Chapter 276 - 176: Big Fish Eat Small Fish

Chapter 276: Chapter 176: Big Fish Eat Small Fish

After hanging up, Gu Nan tidied up the scene first to avoid being accused of hoarding the good stuff when the others arrived.

Once he finished cleaning up, he glanced at the water’s surface. Countless fish shadows still swarmed below, and he relaxed. Apparently, as long as the boat’s lights stayed on, the fish wouldn’t leave.

Gu Nan took the Bering Sea fishing rod from its holder. He decided to cast it once to test the fish’s strength before deciding how many electric reel rods to use.

SPLASH! The lure hit the water and immediately caught the attention of the fish below.

Beneath the lights, a dark shadow visible to the naked eye shot toward the lure. The next moment, the rod in Gu Nan’s hand bent, and the line went taut.

He had the drag set to its maximum. The blue reel’s drag wasn’t particularly high, only about fifty pounds. Even a small tuna could pull line, though not very quickly.

Gu Nan gave the line a sharp tug to set the hook, getting a feel for the fish’s strength at the same time.

It felt like it was only around ten or twenty pounds. Although a fish’s pull is several times its own weight, this level of resistance posed no challenge to the rod, the line, or Gu Nan himself.

Bracing with his core, he stopped the tuna in its tracks and began reeling in the line.

But it was a tuna, after all. Even if it wasn’t large, its bursts of power were intense. During its occasional struggles, even Gu Nan couldn’t move it, and they’d be locked in a stalemate for a moment.

Fortunately, he had only cast the lure about ten meters away. With so little line out, the tuna didn’t get far after taking the bait before he started pulling it back. As a result, in less than two minutes, the fish was at the surface next to the boat.

Gu Nan took a closer look but couldn’t identify the species. ’Could it be some kind of bonito?’

If it had been a yellowfin, bluefin, or bigeye tuna of only ten-something pounds, he would have just released it.

So, instead of using a gaff, Gu Nan grabbed a landing net and scooped the fish aboard to prevent it from escaping. Then, he used his appraisal function on it.

[Qinggan Tuna: A small species of tuna with a maximum length of 1.4 meters. Fish in a normal school have an average weight of around ten pounds, with some inshore specimens weighing as little as two or three pounds. A recreational game fish. Suggested selling price: ten yuan per jin. Not recyclable.]

"T-Ten yuan?"

Gu Nan’s face fell. It was the first time he’d ever encountered such a cheap tuna. No wonder he’d never heard of it before.

For anglers who could go out to sea often, the Qinggan Tuna was an excellent recreational fish. It was a thrill to catch, just like bonito.

They didn’t care whether it was valuable or not; the thrill of the catch was what mattered.

But for a professional fisherman like Gu Nan, who fished for a living, a school of these fish wasn’t really worth the effort. They were small and cheap, a waste of time and bait. Unless you had a trawler and could scoop them all up at once—then you could make some money through sheer volume.

Since the Qinggan Tuna were all this small, Gu Nan decided not to release them.

Other than the Star Chicken Fish, his shop didn’t have anything particularly cheap. He might as well catch a batch to take back and let his customers have a taste of tuna.

Pinning down the tuna, Gu Nan’s hands started shaking uncontrollably, as if he were having a seizure.

He had to admit, for such a small fish, it was still incredibly strong.

Once it was on the deck, it was as if someone had flipped a switch. It thrashed its tail, shaking nonstop. That frequency... Tsk tsk.

Gu Nan smacked the fish on the head a couple of times with the handle of his landing net, stunning it. Then, he took out his filleting knife and made an incision inside its gills.

He then got a plastic crate, filled it about two-thirds full with seawater from a bucket, and tossed the fish inside to let it slowly bleed out.

Since the Qinggan Tuna weren’t valuable, Gu Nan didn’t bother using his electric reel rods to catch them simultaneously.

Otherwise, if he got bites on two rods at once, he’d be in a complete flurry trying to bleed them both.

After Gu Nan had caught about ten of them, a light appeared on the distant sea. A short while later, Wang Junhe’s familiar small luxury fishing boat appeared before him.

"Ah Nan, how’s the catch?" An Jun called out, waving from the deck.

"I just got started myself, only caught about ten so far," Gu Nan said, holding his rod.

"Holy shit, you’ve already caught ten in such a short time?" Guo Xiao, who was next to them, looked shocked. It hadn’t been clear on the phone; he had assumed Gu Nan was talking about huge fish weighing dozens or even hundreds of pounds.

"They’re all small. Just look in the water and you’ll see," Gu Nan said, pointing at the surface.

With the arrival of the other boat, which also had its lights on, a portion of the school was drawn over to it.

Guo Xiao and An Jun looked at the water and saw numerous dark shapes. The school of tuna was active in the upper water column, making them very conspicuous.

"Tuna this small?" An Jun immediately looked disdainful. How much fat could a small fish like this have?

Guo Xiao, however, had already guessed. "Are they Qinggan Tuna?" he asked.

"Yep, that’s them."

"Not bad. They put up a strong fight, no worse than torpedo fish."

Guo Xiao had been wondering why a school of tuna would appear so close to shore, since it wasn’t the season for yellowfin to migrate inshore. Learning they were Qinggan Tuna, he had a moment of sudden realization.

In all his years of fishing, he had only ever encountered them once. It was normal that he didn’t recognize them right away after so long.

