The Fish I Catch Can Level Up-Chapter 45: Hooked the Planet

After prying open a small bag of mussels—more than enough for his needs—Chu Mingcheng placed them next to the block of shrimp chum.
He prodded the frozen block with his bait ladle and, finding it had mostly thawed, scooped up three ladlefuls and tossed them into the water in front of him.
Next, Chu Mingcheng took out his No. 3 rock fishing rod. He'd bought the 5.4-meter rod specifically for fishing off reefs like this one. It was paired with a 3000-series spinning reel, a 3+2 line setup 【TN: main line plus leader line】, and a size 2 Chinu hook.
He selected a mussel and pried it open with his dagger. Since it wasn't very large, he sliced the meat in half vertically, baited his hook, and left just the tip exposed.
With a practiced flick, he cast his line to the spot he'd just chummed. The hook, weighted by the sinker, quickly sank to the bottom.
The tide was rising, and waves crashed against the reef one after another with a relentless whoosh. Although the sun beat down on him, his sun-protective clothing and hat shielded him, and the steady sea breeze kept him from feeling too hot.
Unbeknownst to Chu Mingcheng, the current was subtly shifting his hook along the seafloor until it snagged in a rock crevice.
Onshore, he saw his line go taut and thought he had a fish. He immediately lifted his rod to set the hook.
The moment he pulled, however, he knew something was wrong. This thing was heavy.
He tried lifting the rod again, but the unyielding tension told him he hadn't hooked a fish—he'd hooked the planet.
It wasn't the first time he'd reeled in something heavy; that old soft-shelled turtle came to mind. But even the turtle had put up some struggle. This felt like pulling against dead weight, completely immovable.
"Not a great start," Chu Mingcheng sighed. Realizing he couldn't yank it free, he had no choice but to cut the line.
After re-tying his line, hook, and sinker, he cast out again, this time more cautiously. Once the sinker hit the bottom, he reeled in two turns, switching from bottom fishing to fishing just off the bottom.
The rising tide and warm temperature made the area around the reef a favorite spot for blackhead seabream. The chum had already attracted five or six of them. But for these fish, the mussels—which grew naturally on this very reef—were far more tempting than the shrimp chum.
One of the seabream, noticing the mussel meat, abandoned the chum and swam over. It nudged the bait gently with its mouth, as if testing it.
The next moment, it opened its small mouth and swallowed the bait whole.
A sudden, sharp pain in its mouth told the fish it had been tricked. Panicked, it instinctively began swimming frantically, searching for a place to hide. But an immense, unseen force pulled from above, intensifying the pain in its mouth. The force was irresistible, dragging it helplessly toward the surface.
All it could do was thrash its tail in a desperate, futile struggle.
It was useless. The fish was pulled to the surface.
A smile spread across Chu Mingcheng's face when he saw it. Looked like his luck was turning around after hooking the Earth. His first catch was a decent-sized blackhead seabream, probably a jin or two.
He didn't dare try hauling it directly onto the reef, fearing it would shake loose, so he used his retractable landing net to scoop it up safely.
Chu Mingcheng stood over 6feet tall with large hands, and this fish was slightly bigger than his palm. Its back was thick and its belly was fat—it might very well be a solid two jin.
He carefully removed the hook and tossed the fish into his cooler. The frustration from his earlier snag was already fading.
With a catch in the box, his enthusiasm for fishing soared.
Chu Mingcheng baited his hook with another piece of mussel meat and cast it back to the chummed spot. Five or six minutes later, he had another bite. This one was much smaller, only about three-quarters of a jin. He unhooked it, tossed it into the cooler, and threw another ladleful of shrimp chum into the water.
Fishing for blackhead seabream required continuous chumming to keep them gathered below. But the chum didn't just attract seabream; it drew in other fish as well.
Suddenly, Chu Mingcheng saw his rod tip tremble violently before bending sharply downward.
With lightning-fast reflexes, he set the hook. The rod tip sliced through the air with a whoosh.
The moment he felt the pull, his face lit up with excitement. This one had a serious fight! While it was nothing compared to yesterday's grouper, it was definitely a big fish.
It seemed the fish population around Yanmen Island wasn't as depleted as he'd thought.
Chu Mingcheng gripped the rod with his left hand and tried to reel with his right, but the fish was running hard, making the handle impossible to turn. He watched in alarm as his main line headed straight for a jagged rock breaking the surface. He quickly released the handle and used the rod to pull in the opposite direction.
The fish's mad dash immediately halted. Seizing the opportunity, Chu Mingcheng quickly turned the handle, reeling in two rotations and pulling the fish back a little.
But the fish wasn't done fighting. The next second, it changed direction and shot off to the other side.
Chu Mingcheng tried the same technique again, using both hands to wrestle with the fish.
Suddenly, with a sharp twang, the rod tip snapped back violently. He stumbled, a bitter smile spreading across his face. The line had snapped.
The pain of loss was crushing. Such a big fish, gone!
"Sigh…"
Heaving a heavy sigh, Chu Mingcheng checked the break. The leader line had snapped, most likely from rubbing against an underwater obstacle—probably a rock. He wasn't too surprised; in a rocky area like this, you had to get the fish to the surface before you could properly fight it. Unfortunately, he hadn't managed to.
Still, his main target was blackhead seabream, and the biggest ones around here were probably only two or three jin, which didn't require much of a fight.
Throughout the afternoon, he caught more seabream during the rising tide. Once the tide reached its peak and the water calmed, he noticed the seabream stopped biting. Other fish took their place—small mullet, small sea bass, and other assorted species. Even a red-spotted swimming crab came to join the party.
When the tide started going out, the blackhead seabream began biting again, and they kept at it until the tide was fully out.
By then, the sun was already sinking in the west. Chu Mingcheng checked the time—it was 4 PM. He quickly called Zhang Wei and told him to bring Chen Yang over for dinner that evening.
After hanging up, he began packing his gear.
It had been a fruitful afternoon, but he'd also broken his line five times and snagged the bottom three times. He'd run out of sinkers and ended up just tying small rocks to his line so he wouldn't feel so bad about losing them.
He made a mental note to go online later and look up some tips on avoiding snags when bottom fishing.
After stowing his rod, he took a look at his catch in the cooler.
In total, he had seven blackhead seabream over a jin, with the largest weighing three jin. There were also two sea bass, both over two jin. The one red-spotted swimming crab was quite large, maybe three-quarters of a jin; he'd put it in a separate bag to keep it from pinching the other fish.
Of course, he'd caught more than just that, but he'd released everything under a jin, including a couple of mullet and a sea bass that were just over the mark.
It made Chu Mingcheng wish his country had rules like other places, where fish under a certain size had to be released, with heavy fines for violators. Maybe then, after a few decades, the coastal fish populations would recover, and anglers who couldn't afford deep-sea fishing could also experience the thrill of catching big fish.
Once everything was packed, Chu Mingcheng drove to the pier. Carrying his cooler and an electronic scale, he found a spot and called out, "Fresh blackhead seabream and sea bass I caught this afternoon! Anyone want some?"
People had already noticed him carrying the cooler, and as soon as he shouted, he was surrounded by a crowd.
It took almost no time at all to sell everything in his cooler.
The blackhead seabream went for 50 yuan per jin. The seven fish totaled 14.7 jin, earning him 735 yuan. The two sea bass, weighing a combined 4.6 jin, sold for 40 yuan per jin, bringing in another 184 yuan. The red-spotted crab was cheap; the person who bought the two sea bass took it for an extra 20 yuan.