Chapter 341: Chapter 227: Sea Bream Joining the Fun, and a Panda Fish?

Ye Jing had no intention of freeloading on this trip out to sea. He’d bought his own bait and chum earlier and also offered to pay a charter fee.

Gu Nan didn’t let him keep freeloading. After all, business and pleasure should be kept separate.

He didn’t ask for much—just a thousand for each trip.

However, he wouldn’t be providing the services a typical charter captain would, such as netting fish. On the other hand, he did provide meals, and the fishing time was also longer.

Neither Gu Nan nor Ye Jing haggled over these points; they casually came to an agreement right then and there.

But Gu Nan wasn’t going to let him lose out, because he knew exactly where to find fish.

If the market for large yellow croaker was poor, he would take him to fish for rockfish somewhere else, guaranteeing that Ye Jing wouldn’t lose money.

A little after nine in the morning, the fishing boat reached the patch of water where they had previously fished for large yellow croaker.

Even though it was morning, there were still quite a few fishing boats in the area.

Unlike Gu Nan, most of the people here were professional anglers who specialized in large yellow croaker. For the better part of the year, they fished for nothing else.

The wind and waves were stronger here. As Gu Nan’s small boat bobbed on the surface, Ye Jing’s face turned a little pale.

"You all right?" ’I can’t believe he’s actually getting seasick today.’

"I’m fine. The waves are rough today, so it’s taking me a minute to adjust!" Ye Jing waved his hand, determined to power through it.

Gu Nan felt a headache coming on. ’In this state, there’s no way he’s going to have a good time fishing today.’

He scanned the area and soon spotted a reef a short distance away.

He could vaguely make out figures on the reef, which meant it was obviously another spot where one could catch large yellow croaker.

"Okay, how about this? I’ll take you over to that reef, and you can fish from there for now. This is just what it’s like being out at sea on a boat. You won’t get seasick once you’ve had some time to adapt."

Ye Jing nodded, deciding not to force it.

He did feel a bit sick, and while he probably could have toughed it out, it would ruin his ability to focus on fishing. He might not even be able to eat.

Gu Nan piloted the boat over and discovered that pulling up alongside the reef was no easy task today.

The boat had been slowly approaching the reef, but just as it got close, a wave receded, dragging the vessel more than ten meters back.

’No wonder it’s so dangerous when the tide is going out. If someone fell in, they’d be swept off to god-knows-where in an instant.’

After three tries, he found an opening and managed to pull up to the reef. Ye Jing quickly stepped off the bow.

With his tackle box in hand and his fishing rod on his back, he moved all his gear over in one go.

After Ye Jing gave him a wave, Gu Nan slowly backed the boat away. Consulting his fish finder, he found a promising spot about two hundred meters from the reef.

The water here was around thirty meters deep, with a good number of fish at the bottom.

Gu Nan dropped anchor, brought out his fishing rod, and prepared to fish.

The waves were rough today. If he just tossed his chum in, the Antarctic krill would get washed who-knows-where, so he used a bait cage instead.

He stuffed the bait cage full of thawed Antarctic krill, removed the float from his line, and replaced it with a slightly larger lead sinker. Now, he was ready to start fishing.

After baiting his hook with a sandworm, Gu Nan cast his line into the water.

Once the baited hook hit the bottom, he reeled in about three meters of line to avoid getting snagged.

He already knew from the fish finder that the terrain below was a reef patch.

’This school of fish on the bottom might not be large yellow croaker, but either way, I have to fish first and find out.’

The bite was actually quite good this early in the morning. Gu Nan’s line had only been in the water for about two minutes when he got a bite.

As the fish started pulling the line, he decisively set the hook.

"WHIZZ~"

A successful hookset.

The fish wasn’t very big, but its pull was much stronger than the large yellow croaker he’d been catching. He could also feel it trying to dive toward the bottom. ’It’s probably not a large yellow croaker,’ he guessed.

To keep the fish from darting into a crevice and abrading the line, Gu Nan made short work of it, easily pulling the fish to the side of the boat.

It was a Spotted Rockfish, looking to be a couple of pounds. His eyes lit up. He hadn’t expected to land such a prize.

He quickly hoisted the fish up by the rod. What a great start to the day! This one fish alone was worth at least four hundred.

Grabbing the fish, he used a dehooker to get the hook out. The long sandworm had been torn apart; only a small bit was left hanging on the hook when he finally extracted it.

