I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Hooked a BOSS, Almost Fell in the Water

If I wasn’t going back tonight, I’d have to order takeout for dinner and get Baldy to deliver it.

’But if I happen to hook the BOSS around dinnertime, I won’t need to order takeout. I could just take the fish home and then go out to eat.’

After a moment’s thought, Gu Nan decided to fish first and worry about food when he was unbearably hungry. Besides, skipping one meal was no big deal.

He caught another batch of two and three-star fish one after another. After switching to the blue rod and reel, the proportion of three-star fish had clearly increased, and there were a few more four-star fish as well.

The proportion of one and two-star fish had dropped quite a bit, but over the course of a full day of fishing, their total number would still be higher than that of the three-star fish.

The sun slowly sank in the west, vanishing below the horizon by nightfall.

By now, the sky had grown completely dark, and Gu Nan could only see by the light of the streetlamps on the bridge and the moon.

Fortunately, he always kept a headlamp in his tackle box, so he wasn’t worried about not being able to see.

After putting on his headlamp, Gu Nan checked the time. It was just past seven o’clock.

’Nine o’clock. If I still haven’t caught it by nine, I’ll call it a day.’

The livewell was fine, but the foam cooler was almost too full to fit anything else. When the time came, Gu Nan would have to take out the local fish he’d caught to make some room.

He cast his line again. After the lure hit bottom, his luck held and he hooked another Swallowtail Spot—a hefty eight-pounder at that.

However, Gu Nan felt that maybe he could switch up his fishing method. At night, fish came out to feed, moving into the upper layers of the water.

He was tired after fishing all day, and float fishing was clearly the easier option.

Instead, he just switched to a soft lure. ’I’ll just fish with lures for a while,’ he thought. ’I’m too lazy to rig up a float again.’

He cast the rod lightly. The lure swung out in an arc and landed about ten meters in front of him. Then, he slowly turned the handle of the reel, twitching the rod tip to retrieve the lure.

Nothing on the first cast, which was to be expected. He followed up with a second cast, then a third...

After about the seventh or eighth cast, the line suddenly went taut and the rod bent sharply downward.

Most importantly, the four English letters B-O-S-S had appeared on the surface of the water. Gu Nan was astonished; he hadn’t expected the game to give him a direct notification for hooking a BOSS.

He knew, of course, that only he could see it, so he wasn’t concerned about others noticing.

But he had no time to dwell on that. This BOSS was unexpectedly huge, and its strength was immense.

The rod was bent nearly into the shape of a full moon. Gu Nan’s face was flushed red as he gripped the rod for dear life, struggling to keep it from being dragged into the water.

Suddenly, the fish surged again, dragging him forward two steps. He stumbled, his left foot landing right on the edge of the platform with a third of his sole hanging over the water.

The close call drenched him in a cold sweat; he’d almost been pulled into the water.

Gu Nan quickly loosened the drag. He had only left it a sliver from being fully locked down, but now he had to let the fish run.

The blue reel was much larger, but his line was still green-grade equipment, only two hundred meters long.

Given the fish’s power and speed, it could spool all of his line in just over ten seconds if he really let it run.

The fish felt not only powerful but fast, too, reminding him of a Black-striped Small Stripes Buri.

So, once Gu Nan planted his feet and was sure he was safe, he tightened the drag again, trying his best to hold the handle and keep the fish from running.

In that short span of time, seventy or eighty meters of line had already been stripped from the reel.

The great fish in the distance desperately swam forward, the reel screaming ZZZZZZZZZ nonstop.

Gu Nan slowly squatted to lower his center of gravity. Taking a deep breath, he unleashed all his strength, jerking the rod upright and bracing its butt by his foot.

This was a technique that mimicked hand-pole fishing. The line was short and the fish was fast, leaving him no way to properly play it.

This method was a pure contest of strength and stamina. As a result, after only a short while, Gu Nan’s breathing grew heavy and ragged.

The fish wasn’t locked in a stalemate with him; instead, it would surge with power from time to time, and each burst was strong enough to drag him.