Wang Junhe heard their conversation from the cabin. Realizing they were Qinggan Tuna, he simply stopped the boat and dropped anchor.

If they had been larger tuna, he would have had to keep the boat at a distance. But with small ones, it didn’t matter; even if a fish got hooked, it couldn’t run far.

After anchoring the boat, he came out of the cabin with his fishing rod. "Enough chitchat. The school will leave at dawn. Look at the time, let’s get fishing."

Guo Xiao realized he was right. They probably had two more hours of fishing at most. He hurried to get his rod, and An Jun did the same.

Seeing this, Gu Nan also turned his attention back to his rod, waiting for the next tuna to bite.

With a school this large, there was no need for chum. Once the bait was in the water, sometimes a fish would bite immediately, other times it would take a moment.

He jigged his rod up and down to make the bait move, which made the fish bite faster.

And just like that, after only two jerks of the rod, the line went taut again.

Having caught about ten Qinggan Tuna already, Gu Nan was familiar with their strength. The one on the line now wasn’t big, maybe only five or six pounds.

It struggled against him for half a minute before running out of steam, and he quickly reeled it in.

Catching these fish was a thrill, but without a deckhand, having to bleed them all himself was a hassle.

After making the cut, Gu Nan placed the fish head-down in the bleeding crate.

There were already six other fish bleeding in the crate, almost filling it completely.

Gu Nan picked up the fish that had been bleeding the longest, rinsed it in a nearby bucket of water, and saw that the water running off it was only faintly red. He then placed it in a styrofoam cooler filled with ice.

The processing was a bit rough, but that was all these small, cheap tuna deserved.

At least he was bleeding them. If it were commercial tuna fishermen, their assembly-line methods would probably be even cruder.

Big fish eat small fish. It’s the law of the ocean’s food chain.

Just as Gu Nan and the others were fishing in a frenzy, a small group of much larger tuna was drawn to the area.

Not only were they curious about the lights, but there was also an abundance of food.

It was a well-known fact that the best bait for catching large tuna was smaller tuna or bonito. Mackerel and sardines were nothing in comparison.

But the large tuna didn’t surface to feed. Instead, they weaved back and forth through the school underwater.

Although they didn’t catch something every time they passed through, if they made enough passes, they were bound to find a slow one.

Furthermore, these large tuna paid special attention to any that were injured or swimming erratically.

At that moment, An Jun had a satisfied smile on his face. He had already landed two fish, and a third one was now on his line.

With these, his little shop could make plenty of marinated raw tuna or sashimi. It didn’t matter that the fish weren’t expensive; as long as he could turn a profit, he was happy.

He was the type to get tired of things quickly. He was already bored with being a food blogger, but the raw marinated seafood shop was something new and exciting for him.

For him, making money was secondary. He had also invested a lot of money in Jin Enfei’s online cosmetics shop. Although it had just started, business was already good, and it was likely to be very profitable in the future.

So, for An Jun, opening the raw marinated seafood shop was just about experiencing life.

Right then, he was fighting the Qinggan Tuna, letting it run to wear down its strength.

Suddenly, an immense force struck, yanking him so hard that he slammed into the side of the boat, leaning so far forward that he almost fell into the water.

Fortunately, the force vanished a moment later, but the line on his rod went slack. It had been cut.

"Are you okay? Are you okay?" Wang Junhe, who was fishing next to him, was scared to death.

"What happened?" Guo Xiao called out from the other side, turning his head.

An Jun’s heart was pounding violently in his chest. He was stunned with fear himself. The massive force had hit so suddenly that he couldn’t react. If the line hadn’t snapped, he would have been pulled into the water.

"I don’t know what happened. I was just fighting the fish, and then this huge force just hit out of nowhere."

"Could it be a shark?" Gu Nan’s boat was only about ten meters away, close enough for him to notice something was wrong with An Jun. Hearing his explanation, he replied with a serious tone.

Sharks are known for stealing catches, and it wouldn’t be surprising for their sharp teeth to sever a fishing line.

Hearing the word "shark," Wang Junhe, who was still fighting his own fish, immediately grew serious and braced himself.

An injured fish is the easiest target for a shark. He didn’t want to end up like An Jun, almost dragged into the water. Losing the fish was a minor issue in comparison.

An Jun had already reeled in his broken line. At the mention of a shark, his face fell. "Does that mean we can’t fish anymore?"

Wang Junhe shook his head. "It’s not that bad. They don’t steal the fish every time. We just have to be careful not to get pulled in."

"Whew, that’s a relief!" An Jun let out a small sigh of relief. He then unclipped the broken leader and replaced it with a new one.

Gu Nan, however, was suddenly eager to give it a try. ’A shark! I’ve never caught one before!’

He had grown a bit tired of catching the big fish produced by his system, especially the powerful marlins, which he caught at least once a week. He had long been wanting a change of pace.

No sooner said than done. He took out his golden Fengqi rod, which he hadn’t brought out yet, and swapped off the electric reel.

He switched his leader to a steel wire one from his system, tied on a lead sinker and a hook the size of his palm, and baited it with a freshly caught tuna that hadn’t been bled yet.

Gu Nan made a shallow cut on the fish with his knife, avoiding any vital areas. The main purpose was just to make it bleed a little.

This way, the fish wouldn’t die right away and would still swim in the water. The scent of blood it released would be an even greater stimulus for predators, especially sharks.