Chapter 48: Redeeming the Blue Fishing Rod
An Jun was coming back from Southeast Asia today. He’d even sent a message yesterday asking Gu Nan to pick him up from the airport in the afternoon.
But how could Gu Nan possibly have time to get him? He was going to spend the whole day fishing at the bridge pier, and besides, he didn’t even have a car.
After leaving the seafood shop, he rode his tricycle to a 24-hour convenience store and bought a large jug of mineral water and two self-heating rice meals.
He didn’t plan on coming back for lunch, so he needed to sort out his meal at the pier.
He paid, put his things in the tricycle’s cargo bed, and set off.
A little over half an hour later, Gu Nan arrived under the great bridge. Anglers either got up at the crack of dawn or came out at night; they rarely showed up around noon.
So when he got there, not only were there three anglers under the bridge who looked like they’d come as a group, but there were also already two people on the piers he could see. And it was only 6:43 AM.
Coincidentally, the person running the ferry today was a familiar face—the bald guy. He was in the middle of a smoke, but his eyes lit up when he saw Gu Nan, and he immediately came over.
"Hey there, friend! Up early today. Heading to the piers to fish?"
"Look at all my gear. Of course I am," Gu Nan said with a smile, gesturing to the things in the cargo bed.
Not only was the cart full of cases and equipment, but he was also wearing his fishing attire.
"Alright, I’ll help you move your stuff onto the boat." The bald guy tossed his cigarette butt, stamped it out on the ground, and came over to help.
Gu Nan was direct, too. He transferred the money right to him, and then they carried the gear over together.
As the wooden boat set off, the bald guy asked, "So, my friend, which pier are you aiming for today?"
Gu Nan glanced at the pier where he’d been before and saw it was already occupied.
The bald guy noticed his gaze and chuckled. "Ever since you caught that big striped beakfish over there, that pier’s been taken every single day. Even though there haven’t been any big fish the last two days, someone was still waiting there when I showed up at six this morning."
Gu Nan was a little surprised. "How did they know I caught it at this pier? I figured they’d be over at the spot of the guy who bought my fish from me."
"Hehehe. After you caught that striped beakfish, I went up there the next day and caught a 21-jin, Meter Level sea bass not long after. When people asked, I told them about you catching the beakfish. That’s why the pier is always occupied now." The bald guy grinned. He’d made two thousand one hundred from that fish!
He had wanted to come back later, but he could never get the spot again.
Today it was his turn to run the ferry again, so he didn’t have time to fish from the piers. He could only fish for small fry from the shore to pass the time.
"..." ’Well, I’ll be damned. No wonder the news about the striped beakfish got out. It was this bald guy’s doing all along!’
Since his old spot was taken, Gu Nan chose a pier on the other side of the bridge.
Due to its orientation, it seemed fewer people could see him here. Plus, none of the piers on this side were occupied.
First, he used a bucket to fill his two livewells with seawater, then he started rigging his line and sinker.
He was definitely going to be bottom fishing at the pier. Even though he’d use his "Guaranteed Catch" chances first, it would be a hassle to switch rigs later, so Gu Nan went ahead and set up his bottom fishing rig from the start.
He then took out his lure box. The green Fengqi lure box was a bit bigger now, and it contained a few more jigs.
You can use jigs to hit the bottom when bottom fishing, so he chose one and tied it on.
At the same time, Gu Nan took a moment to check his five daily missions.
[Daily Mission 1: Catch ten Black-striped Small Stripes Buri. Reward: 15 EXP, 300 Gold Coins.]
[Daily Mission 2: Catch five Yellowfin Gidai. Reward: 15 EXP, 400 Gold Coins.]
[Daily Mission 3: Catch five Blue-striped Gidai. Reward: 15 EXP, 400 Gold Coins.]
[Daily Mission 4: Catch five Four-star Fish. Reward: 20 EXP, 500 Gold Coins.]
[Daily Mission 5: Unlock a five-star fish species. Reward: 30 EXP, 800 Gold Coins.]
