Chapter 94 - 90: Empress Angelfish
Watching the handle spin on its own as the fish continuously pulled out the line, Gu Nan just tightened the drag a bit. He didn’t try to brute-force the fight like he did this morning.
This was because the fish was sprinting in the upper water layer and showed no intention of diving for the bottom.
Besides, he was going to start fishing for Indian Marlin after dinner, so he needed to conserve his energy now.
Gu Nan raised the rod and held it to his chest. This angle made it harder for the fish to escape. He then started to walk the fish, wearing down its stamina.
The rod bent dramatically, but both the line and the lure had stamina-draining functions. This quickly made the fish seem to lose its strength, and its speed plummeted.
Gu Nan wasn’t in a hurry. He continued to walk the fish for another five or six minutes. Only after confirming that the fish was completely exhausted did he quickly turn the handle to reel in the line.
Despite how energetically the fish was running, the line it pulled out never exceeded thirty meters.
Of course, with the special attributes of the Fengqi Fishing Rod, he wasn’t afraid of being unable to reel the fish back in even if it ran far.
Aside from some huge monsters whose stamina recovery during rest outpaced the extra drain from the line and lure, the stamina recovery of fish under twenty pounds basically couldn’t keep up.
The fish was pulled to the surface, lying on its side with almost no energy left to move.
He pulled it closer for a look. ’Holy cow, it’s a big grouper, probably around eight or nine pounds.’
Gu Nan picked up the fish gripper and lifted the exhausted grouper. Just shy of ten pounds. Another seven hundred-plus in the bank. ’Sweet.’
He didn’t take a picture of this fish to post in the group chat. Now wasn’t the time.
If he attracted those two old fishing buffs from the morning, it would be a hassle and might affect his night fishing.
The fish were biting like crazy right now. After catching the grouper, he landed several black porgy, Yellowfin Gidai, and Sea Bass. But most of his catches were still scorpionfish and rabbitfish.
Occasionally, he would also catch some worthless small fry. He’d just unhook them and toss them far away.
Around six-thirty, Gu Nan added some more water to the fish tank to make it less crowded for the fish inside.
’A miscalculation. I didn’t expect the fishing to be this good here. If I’d known, I would have brought my other tank.’
With the aerator running, the fish could last the night. But if he kept fishing like this, there wouldn’t be enough oxygen in the water, and they’d all be dead by morning.
Thinking about how fishing for Fengqi Coast fish tonight would also land him local species, Gu Nan sorted through his catch and threw the especially small scorpionfish, rabbitfish, and black porgy back into the sea.
Afterwards, Gu Nan carried his dinner over to the tent and started eating. He wolfed down three bowls of rice and ate two-thirds of the other dishes, saving the rest for a midnight snack.
He hadn’t been entirely joking with the boat captain. Eating too much now would affect his fishing performance later. If he got hungry while fishing at night, he could eat the rest then. It was summer, so he didn’t have to worry about the food getting cold and inedible.
He walked around a bit to aid digestion, then took a small shovel and some tissues, dug a hole in the sand on the west side, "fertilized the earth," and then buried it properly.
Feeling much lighter, Gu Nan returned to his fishing spot. He switched to a night-fishing float, put on a larger lure, and equipped a safety lanyard and a fighting belt.
He glanced at his feet. The rolling pin was there too.
’Okay, time to begin.’
Gu Nan opened the map and used his daily guaranteed-catch attempt.
A dozen or so seconds later...
The tip of the fishing rod clearly dipped and sprang back twice, then the float was suddenly yanked away and vanished.
At the same time, a BOSS symbol appeared on the water’s surface.
’Holy cow, starting with the final boss?’
’This is the third time.’ Gu Nan was a little speechless. ’Why does this BOSS always get hooked when I least expect it?’
Fortunately, this was the most prepared he’d ever been. He immediately braced the rod against his stomach and yanked back hard.
But he didn’t touch the handle. He just adjusted the drag and let the line out, allowing the fish to run.
The blue-grade line and lure were slow and less effective at draining a big BOSS’s stamina, but they weren’t completely useless.
Gu Nan, who was planning to fish all night, had no intention of fighting the fish head-on. As a result, this Indian Marlin ran a hundred meters in just two minutes.
He kept the rod held high, constantly watching the line on the reel, planning to let the fish run for another hundred meters.
The power of this fish was a bit weaker than the last Indian Marlin, but stronger than the first one. He estimated it weighed around ninety pounds.
After it ran for another seventy-odd meters, its speed dropped noticeably.
From the speed at which the line was being pulled out, he could tell the reel wasn’t spinning as fast as it was initially.
This distance was about what he had planned. Originally, Gu Nan had intended to let out two hundred meters of line before starting to walk and pull the fish, but since the fish’s first burst of energy was over, he’d start early.
He let go with his left hand and grabbed the handle to stop more line from going out. With force applied from both sides, the rod suddenly bent down dramatically, almost into an inverted U-shape, and let out a "CREAK... CREAK..." sound.
Holding the rod with two hands, he could stalemate the marlin, but one-handed was a different story.
The angle of the rod slowly lowered, and the bend became less severe.
Gu Nan gripped the rod tightly with his right hand and tried using his core strength to lift the rod up forcefully.
He raised the rod tip to a position above his head and, at the same time, seized the opportunity to quickly turn the handle with his left hand, retrieving two rotations of line. But on the third turn, it got stuck.
’The fish still has plenty of fight left.’ Gu Nan decided to lock the drag completely and went back to holding the rod with both hands.
