The Top Fishing
Chapter 102: Sudden Change in Weather

Chapter 102: Chapter 102: Sudden Change in Weather

Two bottles of white liquor were totally drained by them, everyone except Wang Bo fell down drunk and went back to the tent to rest early.

Yang Xincheng had originally planned to return home tonight, but it seemed he would not be able to do so.

After dinner, the Air Force commander also bid farewell and left, as he didn’t drink alcohol and was completely sober.

After everyone had left, Lin Yang cleaned up the various pieces of trash on the ground, then he too went back to the tent to rest.

He had wanted to fish by the reservoir at night, but thought better of it because he had drunk some liquor and it wouldn’t be good if he accidentally fell into the water.

Aside from Yang Xincheng, everyone else had planned to stay for at least three days to fish, or even a week if the fishing was good, and they had packed supplies for at least a week.

Lin Yang felt that unless something unexpected happened, the fishing here should be pretty good for the week.

....

However, plans never keep up with changes, and before going to sleep, Lin Yang was still thinking about staying for about a week.

But during the night, a north wind started to blow. The tent, reinforced from four sides, was sturdy, but it was hard to feel sleepy inside.

The wind howled loudly, and checking the weather on his phone, a 5–6 level north wind was blowing. Luckily, their campsite was located behind an abandoned nursery which blocked some of the wind, otherwise it would have been worse.

At five-thirty the next morning, Lin Yang crawled out of his sleeping bag quite early.

Just stepping out of the tent, he shivered from the cold.

The north wind was still blowing strongly, at least at level four or five. The originally calm surface of the water, influenced by the waves from the eastern part of the reservoir, became choppy and unpredictable.

He put on a coat, stepped out of the tent, and after checking around, found that the fishing boxes and such were still there, but some trash bags that had been gathered for disposal had been blown away by the wind, and the smallest bait basin was missing as well.

"Damn, what the hell! How did the weather turn cold so suddenly!" Wang Bo also emerged from his tent, looking up and surprisingly using some flowery language.

Just two days ago at noon, the temperature here was at least twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees, but today the highest temperature on the phone was only around fourteen or fifteen degrees, and it was also very windy.

Lin Yang looked around and said, "Maybe the wind will stop in a while. I just went out to check, and the equipment and everything seemed mostly fine."

The weather forecast for the next few days was available on his phone, but weather forecasts are not always 100 percent accurate.

Wang Bo shook his head and said, "Hard to say. Once the north wind starts in spring, it doesn’t calm down for three to five days. Let’s try fishing after breakfast. If we don’t catch anything, we better pack up and go home. The weather forecast predicts strong north wind and cooling temperatures for three continuous days, making it very difficult to catch fish."

Indeed, the actual fishing condition during the day was much like what Wang Bo predicted. The north wind blew strongly until midday without a sign of stopping. It was almost impossible to fish with hand poles during the day, and casting rods yielded very little, making it a particularly bleak day.

At around eleven in the morning, the group held a small meeting.

Given the sudden worsening of the weather, they had to temporarily interrupt their fishing trip. Yang Xincheng had just driven back as he had only taken two days off, while Tai and Li Xiaopeng also agreed with Wang Bo and Lin Yang’s decision to terminate this originally wonderful fishing trip.

After the discussion, the four of them started to pack their equipment and all the trash left at the site, taking everything with them.

After leaving Dongyang Town, they all went their separate ways, and when Lin Yang got home it was already past two in the afternoon.

Starving, he ate lunch, and then Lin Yang started to tally his catch from the trip:

At least around 120 pounds of wild Crucian Carp, and over ten 3-5 pound Carp and grass carp which he didn’t keep; Old Lin had arranged for a fish merchant to directly take them away at 15 yuan per pound.

The money made from selling the fish of this trip, after deducting daily fishing fees and various expenses, still left him with a few hundred yuan.

Of course, Lin Yang no longer cared about this small amount of money. What excited him was the points he had accumulated from several days of fishing.

Previously having only a few hundred points, with this trip’s catch of various fish, Lin Yang’s total points had now broken through the thousand point barrier, enough for him to use for quite a long time.

....

In the following three days, the weather in Jiangdong City was exactly as Wang Bo had described: north wind, cooling, and rain.

Such weather was naturally not suitable for fishing, and Lin Yang rested at home for three days.

Ever since he had the fish catalogue, he had never taken a break. He was either fishing or en route to fishing every day, and these three days of rest felt like a small long holiday to him.

That day, Lin Yang got up late, just as he had in the previous days, but the weather had already begun to improve today.

Although there was no strong sunshine, the north wind had stopped, and the temperature started to rise.