Gu Nan tossed the fish into the livewell, then cleaned the remains of the sandworm off his hook. He took a new one from a box hanging on the gunwale, rebaited his hook, and cast out again.

’Judging by how fast that first Spotted Rockfish hit the line, the bite must be good this morning. I can’t waste any time.’

Soon, Gu Nan reeled in another fish. At first, he thought it was a black porgy, but he realized his mistake when he saw the color of its fins.

This fish’s fins were white, while a black porgy’s are typically gray or black, so there was a distinct difference.

’If you really can’t tell the difference, just call them all tilapia.’

After that, Gu Nan was landing a fish every few minutes—yellowfin seabream, spotted scats, barred knifejaws, black porgies, and more.

Not a single large yellow croaker, but a whole festival of porgies and sea breams had shown up instead.

Time passed quickly, and it was soon around eleven-thirty in the morning. Seeing the time and feeling a bit hungry himself, he started the boat and headed toward the reef to pick Ye Jing up for lunch.

Just as he arrived, he saw Ye Jing, grinning, hold up a large yellow croaker. His excited expression made it clear that his morning’s harvest had been quite good.

Seeing Gu Nan’s boat arrive, he quickly put the fish away, then packed up his rod and tackle box in preparation to get on board.

The waves were still large, but Gu Nan had gotten the hang of pulling up to the reef, so Ye Jing managed to get back on the boat after only two attempts.

Once the boat was clear of the large reef and had stopped in a new spot, Gu Nan came out and glanced at Ye Jing’s haul, slightly surprised. "Not bad! You’ve caught nothing but large yellow croaker all morning."

"Yeah, who would’ve thought there was a school of yellow croaker by the reef? The guys who got here earlier have already filled half their coolers. I only caught thirteen; I can’t compare to them."

Ye Jing even brought out an electronic scale to weigh his yellow croakers: six point two jin.

If he sold them to Gu Nan, even at a rate of two hundred per jin, he’d make over twelve hundred. In reality, a few of the fish were larger, so the price should be a little higher.

He had made back his initial investment in a single morning; no wonder he was so pleased.

"How about you? How was your morning?" Ye Jing asked after packing the yellow croaker in ice.

"I ran into a school of porgies this morning. I caught more fish than you, but the only valuable ones were one Spotted Rockfish and two barred knifejaws."

Gu Nan wasn’t envious. It wasn’t as if Ye Jing had caught a four- or five-jin large yellow croaker, or anything even bigger. That haul wasn’t enough to stir his emotions.

"Then should we fish near the reef this afternoon? There’s a school of yellow croaker there, and they probably won’t leave by then."

"You never know. Let’s get lunch ready first. We’ll eat, take a nap... we’ve got a busy night ahead of us!"

"Sounds good!"

Having had time to recover on the reef, Ye Jing’s seasickness was gone. The moment lunch was mentioned, he realized he was actually quite hungry.

For lunch, they simply made a hodgepodge stew and had it with rice.

After they finished eating, however, Gu Nan started another pot of rice. It wasn’t for them to eat right away, of course. Even a big eater has his limits.

He was cooking it to let it cool, planning to make fried rice for dinner.

’Every time I go out to sea, it’s either hodgepodge stew or seafood noodles. I’m getting a little sick of it.’

After eating, they still needed to let their food settle before their nap. With no signal out here, the two were bored and decided to continue fishing to pass the time while they digested.

"Ah Nan, besides large yellow croaker, what other high-value fish are there around here?"

"I just told you, didn’t I? The Spotted Rockfish is a prize catch, too."

"Anything else?"

"Then there are some of the more expensive groupers, like the leopard coral grouper. Whoa, fish on! I didn’t expect to get a bite so quickly in a random spot."

"WHIZZ~"

Gu Nan was quite surprised to hook a fish after just a few exchanges. Plus, this one had some real power behind it.

"Heh, speak of the devil... you don’t think I actually hooked a leopard coral grouper, do you?" Gu Nan joked.

It was just a joke, but when he pulled the fish to the surface, his expression froze for a second.

Ye Jing, who was right next to him, glanced over with a similar expression. "That fish looks kinda familiar... I feel like I’ve seen one before."

"Still, I never would’ve guessed fish came in black and white. You’re not going to tell me it’s called a ’panda fish,’ are you?"

"It should look familiar, because I sell them in my shop!" Gu Nan said with a laugh as he lifted the fish up. He really hadn’t expected to catch this kind of fish out here.

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