As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up-Chapter 152 - 143 Fish Hidden in the Sand Bed

Chapter 152: Chapter 143 Fish Hidden in the Sand Bed

He checked the time; two fish had taken him half an hour.

Considering the price of the fish, that time was well spent.

The sea breeze had chilled him, so Chu Mingcheng hurriedly got back into the water.

This time, he spotted another grouper. By its appearance, there was a high probability it was a green spot.

In terms of size, it might weigh around five kilograms. If he could catch it, it could sell for around four hundred yuan, which was not bad.

Chu Mingcheng stuck to his usual method, dropping the bait vertically above the fish.

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To his surprise, this grouper turned out to be a timid one and was scared off by the sudden appearance of the baited hook.

Chu Mingcheng was astonished; this wasn’t his first time using this method, but it was the first time he had seen a fish get scared away.

Just as he was about to reel the bait back in, an unexpectedly delightful figure appeared under the light.

This time, Chu Mingcheng’s heartbeat quickened even more than when he had found the small Rat Spot and he instinctively held his breath.

Below, there appeared a Rat Spot that was even larger than the suspected green spot grouper.

The earlier grouper naturally wouldn’t have been scared away by this Rat Spot as there was a size difference, and the Rat Spot couldn’t eat it—it must have truly been scared by the movement of the baited hook.

But Chu Mingcheng had not expected to stumble upon another village hidden in the dark and floral sea, so to speak.

This large Rat Spot might be worth as much as ten thousand yuan.

Because Rat Spots grow extremely slowly and wild ones are rare, their prices are very high.

At present, only wild yellow croakers could possibly match them.

The Rat Spot didn’t disappoint Chu Mingcheng; perhaps the groupers were naturally more aggressive.

Don’t be fooled by its small head, its mouth could open very wide and it swallowed the squid bait in one gulp.

The moment the hook pierced into its mouth, Chu Mingcheng yanked hard on the line, driving the hook further in.

Unless the line broke, there was no chance the fish would get away now.

But Chu Mingcheng wasn’t going to give it that chance, and he immediately started swimming upwards with the fish in tow.

With such an exceptional grouper, he definitely wouldn’t carry it around as he wandered.

The Rat Spot, estimated to weigh around ten kilograms, thrashed about, but it continuously rose toward the surface.

In the end, Chu Mingcheng easily pulled it to the water’s surface without even giving it a chance to run.

This was why he had chosen the Dali Ma Line; with exceptional fish like these, he would not give them any chance to escape, even if it took more effort to reel them in.

Playing the fish would have been easier on him.

However, with Chu Mingcheng’s life conversion ability, he wasn’t concerned about the physical strain today.

Gripping the Rat Spot by the mouth and tail, he swam back to the boat.

It might have been a bit of a hassle, but the fish was worth it.

With the Rat Spot, his catch for the night was quite impressive.

Chu Mingcheng even thought about trying to surpass his earnings from yesterday afternoon since there were so many groupers today!

He busied himself until ten at night, when he finally returned to the boat, gasping for breath.

He had caught a total of thirteen different grouper species, five parrotfish, and one green dress.

Fishing wasn’t as efficient as hunting, but the fish were all alive.

Feeling a bit tired now, Chu Mingcheng hesitated between going back to sleep and using life conversion to continue.

At ten o’clock, the fish had all hidden away to sleep, and not many were still wandering about.

Earlier, he had used bait near a crevice for quite a while, but no fish emerged, so he decided to dive down and try to catch them by hand, unfortunately, the crevice was large and the fish got away.

Baiting seemed to be ineffective now, so he’d have to resort to a spear.

After considering it for three seconds and thinking about his five life conversion opportunities, he decided not to save them and used one.

Instantly, his physical condition improved slightly, but his energy was mostly restored.

Chu Mingcheng picked up the spear, ready to continue fishing.

This time, his main targets were fish of similar value whether fresh on ice or alive, such as Rat Spot, which had a large price difference and needed to be preserved for sustainable development.