Lin Yang, groggy from sleep, got up and took care of his personal hygiene, then crouched in the bathroom pondering whether or not to go fishing today.

There weren’t many good wild fishing spots nearby, and he wasn’t too keen on going to a fishpond...

Just as Lin Yang was wrestling with the decision, suddenly, he saw the turtle in the big basin next to him stick its head out.

This big turtle was the very one he had caught at Xiangyang Dam initially, intending to keep it for a few days before eating it. However, as he kept bringing more fish home, there was always food in the house, and the turtle had been alive and well ever since.

But after keeping it for almost a month, he had almost grown attached to it, and now Lin Yang was somewhat reluctant to eat it.

The turtle had food and drink every day and had clearly grown quite a bit—it was almost four pounds now.

"But speaking of turtles, it really could be a good idea to try," Lin Yang muttered under his breath as he touched his chin, then picked up his phone to search how to fish for turtles.

Although he was reluctant to eat this one, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t eat another, especially since he had been getting up early to fish every day, Lin Yang felt somewhat drained.

Although the food was decent when he went fishing at the reservoir a few days ago, it hadn’t completely revitalized him; he needed to get more restorative food.

Fishing for turtles, which are actually softshell turtles, is different from ordinary fishing.

First of all, turtles only eat animal-based baits, so things like dough bait and worms aren’t very enticing to them. Lin Yang had been lucky to catch this big softshell turtle last time. If you really want to catch them, it’s best to use livestock innards or long-dead loaches and frogs as bait. Don’t choose fresh bait, and be sure to seal the bait before making the baiting spot—the stinkier, the better.

Then, to fish for softshell turtles, you also need some iron rings, which serve the same purpose as the first time Lin Yang fished for them—it’s akin to throwing rocks in the water.

When a softshell turtle bites, although it only weighs a bit over three pounds, its four claws can grip the riverbed rocks so well that the actual weight that can be reeled in is far more than just three or four pounds. Therefore, it’s best to scare it a bit to make it retract its claws.

That’s how the iron rings are used.

After figuring out how to catch the turtle, Lin Yang had breakfast at home, told his mom he was going out, then drove to the town’s local market.

It was already 9 a.m., and many of the elderly vendors who had laid out their stalls on the ground were already packing up to go home, leaving mainly those with proper stalls.

Upon arriving there, Lin Yang headed straight for the meat section.

Walking to the meat stalls was fine, but as Lin Yang reached the area at the end that sold offal, the smell was so overpowering it felt like it was crashing against his crown.

The smell nearly made him vomit, and holding back his discomfort, Lin Yang glanced at the offal here.

Some of the offal was fresh, others not, as these vendors couldn’t possibly go to the slaughterhouse every day to fetch these items. Inevitably, some of this offal was fresh, while some were leftovers from a few days ago. Although they had been frozen and hadn’t gone bad, the smell once thawed was indeed very potent.

The vendors were mainly sorting these innards, applying different methods to the good and long-stored intestines, but in the end, everything was salable.

After walking over, Lin Yang immediately saw a set of large intestines that had turned somewhat black and were emitting an unbearable stench off to the side.

"Ugh... buddy, how much are you selling these intestines for?"

Covering his mouth, Lin Yang asked a young man who was helping out there.

"These intestines have been here for quite some time, and they are quite troublesome to process. If you want, I can wash some for you right now," the young man responded upon hearing Lin Yang.

"I’m not buying them to eat myself, I’m going fishing for turtles, and I need these kinds of offal. Let’s see how much this is, and also give me some old pig lungs or something like that."

"Ah? Are you fishing for turtles with these things?"

Upon hearing Lin Yang’s plans, the young man couldn’t help but murmur doubtfully.

But since Lin Yang wanted to buy, he naturally couldn’t refuse to sell.

Thus, he helped him cut the intestine into many small pieces, and also sliced some old pig lungs, totaling 30 yuan for Lin Yang, as the quality of these materials was quite average.

After bagging them in several layers, Lin Yang only then carried these smelly items back to his car.

Such smelly things he dared only put in the trunk; he couldn’t bear to place them up front in his car, where the smell wouldn’t dissipate for weeks.

Then, he went to a small supermarket and bought a few key rings—these were the small iron rings he had prepared. Then he drove to the small river by Xiangyang Dam.

Arriving there, Lin Yang felt somewhat nostalgic, recalling how, when he first started learning to fish, this was the place he visited the most.

Moreover, because of him, this spot had even become a local "tiny internet-famous" fishing spot. However, the crowds had significantly decreased from before, with only two or three people occasionally seen sitting by the riverbank fishing.