The Fish I Catch Can Level Up

Chapter 244: The School of Fish in the Deep Trench

Cradling the giant, claw-waving Tasmanian King Crab, he slowly ascended to the surface, giving it plenty of time to adapt to the pressure change.

After a few minutes, Chu Mingcheng glanced sideways at his dive watch and saw that he'd reached the thirty-meter layer. He began to swim horizontally, carrying the crab toward the fishing yacht.

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

As for why there were Giant Tasmanian King Crabs in this diving area, it wasn't actually strange.

Unlike regular king crabs, Giant Tasmanian King Crabs spent most of their time below one hundred meters, but they occasionally ventured into shallower waters to find food or spawn.

With enough luck, you might even find them on the beach.

Otherwise, Chu Mingcheng wouldn't have recklessly brought the crab back. That would be like announcing to Jiang Luoluo that he'd dove below one hundred meters.

Confirming the crab was still lively, he continued his ascent. Two minutes later, he broke the surface.

"Luoluo, come look what I caught!" he shouted, his voice ringing out over the sea, which was otherwise filled only with the sound of waves.

Hearing the commotion, Jiang Luoluo quickly came out of the pilothouse and saw Chu Mingcheng holding a giant crab that completely obscured his body."That's... that's huge!" Her mouth fell slightly open, surprise written all over her face.

Even after getting used to seeing all sorts of large fish, she was still stunned by such a massive creature.

The next moment, she snapped back to reality and hurried forward, wanting to help lift the crab onto the boat, but its waving claws left her with no idea where to even start.

"No need to help. Go get the scale—I want to weigh this thing," Chu Mingcheng said, then easily lifted the crab and placed it on the deck before climbing aboard himself.

Jiang Luoluo quickly brought over the large scale and watched with a hint of curiosity as he lifted the crab onto it.

"Holy crap, fifty-six jin and four liang! This one alone can sell for over two thousand five hundred Australian dollars, right?" Chu Mingcheng was still a bit surprised when he saw the weight.

He'd estimated the crab to be around fifty jin, fifty-something at most, but it turned out to be heavier than he'd imagined.

"If this were sold back home, it would probably be worth at least sixty thousand," Jiang Luoluo said, clicking her tongue a little wistfully.

Selling it to Noah at a wholesale price naturally wouldn't fetch that much.

But in China, a Giant Tasmanian King Crab of this size would go for at least a thousand per jin, so selling it for sixty thousand wouldn't be difficult at all.

Of course, that was without factoring in import taxes.

Having been in the seafood business for several months, Chu Mingcheng now understood that the bigger and rarer the seafood—provided it also tasted good—the less it lacked for buyers.

Restaurant owners aside, at the very least, some major food influencers would be willing to spend the money. The value generated from a single viral video would far exceed these tens of thousands of yuan.

"Can't be helped. This is someone else's turf, and we have to be trustworthy. Since we promised to sell all the seafood to Noah, we can't go back on our word for a price difference of a few tens of thousands. It's not worth it," Chu Mingcheng said with a smile.

"That's not what I meant. I was just thinking it's a pity," Jiang Luoluo rolled her eyes, then pointed at the crab. "It's so big—how are we going to keep it alive?"

Chu Mingcheng was also in a bit of a bind. He sized up the live well and found that the opening was too small to fit the crab through.

Then he took out the largest container they had, but that wasn't big enough either.

Finally, he could only say helplessly, "Let's just see how the crab cages do in the morning. If the harvest is good, we'll head back first."

Jiang Luoluo nodded. "That's the only way. It would be too much of a shame if this crab died."

In the end, the crab was left to huddle in a corner. Fortunately, there was no sun at night, so they didn't have to worry about it being baked to death.

Chu Mingcheng went back into the water. This time, he needed to speed things up and fill the cages first.

Catching the giant crab had already taken considerable time. When he returned to the bottom next to the cages, he found that several crabs had already gathered, attracted by the bait inside.

That made things easy. He stuffed the large ones directly into the empty cages and ignored the small ones. Even if they crawled in, they'd have to be released later anyway.

There were some crabs near all ten cages. It took Chu Mingcheng a full half-hour to stuff them all inside.

He didn't know how many crabs were in this area, but based on the annual yield, the chances of filling ten cages under normal circumstances should be slim.

Fortunately, he had a cheat. Not only could he adapt to the water pressure at the bottom, but he could also stay active for two hours.

He could expand his search area, catch the crabs, and put them in the cages.

However, he couldn't stay at the bottom the whole time, or Jiang Luoluo would become suspicious.

So he quickly swam back to the boat and searched for lobsters among the reefs nearby.

He hadn't paid much attention to this area before, but now he noticed there was quite a lot of seagrass.

With his light, he could see many fish darting and hiding among the grass, including two mouth-watering groupers.

They were quite large, well within the legal size for catching.

But he hadn't brought a speargun, not even a fish spear, so he could only let the two groupers go.

If he'd brought a fish spear, he wouldn't have needed to use another crab's pincer to lure out the one from under the rock earlier.

Continuing forward, the seabed suddenly dropped off, and Chu Mingcheng saw a coral reef.

