I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 174: Chapter 128: Special Item, Various Giant Groupers

He chose ”Recycle,” and with a swipe, his balance increased by five hundred Gold Coins.

Gu Nan was stunned. ’What a pleasant surprise!’ He had figured the old bottle would be worth ten Gold Coins at most—fifty or a hundred, tops. But it had actually given him a solid five hundred.

Turns out this ”special item” was pretty useful. And here he was, thinking this new feature was completely useless!

Pleased with himself, he cast his line and resumed fishing.

The Big Fatty bait swam through the water, and this time, it managed to attract a fish.

It didn’t feel heavy, so Gu Nan quickly reeled it in. It was a Sea Wolf.

Gu Nan removed the hook and casually tossed it into a nearby foam box. The meat of a Sea Wolf was just so-so, fetching a price of only forty. They were fine to sell in small numbers, but a large quantity would be hard to move.

After catching four other fish in a row, he finally got a Large White Grouper on the line.

His luck improved after that, though. The odds of hooking a Large White Grouper went up noticeably.

By a little after nine in the evening, Gu Nan had successfully completed Elite Quests One and Two. He earned five thousand Gold Coins and several hundred experience points, which was just enough for him to reach level thirteen.

[Elite Quest One: Catch 100 four-star fish species (4/5). Reward: 300 EXP, 3000 Gold Coins. Note: You must complete the current quest to unlock the next one.]

[Elite Quest Two: Catch fifty Tiger Stripes greater than 60 cm in length (4/5). Reward: 400 EXP, 4000 Gold Coins. Note: You must complete the current quest to unlock the next one.]

’Oho, Tiger Stripes?’ Gu Nan was pretty happy to see this, as this quest would be easier to complete than the one for Large White Grouper.

There were only two types of four-star fish in the Elite Fish-Dex. By comparison, Marbled Groupers were far less numerous than Tiger Stripes.

The two were similar in price, but since Tiger Stripes could theoretically grow up to 1.2 meters, their potential value was higher.

The only real worry with Tiger Stripes was ciguatera poisoning. But setting aside the ones caught from the in-game map, the fact that these were imported was reassuring.

When these types of special fish came through customs, random samples were always taken for testing to confirm they were free of ciguatera toxin before being allowed into the country.

For large, wild Tiger Stripes caught locally, it was best to avoid eating them altogether. The risk of ciguatera poisoning was extremely high.

He swapped the Big Fatty bait for a jig and started fishing.

Whether he was targeting an Elite BOSS or a Tiger Stripes, the method was the same: bottom fishing.

So Gu Nan deliberately applied two stickers, hoping to land a big one.

Once the jig hit the bottom, Gu Nan activated his ”Guaranteed Hit” charges. This prevented a fish from snatching the lure on its way down if he were to use the ability too early.

After about ten seconds, the rod suddenly dipped sharply.

SWISH~

Gu Nan yanked his rod upward to set the hook and was immediately met with a powerful tug.

The drag was locked tight, but the fish was still strong enough to yank the line out.

Gu Nan struggled to keep the rod up; otherwise, it would have been yanked right down.

Fortunately, the burst of strength lasted only for a moment. After about half a minute, the powerful force subsided significantly.

But he didn’t relax. He quickly grabbed the reel handle and started cranking, pulling the fish a little closer.

He’d only managed two cranks when the fish surged again, its power just as immense as before.

Gu Nan couldn’t hold it with one hand. The rod, which he had just lifted, was instantly yanked back down, its tip nearly touching the water.

He quickly gripped the rod with both hands, braced the butt against his stomach, and used his core strength to haul it back up.

’This has to be a grouper, and a massive one at that!’ Its strength was no less than the ”fake oilfish” he had caught before.

This was clearly another beast weighing over fifty pounds. It was most likely a Tiger Stripes; after all, not much else had this kind of raw power.

Groupers were always ferocious at the start, with incredible strength. Even a fifty-pounder could feel like you were fighting something over a hundred pounds.

Their only weakness was poor stamina. This big fish pulled and thrashed periodically, but after its initial run, none of its subsequent bursts of energy lasted more than ten seconds. This allowed Gu Nan to reel it in, little by little.

Luckily, once a grouper lost most of its strength, the fight became much easier. Its stamina, already low to begin with, was rapidly drained by the fight against the line. By the time Gu Nan had pulled it up to the mid-water level, it had completely given up.

Feeling the fish’s resistance disappear, Gu Nan wiped the sweat from his brow and cheerfully reeled in the remaining line.

It wasn’t the brownish color he’d expected. Instead, it was pale pink with a slight orange-red hue. It was a gigantic Tai Star Garoupa.

A night of great harvest was dawning. The very first catch was a huge, Meter-Level Tai Star Garoupa. He figured that for as long as his stickers lasted, he was going to be in a fantastic mood.

’Also, that’s one more resident for the pond.’ This Tai Star Garoupa was perfect for keeping in it.

Gu Nan held the rod up, let out a bit of line, and backed away toward the crane to grab the rope attached to it.

The end of the crane’s rope was already tied into a noose. He returned to the edge of the boat with it. In one hand, he held the rod, keeping tension on the line to wear down the Tai Star Garoupa’s stamina, while with the other, he slowly lowered the noose, attempting to slip it over the fish’s tail.

He gave the rope a hard tug to confirm the noose was secure, then walked back to the crane with confidence and started it up.

The crane whirred to life, slowly reeling in its cable. The exhausted Tai Star Garoupa was gradually lifted from the water.

Once the fish was dangling in mid-air over the deck, he used a hook remover to extract the jig from its mouth, where it was perfectly hooked. He then sent the fish to his aquarium.

The Fish-Dex had updated: the Tai Star Garoupa was 1.13 meters long and weighed well over fifty pounds.

It wasn’t unheard of to catch a fish this big. One had been caught in Xisha before, but he suspected that one might have been just a fraction smaller than his.