As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up
Chapter 585 - 359: Fish of Antarctica_2

Chapter 585: Chapter 359: Fish of Antarctica_2

Chu Mingcheng could clearly feel that the small baleen whales were getting tired, as the frequency of the water spouts from their noses had noticeably increased compared to before.

At that moment, the patient killer whales began to act, suddenly accelerating their speed.

Chu Mingcheng had thought they would go straight for tearing apart the small baleen whales, but instead, they cooperatively rushed forward, separating the battleground and scattering the gathered small baleen whales.

If once was not successful, then they would try twice.

Soon, the gathered small baleen whales were scattered, and Chu Mingcheng could see two of them being isolated together.

Now, the killer whales split into two groups.

Three of them surrounded the two small baleen whales, while the other two continued to drive the larger group away, preventing them from coming over to rescue.

"It’s breathtaking!" Jiang Luoluo exclaimed, "No wonder they can become the overlords of the ocean; their tactics are simple yet very effective."

"What comes next is a bit gruesome, you’d better not watch!" Seeing that the two remaining killer whales had returned, Chu Mingcheng held her and covered her eyes.

The way that killer whales feed is very cruel, gnawing chunks out of the small baleen whales alive, exposing their internal organs.

The drifting blood would instantly stain the entire surface of the water red, a sight not suitable for women and children.

Jiang Luoluo did not resist and leaned against him compliantly.

Chu Mingcheng watched the killer whales tear apart the small baleen whales, his brows unconsciously furrowing. This was far more brutal than eating golden spearfish.

To their surprise, after eating one small baleen whale, the killer whales pushed the other intact one to the side of their boat and made whining sounds at him.

Chu Mingcheng suddenly realized why one small baleen whale would be enough to fill their stomachs, yet they had killed two.

"Luoluo, do you want to try the meat of the small baleen whale?"

"Eh? Nah, forget it," Jiang Luoluo shook her head disdainfully.

Although she hadn’t seen the scene of the killer whales feeding, a tragedy had just occurred; she wasn’t in the mood for it.

If she saw whale meat on the menu in a restaurant, then she would probably be interested.

Chu Mingcheng was indifferent, with so many exotic foods in the world, it wasn’t as if he had to try it.

Although small baleen whale meat was known to be quite tasty among whales, the taste was nothing more than "beefy fish," and he wasn’t curious.

So, in the end, he let the killer whales take the food with them as they continued on their journey; that small baleen whale would be their food for tomorrow.

The journey lasted another three days, and Chu Mingcheng arrived at one of his destinations in Antarctica.

Here was a patch of sea with depths reaching over one thousand five hundred meters, where the top-class fish finder on the boat had successfully detected the presence of large fish at the bottom.

Aside from the Antarctic silver cod, there weren’t any other large deep-sea fish species in the Antarctic waters.

This creature is called the silver cod, but it is not actually a true codfish.

Its actual name is dogtooth fish, with two main types: the small-scaled Antarctic dogtooth fish and the scale-headed Antarctic dogtooth fish.

Chu Mingcheng’s main target was the small-scaled Antarctic dogtooth fish, which fetched prices far higher than the average codfish.

In Country Chou, a pound of dogtooth fish was worth about twenty Green Coins.

While in Hong Kong, a hundred grams could cost several dozens of Hong Kong Dollars.

Not only did it sell for a high price, but the dogtooth fish could also grow up to two meters long and weigh over two hundred pounds.

Like the seven-band grouper, the larger the fish, the better the taste of the meat, mainly due to a higher fat content.

Chu Mingcheng was able to find this fish mainly because he accidentally discovered a large fishing vessel that specialized in catching dogtooth fish at sea.

The longlines placed on the surface of the ocean provided them with the exact fishing spot.

Unfortunately, Chu Mingcheng currently lacked the capital to obtain the fishing quotas for dogtooth fish and Antarctic shrimp; he could only look on with envy.

"It’s so deep, how are we going to fish?" Jiang Luoluo sighed helplessly as she looked at the depth displayed on the fish finder.

They were sailing on a yacht, and there were no longlines or longline equipment on board.

Longlines capable of fishing at depths of over a thousand meters are quite large; the ropes are very thick and require machinery to deploy them.

"You just sit there holding onto the high-powered electric winch and let the machine slowly pull it up! We have two of them on board, and you can recharge one while using the other," he replied.

"What about you?"

"I’ll just tough it out and fish; I’ve got the strength for it, so I can barely manage one thousand five hundred meters."

Jiang Luoluo’s lips twitched, thinking that fishing at a depth of one thousand five hundred meters would surely exhaust anyone after just one catch.

But knowing her man was truly exceptional, she didn’t object.

They both began to prepare, setting up two heavy-duty rods, two high-power electric reels, and one large drum reel.

However, before fishing for Dogtooth Fish, they needed to catch some baitfish that would interest them.

Though Antarctic Shrimp could attract them by chumming the waters, they wouldn’t be interested in the small shrimps on the hooks.

So, Chu Mingcheng first tied on a small fish rig and a large lead weight, filling the shrimp cage with Antarctic Shrimp he had caught a few days earlier.

Jiang Luoluo didn’t join in the fishing but instead brought over a small stool to sit by his side, quietly waiting with her hands supporting her chin.

There are over two hundred species of fish in Antarctica, any small catch would do as bait, and Chu Mingcheng didn’t care what he caught.

Unfortunately, the fishfinder didn’t detect any schools of small fish in the shallow waters, so he eventually found some small fish schools residing in waters deeper than five hundred meters.

The hook bait and the shrimp cage sank rapidly, weighed down by a ten-kilogram lead weight.

It took a little while before the hooks reached the bottom, and Chu Mingcheng then reeled in some of the line smoothly.

Luckily he had come to Antarctica with clear objectives, preparing fishing lines of one thousand, two thousand, and three thousand meters in length, and specially purchasing reels that could hold such long lines.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to fish in such deep waters and would only have roamed the shallows, hoping for luck.

In the food-scarce waters, the scent of the Antarctic Shrimp in the cage swiftly attracted a school of fish.

The additional lure hanging outside meant that every so often, the hook would be surrounded by fish.

Among them were not only the small fish suitable for bait but also Chu Mingcheng’s target, the Dogtooth Fish.

However, the Dogtooth Fish here, compared to those from the earlier location, were not only fewer in number but also significantly smaller in size.

Still, they showed no interest in the small shrimps and went straight for the other fish.

Because of them, the school of small fish that had gathered scattered instantly.

But after the Dogtooth Fish chased the small fish away briefly, a portion of the small fish regrouped.

First come, first served; a fish about thirty centimeters long couldn’t resist the temptation and immediately swallowed the small shrimp.

The next moment, the fish’s struggle transmitted a slight tremor to the rod, causing it to begin vibrating slightly.

Seeing a fish on the hook, Chu Mingcheng gently lifted the rod and then quickly started reeling in.

Judging by the tremor on the rod, the fish didn’t seem too large, but Chu Mingcheng found that the effort to turn the crank and lift the rod was almost double what it usually took.

Indeed, without an electric reel, catching deep sea fish would be too exhausting for most people after a while.

The line was over five hundred meters long, and even with the fish hardly resisting, it still took him three to four minutes to pull it to the surface.

"Aha, there are actually ice fish here," Jiang Luoluo, who had done her homework, immediately recognized the catch. "I’ve heard that these fish can be killed just by the warmth of a palm, is that true?"

Chu Mingcheng lifted the fish onto the boat, then looked at the barely alive ice fish and laughed, "Why don’t you try and find out?"

Now that they were in Antarctica, even though it was nearing the summer season, the weather was still extremely cold, with daytime temperatures reaching below minus twenty degrees Celsius.

If they were on the mainland of Antarctica, the temperatures would probably be below minus thirty degrees Celsius right now.

Therefore, Jiang Luoluo naturally put on a thick down jacket and wore gloves on her hands.

She wasn’t like Chu Mingcheng, who wasn’t bothered by the cold at all, wearing only a standard fishing jacket with an additional layer of thermal underwear inside.

So the task of taking off her gloves to transfer heat to the ice fish was something she was reluctant to do.

"You try it if you want, I’m not going to, I get cold easily!"

"We have to believe in science!" Chu Mingcheng laughed, not foolish enough to experiment with his own hands.

After all, scientific research has also concluded that temperatures above five degrees Celsius could kill an ice fish, and he chose to trust that.

He removed the hook from the fish, tossed it aside, and continued to fish for bait.

This time, Jiang Luoluo didn’t just sit idly by; she took the electric reel rod, changed the hook, and started fishing for small fish as well.