As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up
Chapter 290 - Chapter 290 Chapter 245 The Fish in the Deep Ditch

Chapter 290: Chapter 245: The Fish in the Deep Ditch Chapter 290: Chapter 245: The Fish in the Deep Ditch Holding the huge Emperor Crab with its pincers flailing, Chu Mingcheng slowly ascended to the surface, giving the creature time to adjust to the changing water pressure.

After a few minutes, Chu Mingcheng glanced at his diving watch and realized he had reached a depth of thirty meters, so he began to swim horizontally, carrying the Emperor Crab toward the fishing boat.

This was to let Jiang Luoluo see that he was still active in the waters near the boat, to keep her from worrying.

The presence of Emperor Crabs in this diving area was not that surprising.

Unlike the King crabs, Emperor Crabs, although they typically stayed below one hundred meters, would occasionally come to shallower areas in search of food or to lay eggs.

Even, with some luck, you might find them on the beaches.

Otherwise, Chu Mingcheng wouldn’t have rashly brought the Emperor Crab back; doing so would reveal to Jiang Luoluo that he had dived below one hundred meters, wouldn’t it?

Ensuring that the Emperor Crab still had plenty of energy, he continued swimming towards the surface and emerged two minutes later.

“Luoluo, come and see what I caught!” a loud shout rose above the sound of the waves.

Hearing the commotion, Jiang Luoluo hurriedly stepped out of the cockpit, only to see Chu Mingcheng holding up an enormous Emperor Crab that completely obscured him.

“This… this is just too big, isn’t it?” Her small mouth agape, she was visibly astonished.

Even for someone accustomed to seeing various large fish, she was still shocked by the size of such a massive creature.

The next moment, Jiang Luoluo snapped back to reality and hurriedly stepped forward, wanting to help lift the crab onto the boat, but the flailing pincers of the Emperor Crab left her with no way to grab hold.

“No need to help, just get the scale out. I want to weigh this Emperor Crab,” Chu Mingcheng said, and with apparent ease, he lifted the Emperor Crab onto the deck before climbing aboard himself.

Jiang Luoluo quickly brought out the big scale, with a trace of curiosity as she watched him place the Emperor Crab on it.

“Wow, fifty-six jin, four taels–that’s like selling for over two thousand five hundred Australian dollars, right?” Chu Mingcheng was a bit surprised by the weight.

He had estimated that the crab weighed around fifty jin, at most just over that, but it was heavier than he had imagined.

“If we were selling this in China, it would be worth at least sixty thousand,” Jiang Luoluo smacked her lips, feeling somewhat regretful.

The wholesale price for Noah certainly couldn’t compete with that.

But back in China, an Emperor Crab of this size could fetch around one thousand per jin, so selling it for sixty thousand was indeed not difficult.

Of course, that didn’t account for import taxes.

Having been involved in the seafood business for a few months now, Chu Mingcheng knew that seafood that was both bigger and rarer, and also had a good taste, never lacked buyers.

Restaurant owners aside, at least the big internet celebrities in gourmet zones were willing to spend the money. A single viral video could generate value far exceeding these thousands of Big Coins.

“Can’t help it, this is someone else’s turf, and we have to keep our word as well. Since we’ve agreed to sell all our seafood to Noah, we can’t go back on our word over this price difference; it’s not worth it,” Chu Mingcheng said with a smile.

“I didn’t mean that, I just feel pure regret,” Jiang Luoluo rolled her eyes, then pointed at the huge Emperor Crab and asked, “How are we going to keep such a massive crab alive?”

Chu Mingcheng also felt a bit perplexed. He measured the live fish tank and found that the entrance was too small to fit the crab inside.

He then took out the largest box he had, but it still wasn’t big enough.

In the end, he could only reluctantly say, “We’ll see how the crab pot haul is tomorrow morning; if it’s good, we’ll head back first.”

Jiang Luoluo nodded, “That’s the only thing we can do anyway. It would be such a shame if this Emperor Crab died.”

In the end, the Emperor Crab was left to shrink into a corner. Fortunately, it wasn’t sunny late at night, so there was no worry about the crab being sunburned to death.

Chu Mingcheng dived back into the water, this time intending to move quickly and stuff the crab pots full.

Catching the giant Emperor Crab had already taken up quite a bit of time. Upon returning to the bottom, he found several Emperor Crabs attracted by the bait in the pots, already gathered together.

This made his job easier. He stuffed the larger ones directly into the empty crab pots and ignored the smaller ones, since they would need to be released later, even if they climbed in.

Each crab pot had some Emperor Crabs nearby. After stuffing all of them into the pots, Chu Mingcheng had already spent half an hour.

He wasn’t sure about the number of Emperor Crabs in this body of water, but based on annual production, it was likely uncommon to fill all ten crab pots with Emperor Crabs under normal conditions.

Luckily, he had the upper hand by being able to withstand the water pressure and remain active underwater for two hours.

He could expand the search range and bring Emperor Crabs over to fill the pots.

However, he couldn’t stay underneath indefinitely to avoid arousing Jiang Luoluo’s suspicion.

Therefore, he quickly swam back to the vicinity of the boat, looking for lobsters near the reef there.

He hadn’t paid attention to this area before, and only now noticed that there was quite a bit of aquatic vegetation.

Through the light, he could see many fish darting and hiding among the plants, including two covetous Groupers.

They were of a significant size, fully meeting the catching standards.

But since he hadn’t brought a spear gun or even a fish spear, he had to let go of the two Groupers.

Had he brought a fish spear, he wouldn’t have needed to use another Emperor Crab’s huge claw to lure the one he caught from under the rock crevice.