Having almost completely explored the nearby coral reef, Chu Mingcheng started by driving the boat to the other side of the reef, an area he hadn’t checked yet.

Only after getting into the water did he discover that this area was deeper than where he had been before.

Fish like to stay in deeper water at night, so Chu Mingcheng dived straight to the bottom.

When he reached it, he realized it was a sandy bed at least fifty meters deep, which formed a small fault line next to the coral reef.

A depth of over fifty meters wasn’t much of a problem for Chu Mingcheng, but what could he find on a sandy bed? He was about to swim up to the coral when his movement stirred up the water and disturbed the sand bed.

As he turned to swim upward, the water flow he had caused stirred up the sand below and a flat fish suddenly shot up. It escaped with an extremely fast swimming technique using its side-to-side movements, startling him with its sudden burst of speed.

But upon seeing it clearly, Chu Mingcheng’s eyes lit up; was that a flounder?

The fish he had seen was much larger than a typical flounder, and its exact species was not clear.

It seemed quite capable of hiding; it remained motionless right beside him until the wash of water from his movement made it bolt suddenly.

Its burst of speed was impressively quick, and it didn’t swim slowly either; it wouldn’t be easy to chase down.

But since there was a flounder here, perhaps there were more on this sandy bed.

So, Chu Mingcheng held the spear in his hand and used a diving flashlight in his left hand to start searching. He had to recharge his head-mounted light, as its battery was running low.

He had only swum a dozen meters when he spotted another one.

The back of the flounder was almost indistinguishable from the sand bed, and it was almost impossible to make it out unless you looked closely.

However, a closer look revealed a definite outline and the bulging movement of an eyeball.

But its other eyeball, being a bit lower, wasn’t as noticeable.

The outline of this flounder measured seventy to eighty centimeters, which looked quite large.

Chu Mingcheng took aim at its head with the spear. The fish didn’t flee, thinking it was safe.

Suddenly, an arrow pierced through its head—a one-hit kill.

The flounder struggled for only a short while before it ceased to breathe.

Chu Mingcheng swam up slightly, moving away from the stirred-up silt and collected the fish.

The fish was large, but it could be secured with a live fish clip, making it not too troublesome to carry alongside.

Continuing to search for his next target, he swam about twenty meters and found a second flounder.

It wasn’t moving either, just a living target.

This fish didn’t seem to live alone, and for those who free-dive for fishing, encountering such fish meant a bountiful harvest.

After catching eight flounders, Chu Mingcheng felt significantly more strained in his movements.

Though the fish had flat bodies, their weight was anything but light.

Taking advantage of the fact that he could still swim, Chu Mingcheng decided to return to the boat first.

However, it turned out to be quite challenging to lift the fish out of the water.

As a result, he had to get onto the boat first, then he managed to haul the fish up.

Out of curiosity, Chu Mingcheng took out the encyclopaedia, followed by the electronic scale and ruler.

He measured the largest one, which was eighty-three centimeters in length but weighed an astonishing twenty-five catties and seven taels. No wonder it was so heavy.

Even the smallest one here was fifty centimeters long and weighed over ten catties upon weighing; all eight together were about a hundred catties, no surprise he felt the heaviness.

It seemed that this type of fish would yield a high amount of meat.

Picking up the encyclopaedia, he first checked the fish’s mouth and eyes; they were oriented to the left.

That meant it was a Left Mouth Fish, which made it easy to identify.

It was only at the end that he found out this fish was called a flounder, also known as Emperor Fish, and the largest ones could grow to over a meter in length.

This fish was very suitable for sashimi in Japanese cuisine, with tender, sweet flesh.

He wasn’t sure about the price yet, and would need to check when he had a signal.

He took out a foam box, filled it with ice and the fish, and then Chu Mingcheng went back down to continue hunting.

After an hour and two more trips, he had caught about twenty-five flounders, weighing around 300 catties in total.

