I Can Fish Up Everything!

Fishing is all about patience and luck. If dredging the bottom over twenty times isn’t enough, then you just keep going.

No one knows if the next cast will catch a fish. It might have been the one, but if you suddenly switch spots or stop fishing, it’s no surprise when you get skunked.

At least, Gu Nan and Wang Junhe were a stark contrast right now.

In less than two minutes, a flat fish appeared on the surface.

"A flounder?" Gu Nan was surprised. He hadn’t expected to catch this kind of fish here at the sea gate.

’Left is turbot, right is flounder.’ Since the fish’s mouth was on the right, he could of course identify it.

"Yep. The other fish I mentioned was the youbian," Wang Junhe said, nodding as he continued dredging the bottom.

At this point, he was beginning to understand why Gu Nan could catch fish by the bridge pier while he always got skunked.

’His luck is just too good. How long has he been here? And he’s already caught two.’

"So it’s a youbian," Gu Nan said, realization dawning. Youbian, or Asian tonguefish, was a very nutritious type of right-eyed flounder.

It was a relatively common sight in Yangjiang Port, and their numbers were plentiful.

The price was quite good, though. At this time of year, it could retail for fifty yuan per jin.

There weren’t many wild-caught sea fish that cost less than fifty yuan. The cheaper ones generally tasted worse—like mullet, for example, which only went for around ten or twenty yuan a jin.

Generally, fish priced at forty or fifty yuan and up tasted much better, which made the youbian a pretty good deal.

Even after the fishing season began, hook-caught hairtail would cost over sixty, and that was just for the three-finger-wide ones. And there were far more hairtail than youbian.

This youbian wasn’t large, only about seven or eight liang. Gu Nan unhooked it, tossed it into his keepnet, and went back to dredging the bottom.

After another half hour, Wang Junhe finally caught a small mullet. Even though it was less than a jin, he grinned like a child.

He didn’t fish for money, but purely for the joy of the catch, so he didn’t care what kind of fish it was.

Gu Nan’s haul was also "just average"—he had only caught three more youbian, each a little over a jin.

’It’s about time. The chum should be working now.’ He ladled a scoop of Antarctic krill and tossed it into the chummed spot, clearly seeing fish break the surface to snatch at the bait.

Wang Junhe saw it too and nodded, getting ready to change his bait and start fishing in earnest.

Gu Nan didn’t change his bait, but he did attach a slip float designed for night fishing.

’This soft shrimp lure of his was produced by the game. Its appeal to fish was only a tad less than real live shrimp, and that was the true reason he had caught more fish than Wang Junhe.’

He raised his rod and dropped his baited hook into the chummed area. The slip float bobbed quietly on the surface of the sea.

The splash of the lure scattered the school of fish gathered in the chum, but they slowly drew near again once they sensed no danger.

As they drew closer, a few of them caught the faint, tempting scent of the lure.

The rocking of the waves on the float made the lure sway gently, mimicking a slowly swimming shrimp. This immediately piqued the interest of several greedy fish.

The fastest fish was the first to swallow the lure.

The next moment, a sharp pain shot through its mouth. Realizing it had fallen for a trap, it fled in a panic, dragging the float on the surface along with it.

Seeing the float get dragged under the water and run for a short distance, Gu Nan quickly raised his fishing rod.

The rod bent into an arc. The hook was set.

This fish was a fighter, though. Although it wasn’t as strong as one of those from the Ugly Country, its strength was not to be underestimated.

Wang Junhe watched him with envy. "Brother, you hook fish so easily. You got some kind of secret technique?"

"What secret technique? I’m just fishing normally," Gu Nan teased him. "It’s just that some people... they might have a natural talent for getting skunked. A whole school of fish could be right in front of them, and they still wouldn’t get a bite!"

"..." Wang Junhe was speechless. He didn’t want to admit it, but he’d fished with many people, and most of the time, his haul was indeed the smallest. This was probably a classic case of ’the worse you are, the more addicted you get.’

But seeing the fish had broken the surface, he grabbed the landing net anyway and helped scoop it up.

"A Sea Bass. Not bad. It’s no smaller than the one I sold this afternoon."

Satisfied, Gu Nan grabbed the fish from the landing net, unhooked it, and tossed it into his keepnet.

The sea gate was a great fishing spot, way better than the reef area and even a little better than the spot by the bridge pier.

Fishing by the bridge piers was a matter of luck. Some were teeming with fish underneath, while others had very few.

And if you arrived late, the best spots were usually already taken.

The sea gate was different. It was spacious and remote.

Plenty of anglers came here, but there was always enough room for everyone to find a suitable spot.

The chum was really working now. Both Gu Nan and Wang Junhe got busy. They were mostly catching youbian, which were small enough that they didn’t need a landing net; you could just lift them straight out of the water.

The waves would spread the tossed Antarctic krill, carrying it farther out and drawing in more fish.

To keep the chum spot active, the two of them had to toss in another scoop of bait every so often.

The strategy worked wonderfully, and they pulled one youbian after another from the water, which was a delightful feeling.

Around 10:30 PM, Gu Nan saw that he only had a third of his Antarctic krill bait left.

The tackle shops were all closed by this hour. "Why don’t we call it a night?" he said. "I have to get up bright and early to open the shop tomorrow!"

Even with his knack for getting skunked, Wang Junhe had a great time fishing tonight. His keepnet finally held five or six youbian, along with a few worthless mullet and tilapia.

He checked the time and saw how late it was. "Holy shit!"

"I’m done for, I’m done for. I’m going to be locked out for sure, getting home this late. Let’s go, let’s go! We have to hurry back."

Gu Nan’s lip twitched. ’What has marriage wrought upon men?’

Still, he moved quickly, putting some water into the fish tank before pulling up his keepnet.

They lifted their keepnets at almost the same time. One was bulging so much it was stretched out of shape; the other looked exactly the same as it did before.

Wang Junhe: "..."

’Another day, another dose of joy that lasts less than three seconds.’

But this wasn’t the time to dwell on it. They dumped the keepnets into the fish tank, shouldered their fishing gear, placed their tackle boxes on top of the tank, and then lifted the whole thing and started walking.

’The tricycle can’t get over here, so this is just an average fishing spot for me. Not exactly ideal. The bridge pier is still more convenient.’

They carried the tank all the way back to the tricycle and loaded up the rest of their things. Wang Junhe sat on the tricycle, panting.

’This guy’s a bit out of shape!’

Gu Nan thought to himself as he went to a small fork in the road ahead and turned the tricycle around to head back.

"Brother, are you free the day after tomorrow?" Wang Junhe asked suddenly, after catching his breath.

Gu Nan didn’t say whether he was free or not, asking instead, "What’s up? Something going on?"

"The day after tomorrow, I’m planning to go out to sea with a few fishing buddies. You should come if you’re free."

"You have a boat? How long will you be out?"

Gu Nan’s eyes lit up. ’So, wasting my time fishing with him tonight was the right move after all,’ he thought. ’Look at this, a free trip out to sea.’

Seeing he was interested, Wang Junhe continued, "Of course I have a boat. I just can’t take it out every day. The wife at home keeps a tight leash on me."

"My kid has the day off, so I’m taking him and the wife out for fun anyway. We’ll just be out for the day, but we’re leaving at six in the morning, so you’d need to be up by five-something."

"No problem. Let’s get in touch then." ’Just one day,’ Gu Nan thought. ’That’s even better for me.’

’Fish the local waters during the day, fish the Fengqi Coast at night. Perfect.’