As a result, he was constantly being dragged forward a few steps, only to use all his strength to haul himself back.

When he truly couldn’t hold it, he had no choice but to loosen the drag and let the fish run for a bit.

Five minutes passed. Gu Nan was panting heavily, his stamina clearly more than halfway gone. Veins bulged on his arms, and his entire body was drenched in sweat.

Despite his incredible effort, he’d only gained back about thirty meters of line. What was truly despairing was that the fish showed absolutely no signs of fatigue.

Gu Nan gave a bitter smile. ’Does this damn BOSS have to be such a pain to deal with?’

It was a good thing there weren’t many other anglers out today. Between the cover of darkness and no one being on his side of the bridge, he was alone. Otherwise, the spectacle of him fighting such a huge fish would have drawn a crowd long ago.

’The question now is whether it’ll even fit in my meter-long foam cooler. If it doesn’t, the fish might be exposed.’

Suddenly, the fish surged once more, dragging Gu Nan forward several steps. He was on the verge of falling in, and the terror snapped his focus back, allowing him to haul the fish back with a powerful yank.

His heart was hammering. ’My heart rate has to be over 160,’ he thought.

Another cold sweat broke out on Gu Nan. He didn’t dare let his mind wander anymore. ’Exposed or not, I’ll worry about it after I land this fish.’

Fortunately, after a few more minutes, the fish finally seemed to show some signs of fatigue. Realizing it couldn’t run any farther, it began to swim back and forth, causing the line to swing erratically from side to side.

Gu Nan sensed the fish’s Power weaken slightly. He braced the butt of the rod against his stomach and, using his core strength, heaved upward, raising the rod from its position nearly parallel with the water to high above his head in one motion.

His left hand flew to the handle, rapidly reeling in line. The fish was momentarily stunned by the pull, allowing him to gain back several cranks of the reel.

But the next moment, the fish reacted and started running again. Gu Nan stopped reeling and simply held on, waiting for the next opportunity when its Power waned.

At first, the interval between each reeling attempt was half a minute, sometimes even longer.

But as time passed, the fish’s stamina continued to drain, and the frequency with which Gu Nan could reel in line slowly began to increase.

One hundred meters... eighty meters... fifty meters... thirty meters.

Gradually, Gu Nan could already see the shadow of the fish.

”Holy shit, a sailfish?”

Gu Nan never would have imagined the final BOSS would be a sailfish. ’Aren’t sailfish relatively cheap? How could one be a BOSS?’

’Is it just because it’s big and hard to catch?’

But regardless, the moment he saw the sailfish, a wave of panic hit him.

Sailfish were notoriously aggressive. If it realized it couldn’t escape, it was highly likely to turn and attack the human who had hooked it.

So Gu Nan immediately eased up, letting the fish continue to run.

He wouldn’t dare try to bring it in until its stamina was completely exhausted.

And so, Gu Nan spent another dozen minutes or so wearing it down. Only after he saw the fish was completely exhausted and ”lying flat” in the water did he start pulling the BOSS in.

This sailfish was over a meter long. He might have to cut off its long bill just to fit it in his large, elongated foam cooler.

The good thing was that sailfish could be found domestically. Even if Baldy found out, the most he’d do is wonder how such a large sailfish could have appeared here.

He dragged the fish to the edge of the pier platform. As his headlamp beam passed over it, he saw its sickle-like dorsal fin and was stunned all over again.

It wasn’t a sailfish—it was a marlin!

A marlin’s value depended on its species. If this was an Atlantic Blue Spear, a single fish could be worth a small villa.

The cheapest were the Black Spear, as they were more numerous.

But as for whether it was a Black Spear or a Blue Spear, Gu Nan would have to check the description in his game’s codex.

’If it’s a Black Spear, that would be disappointing,’ he thought. ’The unit price is probably only around fifty. Sailfish and swordfish go for about the same.’

Of course, freshness also affected the price, but it was rare for the unit price to break one hundred.