The Top Fishing
Chapter 596 - 259: Giant Dogfish_2

Chapter 596: Chapter 259: Giant Dogfish_2

Despite some doubts, he collected his thoughts and took a careful look. Indeed, it looked much like the dogfish he had caught before, only much larger in size.

"Fish controller? I feel a bit uncertain."

While fishing, Lin Yang hadn’t noticed, but now he saw that the entire bait was swallowed. The leader line could be cut by the teeth at any moment. He shook the fish controller in his hand, feeling somewhat uneasy.

"Brother Yang, use the landing net. I’ll help you."

Yue’er glanced at the side of the cabin and quickly walked over, fetching the bulky, heavy landing net.

With the landing net, handling this fellow became much easier. Yue’er, like netting a big freshwater fish, positioned the net in the water ahead of time; Lin Yang lifted the rod slightly, pulling the fish toward the net, ending the battle.

When she lifted the net out of the water, everyone finally saw the true form of this big dogfish.

What a creature, with a round, bulky body. The thickest part was at least as thick as an adult’s fist, its belly snow-white, the upper body covered with black and light grey patterns. It was nearly a meter long, couldn’t even stretch its tail in the net, even curling it up.

Lin Yang didn’t rush to remove the hook but instead took the landing net from Yue’er and shook it a bit – it was no exaggeration to say it weighed at least thirty kilograms.

This was the first time he had seen such a size of dogfish, which explained why he felt so unsure.

Looking at that thick, wide mouth, not to mention a leech lure, even those small ducks used for lure fishing could easily be swallowed whole.

Once the fish was out of the water, it was safe. Next, he faced the second tricky issue.

That was, the dogfish had swallowed the lure too aggressively, engulfing the entire lure inside its mouth. Using the anglers’ slang of Strong Thunder, it had gone straight for a "deep throat."

The mouth of a dogfish is not like that of ordinary freshwater fish; it’s filled with sharp teeth!

Having finally caught such a big dogfish, whether to eat it or not was another matter. But controlling it well to stretch it out for a photo shoot was essential.

But with the hook stuck and controlling the fish already proving difficult, he couldn’t just cut the leader line. If he did that, he would likely be criticized by numerous lure fishing enthusiasts for being unprofessional.

Just as Lin Yang was at a loss about how to remove the hook, Uncle Victor by his side solved the problem for him.

"This kind of dogfish has a very aggressive feeding behavior. They generally swallow the bait deeply. You didn’t bring any specialized tools, did you?" Uncle Victor asked.

Lin Yang nodded, "I brought the fish controller and lure pliers, but when I looked earlier, the bait was swallowed too deeply; the lure pliers won’t be much help."

"Use this, it should be able to remove the fish hook." Uncle Victor turned and took a small tool made of wire from the toolbox and shook it in front of Lin Yang.

"What is this? How do I use it?"

Lin Yang didn’t understand how to use this small tool with bulges at both ends and a depression in the middle, resembling a hook yet slightly different.

"You hold the fish steady, I’ll remove the hook."

"Okay!" Lin Yang replied, his hands firmly grasping the fish’s gills and neck through the net, exposing the somewhat fierce, huge fish head.

Oddly enough, Uncle Victor easily inserted the front end of the homemade tool into the fish’s mouth.

The slightly indented area became a small hook remover groove once inside the fish’s mouth. After a simple alignment, it easily caught the bottom part of the treble hook.

Uncle Victor pressed and pushed forward, and the deeply embedded tips of the treble hook were easily removed, immediately causing fresh blood to flow from the wound.

With the hook removed, a bit of bleeding was hardly worth mentioning.

Lin Yang put the fish down, casually took out a fish controller to lock the fish’s mouth, and then laid out the big fellow, displaying it in front of everyone in the live streaming room.

"Look everyone, this is a meter-long dogfish we caught in the slow-flow area upriver in Kubi River. To be honest, it’s also my first time catching such a large dogfish. This species isn’t protected. so we can take it back and perhaps make some pickled fish out of it!"