It was just as he thought. After its first burst, the fish’s pulling power was diminished. With the drag completely locked, it could barely budge him anymore.
Gu Nan’s breathing also grew heavy, and he was occasionally dragged forward a couple of steps by the fish, but it was countless times easier than the last time.
However, since he wasn’t controlling the reel, a bit more line was pulled out. The fish was now more than two hundred meters away.
They were locked in this struggle, and more than twenty minutes slowly passed.
The fish was finding it harder and harder to run, and Gu Nan could clearly feel the pressure lighten.
He grabbed the handle again and tried to pump the rod and reel in line. This time, it was much smoother.
Although it was still exhausting work, it was much easier than before, so he began to continuously reel in the line.
After repeating this seven or eight times, Gu Nan’s arms were sore and his back ached. The physical exertion was significant, forcing him to stop and rest for a moment.
No matter what techniques he used, the fish’s size was a fact. Catching it was still incredibly difficult.
He stopped to walk the fish for a bit, also giving himself a chance to catch his breath.
After a short while, once his breathing stabilized, he continued.
Fortunately, the longer it went on, the weaker the fish became. By the time he had reeled the line back to within a hundred meters, the fish was completely exhausted, lying flat on the water’s surface, barely struggling.
Even though Gu Nan was dead tired, he actually sped up his reeling now.
This was because Indian Marlin recover their stamina very quickly. If he didn’t reel it in fast, it could put up another two or three fights.
In total, it took nearly an hour before an almost two-meter-long Indian Marlin was pulled to the shore.
Gu Nan picked up the rolling pin, lifted the rod to keep the line taut, and walked right up to the fish.
He kept the rolling pin in hand as he grabbed the line to pull it taut. With his left hand, he put down the rod, seized the fish’s long bill, and hauled it upward. He then let go of the line and brought the rolling pin down straight onto the fish’s head.
The fish barely managed a few token struggles before it was knocked unconscious.
Gu Nan strenuously dragged the fish further ashore, removed the hooked lure from its mouth, and then immediately stored it in the Iced-Fresh Pavilion.
The Iced-Fresh Pavilion began to work quickly: bleeding, cleaning, and gutting the fish, followed by the dry-aging process.
Gu Nan returned to the fish tank, picked up a bottle of mineral water, and chugged half of it in one go before resting for a bit.
He had to admit, with the ample sea spray on the reef and the cool sea breeze, it wasn’t as hot as it was on the shore.
After being bled and gutted, this Indian Marlin would probably weigh only seventy to eighty pounds. If they were all this size, he’d need to catch three of them.
But even though Gu Nan wasn’t in as bad shape as last time, he still needed some time to recover.
So he changed the line setup on his rod, switched the lure to a jig, and prepared to do some bottom-jigging in this area with its complex underwater terrain.
Holding the rod, he made a light cast, and the lure traced an arc before landing in the water.
After the jig hit the bottom, Gu Nan started tapping the rod tip to work the lure.
He didn’t use his guaranteed-catch chance. Because of the rod’s attribute bonuses, fish caught with the guarantee were a real struggle to land unless they were small to begin with.
Free-fishing was different. The catch size was basically determined by the lure size, and fishing near the shore usually yielded smaller fish.
And sure enough, after only about a minute of jigging, he felt a tug on the rod. The pull wasn’t strong, but it wasn’t particularly weak either.
Gu Nan reeled in quickly and swung the fish directly out of the water. It had a milky-white mouth, a black band between its eyes, and a primarily golden-yellow body covered in vertical blue stripes.
One look and he could tell it was an ornamental fish, and most likely not a local species.
Gu Nan unhooked the lure, and with a thought, the fish was indeed transferred into his Aquarium.
He then cast his lure out to continue bottom-jigging while opening the game’s Fish-o-pedia.
It was a two-star fish. He first collected 200 Gold Coins. Adding the 1,000 Gold Coins from the Indian Marlin, his savings now reached 4,800.
The fish’s scientific name was *Pomacanthus imperator*, but it had a very grand common name: the Emperor Angelfish.
It was distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific region, from East Africa to the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.
It was an ornamental fish with no economic value for consumption.
The Emperor Angelfish is a relatively easy ornamental fish to keep and is very popular on the market.
The one Gu Nan got from the game was from Indonesia, so it was also called the Indonesian Emperor Angelfish. The suggested price started at six hundred, with a maximum of two thousand.
The price mainly depended on size. A ten-centimeter one was six hundred, while one over twenty-five centimeters could sell for two thousand.
In theory, this fish could grow up to thirty-eight centimeters, but specimens over thirty centimeters seemed rare.
Gu Nan’s was about sixteen or seventeen centimeters, so it could probably sell for a thousand.
’Tomorrow, I’ll check my inventory back at the shop and arrange to ship this ornamental fish out with the others. Kang Ye and Zhao Jie might be interested.’
’It’s one thing to give away Stab-tailed Fish; they’re plentiful. But an elite-grade ornamental fish from the collection that can sell for a thousand? No way I’m giving that away for free.’
After catching a few more fish by bottom-jigging, Gu Nan had recovered a lot of his stamina, so he activated his daily guaranteed-catch chance again.
One giant Large-spot Grouper...
One large Blue Star Nine-spine Sea Perch...
One Legendary Black-striped Small Stripes Buri...
His first Legendary-level two-star fish. Gu Nan glanced at the Fish-o-pedia: sixty-five centimeters, with an estimated weight of over fourteen pounds. ’No wonder it was a tough fight.’
If it weren’t for the major restrictions the line and lure placed on it, there’s no way he could have landed the fish in under five minutes.