I Can Fish Up Everything!

Chapter 274: Chapter 175: Deep Sea Behemoth

[Flavor Rating: Seven Stars. Suggested Price: 280 yuan per jin. Game Buyback Price: 100 Gold Coins per jin.]

It was a scorpionfish. This made Gu Nan even more interested in it.

Gu Nan had always believed that scorpionfish had more tender, delicious meat than most groupers—especially the deep-sea varieties. Only the seven-banded grouper could compare; it wasn’t the least bit inferior to a leopard coral grouper.

Of course, a top-tier fish like the humpback grouper was in a league of its own. Gu Nan couldn’t have distinguished the finer differences in taste, but the humpback grouper was simply rarer and more expensive.

This one was plump. At just over half a meter long, it was clearly a size larger than the golden threadfin bream he had caught earlier. Gu Nan placed the fish in a nearby foam box with ice to keep it fresh. He planned to use it for hot pot later to see how it tasted.

He wasn’t hungry just then, and the electric reel beside him soon started showing activity. He got up, moved to the gunwale, and resumed fishing.

The fishing ban at Yangjiang Port was ending soon, and the fish populations had clearly recovered after a few months’ reprieve.

This time, Gu Nan had just cast his baited hook into the water. The line had only spooled out about fifty or sixty meters when it suddenly started peeling off the reel much faster. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

He knew instantly he had a fish on the line. He quickly flipped the bail arm closed, and the rod immediately bent under the strain.

It was probably a fast-swimming fish that just happened to be passing by.

But the fish wasn’t very big; it didn’t put up much of a fight.

Gu Nan cranked the handle quickly, and in just a moment, a seventy- to eighty-centimeter mackerel was pulled to the surface.

As he reeled it in, he saw it was a Kang’s Mackerel.

Although Kang’s Mackerel could grow quite large, they were very common. The price they fetched wasn’t high, except for those caught in specific waters. This one would go for about fifty yuan per jin at most.

And that was only because it was line-caught and exceptionally fresh.

If it had been caught by a long-range fishing vessel, it wouldn’t be as fresh and would only sell for twenty yuan on the market.

A seventy- to eighty-centimeter fish weighed about fifteen or sixteen jin, which meant it could sell for seven or eight hundred yuan. Not cheap at all.

Gu Nan hauled it aboard and tossed it into the foam box of crushed ice, where it joined the Matsubara’s rockfish from earlier.

After stowing the mackerel, he noticed the line on his other electric reel was also spooling out rapidly—it had hooked a fish.

Gu Nan waited a moment. The electric reel ended up pulling in an Emperor Crab so large it wouldn’t even fit in the landing net. He was dumbfounded.

’I can land something this huge without a sticker bonus?’

’Guess it’s my lucky day!’

Gu Nan was in the middle of an elite quest, so he hadn’t been using any bonus stickers with his ”guaranteed daily catch” ability. As a result, he hadn’t seen any Legendary-grade, high-value catches lately.

However, this unexpected Emperor Crab had allowed him to dramatically complete his King-tier catalog.

Gu Nan grabbed the rope from the hoist and widened the loop. It had to be big to get around this massive Emperor Crab.

Now he had something to bring to the club next time. Showing up with this Emperor Crab would definitely be impressive.

It made the box of tea from Guo Xiao and the two sets of diving gear from Song Chengdong well worth it.

Once the Emperor Crab was hoisted up, Gu Nan placed it directly on a digital scale he had brought out. 29.7 jin. ’Damn,’ he thought. ’It’s about to break the thirty-jin mark. No wonder it’s as big as a millstone.’

He removed the hook and then stored the Emperor Crab in his aquarium.

Whether he planned to sell a catch or keep it for a personal feast, Gu Nan almost always chose to ”ship” it. The only exceptions were things like the scorpionfish, which he would eat by himself out at sea without going through the extra step.

It was a shame that game-produced items weren’t suitable for taking photos on the boat. He was missing out on some serious bragging rights.

Tossing the hook back into the water, Gu Nan waited for his next catch.

Fishing was like opening blind boxes; the more you did it, the more exciting it became.

This time, the wait was a little longer. After five or six minutes, both of his fishing rods started showing action at almost the same time.

Gu Nan first hit the button on the electric reel to start retrieving the line, then hurried over to the other rod. He lifted it sharply to set the hook. Thankfully, the fish hadn’t gotten away.

This one felt more substantial, maybe twice as heavy as the scorpionfish from before, but it still wasn’t a fast swimmer.

Gu Nan got a feel for the fish’s pull, then gripped the rod with both hands and held on, waiting for its first burst of energy to pass. He let the tension on the line wear down the fish’s stamina, knowing it would be easier to reel in once it was tired.

After just two minutes, the fish ran out of steam. Sensing this, Gu Nan began reeling in quickly, hauling the fish toward the surface.

Deep-sea fishing was exhausting. Even though the fish weighed seven or eight jin at most, it still took a considerable amount of time and effort to land.

It was a turbot. ’Left-eyed is flounder, right-eyed is turbot,’ Gu Nan recited the mnemonic to himself as the fish surfaced.

Bringing the fish alongside the boat, Gu Nan grabbed the nearby landing net and scooped it aboard.

[Arrowtooth Flounder, also known as Greenland Halibut. There are two types of flounder known by this name. The Arrowtooth Flounder from the Bering Sea grows to a maximum of eighty centimeters, or Meter Level at most. The other variety, from the North Atlantic Ocean, is one of the largest fish in the world.]

[Flavor Rating: Five and a half stars. A food fish of high economic value, suitable for all cooking methods. Suggested Price: 120 yuan per jin. Game Buyback Price: 40 Gold Coins per jin.]

Gu Nan’s eyebrow twitched. ’This fish looks flat, but its body is actually quite thick!’

’If I hadn’t already decided on a late-night snack,’ he mused, ’I might just take out the frying pan and see how this tastes pan-fried.’

The bite was great tonight. Not only was he catching plenty of seafood from the game, but local fish would occasionally get in on the action too.

Case in point: a moment later, the electric reel landed a yellowtail amberjack weighing around thirteen jin.

Unfortunately, this fish wasn’t very valuable. Even the cheapest fish at Seven-Star Rock were worth much more.