Chapter 504: Taking a Photo

The electric winch buzzed continuously.

Lao Fu Tou couldn't help but look over and asked, 'A An, can you handle it?'

Wu An didn't have time to respond.

Lao Fu Tou came over to look and pointed out how he should tug against the fish.

Wu An had previously relied purely on brute strength; hearing him, he finally planted his stance and braced the rod tip.

Lao Fu Tou nodded and said, 'Yes, sink down, then pull back.'

He helped adjust the drag.

The electric winch exerted force, slowly reeling in the line.

Wu An could feel the huge impact force continuously transmitted through the rod to his hands and body; thanks to the electric winch, otherwise pulling up such a big catch would have required considerable effort.

As the line was reeled in and it got closer, Lao Fu Tou adjusted the light; under its illumination, a blue-green fish shadow flickered intermittently on the sea surface between the waves.

It was still quite far away, but one could tell it was a sizable big catch.

The fish hadn't given up and was still struggling.

Lao Fu Tou said, 'A An, be careful, this fish is washing its gills.'

Wu An blinked: 'What do we do then?'

'……' Lao Fu Tou glanced at the electric winch and then said nothing; letting Wu An do fine control at this moment was really asking too much of him.

He said, 'Just like this.'

Leave it to fate.

Under the light, the golden big fish tumbled and thrashed on the sea surface, even leaping violently out of the water, up and down, reaching as high as one or two meters above the surface—truly full of vitality.

Wu An asked, 'Lao Fu, what is this?'

Lao Fu Tou looked and said, 'Ghost Head Knife.'

'This one is really not small.'

Then he muttered quietly, 'Huh, it's strange that it didn't shake off the hook or bite through the line.'

Wu An exclaimed, 'This is indeed a Ghost Head Knife Fish; it really is beautiful.'

Ghost Head Knife, scientific name a loach, is fairly widely distributed around here, easy to catch, making it a fish that anglers both love and hate.

He had read about it before, but this was still the first time he had caught one.

As expected.

The feel of hooking a fish was indeed great.

Too bad Lao Mai wasn't there.

Wu An muttered to himself, 'If Lao Mai were here and we hooked a Ghost Head Knife, he'd be happy enough to eat two extra bowls of rice.'

Meanwhile.

Lao Mai, who was night fishing, sneezed; a fellow angler nearby called out, 'Lao Mai, the wind's strong tonight, you haven't moved all afternoon—watch out for catching a cold.'

Lao Mai couldn't be bothered to reply; the older brother teased the younger brother, 'Is that funny?'

Lao Fu Tou helped bring the Ghost Head Knife onto the deck, picked up a stick and thumped it a few times—bang, bang, bang—and the fish quickly went quiet.

Wu An asked, 'This fish is so beautiful; it must be worth quite a bit, right?'

Lao Fu Tou shook his head: 'Quite the opposite.'

'It's beautiful, but not very valuable; a catch of this size—over forty catties—should sell for eight or nine hundred.'

'That's not bad.'

Wu An calculated: that's only twenty-something yuan per catty.

What a waste of such good looks.

Lao Fu Tou explained, 'This fish isn't tasty; around here we usually dry it into fish jerky to make salted fish.'

Saying that, he lifted the Ghost Head Knife and said, 'A An, help me take a photo.'

A Qing and Mei Wu, unable to contain their itch, came over, saw how big the Ghost Head Knife Fish was, and also felt envious.

Lao Fu Tou asked, 'Done releasing?'

Mei Wu shook his head: 'Still have a kilometer left to release.'

Lao Fu Tou looked at Wu An.

Wu An said, 'Want to fish two rods?'

Mei Wu and A Qing nodded vigorously.

Wu An said, 'Then hurry up and get the rods.'

Lao Fu Tou laughed, 'Ghost Head Knife travel in schools; dropping a line now might just snag another.'

Speaking.

He also took a rod.

Who could resist the temptation of a bunch of shimmering Ghost Head Knife swimming near the water surface?

Lao Fu Tou, experienced, adjusted the light, and then A Qing shouted, 'I see it, I see it—holy crap, there are so many!'

The Ghost Head Knife Fish were like a pack of wolves patrolling the sea surface.

What are we waiting for?

Cast the rod.

Bait the hook.

Several people spread out and took their positions.

With the Luck Value boosting them, everyone soon hooked fish one after another.

As soon as they hooked a fish, Lao Fu Tou shouted, 'This feel—definitely a Ghost Head Knife.'

A Qing also shouted with joy.

Mei Wu, even more so, needed no words.

It must be said, the equipment that Lao Fu Tou spent a fortune on is indeed quite good, and the "you get what you pay for" value keeps climbing.

After ten or so minutes, the boat had four more Ghost Head Knife Fish.

"We have to take a photo of this."

Setting up the phone, the four of them each held a caught Ghost Head Knife Fish and took a group photo.

Continue.

They quickly cast another line.

A Qing hauled in a Black Bream.

Mei Wu and Lao Fu Tou hauled up two large Sea Bass.

Only Wu An hauled in a Ghost Head Knife Fish weighing around ten jin.

Lao Fu Tou said, "Looks like the fish school has passed."

"Alright, the craving's passed."

"You all stop fishing, and quickly finish all the Longline Fishing gear."

A Qing and Mei Wu nodded, still not satisfied.

Wu An also hauled in his rod: "I'm done fishing too, let's go, the remaining Longline Fishing hasn't had Bait Hooking yet, right? Let's hook the bait together and finish faster."

He poured half a bottle of water and casually wiped his sweat with a towel.

It's not that he doesn't want to fish.

He's simply exhausted.

These Ghost Head Knife Fish are strong, too much trouble, they require a lot of bait, the ones caught are big, and hauling up three of them nearly broke him.

When they get back, they'll have to let Uncle Li arrange the rod racks on the boat.

Whether it's useful later or not, they need to have this thing.

Right.

Install it on the Trawler as well; then deep‑sea giant fishing will be easy.

…

1:30 am.

The 3,000‑meter Longline Fishing was fully let down into the sea; Wu An boiled a pot of fish soup, reheated the dishes Juan had made, with vegetables, rice and soup; after eating their fill, Wu An said he'd take a nap, but A Qing and Mei Wu were unwilling.

They'd slept all day, and now none of them could fall asleep at night.

Wu An asked, "Still want to fish?"

The two nodded, "Brother, let's battle until dawn."

Lao Fu Tou smoked a cigarette and looked up.

Wu An smiled, "Alright."

The Luck Value from yesterday wasn't used up; it was all applied to the fishing gear. At dawn the Luck Value refreshed, and there are still over three hundred Luck Value left to use today.

He picked up the fishing gear.

Cast the rod and dropped the bait.

Just a few dozen meters out, a fish bit immediately.

A Qing shouted excitedly, "Brother, a fish bit!"

Wu An said nothing.

Soon a Golden pomfret was hauled up, huge, and when tossed onto the scale it read 4.1 jin; Lao Fu Tou also brought up a Golden pomfret: "Looks like a Golden pomfret school has come."

"Not as big as yours, three and a half jin, still not bad."

"A Golden pomfret this size can conservatively fetch twenty or thirty yuan per jin."

A Qing and Mei Wu also displayed their Golden pomfret; this kind of fish isn't tiring to pull up, it takes only a few minutes from hook to tossing the fish into the ice storage, never more than ten minutes.

The four of them together could sell the Golden pomfret for four or five hundred.

If they fished like this for an hour, they could make several thousand yuan.

The main point is to have fun.

Besides that, they can also make money; what more is there to say.