I Can Fish Up Everything!

"Whoa, bro, you snuck out to catch big fish again? This Spanish mackerel is gorgeous. You gotta save it for me, my friend. I’m busy right now, but I’ll come find you at noon."

Wang Junhe replied almost instantly. He’d also gotten the news about the school of Spanish mackerel in the middle of the night.

But as a family man, how could he possibly go out to sea in the middle of the night? By the time morning came, the school had dispersed, so he decided to just get his work for the day out of the way first.

"No problem, no problem. I guarantee I’ll keep it safe for you." Gu Nan had thus fulfilled his promise to contact them first thing whenever he caught a big fish.

Guo Xiao, however, hadn’t replied yet. He was probably busy.

’Whatever. Seventy-five daily guaranteed catches... I’m going to be busy today!’

Gu Nan switched to a jigging lure and began to bottom fish.

To catch more blue crabs, lobsters, and even Elite Bosses, he wasn’t planning on going after Indian marlin for the next few days.

Anyway, he still had two in cold storage. He could sell them to Zhao Jie later, which would be enough to tide him over for half a month.

But the saying "the bite is always hot after a typhoon" was no joke. Morning was peak feeding time for the fish.

Gu Nan didn’t use his guaranteed catches right away. Instead, he decided to test the waters first and see how the fish were biting.

If the bite was good, he would fish normally in the morning and save the guaranteed catches for the afternoon when the bite slowed down.

As the jigging lure dropped into the water, it attracted the attention of numerous fish.

In the distance, a huge, dark shadow appeared. Every flick of its tail sent ripples spreading through the water.

Wherever the large fish passed, smaller fish scattered, terrified of being accidentally swallowed.

This type of large fish had a varied diet: small fish, crabs, squid, octopus—it wouldn’t pass up anything edible.

However, small fish were agile. With its massive body, it had a hard time chasing them unless it stumbled upon a large school.

Therefore, slower-moving or crawling creatures were its prime targets.

’Every scrap of food is precious. This strange falling morsel is small, but it could at least tide me over, right?’

It slowly approached the jigging lure, circled it once, and then opened its great mouth and swallowed it whole.

Then it turned and continued swimming toward a distant area where there were more fish.

But after swimming a short distance, it immediately sensed something was wrong. ’Why is there a sharp, needle-like pain in my throat?’

Just as it instinctively tried to spit out the object in its throat, the pain became searing. At the same time, a massive force struck, yanking its head upward.

On the boat, Gu Nan saw the line being pulled away and knew a fish had taken the bait. He immediately jerked the rod to set the hook.

To his surprise, the hook set was incredibly solid; he could barely move it.

Realizing what was happening, he knew he’d hooked a big one. He immediately hugged the fishing rod, bracing his legs against the gunwale for leverage.

Sure enough, a moment later, a massive force surged through the rod.

’Not bad, not bad. A very solid pull, but not as strong as I expected.’

After getting a feel for the fish’s strength, Gu Nan switched from hugging the rod to gripping it and began to play the fish to wear down its stamina.

He couldn’t guess its exact size, but it felt similar to a sixty or seventy-pound marlin, though its charge wasn’t quite as powerful.

The fish wasn’t diving; it was running for the horizon. For Gu Nan, this was the easiest kind of fish to fight.

He locked the drag and raised the rod high, two simple moves that put immense pressure on the fish.

The great fish thrashed its tail nonstop, its mouth agape as it struggled to surge forward.

But after only seven or eight minutes, it was exhausted. Its forward momentum died, and unable to pull any longer, it instinctively began to swim to the left.

When Gu Nan saw the angle of the line change and start moving left, he knew the fish was tired.

He lowered the rod, then suddenly pumped it upward while his right hand grabbed the crank and rapidly reeled in the line.

Sure enough, the fish couldn’t fight it and was dragged back a couple of feet.

For a fish over fifty-five pounds, the line and lure couldn’t completely drain its stamina, so even though the fish was exhausted and weak, it would still struggle occasionally.

It was over a hundred meters out, and it took Gu Nan another six or seven minutes to drag the beast to the side of the boat.

It was about five feet long, but it was an Ugly Country Red Drum.

The fish wasn’t very valuable, but it was good for putting on display to attract a crowd.

’If I don’t catch any other big fish today, this one would look pretty good on display at the shop entrance.’

The newly installed hoist came in handy right away. He looped a rope around the fish’s tail, started the hoist, and lifted the big guy out of the water.

He snapped a photo for posterity, then opened the livewell and found that the fish just barely fit inside.

A fish this big couldn’t be kept alive for long, but putting it in there would at least let it last for a few more hours.

After that, Gu Nan continued to fish normally, but aside from that first big one, his subsequent catches were mostly the usual seafood from the Fengqi Coast.

Even though the bite was better than usual today, it couldn’t compare to the yields from the game map.

Since that was the case, and with no one else around, a thought struck Gu Nan, and two stickers materialized in his hand.

One was a Rare Fish Bonus sticker, the other a Big Fish Bonus sticker. He applied them to his purple Fengqi Fishing Rod, and its stats immediately changed to: Big Fish Bonus +55%, Rare Fish Bonus +34%.

He only had ten of these two types of stickers in total, so Gu Nan hoped for a good haul.

With the stickers applied, he cast his lure into the water and let it sink quickly to the bottom.

The water here was only thirty-seven meters deep, and the lure hit the reef at the bottom in no time.

Gu Nan was worried he might hook a Giant-class or higher Elite Boss, so he adjusted the drag, making sure it wasn’t completely locked.

Then he slowly turned the crank, lightly twitching the rod to begin bouncing the lure off the bottom.