Chapter 374: Chapter 243: The Return Trip: Hauling and Selling

With the attractor lights on, the tuna were unlikely to leave once they arrived. Even after they’d had their fill, they would rest under the boat for the night unless Gu Nan turned off the lights.

The attractor lights continued to work, and another small school of tuna was drawn in.

Gu Nan hadn’t checked the fish finder; otherwise, he would have seen that the number of large icons on the screen was growing.

A short while later, his rod showed signs of life again. The tip twitched twice, then bent sharply downward.

It was the middle rod this time. Yi Chen quickly reeled in the lines on either side. Although Gu Nan hadn’t rested enough, it didn’t matter much. The worst that could happen was that he’d just have to fight the fish for a bit longer.

Another long tug-of-war ensued. It was just past midnight when Gu Nan finally managed to haul the second tuna to the side of the boat. It was another bluefin, but noticeably smaller.

After hoisting it aboard, they saw it was over 270 pounds. Once it was processed, it would definitely be under 250, which was still quite good.

Any bluefin over 200 pounds was considered a large fish. At some high-end restaurants, a fish like that could be the star attraction.

At certain exhibitions, a 200-plus-pound fish could become the main attraction. It was by no means small.

You could even find ones on the market that were under 100 pounds, some weighing only 50 or 60 pounds.

Gu Nan himself disapproved of selling such small fish. They didn’t fetch a high price, and the low fat content meant the texture and flavor were a huge step down. Unfortunately, his opinion didn’t matter.

It was getting late, but An Jun and Ye Jing were still going at it with gusto.

They had each caught a bluefin of nearly 300 pounds and were now fighting their second. It looked like it would take at least two more hours to land them.

’I remember seeing seven icons earlier,’ Gu Nan thought. ’Counting the ones on our lines now, there should only be one left.’

He wondered if it had gotten away, so he went to the cabin to check the fish finder. To his astonishment, he found the screen was filled with icons—a quick glance revealed at least twenty or thirty of them.

’Somehow, that many tuna have gathered under the boat?’

’But are they all bluefin?’

This area was one of the migratory routes for tuna, but not specifically for bluefin, so catching other species of tuna was perfectly normal.

The fact that Gu Nan had caught two bluefin in a row wasn’t just luck; it was mainly because he’d landed them so quickly.

The icons clustered under the boat represented fish starting at 150 pounds, with one that looked like it might even be 400 pounds. The sight made him burn with anticipation.

He’d never caught a tuna that massive. ’Looks like I’m pulling an all-nighter.’

So Gu Nan hurried back to the deck, resumed tossing out chum to attract the tuna, and cast his baited hook.

Yi Chen had just ended her livestream and was packing up her equipment. She was a little surprised to see him start fishing again. "You’re still going? I thought you were getting ready to go to sleep!"

"I’ll sleep when the fish are gone, but I just checked the fish finder. There are dozens of tuna down there. It’d be a crime not to catch them!" What was an all-nighter to a fishing fanatic? How could he possibly sleep when there were fish to be caught?

"Dozens!" Yi Chen exclaimed in shock. She hadn’t expected the attractor lights to be so effective tonight.

An Jun and Ye Jing were overjoyed. They had thought the fish on their lines would be the last of them, but now it seemed they could each land another one tonight.

By that count, their haul for this trip would come to four bluefin tuna—they were going to make a killing.

The Nanchen bobbed gently on the surface of the sea, its warning lights flashing.

The night passed in a blur. Gu Nan squinted as he watched the sunrise. It was already a little past 5:40 AM.

He packed up his rod and tackle and put them away in the storage hold.

Behind him, An Jun and Ye Jing were each processing the yellowfin tuna they had just caught.

Just as Gu Nan had guessed, only the first batch had been bluefin tuna; the ones that arrived later were all yellowfin.

As for the one that looked to be 400 pounds, none of the three men had managed to catch it.

These yellowfin weren’t small either, each weighing around 200 pounds.

An Jun and Ye Jing had each caught one. Since they were significantly lighter, bringing them in with the electric reels was much easier, and they managed to land them right after daybreak.

Gu Nan had also caught two yellowfin. Once processed, they came to a total of 170 to 180 pounds, and he put them all in the refrigerated hold.

His total haul for the night, therefore, was two bluefin and two yellowfin—two more fish than each of his two friends.

After stowing his tackle, using the head, and brushing his teeth, he went to the galley for some breakfast.

He took a large carton of milk from the fridge, opened it, and poured two glasses, which he then put in the microwave to heat up.

Beef buns were warming in a steamer, along with a few hard-boiled eggs.

As for the three women, they hadn’t been able to last the night and had already eaten breakfast and gone back to sleep.

After eating two large buns, two boiled eggs, and a glass of milk, Gu Nan returned to the deck.

Once An Jun and Ye Jing finished processing their fish and hoisting them into the refrigerated hold, he started the boat and headed out to collect the pots.

They first retrieved the buoys for the five deep-sea crab pots, then used the crane to pull the pots to the surface.

A short while later, the first crab pot was successfully pulled aboard.

But the sight of a few unknown, less-than-palm-sized crabs inside made the two men fall silent. ’What the heck are these?’

This clearly wasn’t a marketable type of seafood. Gu Nan came out for a look and immediately threw them all back.

The second crab pot was even more ridiculous when they pulled it up—it was completely empty. It seemed they hadn’t chosen a good spot last night.

Gu Nan had given up hope at this point and told the other two to just pull up all the pots and empty them.

"There’s nothing at all in the deep sea," An Jun said, hands on his hips. "Hopefully, we’ll have better luck in the shallow-water spots."

Ye Jing yawned and nodded. "Yeah. At least we can have a crab and shrimp feast before we head back."

Soon, Gu Nan reached the shallow-water area. He figured they should at least be able to catch some crabs here. Even if it wasn’t a designated fishing ground for swimming crabs, it was impossible they’d come up completely empty.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.