Many more were left untouched, but they were all smaller than fifty centimeters.

He hadn’t explored farther areas either, mainly because these three trips had tired him out, and the depth of diving accelerated the consumption of his energy.

And since the boat couldn’t fit any more, he headed back to wash up and sleep.

The next morning, Chu Mingcheng had breakfast and took advantage of the peak fish biting period to go fishing at the coral reef again. He didn’t encounter any particularly valuable groupers, just ordinary ones like the green spot grouper.

He also caught some Ban Qin shrimp, and it took the whole morning.

So far, he had thirty-six Ban Qin shrimp larger than twenty centimeters. The smaller ones were all kept by Chu Mingcheng in another fish box to raise.

He planned to cook these for Jiang Luoluo when she returned. After posting pictures of the feast last time, the responses he received were so envious, he couldn’t afford not to save some for his future girlfriend.

After a shower, he set off on his return journey.

Once he reached an area with a signal, Chu Mingcheng stopped the boat and started taking photos of the fish to sell.

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But when it came to the Rat Spot, he hesitated.

After some thought, he still took a photo and sent it to Wei Jiaguo.

The reputation of Rat Spot was such that Wei Jiaguo replied nearly instantly, “How many catties?”

Chu Mingcheng took out the electronic scale, placed a basin on it, zeroed out the weight, and then put the Rat Spot on the scale. It weighed eleven catties and two taels.

He took a photo of the weight and sent it over.

Ten seconds later, Wei Jiaguo sent a transfer notification for twelve thousand yuan.

Chu Mingcheng’s lips curved into a slight smile, and he replied, “Thank you, Grandpa. My boat will reach the dock in half an hour.”

There was no response from Wei Jiaguo on the other end; he was probably already on his way by car.

Next, Chu Mingcheng posted pictures of his other catches to the group chat, including the Ban Qin shrimp.

The catch on the boat was quite rare, so it sold easily.

Two-thirds of the groupers and other fish were snapped up instantly, leaving Chu Mingcheng to keep the rest to sell to the local Seafood Restaurant.

The flounder sold well too; the customers in the group chat didn’t care about the size this time, almost everyone wanted one.

With only twenty-five in total, he forcefully reserved the five largest ones for himself in the end.

He sold a total of 203 catties of flounder, and he had found the price as well, eighty yuan per catty, totaling sixteen thousand two hundred yuan.

The groupers along with the coral fish and other miscellaneous ones sold for a total of eighteen thousand five hundred yuan.

All thirty-six Ban Qin shrimp were sold out. The twenty-two without roe were sold for 280 yuan, weighing fifteen catties and four taels, amounting to four thousand three hundred yuan.

The remaining ones with roe sold for 380 yuan, weighing nine catties and three taels, totaling 3,500 yuan.

Indeed, despite high prices, the sales didn’t surpass that of a single Rat Spot.

It seemed that this type could be a good option to catch when there were fewer fish available.

Driving the boat back, he contacted the transportation truck as well. By now, he was a regular customer of the transport company, and they came immediately upon his call.

However, this time Chu Mingcheng wanted to transport live seafood and requested that the company bring oxygenation equipment.

Upon returning to the dock, Wei Jiaguo had already arrived.

He boarded the boat as soon as it was docked and was surprised to find many flounders and marks on them.

Then, he looked at the live fish tank and the catch in the fish boxes, various premium groupers and coral fish, even Ban Qin shrimp, and he didn’t know how to express his emotions.

With trembling lips and shaking hands, he pointed at the catch, “Did you catch all these by yourself?”

Chu Mingcheng shrugged, “If there’s a third person on the boat, I’d have to find a way to invite Uncle Ying out.”

Wei Jiaguo was extremely envious. What a rich fishing spot this was!

He had toiled in the Far Sea for two days and still hadn’t achieved such an impressive haul.

After that, he approached his Rat Spot, gently stroking it as if he were patting his son’s head.