I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 151: Chapter 120: No More Big Fish? Here Comes Another

After the two of them finished baiting their spots, the old man clasped his hands behind his back and went to see what other people had caught.

Gu Nan couldn’t be bothered to go. He attached a fake lure, planning to entice a blackfish or a culter.

With a flick of his wrist, the lure went WHOOSH, flying out more than twenty meters.

A rock fishing rod wasn’t a lure rod, after all. The feel of the cast was clearly inferior.

At sea, casting like this into a school of fish or at the fish from the game’s maps would definitely yield a catch for Gu Nan. But in freshwater... it wouldn’t be strange to cast all day without a single bite. The domestic lure fishing scene wasn’t as good as it was abroad.

After a little while, the old man returned.

Seeing him casting, he chuckled and said, ”You should save your energy. If you can actually catch a fish like that...”

Before he could finish his sentence, Gu Nan’s rod suddenly dipped. A fish was on the hook.

”Sir, what were you saying?” He yanked the rod to set the hook, then turned his head to ask after confirming the fish wasn’t very big.

”You’ve got good luck, young man.” The old man gave an awkward laugh. He’d been proven wrong so fast—they could have at least let him finish his sentence!

Gu Nan quickly reeled in the line. When the rod was parallel to the ground, he gripped it with both hands and lifted, pulling the swimming fish toward him.

Soon, a struggling culter was at the bank.

The old man next to him had already grabbed his landing net. Seeing the fish, he hurried over to help scoop it up.

”Not bad luck. Looks like it’s probably about three pounds.”

”Sir, could you put it in your keepnet? All I brought was my rod.”

”Sure.”

It would take at least an hour for the chum to take effect, but after catching this small culter, Gu Nan didn’t stop. He continued casting.

The old man stood by with a complicated look in his eyes. He felt this was a complete waste of energy.

But having just been proven wrong, he didn’t try to persuade him again.

He cast for a full twenty minutes without any activity.

The old man sat on his small folding stool, calmly took a sip of water, and said again, ”Young man, you should take a break for a...”

This time, the rod bent directly into a deep arc. Gu Nan’s eyes lit up. ’A big one!’ He immediately gave a hard tug, but it barely moved.

”Well, I’ll be! You must have hooked a monster!” The old man, no longer caring about being proven wrong, slapped his thigh and shot to his feet.

Gu Nan had no energy to spare for him now. The grassy bank offered poor footing, and the massive fish was pulling so hard he couldn’t even stand steady.

He had no choice but to loosen his grip slightly to relieve the pressure, then push the rod up hard and crouch down to lower his center of gravity, letting the fish run for a bit.

This was the difference between having a reel and not having one. With a reel, you could let out the line to create a buffer. Without one, you could only fight a big fish head-on.

If you couldn’t win the fight, the outcome would be the rod either shattering, getting pulled away, or you yourself being dragged into the water.

Gu Nan held it in a stalemate for a moment. When it felt like the fish was about to dive for the bottom, he feared it would dig in, so he immediately grabbed the reel handle and cranked hard.

When the fish put on a burst of strength, he was dragged forward several steps.

Then he slowly backed up again, pulling away from the bank to avoid accidentally falling in.

Watching this made the old man’s heart pound. He quickly said, ”Kid, this is a once-in-a-lifetime monster! Be steady!”

”Don’t you worry, sir. I’ve caught bigger,” Gu Nan replied, finding a moment to speak when he felt the fish ease up a little.

He wouldn’t have been so confident if he were using a big-game rod, but with his rock fishing rod, he’d even caught marlin weighing hundreds of pounds. Why would he be afraid of a mere freshwater fish?

Sensing it couldn’t run for the bottom, the great fish started swimming downriver along the channel.

By now, the spectacle of him fighting a huge fish had attracted a large crowd of onlookers. Many of the other anglers had even stopped fishing themselves, waiting nearby to see the big one.

But there were still plenty of anglers downstream. Some, with malicious intent, didn’t even reel in their lines, and a few even continued casting out in front of him.

Catching a big fish really does make people jealous and resentful. Gu Nan didn’t dare let the fish run downstream. If it got tangled in someone else’s line, it could cause his own to snap.

So he quickly put his back into it, using all his strength to pull the fish back toward him.

”Buddy, I see your hands have started shaking. Need a hand?” After more than half an hour, one angler whose hands were itching to get in on the action came over and asked.

”Go on, get out of here. Don’t bother him while he’s fishing,” the old man said, shooing the man away without a hint of mercy.

At a time like this, it was best for Gu Nan to land the fish himself. If someone else took over, who knew if they had malicious intentions? What if they deliberately let the fish get away?

Gu Nan was actually doing fine. Landing a big fish from the bank was definitely more difficult, mainly because the ground under his feet was a bit slippery, making it hard to get a firm stance. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be struggling so much. After all, the Fengqi Fishing Rod had an attribute that drained a fish’s stamina.

SPLASH!

A huge tail slapped the surface of the water, and the fish’s form finally appeared.

”Holy shit, what a huge yellowcheek! It’s gotta be two meters long!”

”Damn it, this guy’s luck is insane.”

”I thought it was going to be a catfish, but it’s a yellowcheek! This guy hit the jackpot.”

”It’s not over yet. It only counts as a jackpot if he actually lands it. How many big ones have gotten away?”

”That was supposed to be my fish! I just cast my hook over there a minute ago.”

The group of anglers was green with envy. This was a record-breaking fish.

They had never even seen a yellowcheek over a meter long, let alone two meters.

Seeing it was a yellowcheek, Gu Nan was happy too. A catfish wouldn’t have been bad, but it didn’t look as impressive as a yellowcheek.

A yellowcheek’s appearance wasn’t actually anything special, but at least it fell within the range of a normal-looking fish.

Putting it on display at the entrance to his shop would attract a lot of onlookers.

He had just run out of big fish at the shop. ’Doesn’t this perfectly replenish my stock?’

A fish this big couldn’t be brought in with a landing net. When the old man saw the fish roll onto its side, he immediately took out a gaff hook.

As someone who dreamed of catching big fish, he had to have a way to land them without letting them escape.

Although it had been ages since he last caught a big one, he always kept the gear with him.

Under the steady stamina-draining effect of the purple rock fishing rod, the massive yellowcheek didn’t struggle much more and was pulled to the bank.

The old man went over and firmly hooked the fish near its pectoral fin, helping to drag it onto the bank.

A few enthusiastic anglers from the crowd also came over to help, grabbing the fish’s gills, mouth, and other handholds to pull together.

With their combined effort, the yellowcheek was successfully hauled onto the shore.