Seeing Mission 5, Gu Nan sighed again. ’This is tough!’
After completing the green set, the mission rewards had increased slightly, but the difficulty had also visibly spiked.
Never mind the fifth daily mission; even the fourth one was hard enough to complete.
Two and three were fine. They were a bit challenging when he only had a short time to fish at night, but now that he had longer, they were a breeze.
It was Mission 1 that frustrated Gu Nan. He knew he could complete it, but ’How am I supposed to sell so many Black-striped Small Stripes Buri!’
He hoped Yi Chen could find some channels. If not, he’d have to do the legwork himself, maybe even leverage his connection with Qiaoya to meet some restaurant or hotel owners, or their purchasing managers.
The only good news was that with the relatively easy second and third missions, completing just one of them would give him enough to redeem the blue fishing rod.
Since he planned on bottom fishing today, he didn’t need to chum. After using up his sixteen "Guaranteed Catch" chances, he could just attach a bait cage and fill it with Antarctic shrimp as an attractant.
With a gentle flick of his rod, the jig landed on the water’s surface five or six meters in front of him.
Gu Nan locked the drag on his reel, then loosened it just a bit.
This would stop the lure from sinking any further and also provide some buffer when a fish took the hook.
A locked drag was fine for small fish, but if he hooked something like that thirty-plus-jin long-snouted trevally from last time, he could actually get pulled into the water if he wasn’t careful.
After waiting about twenty seconds, the rod suddenly bent sharply. Gu Nan seized the moment and decisively jerked the rod to set the hook.
A powerful force pulled back. A Black-striped Small Stripes Buri broke the surface and began swimming powerfully away.
When using a "Guaranteed Catch" chance, he didn’t have to worry about the rod or line breaking. Even without it, his current rod and line could handle a hundred-jin fish, so Gu Nan didn’t need to play the fish at all.
He hauled it in with brute force, like he was pole fishing.
This Black-striped Small Stripes Buri was about six or seven jin—already a large one. Its strength was considerable, and neither the fish nor Gu Nan would give an inch.
After a two-minute stalemate, the fish’s strength waned, its burst of energy spent.
Gu Nan seized the opportunity to reel the fish in. It still had enough energy to try and escape, its tail thrashing and sending water flying everywhere.
He kept the rod high to maintain tension so the hook wouldn’t come loose. Once the fish calmed down, he grabbed the landing net and scooped it up.
This was the advantage of fishing close. If a fish this big had been just five meters further out, it would have taken another minute or two to land.
With the fish landed, Gu Nan set his rod aside, took a pair of scissors from his tackle box, and first plunged them into the fish’s brain.
He held the struggling fish down until it died, then inserted the scissors into its gills to sever the bone connecting to the spine.
He drew some water with his bucket, placed the fish upside down inside it to let the blood drain out, and then went back to fishing.
After using up his sixteen "Guaranteed Catch" chances, he had completed more than half of the first three daily missions.
He had also caught one Four-star Fish: a 3.7-jin diagonal-banded sweetlips. Gu Nan had lifted it with his fish gripper, which had a built-in scale, so he knew the weight.
Next came regular fishing. However, Gu Nan spent a long time tapping the bottom with his jig on the first cast, but nothing bit.
But he could feel the occasional nibble, which told him there probably weren’t any big ones on the bottom. So, he reeled in and switched to a much smaller jig.
The change worked immediately. He caught a three-star Blue-striped Gidai that was about a jin and a half.
Seeing this fish, Gu Nan beamed. Mission 3 was complete, which meant he could finally buy the blue fishing rod.
He felt a little frustrated, having failed to complete Mission 5 for two days in a row.
Someone with an obsessive-compulsive streak would probably pull an all-nighter just to finish the mission.
Gu Nan quickly purchased the blue Fengqi Fishing Rod. He crouched down by his cases, pretending to reach for something on the ground. Using the boxes to block any line of sight, an exquisite, azure-blue rock fishing rod appeared in his hand. It was much more beautiful than the green one.