced deeper, causing even more pain.
On the boat, Chu Mingcheng felt the weight on his rod and a smile touched his lips.
This fish seemed decent, about the same as the five or six-jin sea bass from the afternoon.
Croakers had a similar body shape to sea bass—long and prone to a fat belly, but croakers were thicker.
Therefore, at the same length, a croaker would usually be heavier than a sea bass.
Soon, the croaker was pulled to the surface by Chu Mingcheng and scooped up with the landing net.
Seeing this, Jiang Luoluo smiled. "Looks like we made the right choice to night fish. Otherwise, we would have missed this school of croakers."
"Yeah, looks like we can make a small profit tonight." Chu Mingcheng put the croaker in the livewell first to keep it alive for a while longer.
Fish caught in shallow water like this could usually last for some time and wouldn't die immediately.
Don't be fooled by the cheap price of croaker at the market—the meat is only about ten yuan per jin. But that's for a gutted croaker.
This fish, like a roe-filled mullet, was prized for its innards.
A croaker's swim bladder is very valuable. A high-quality bladder, made into fish glue, could sell for over a thousand yuan per jin.
Therefore, a croaker with a fat belly was actually similar in price to a sea bass, maybe slightly cheaper.
"Wow, wow, wow… what a huge fish!"
After they had each caught a few croakers, Chu Mingcheng heard Jiang Luoluo's panicked shout.
She was hugging her fishing rod with both hands, her body pressed tightly against the boat's railing.
Chu Mingcheng rushed over. "Need me to help?"
"No, I can handle it!" Jiang Luoluo braced her feet against the railing and managed to hold her ground.
She had hooked a big one—how could she possibly hand it over to someone else?
The large fish below was being pulled, but it still fought desperately, swimming toward the depths.
Neither person nor fish was willing to give in. The fishing rod creaked under the strain.
Chu Mingcheng guessed the fish below was at least twenty-five jin to have Jiang Luoluo struggling so much.
The fishing line vibrated at an incredibly high frequency, sending ripples across the surface where it entered the water.
Over on his side, Chu Mingcheng's rod, which he had left in a holder, also got a bite. He had to go and land his own fish first.
The fish wasn't very big, only about two jin, but what was on it surprised him.
He didn't put this fish in the livewell, but tossed it into a fish box for now.
Jiang Luoluo was still locked in a stalemate with her fish, already starting to pant. He couldn't focus on his small catch right now.
"Luoluo, call me if you can't hold on!"
Jiang Luoluo didn't answer, just nodded to show she understood.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng didn't stay idle. He baited his hook and continued fishing.
He couldn't just waste time while a school of fish was right here.
However, he saw that Jiang Luoluo's line was running all over the place, so he stayed a little farther away to avoid getting tangled.
After a few minutes, her fish was still swimming at high speed in the water. Chu Mingcheng asked again.
But having held on for so long, Jiang Luoluo was not about to give up.
"It's fine, I can do it. You've got a bite."
"Uh…"
Chu Mingcheng quickly grabbed his rod to set the hook. This fish was a bit bigger, and by his experience, it was probably around ten jin.
When he pulled it up, he found its weight was indeed about what he had estimated.
After putting the fish in the livewell, Jiang Luoluo finally pulled her fish to the side of the boat. "Ah Cheng, quick, help me net the fish."
"Coming, coming!"
Chu Mingcheng grabbed the landing net and rushed over.
It was a croaker, and a very large one, about a meter long. This was probably more than twenty-five jin, no wonder it had worn Jiang Luoluo out.
He scooped the fish's head with the net and then steadily brought it aboard.
If this fish had gotten away, he figured his next confession would probably fail too.
"Ugh! I'm exhausted. Quick, let's see how long and heavy this croaker is."
Jiang Luoluo was so tired she plopped right down on the rain-soaked deck. If it weren't for her raincoat, you might think Chu Mingcheng had done something improper.
He got out the scale and ruler. First, he measured the fish's length: one meter and three centimeters.
Then he moved the fish onto the scale and found its weight had just passed thirty jin, reaching thirty jin and eight liang.
"Not bad, Luoluo. This is a meter-long croaker, thirty jin and eight liang!"
"Heehee, no wonder it was stronger than that cobia last time. It's so heavy." Jiang Luoluo giggled and climbed up from the deck.
"How much can this fish sell for?"
Chu Mingcheng thought for a moment. "Probably eighty or a hundred a jin. How about we ask Agong later? He's generous with his money, and he told me to find him first if I caught a big fish."
"This… isn't that a bit much?" Jiang Luoluo hesitated. After Chu Mingcheng said that, she had the feeling they were trying to rip someone off.
"It's not. If you don't tell him, he'll be angry when he finds out. If he doesn't want it, we can sell it to a seafood restaurant. The price won't be much different."
Most of the fish they caught today would be sold to fishmongers. Because the fish were quite common, a seafood restaurant might not want to take them all.
But a fish over five jin would be no problem for a seafood restaurant, and they would be willing to pay the price.
Hearing this, Jiang Luoluo had no objections.
Afterward, Chu Mingcheng brought over a foam box, laid down some crushed ice, and placed the already-cooling large croaker inside, then covered it with another layer of crushed ice.
The larger the fish, the more oxygen it needed. After being left on the deck for a while, it naturally cooled down.
Putting it in the foam box now would save them the trouble of moving it later. If they sold it, they could just give the foam box to the other party as well; it wasn't expensive anyway.