"This is huge, totally thrilling! We have dogfish here too, but a three or four-pounder is already considered big. This one must be over 30 pounds, truly a grandaddy!"

"Host, you’re awesome, but I’m more curious about the de-hooking tool made by Captain Victor. I usually play around with Strong Thunder using Thunder Frog to target black fish, and when I come across a large one, it’s often a challenge similar to this. The de-hooking process is strenuous, and if you don’t remove the hooks, it’s not feasible. After a while, the Thunder Frog is likely to get damaged, not to mention it can cause greater harm to the fish."

"+1 to the above! I’m pretty interested in that gadget too."

Lin Yang searched his memory and realized he had never really seen a similar device before.

So he turned his head and sought Captain Victor’s opinion, "Uncle Victor, could you show everyone this homemade de-hooking device?

It’s quite useful, and if possible, when I return to the country, I might try to get a manufacturer to produce some and promote them in the domestic market. With this gadget, we could greatly reduce harm to the fish and significantly improve the success rate of catch and release."

Hearing this request, Victor immediately handed over the homemade de-hooking tool he had just used: "Just a little gadget that’s nothing fancy, but if you’re interested, you can take it back with you when you return home."

"I thank you on behalf of the domestic anglers in advance." Lin Yang took the de-hooking tool, demonstrated its basic principle in the live streaming room, and then continued fishing.

In this area where the rapids slowed down at the shallow beach, although the water was not deep, the density of fish was very high. Just by picking a few new spots, he was hitting fish again.

Silver trout, dogfish, taimen, Chinook salmon—most were within the range of three to five pounds. In less than an hour, Lin Yang had caught at least a dozen fish.

Previously, he had been worried that catching too few fish wouldn’t be satisfying, but after catching over a dozen fish in this slow-flow area, he felt a bit fed up.

That’s just the angler’s nature—when there are no bites, even a small fish can be incredibly exciting, but once good fishing spots are found, smaller fish become less appealing.

Especially since he had just caught an oversized dogfish, Lin Yang’s appetite had unknowingly grown, and he sought an even more thrilling fishing experience.

"It seems the fish around here aren’t that large. Since we still have time, shall we try moving upstream a bit?" Lin Yang could not help but suggest.

Captain Victor nodded, "That’s possible, but our boat is pretty small. If we decide to go further upstream, you guys might be a bit inconvenienced. There’s a shallow water area ahead that requires us to get into the water and push the boat."

Despite it being August, the water in Kubi River was only a bit above ten degrees. Lin Yang had a taste of it when washing the silver trout roe earlier—the river water was ice cold, and if they had to get into the water, it could only be described as exhilaratingly chilling.

As Lin Yang hesitated, Captain Victor took out two sets of waterproof rubber waders from the boat’s toolbox.

These waders weren’t unfamiliar to anglers in his country as they are often needed for setting up fishing platforms at reservoirs and such, keeping them water-free and warm to some extent—an outdoor water play essential.

Captain Victor suggested, "It’s very cold in the water, bare feet might cause issues. I’ve got two sets of rubber waders here. Let Yue’er stay on the boat, and the two of us can push the boat over!"

"Alright!" Lin Yang agreed without hesitation.

The two men sat on the boat to change into the waders. Lin Yang moved around to check the fit, gave Captain Victor a nod, and then stepped into the water, holding onto the gunwale.

In this area, the water was only about seventy to eighty centimeters deep, just up to their thighs, and apart from being slightly chilly, there were no problems.

The two men tried pushing forward and quickly got the boat to a faster-flowing area.

The water near this outlet was slightly deeper than in the shallow area, but after passing it, the water level quickly dropped, with the shallowest parts being just over half a meter deep.

After moving through this shallow area, the water surface soon expanded again, and the trees on both sides became much more lush, with the water depth returning to over a meter.

Here, they could safely navigate the boat, and the two men climbed aboard one after the other, continuing to move forward.