The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 200: A Heavy Downpour of Fish

The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 200: A Heavy Downpour of Fish

Afterward, the group continued catching fish. Most were small and got collected in a separate bucket to be released later.
The fish they were catching today were for eating, and the small ones just weren't worth the effort.
Just then, Chu Mingcheng pulled an octopus of over half a jin from a rock crevice. "We're getting tons of octopus today. Perfect for the barbecue tonight!"
"Octopus is delicious, but it's a shame we don't have any squid. I feel like squid would be even tastier," Jiang Luoluo said with a smile, wiping a water drop from her face with her arm.
"Hey, check out this red eel. I bet this'll be delicious too," Zhang Wei said, showing off a small red eel he'd just caught.
Chu Mingcheng looked at the small eel and was quiet for a moment. "Well, you are what you eat. My personal recommendation is that you eat this one yourself."
"What the hell, who are you calling out?"
"Ah Cheng isn't insulting you, he's just stating facts!"
Chen Yang chimed in on the teasing, which nearly provoked Zhang Wei into having to prove himself.
But then he remembered both women present could potentially be his sisters-in-law someday, and his enthusiasm vanished.
The group laughed and joked until the sun had completely set, by which point they'd caught most of the fish in the tide pool.
Their haul was impressive. The marbled grouper, combined with their other ingredients, would've been enough for a feast. However, after some discussion, they decided to keep the grouper alive and eat it for lunch the next day.
The remaining assorted fish were nothing to scoff at, and along with the octopuses, sea snails they'd gathered, and oysters they'd shucked, there was more than enough food.
Chu Mingcheng was slightly disappointed that no easy money had come knocking on their island doorstep this time.
If another windfall came his way, he could consider spending more time with Jiang Luoluo at year-end, maybe go fishing for the White Snake at West Lake whenever he felt like it...
The night passed, and Chu Mingcheng woke at dawn.
He carefully moved the leg draped over him and, without disturbing the still-sleeping Zhang Wei and Chen Yang, crept out of the tent to wash up.
With two women aboard, the bedroom was naturally theirs.
The three men had to make do with a tent pitched on the deck outside the pilothouse, which had resulted in a terrible night's sleep for Chu Mingcheng.
After washing up, he was about to make breakfast when he noticed a flock of seabirds circling in the distant sky.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng quickly grabbed binoculars and went up to the flybridge for a better look.
Usually, where there were seabirds, there were schools of fish.
And schools of fish would attract numerous predators, creating a veritable feeding frenzy.
His trip to the Dongsha Atoll had left a deep impression—during a similar frenzy he'd earned over two hundred thousand yuan. Combined with previous earnings, that trip had netted him more than four hundred thousand total.
But the distance was considerable, and even with binoculars, all he could make out were seabirds diving to catch fish.
Below them was a dark, dense swarm of something, leaping from water into air, then diving back in.
But the massive splashes erupting periodically told him there were definitely big fish over there.
Without hesitation, Chu Mingcheng hurried back down to the pilothouse, started the fishing boat, and headed in that direction.
As he got closer, he realized the dark swarm was actually a massive school of flying fish.
They leaped from water to escape predators below, unaware that hunters also waited for them in the sky.
The flying fish clearly weren't going to stay put and wait to be caught. As luck would have it, they were moving in his direction, and the two parties soon met in the middle of the open sea.
A series of splattering thuds echoed across the boat. Chu Mingcheng was shocked to find the flying fish didn't even try to avoid the vessel. Or perhaps, being airborne, they were already trying to evade, but many simply couldn't—causing it to start raining big fish directly onto the deck.
"What's happening? What's going on?" The patter of rain on the tent woke the two men inside. They poked their heads out, saw the scene outside, and were instantly dumbfounded.
The next moment, after a string of curses, they scrambled into the pilothouse for cover.
Luckily, the tent entrance faced the pilothouse door, so they managed to avoid getting pelted by fish.
It wasn't just them—Jiang Luoluo and Zhou Jiayi were also startled awake in the bedroom. They came into the pilothouse and stared in amazement through the window as fish rained from the sky.
The downpour didn't last long, lasting only three or four minutes.
"That was spectacular!" Jiang Luoluo said in awe, lowering the camera she was holding.
"Spectacular? Don't you think it was terrifying?" Zhou Jiayi peeked out from behind her. The sight of fish hurtling toward her from the sky, only to smash themselves to pieces, was almost too much to watch.
"Not at all!" Jiang Luoluo shook her head.
She'd known Chu Mingcheng for several months and had seen even more incredible things. A little fish shower was nothing.
As for the three men, they'd gone out to collect fish as soon as the downpour stopped. Chu Mingcheng had even brought out his electric jigging rod.
He'd noticed on the fish finder that several large fish were still lingering under the boat, and he had no intention of letting them escape so easily.
The water here was deep—one hundred twenty-three meters. He'd just checked; the school of fish was within ten meters of the surface, practically at water level.
Although the main school of flying fish had veered away from the fishing boat, quite a few had landed on deck. Some had even crashed into the hull, died, and fallen into the water, creating natural chum.
The predators chasing the flying fish weren't about to pass up such a free meal.
Therefore, after setting up his electric jigging rod, Chu Mingcheng hooked a dead flying fish and tossed it into the water.
While waiting for a bite, he didn't stay idle. He, along with Chen Yang and Zhang Wei, started gathering all the flying fish that had fallen onto the boat.
At first glance, the deck seemed covered with them, but after collecting them all, the fish box was only half full. Still, more than enough for bait.
Just as Chu Mingcheng finished gathering fish, his electric jigging rod finally sprang to life.
"Ah Cheng, you've got one! You've got one!" Chen Yang shouted as soon as he saw it.
Chu Mingcheng saw the rod trembling violently, bent in a significant arc. Delight crossed his face—it was a big one!
He immediately rushed over, grabbed the rod, and pulled up sharply to set the hook before pressing the button to reel in. The electric reel immediately whirred to life.
The line came in at a decent pace, indicating the fish wasn't over a hundred jin.
The whirring was constant. Now that their work was done, everyone gathered around, staring intently at the water's surface, curious to see what kind of fish it was.
Judging by the line's angle, the fish was incredibly fast, having run a great distance across the surface.
Only half a minute had passed between the bite and him setting the hook and hitting the button, but in that short time, the fish had already run over a hundred meters out—and that was with the drag almost completely locked down.
If he hadn't locked the drag, would the fish have run five hundred meters out in half a minute?
Fortunately, its strength didn't seem to match its speed, and the electric reel was steadily pulling it back.
As the number on the screen reached twenty—meaning only twenty meters of line remained—a sharp sword suddenly broke the sea's surface.
Chu Mingcheng was momentarily stunned, thinking he'd hooked a marlin. But as the fish got closer, he realized his mistake. It was a swordfish.
A swordfish's bill is different from a sailfish's or marlin's—its long bill is flat, like a sword.
Sailfish and marlin have round, spear-like bills, making them easy to distinguish.
The one Chu Mingcheng had hooked was just a small swordfish, only a little over a meter long, probably weighing around sixty to seventy jin.
He grabbed a gaff and hooked the fish right in the head. Blood immediately stained the sea red.
The swordfish hadn't completely exhausted its energy, but being gaffed in the head was fatal. It went still after a short struggle.
With a grunt, Chu Mingcheng heaved the fish onto the boat.
Zhang Wei and Chen Yang had both learned spearfishing and could tell it was a swordfish at a glance.
Jiang Luoluo, however, didn't recognize it. She came out and looked at the fish with surprise. "Huh, I didn't know you could find sailfish in these waters."
Chu Mingcheng was bleeding the fish. Hearing her question, he explained with a smile, "This is a swordfish. They live in temperate waters as well as tropical ones. You just don't usually run into them this close to shore. We probably only found it because it was attracted by that school of flying fish."
"Oh, so it's a swordfish. Let me help you fish!"
"No need. You go make breakfast. There are only two rods suitable for swordfish. I'll handle it myself."
Chu Mingcheng shook his head, declining her offer. Both sailfish and swordfish could be dangerous, so he decided it was better to handle them himself.
Besides, swordfish could grow up to five meters long and weigh over a thousand jin—they weren't to be underestimated.
Jiang Luoluo didn't object. Knowing everyone was hungry, she obediently went back to the pilothouse to cook.
Zhou Jiayi, who'd been looking at the fish with curiosity, quickly followed her back inside.
Chu Mingcheng left the task of bleeding the fish to Chen Yang and Zhang Wei, then re-baited the electric jigging rod and cast it back into the water.
He then went into the pilothouse and took out another heavy-duty boat rod, clearly intending to take on a big one by hand.
But just as he was tying his line, the electric rod got another hit. The bites were coming faster now, probably because the dead flying fish in the water had mostly been eaten, making the bait on his hook stand out.
This time, the fish seemed even bigger. The electric jigging rod bent severely, groaning under the strain.
Seeing this, Zhang Wei handed the fish he was working on to Chen Yang to continue processing and packing on ice, while he took over the electric rod.
He'd been itching to have a go, but he didn't have a heavy boat rod or the strong braided line needed to fish for swordfish.
Since Chu Mingcheng wanted to fish manually, he'd have some fun with the automatic one.
"Ugh... ugh... Ah Cheng, this one seems pretty big!" Even though he'd pressed the button, not only was the line not coming in, it was slowly being pulled out.
Chu Mingcheng's eyes lit up. He immediately stood and went over to look. "Nice! This one could be over two hundred jin. My crane's finally going to get some use."
Zhang Wei didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Is that all you care about?"
"Of course! I've never used this crane before. I've just been waiting for a big fish!"
A large fish of a few dozen jin could be reeled in quickly with the electric rod, but one over two hundred jin was a different story.
Not only did Zhang Wei have to manually pump the rod to help pull, but he also had to periodically turn the reel off and pour ice water on it to keep it from overheating and burning out.
By now, Chu Mingcheng had finished setting up his rig. He went to the other side of the boat, threw a few flying fish into the water as chum to attract the fish below, and then cast his baited hook.
He placed the rod in the holder, the drag almost completely locked, with just a tiny bit of give for a buffer.
In reality, some of the swordfish below had already left, but a few larger ones—for whom chasing a school of fish was more tiring—had stayed behind to enjoy the ready-made meal.
The electric rod was currently fighting a big one, and among the swordfish attracted by Chu Mingcheng's flying fish chum, there was another particularly large one.

Chapter 200: A Heavy Downpour of Fish