Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Finally Caught One
He removed the shrimp head, hung the tail on the hook, and was careful about the placement of the hook. It was best to drop it by the water's edge, preferably near some rocks where it could hide.
Chu Mingcheng and Zhang Wei were about ten meters apart, not interfering with each other.
The Crab Tiger Fish was currently at level 0, and it wasn't their peak feeding time. In the beginning, no fish bit Chu Mingcheng's bait for five or six minutes after he cast it.
But this was normal, and having fished for several days, he was not at all impatient.
Suddenly, there was a pulling force on the fishing rod—he had a bite.
However, the feel was a bit odd. The Crab Tiger Fish was similar to the ground tiger, not only in appearance, but their manner of eating bait should be similar too.
They both swallowed it in one gulp, eating deep into the hook, so there was no need to worry about them coming off the hook.
But the feeling from the rod now did not feel like the fish was struggling hard. Instead, it felt like something was playing tug-of-war with him, almost as if it was snagged on the bottom.
Could the hook have gotten caught in a crevice?
The water was flowing, so it wasn't strange for the hook to be pushed into a crevice.
Chu Mingcheng pulled lightly and found that he could move it, but the more he pulled, the tighter it felt.
He tried loosening it a bit, then pulled again, and it moved again.
Not expecting this to work, Chu Mingcheng began to loosen and pull alternately, slowly reeling in the line.
Soon, the hook emerged from the water, along with a snake head?
Chu Mingcheng was so frightened that he almost threw his rod, but upon closer inspection, he was overjoyed to find it was a sea eel.
The sea eel did not struggle much, and once it was fully pulled out of its hole, it was like a lamb to the slaughter, easily pulled to the shore.
Its yellow-patterned body was coiled around the fishing line just like a snake. Zhang Wei had noticed Chu Mingcheng's catch and turned to look, immediately exclaiming, "Holy shit," as goosebumps broke out all over him.
He then showed a look of envy.
After all, it was a sea eel, wild, and not cheap in the market. Moreover, this one did not look small, probably about half a meter long.
However, Chu Mingcheng looked at the fierce sea eel with a distressed expression. The creature was so vicious, he did not seem to have an easy time removing the hook!
Moreover, he did not have anti-slip gloves. He had intended to grab the sea eel, but unfortunately, its body was too slippery to hold.
Having no choice, he could only cut the leader line with scissors, then replace it with a new one and equip a new hook.
The hook in the stomach of the sea eel would have to remain there for now—if it came to it, it could be discarded.
Fortunately, all these were consumables, and Chu Mingcheng had prepared plenty.
The experience points in the Seafood Guide reached 10 points, still 40 points away from ascending to level one. It seemed that in addition to making sure he earned money, he would also have to explore some new species.
After re-baiting with shrimp, Chu Mingcheng changed locations.
Since there had been a sea eel in the previous spot, no Crab Tiger Fish, regardless of how fierce, was likely to be there.
This time, he also got a bite within five or six minutes, but the feel from the rod indicated it still was not a Crab Tiger Fish.
Instead, it felt similar to before, like it was snagged on the bottom.
Chu Mingcheng had a strange expression. Could today be the day he stumbled into a nest of sea eels?
Using the same method, he soon pulled the hooked creature out of the water, and it was a large Green Crab.
When lifted out of the water, one of its large pincers firmly clamped onto the shrimp bait and would not let go. Seeing this, Chu Mingcheng quickly flung it onto the shore, fearing it would release its grip.
Sure enough, it let go of the pincer while still in midair, but by then it was too late.
With the force Chu Mingcheng threw, it didn't fall back into the water but was instead thrown to the shore.
The Green Crab, flung with its eight legs towards the sky, struggled a few times and promptly used its pincers to flip itself over. Sensing someone approaching, it raised its pincers in a threatening manner.
Its legs slowly crawled towards the edge of the bucket, seemingly feeling safer this way.
Chu Mingcheng scooped up some mud and slapped it onto the Green Crab, immobilizing it, and then grabbed it.
Checking the Green Crab's underside, he found it was a female and its belly was full, indicating it was very plump.
Chu Mingcheng was very pleased, as it seemed his luck was quite good today. Although he hadn't caught a Crab Tiger Fish, both the sea eel and the Green Crab were great finds.
He plucked some seaweed from the shore and put it in the bucket before tossing the Green Crab in.
This was to prevent the Green Crab from wildly biting and damaging the other fish in the bucket.
As for the shrimp bait and fish hook held by the Green Crab, they were no longer usable. The shrimp bait had mostly come off when he threw the Green Crab, and the fish hook was deformed from the crimp, so it was time to change it!
Unbeknownst to him, half an hour had passed.
Zhang Wei saw a fish take the bait, laughed aloud, and lifted the rod. A dark brown small fish struggled as it was pulled out of the water—his fifth Crab Tiger Fish caught today.
Moreover, his luck wasn't bad. Out of the five, three were about three taels each, and the remaining two were about two taels, all good enough to sell.
He was just about to show off to Chu Mingcheng when he realized that the latter had unknowingly moved about fifty meters away, currently dealing with a sea eel tangled around his fishing line.
"Really off the charts, how can there be so many sea eels here?"
Chu Mingcheng found it unbelievable himself. He had come to fish for Crab Tiger Fish, yet in this period, after changing spots five times, he had caught three sea eels and two sea bass weighing between eight taels to a pound.
He reviewed the marine life guide in his mind over and over, yet found no special BUFF. The sea eel's level was still zero, so how did he end up dealing with them so frequently?
Not quite understanding, Chu Mingcheng just continued to fish, cut the leader line with scissors, and threw the sea eel into the bucket.
Luckily, he had plenty of fish hooks. He had bought a box with fifty of each type and had brought them along in his car, otherwise, he would have run out due to these circumstances.
This time, Chu Mingcheng found a spot with lots of aquatic plants and threw the bait right into a gap in the weeds.
Now, he didn't really care about the Crab Tiger, anything that bit was fair game.
But sometimes it's just like that, when you want it, it doesn't come, and when you don't want it, it just happens to show up.
After waiting two or three minutes, he felt some slight movement from the rod, as if something was nibbling his bait.
Shortly after, the movement stopped.
Lifting the rod, he saw that the shrimp bait was gone—it seemed the critter below was quite clever!
Chu Mingcheng became quite intrigued. The cat at home had stolen his fish and was now his, and this fish that ate his bait also wanted to escape?
He replaced the shrimp bait and continued casting the hook into the gap of the aquatic plants.
Having tasted the sweetness just now, barely ten seconds after he cast the bait, the tip of the rod moved again.
Perhaps the creature below had let its guard down, this time it swallowed the bait hook, line, and sinker.
As it swallowed the shrimp bait, the hook firmly embedded in its mouth.
The rod tip vibrated nonstop, and Chu Mingcheng chuckled, lifted the rod sharply, and a dark brown Crab Tiger Fish was pulled out, struggling and flapping its tail in the air.
He grabbed the Crab Tiger Fish, removing the fish hook along with the swallowed shrimp bait.
Thinking about having my second bait—wishful thinking.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone