The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 41: Fish Run at the Pier

Chen Qing walked into Chu Mingcheng's house. While the decor was nothing special by his standards, the more he looked around, the more he liked the place—it had that cozy farmhouse courtyard feel.
"You live alone?"
"For now, yeah. My parents live in town. Since I'm constantly traveling for work, it's more convenient to live here."
"Makes sense."
After giving the house a quick tour, Chu Mingcheng led him to the kitchen to show him the soft-shelled turtles.
Though he'd already bought from him once before, Chen Qing still inspected them carefully. They were all healthy, lively wild turtles, which satisfied him greatly.
That's when he noticed another fish container in the kitchen. "What's in there?"
"Five snakeheads I caught along with the turtles. I haven't been to the market the past couple of days, so I've just been keeping them at home."
Chu Mingcheng pulled the snakehead container over as well.
Seeing there were only five, Chen Qing decided to take them all.
"I'll take those too. My friend really likes snakehead."
"Sure, if you want them, they're yours."
Chu Mingcheng brought over his electronic scale and started weighing everything.
The five snakeheads came to exactly sixteen jin. This time he sold them for thirty-five yuan per jin, the same price he'd gotten at the market. Chen Qing was straightforward with his purchases, and Chu Mingcheng didn't want to overcharge a repeat customer. Total: 560 yuan.
The turtles were priced in three tiers. Those between two and three jin went for 200 per jin—four turtles totaling eight and a half jin for 1,700 yuan.
Those under five jin were 350 per jin, the largest category, with seven turtles. They weighed twenty-six and six-tenths jin total, selling for 9,310 yuan.
The over-five-jin category had just one turtle weighing exactly five and two-tenths jin at 400 per jin, selling for 2,080 yuan.
The grand total came to 13,650 yuan—no odd change to round off.
Chen Qing paid up, reminded him to call whenever he had good stock, then left with his purchases.
Chu Mingcheng sat down and started calculating his earnings over the past few days since buying the sea rods.
Eight hundred from Yao Xin, thirteen thousand from the first day of turtle fishing, plus about 1,500 in snakeheads.
Then 530 from the Creek Chub, plus today's sale of over 13,600. His total income for the past few days was roughly 30,000.
His current savings were just over 67,000, minus the 10,000 balance due on the sea rods, putting his actual savings at 57,000.
Not counting expenses, in twelve days his savings had grown from 30,000 to 57,000. That was definitely fast money.
Too bad wild turtles were so hard to come by. Who knew if he'd ever find another goldmine like that abandoned pond?
That evening, just as Chu Mingcheng was thinking about going out for dinner, Zhang Wei called.
"Ah-Cheng, I heard there's a huge school of mackerel at Yanmen Island pier. Tons of anglers are heading over there. Is it true?"
Translator Note:
The "huge school of mackerel" (鲭鱼汛) refers to a seasonal migration phenomenon where massive schools of mackerel pass through coastal waters.
"Mackerel?" Chu Mingcheng was surprised. "I have no idea!"
He hadn't been to the pier today, so this was news to him.
"Damn, you better go check it out right now! If it's true, call me immediately and I'll head right over."
"Alright, I'll go take a look."
After hanging up, Chu Mingcheng immediately headed out. All his gear was already in the car, which saved him some time.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the road above the pier. Both sides were packed with parked cars.
From above, he could see countless anglers fishing from the pier, with some fishermen even standing on their boats casting throw nets.
The rocky area beside the pier also had people fishing, and judging by their rod movements, they seemed to be having decent luck too.
Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng immediately grabbed his M-action lure rod, the matching line, and a box of lures.
As he headed down with his tackle box and fish container, he called Zhang Wei to tell him to come right away.
Then he called Zhao Jun. "Brother Zhao, are you at the pier?"
"Yeah, I'm casting nets from my boat. Are you here too?" As a local fisherman, Zhao Jun had been among the first to know about the fish run.
"I came to fish. Brother Zhao, do you have room on your boat?"
With no space at the pier, he'd have to create his own good fishing spot. The rocky area was a bit far and inconvenient, and the catch probably wouldn't match what they were getting at the pier.
Zhao Jun immediately agreed. When Chu Mingcheng reached the pier's stairway, Zhao Jun was already waiting with his boat, which held a basket full of mackerel—clearly fresh from his nets.
"Damn, Brother Zhao, how long have you been netting? You've got a whole basket already!"
"About half an hour. We need to hurry—once it gets dark, the school will probably disperse."
"Got it!"
While he had the chance, Chu Mingcheng pulled out his phone to research mackerel behavior.
Mackerel were extremely cheap fish in China, easier to catch in autumn, with an average size of twenty to thirty centimeters and weighing over a jin.
For mackerel, that size wasn't small—basically all over a jin.
Even if they were cheap, quantity could make up for quality.
Large mackerel usually swam in deeper waters, while medium to small ones stayed in surface waters.
Catching small ones wasn't interesting. Chu Mingcheng decided to try for the big mackerel in deeper water first, so he took out a seven-centimeter sinking minnow.
By the time he had his lure rod ready, Zhao Jun had already positioned the boat and continued casting his net from the bow.
Chu Mingcheng moved to the side of the boat and cast the minnow nearby to test the depth.
Yanmen Island's small pier didn't accommodate large fishing vessels. He measured the depth at about twelve meters. With that knowledge, he started retrieving the line while lightly tapping the rod tip in a stop-and-go motion.
The minnow swam along the bottom while constantly darting, which was basically bottom-bouncing lure fishing.
Simply put, it made the minnow move to attract the fish's attention.
In freshwater, this would easily attract annoying small fish like white bait, but the ocean was different.
Ocean fish were generally fierce and mostly aggressive, going after anything that moved.
Chu Mingcheng retrieved the line while jigging his rod. As he was jigging... hey, it wouldn't jig anymore.
"No way, that easy?"
Getting a hit on his very first lure cast was a new experience for Chu Mingcheng, and the fish's pull felt like he was fighting a snakehead.
He lifted the rod and reeled in. Soon, a fish with blue-green markings on its back was pulled up—about thirty centimeters long, but with its round belly, it still weighed about a jin and was clearly packed with fat.
He tossed the fish into his container and continued fishing.
This time, the minnow had barely sunk before getting hit. This made Chu Mingcheng understand the terrifying nature of fishing over a school—they wouldn't even let the lure reach the bottom.
But this fish was much smaller and thinner, probably only about four liang.
After about twenty minutes, Zhang Wei's call came through.
"I'm here, where are you?"
"I'm on a friend's boat—can't really come get you. You'll have to find a spot on the pier, or you could always swim over."
"Damn!"
Zhang Wei immediately hung up and found himself a spot, squeezing in with others to fish.
Whatever curses he had could wait—fishing came first.