Due to the limited light, he didn't see many fish, but he was amazed by the numerous antennae poking out from the crevices beneath the reef.

There are way too many lobsters here, he thought.

Chu Mingcheng didn't immediately go down to catch the lobsters. Instead, he kept swimming forward to see just how rich the resources here were.

If there were a great number of lobsters, he wouldn't need to catch them by hand at all. Wouldn't it be faster to buy two lobster pots specifically for catching large lobsters?

He had a commercial fishing license now, so catching lobsters wouldn't be as much trouble as before, as long as each one met the size requirement.

The ones produced in Victoria were authentic Southern Rock Lobsters, which fetched a good price. Selling them to Noah, he could get thirty Australian dollars per jin.

As Chu Mingcheng was swimming around looking for other lobster nests, he found two more lobster gathering spots within a short distance of about thirty meters. It was clear that the lobster population here was very dense.

A little while later, he discovered a deep trench near the coral reef. Swimming inside the trench were a great many Red Seabream.

It was a massive school of Red Seabream. The number didn't surprise Chu Mingcheng, but the size of the vast majority of them left him astonished.

Previously, catching a Red Seabream of over ten jin had been enough to make Wei Jiaguo green with envy.

But here, ten-jin-plus ones seemed very common, and there appeared to be quite a few over twenty jin.

He could even occasionally spot some nearly meter-long Red Seabream. These resources were simply outrageous.

If the Bass Strait didn't produce authentic Southern Rock Lobsters and Giant Tasmanian King Crabs, Chu Mingcheng would definitely choose to fish here.

This area was rich in various species of grouper, and blue gropers were a common sight along the Melbourne coast.

Many fishermen even liked to come here to challenge big marlin and tuna, including Bluefin Tuna.

Back when he was still in China, Chu Mingcheng had planned to catch Giant Tasmanian King Crabs first, and once he had enough, he'd go to the Great Barrier Reef to fish for big game.

But now that he was in Australia and understood the local marine resources, he knew he didn't need to go to the Great Barrier Reef at all. He could just fish right here in the Bass Strait.

Now that he'd discovered such a large school of fish, Chu Mingcheng certainly wasn't going to let it go.

Noah had all the fishing gear, and it had already been moved onto the boat.

So he immediately swam back, told Jiang Luoluo to start the fishing yacht and follow him, then led the way in the water, bringing the boat directly above the deep trench.

"Luoluo, we'll fish tonight first. We'll pull up the cages tomorrow morning and then head back."

After the boat stopped, Chu Mingcheng climbed back on board, gave the order, then went to shower and change. Clearly, he was ignoring the crabs for now—he was going to fish tonight.

When he came out to the deck after his shower, Jiang Luoluo had already changed into a set of fishing clothes, her face covered with a mask to block the wind.

The fishing rods, bait, and everything else were already laid out by the gunwale. All the preparations were complete.

Having a capable partner was great. Chu Mingcheng found a spot near her, leaving two fishing positions between them to prevent the current from tangling their lines.

The wind and waves were a bit rough at this time. Even with the anchor dropped, the whole fishing yacht was still rocking and swaying on the swells.

The weather on the surface of the Bass Strait was notoriously changeable, and the waves were often choppy. Tonight was actually considered quite calm.

Jiang Luoluo was long accustomed to life on a boat. The safety line was tied to the handrail on the gunwale, and she held the fishing rod in her hands.

She'd attached a small bell to the tip of the rod. When a fish took the bait, the bell would ring to alert her.

This trick surprised Chu Mingcheng a little. "Luoluo, when did you buy a bell?"

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

"I didn't buy it. Noah told me that if you're not skilled at fishing, you can attach a bell. It'll alert you when a fish bites. I'm not that great at fishing, so I thought I'd try it."

"That's a good idea," Chu Mingcheng nodded, thinking this method was quite good for catching aggressive sea fish.

He could even use it when fishing for tuna in the future. With a bell attached, he wouldn't need to wait right next to the rod. The bell would ring when a fish was on the hook. He thought he should buy a few bells himself when he got back to China.

The Australian sky was dotted with stars. Even without the boat's lights on, it wasn't pitch black.

Chu Mingcheng waited quietly for a fish to bite. With the fish finder, he didn't need to tell Jiang Luoluo what depth to fish at.

"Jingle-jangle!"

The crisp, urgent sound of the bell suddenly rang out. He knew Jiang Luoluo had a fish on.

"Swish!"

The moment the bell rang, Jiang Luoluo raised the rod with both hands and gave it a sharp jerk. Normally, Red Seabream were very cautious when taking bait.

But when the bell rang, it meant the fish had already gone through several rounds of testing the bait and had swallowed it.

When Jiang Luoluo set the hook, it drove the barb deep into the fish's mouth, making it impossible for this Red Seabream to escape.

"Hey, the fish is huge!"

The line whined as she reeled, and the sound of it cutting through the water rang out intermittently, loud enough to be heard even over the waves.

Chu Mingcheng was just about to grab the landing net and go over when his own rod bent down sharply.

He quickly locked the spool and also lifted his rod to set the hook.

He was quite familiar with Red Seabream and knew it was unlikely the hook would come loose.