The Top Fishing
Chapter 627 - 271: Frenzied Fish Affection_2

Chapter 627: Chapter 271: Frenzied Fish Affection_2

Fishing with such rudimentary gear, isn’t that a bit too perfunctory?

Seeing Uncle Victor casually cast his fishing rig into the water, driven by curiosity, Lin Yang didn’t cast his own line immediately but observed Uncle Victor’s fishing technique first.

The uncle’s method was very simple: after throwing the lead sinker and string hook vertically down from the boat, he steadily let out the line, and soon the rig sank to the bottom under the weight of the lead sinker.

Then, Uncle Victor locked the drag, lifted the tip of the rod, and began to jig it up and down.

The posture was merely passable, but Lin Yang wasn’t optimistic.

Why is that, you ask? Observing the line-laying just now, the water here must be at least thirty to forty meters deep.

At that depth, the underwater light is quite dim. An empty fishhook, relying just on the faint reflection of a bit of fish skin to attract fish attention and provoke an attack, objectively speaking, the probability of the fish finding and attacking the bait should be very small.

However, Lin Yang was soon dumbfounded again.

Uncle Victor had only jiggled the rod up and down a few times when the rod tip bent sharply, signaling a prompt nod.

This was a sign of a fish taking the bait, and it made him tense up as well.

"Got a fish, huh?" Lin Yang asked.

Uncle Victor waved his hand, "Just one biting, wait a bit longer."

After saying that, he lifted the rod slightly to hook the fish, then quickly resumed the jigging motion.

Soon the fishing rod was tugged downward again, signaling a bite. Just when Lin Yang felt he was about to be driven mad by his impatience, Uncle Victor slowly started reeling in the line, and in less than half a minute, he pulled the rig out of the water.

Quickly, the first dark yellow fish emerged from the water, and as he continued to reel in the line, a second and a third followed.

Well, well, just a casual cast and a bit of jigging, and three fish were caught on the string hook!

And each fish was over two to three pounds.

"Is this...a croaker?" Lin Yang looked closely, somewhat unsure.

This kind of croaker is found in domestic seas too, but due to excessive overfishing, it has become extremely rare, especially the larger specimens.

Yet here, the two fish on the string hook weighed at least two to three pounds each; just one of these, if taken back to markets at home, could easily sell for several hundred yuan.

As Uncle Victor deftly removed the fish, he nodded and said, "Yes, we also call it a croaker. The taste of this fish is decent, but it can’t compare to the more delicious cod. These two are too small, and there are plenty of them in the neighboring waters."

Having said this, Uncle Victor casually tossed the caught fish back into the water, as carelessly as one might discard a small crucian carp at a freshwater river bank.

"Two to three-pound croaker considered small? This fish isn’t cheap in our country." Lin Yang still found it hard to believe.

"They are everywhere; you can’t fish them all out no matter what. You can try it yourself. Fish for a while, and you’ll be driven crazy by these fellas. Oh, right, if you want more fun, I have an idea for you."

Uncle Victor seemed to suddenly think of something and didn’t throw the second fish back. Instead, he took out a utility knife and quickly sliced two pieces of plump fish flesh off.

"Here, cut the fish flesh into small strips and hang them on the hooks, your catch rate will be higher." Uncle Victor simply handed the fish flesh and the knife to Lin Yang.

Right now, Lin Yang couldn’t care less; he cut some fish flesh as Uncle Victor had suggested, hung it on the hook, and casually dropped the sinker and string hook into the water.

He was not unfamiliar with this kind of string-hook boat fishing; during his last sea outing in China, many people used string hooks, though the bait was different.

On the first cast into the water, when he was still letting out line around fifteen meters down, Lin Yang felt a sudden jerk at the rod tip, and the front end forcefully dipped. A fish had attacked the bait and taken the hook while he was still letting out the line.

Lin Yang couldn’t resist the urge to reel in when a fish was biting; he quickly locked the drag and started hauling in the line.

A two to three-pound fish didn’t require playing; reeling it in was quite easy, and within moments he brought the rig above water.

Sure enough, on the bottom hook, there was a sea fish a shade darker than the croakers he’d seen before.

"This is a sea black fish, found at shallower depths than the croaker, and also quite common." Uncle Victor casually glanced at the fish and said nonchalantly.

Seeing this fish, Lin Yan was dumbfounded again.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this should be a Blackhead, also known as Black Seabass or Black Sea Bass, which are found in many regions in China. They can still be caught domestically, but the sizes are usually small, with many ranging from half a pound to a pound, and larger ones being rare.

But the fish on the hook weighed at least three and a half pounds, a rare catch in China!

"Look, everyone, Uncle Victor didn’t lie; my first cast and I caught this sea black fish. Check out this size, how about it?" Lin Yang removed the fish from the hook, secured it with a fish gripper, and displayed his first catch for his live stream viewers to see.

"Damn, this Blackhead is pretty big! When we go out to sea, sometimes we can’t catch one this big even in three to five days."

"I’ve heard from the older folks that Blackheads used to be over ten kilograms. But they’ve become increasingly rare over the years. A two-pounder is considered good in domestic sea fishing nowadays, and this one is at least three and a half pounds. Steamed, it would taste very fresh and delicious."

"Sigh, look at the resources they have here, and then at ours back home, it’s embarrassing."