As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Undercurrents of the Sea Floor

“Ah Cheng, is spearfishing while diving difficult?” Beneath the bridge, watching Chu Mingcheng tie the safety rope to the protruding rebar, Zhao Jun asked, unable to contain his curiosity as he recalled his catch from last night.

Although he now fished in his spare time, his hauls were not stable.

Sometimes he could make a few hundred or even over a thousand quickly, but he also faced days with an empty haul or only two or three small fish.

If there was a way to increase his income, that would naturally be better.

“Brother Zhao Jun, I’m a good swimmer, and holding my breath while diving for two minutes isn’t a problem for me, plus I have a strong adaptability to water pressure, so I occasionally spearfish.”

“Free diving requires professional training and assessment, and so does spearfishing.”

“I really don’t recommend it for you since you have kids and a family to support. Stick to normal fishing; don’t even think about this.”

Chu Mingcheng immediately turned around to dissuade him, his expression very serious.

He only engaged in diving because of his ability to swim freely. Otherwise, he would not have chosen to dive alone before learning professional free diving.

Even when diving, he would choose to do it with others.

After speaking, he suddenly realized a problem. If others saw him diving for fish and were tempted to do the same, wouldn’t he be putting them at risk?

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Chu Mingcheng decided he would take the opportunity to educate the people at the dock on the risks when he went back to sell fish in the afternoon. He didn’t want anyone following suit and ending up in danger.

Zhao Jun wasn’t stubborn; after hearing the advice, he let go of the idea.

Chu Mingcheng was ready, with a net bag and live fish hook hanging from his body and a speargun in hand. At first glance, one might think he was the Sea King.

However, he had also not forgotten to bring his lasso today. The geography under the bridge was different from the rocksides, and he wasn’t sure how effective the speargun would be.

“Brother Zhao Jun, you just go about your business. Once you’ve taken care of your nets, come back to pick me up,” said Chu Mingcheng.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”

“No worries, with this safety rope, I won’t have any problems.”

“Alright, just be careful. I’ll come get you after I finish with the nets.”

Zhao Jun nodded and watched Chu Mingcheng swim a short distance away before driving the fishing boat a bit further out, then departing in another direction.

Once he saw Zhao Jun leave, Chu Mingcheng dove into the water.

The water under the bridge was murkier and had lower visibility than his previous diving spots, but there were definitely not a few fish.

Having descended five or six meters, he spotted several small shoals of fish. Diving further, he even vaguely made out the shadows of several large fish.

Indeed, beneath the bridge was the ideal spearfishing spot. When going out to sea, the common choice was to fish around oil rigs.

At a depth of ten meters, Chu Mingcheng untied the safety rope attached to him, planning to dive deeper, study the surrounding terrain, and find a suitable place for hunting fish.

The fish were circling around the pillars, and he wasn’t confident he could spear them in such conditions.

When he reached a depth of about twenty meters, he saw the base of the bridge pillars embedded in the seabed. Observing his surroundings, he noted that there were plenty of fish hiding there too.

Suddenly, a large fish appeared on one side of the pillar and caught Chu Mingcheng’s attention.

It was even bigger than the Red Friend Fish he had caught yesterday. Forgoing his inspection of the terrain, he immediately swam towards it.

The big fish was alert. When Chu Mingcheng was only three meters away, it suddenly flicked its tail, kicking up mud and sand and darting away in an instant.

Without hesitation, he followed, intending to herd the fish toward the area connecting Yanmen Island and the bridge, a location he had specifically chosen. If he didn’t find a good spot, he’d expend some energy to drive the fish there, where there were also rocks.

As long as Chu Mingcheng herded the fish toward him, he was confident that he could spear the fish with his harpoon.

But now the fish was heading toward the middle of the bridge, and he needed to catch up to change its direction first.

He had only pursued it for a short distance when the large fish suddenly stopped, as if something controlled it.

When Chu Mingcheng realized the problem, it was already too late, propelled by the inertia, he also reached the position of the large fish and subconsciously grabbed onto it.

Then he felt a very strong suction on the left side, which swept him and the big fish away instantly.

The big fish’s pause had not even lasted two seconds, and he had almost no ability to resist.

In that instant, Chu Mingcheng knew he had encountered an underwater current.

Being swept away by an underwater current usually meant certain death.

But Chu Mingcheng didn’t panic, because he could stay underwater for at least an hour, and from diving down to chasing the fish, he had only been under for about five or six minutes.

Underwater currents were frightening, but they couldn’t keep rolling him along indefinitely.

With the large fish in front and him behind, he was somewhat better off than the big fish, which was being spun around by the current, at least he wasn’t being turned over and over.

And Chu Mingcheng was also waiting, waiting for the force of the current to weaken.

Indeed, after just a short while, he distinctly felt the suction of the current weaken, and the large fish, seemingly dizzy from being spun, was slanting and flicking its tail as if trying to break free from the slackening current.

Chu Mingcheng took his chance and swam over, kicking fiercely onto the fish’s head, kicking so hard that even his foot hurt a bit.

Given the negligible resistance he felt in the water, the force of this kick was only slightly weaker than one on land, certainly enough to add to the big fish’s dizziness.

As expected, the big fish that was kicked floated along with the current, then flipped over, belly up.

Chu Mingcheng took this opportunity to loop a lasso around it, preventing the fish from suddenly waking up and escaping, then he used a bloodletting dagger to kill it. After letting most of the blood out, he secured it with a live fish hook.

This was a grouper, with seven dark bands on its body. Through this characteristic, he immediately recognized it as a Seven-band Grouper.

This type of grouper was not well-known domestically; it was the only warm-temperate grouper in our country, extremely tolerant to cold, and was the only grouper distributed in the Yellow Sea.

Most groupers are found in warm waters, and their flesh becomes tougher as they grow larger.

But this species of grouper was different; due to its cold tolerance, it had a high-fat content.

It could grow up to more than one hundred kilograms, and the bigger it was, the tastier it became.

Unfortunately, the one Chu Mingcheng caught was a bit small, probably around seventy to eighty centimeters in length, weighing only an estimated 10+ kilograms.

As for the price, it should be between three to five thousand.

This grouper, Chu Mingcheng decided to take home tomorrow to honor his parents, allowing them to taste a truly top-grade grouper.

After dealing with this grouper, the effect of the current on him had vanished completely.

Chu Mingcheng began swimming back to the surface, poking his head out for a breath of air, and then surveyed his surroundings.

He found that he was at least seven to eight hundred meters away from the bridge; a normal person, even if they were lucky enough to survive the current, wouldn’t be able to swim back.

Chu Mingcheng started swimming back silently and began thinking about the role of this underwater current.

Under normal circumstances, it would be very difficult for him to hunt down the Seven-band Grouper he carried, he had to herd it into a corner and then wait for it to calm down to have a chance of spearing it with a harpoon.

If he missed and the fish escaped, it would be another chase, time-consuming and exhausting.

This was the main reason why, even with his underwater advantages, he was only able to catch twelve fish yesterday afternoon.

Now, unafraid of the underwater current, he might be able to utilize it to help catch fish.