Continuing to swim forward, the seafloor suddenly gave way to a drop-off, and Chu Mingcheng saw a coral reef.

Due to the light, he didn’t see many fish, but the multitude of tentacles in the crevices beneath the reef filled him with awe.

Are there so many lobsters here?

Chu Mingcheng didn’t immediately go down to catch lobsters. Instead, he continued swimming forward to see what the resources were really like.

If there were indeed a lot of lobsters, there was no need for him to catch them himself. Wouldn’t it be faster to buy a couple of specialized lobster traps?

Now that he had a commercial fishing license, catching lobsters wouldn’t be as troublesome as before. As long as each lobster met the size standards, that would be fine.

The lobsters from Victoria were authentic Red Dragons, and the price was good. Selling them to Noah, they could fetch thirty Australian dollars a kilogram.

As Chu Mingcheng was swimming and looking for other lobster lairs, in just a short distance of thirty meters or so, he found two more gathering spots for lobsters. It was clear there was an abundance of lobsters here.

After a while, he discovered a deep trench in the coral reef where a large number of True Sea Breams were swimming.

It was a huge school of True Sea Bream, and the number didn’t surprise Chu Mingcheng, but the size of most of them did take him by surprise.

Previously, when he caught a True Sea Bream weighing around ten or so kilograms, it made Wei Jiaguo envious.

Here, it seemed that ten-kilogram ones were quite common, and there seemed to be quite a few weighing over twenty kilograms.

Occasionally, he even saw some True Sea Breams that were nearly a meter long. The resources here were simply outrageous.

If it weren’t for Bath Channel producing authentic Red Dragon lobsters and Emperor Crabs, Chu Mingcheng would definitely choose to fish here.

This area had a wide variety of Groupers and Green Dress Fish, which were commonplace along the coast of Melbourne.

Many fishermen even liked to come here to challenge the Marlin and different types of Golden Spearfish, including the Bluefin Tuna.

Back in China, Chu Mingcheng’s plan had been to first catch Emperor Crabs, and once he had caught enough, he would go to the Great Barrier Reef to fish for big ones.

But after arriving in Australia and learning about the local marine resources, he knew there was no need to go to the Great Barrier Reef. He could just fish in the Bath Channel.

Having discovered such a large school of fish, Chu Mingcheng would definitely not pass up the opportunity.

Noah’s family had all the fishing gear, which had already been moved onto the boat.

So he immediately swam back to inform Jiang Luoluo to start the fishing boat and follow him. Then, he led the way in the water, guiding the boat above the deep trench.

“Luoluo, let’s fish tonight. We’ll collect the crab cages tomorrow morning and then head back,” he said.

After the boat stopped, Chu Mingcheng returned to the boat and, after giving an order, went to take a shower and change clothes. It was obvious he wasn’t going to bother with Emperor Crabs tonight; he was going to fish instead.

When he came up on deck after his shower, Jiang Luoluo had already changed into a fishing suit and wore a bandanna to block the wind.

The fishing rods, bait, and all other equipment were already arranged at the side of the boat. The preparation work was done.

Having a capable wife was a blessing. Chu Mingcheng joined her, leaving two fishing spots between them to avoid getting the lines tangled by the currents.

The wind and waves were quite strong at that moment. Even though the anchor had been thrown down, the entire fishing boat still rocked in the waves.

The climate on the surface of the Bath Channel was variable, and the waves were not small. Tonight, however, it was relatively calm.

Jiang Luoluo had long been accustomed to life on the boat. She tied a safety cord around the railing beside the boat and held the fishing rod in her hands.

She hung a bell on the tip of the rod. When a fish bit, the bell would ring to alert her.

This trick surprised Chu Mingcheng, “Luoluo, when did you buy a bell?”

Jiang Luoluo baited the hook and tossed it into the water before explaining.

“It wasn’t me who bought it. Noah told me that if I was inexperienced at fishing, I could hang a bell as a reminder when a fish bites. I’m not great at fishing, so I thought I’d try this bell out!”

“That does make sense,” Chu Mingcheng nodded, thinking that this method could be quite effective when fishing for fierce sea fish.

He even thought that in the future, when fishing for Golden Spearfish, one could hang a bell and not have to wait next to it. When a fish bites, the bell would ring. He felt he should buy a few bells after returning to China.

The Australian sky was dotted with stars. At night, even without lights on the boat, one wouldn’t be groping in pitch darkness.

Chu Mingcheng waited quietly for the fish to bite, and with a fish finder, he did not need to remind Jiang Luoluo of which layer to fish at.

“Ding ding dang dang~~”

The clear and urgent sound of the bell suddenly rang out. He knew that a fish had taken the bait on Jiang Luoluo’s line.

“Whoosh~”

At the moment when the bell rang, Jiang Luoluo raised her fishing rod and thrust it sharply. Normally, True Sea Breams were very cautious and alert when biting the hook.

However, when the bell rang, it indicated that the fish had gone through several rounds of testing and had swallowed the bait.

As Jiang Luoluo set the hook, it got firmly embedded in the fish’s mouth, leaving the True Sea Bream with no chance to escape.

“Hey, this fish is big!”

She pulled on the line, making a buzzing sound, and the noise of the line cutting through the water could be heard occasionally, even drowning out the sound of the waves.

Just as Chu Mingcheng was about to go over with a landing net, his own rod bent sharply downwards too.

He hurriedly locked the reel and lifted the rod to set the hook as well.

He was familiar with True Sea Bream, and usually, there was no risk of the fish getting off the hook.

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