Chapter 134: Fishing for the First Time

Translator: Aristophaneso Editor: Caron_

At noon, Old Huang selected some of the lobsters and crabs that Sword Two and the others had caught and he started cooking.

There was a small kitchen on board with all kinds of seasonings already prepared.

The lunch Old Huang prepared, especially the giant lobsters, was just as good as the last time he cooked. This chef was very qualified.

After some rest, the mermen went back into the sea to collect more. Finally, at around three p.m., Chu Xian looked over the booty they’d acquired and nodded.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Chu Xian thought and through his power, he commanded all the mermen to return.

The dozen or so tanks on board were all filled with jellyfish and Christmas Tree Worms, and all manner of strange stones covered the deck.

The colorful aquatic plants filled an entire storage space, and all together, the collected items were more than enough to decorate a hundred aquariums.

“Let’s head back!” Chu Xian nodded.

“Alright, Boss!” Old Mu replied, and he started sailing back to port.

It took about an hour to get back to the harbor, so Chu Xian laid down on his chair to rest while the rest of the mermen sat down around him.

“Boss, boss!” Old Mu suddenly called out. “Boss, the sonar’s detecting a group of fish in front of us. Should we catch them?”

Chu Xian’s closed eyes opened, and he called out, “A school of fish?”

“Yes, boss. The sonar onboard detected a school of fish in front of us. There aren’t that many – just two or three thousand fish, but they aren’t small. They’re probably all around four or five catties.”

“What kind of fish?” Chu Xian sat up and asked with some excitement.

“Eh, boss, the sonar can’t differentiate different species!” Old Mu replied helplessly.

Chu Xian facepalmed then activated his power. His ability was far superior to the boat’s tech, and he peered into the black and white picture.

“Pomfrets, they’re probably pomfrets!” Chu Xian decided as he examined the fish.

“Pomfrets? Boss, should we catch them?” Old Mu asked.

“Catch them? Of course we’ll catch them!” Chu Xian called out without hesitation. The price of pomfrets had dropped a lot, and it was ten or so RMB per catty for every two to three catty pomfret. The price of smaller fish was even lower, but Chu Xian had taken the fishing ship out to fish. He definitely wouldn’t pass up this opportunity to practice.

“Catch them the normal way!” Chu Xian called out.

The Mermaid had two primary ways to catch fish. The first was called trawling, and a net was pulled by the boat through the water to surround the fish. Trawling was very effective but was usually used in deeper seas; when used well, this method could fill up an entire ship’s storage.

The second method was called seine fishing, and the net was cast from a stationary ship.

This method usually meant that the fish had to already be gathered together.

The first method required far more skill than the second method.

For a small group of a couple thousand fish, he only needed to use seine fishing. The net’s diameter was about thirty meters.

Chu Xian didn’t use his control ability to control the fish. He stood by quietly and watched the mermen working.

He wanted to see how effective seine fishing was, and the value of the pomfrets wasn’t enough for him to use his abilities. If the fish were bluefin tuna, on the other hand, he would’ve already jumped into the ocean.

“Drop the net!” Old Huang yelled to Sword Two and Sword Four.

“Yes!” Sword Two and Sword Four called out, and they started letting the net down.

“F***, the net is askew!” Chu Xian swore. The net was dropping completely out of position.

“Ay, ay, it’s askew, askew!” Old Mu yelled out.

“Eh.” Chu Xian was speechless. “They’re so unprofessional, and they didn’t time things properly.”

Chu Xian shook his head. “Whatever, continue!”

“Keke! Boss, fishing takes experience. We’ll get better with practice,” Old Huang said a little awkwardly.

“It’s fine!” Chu Xian shook his head.

“Haul the net!” Old Huang called to Sword Two and Sword Four.

The seine net was slowly hauled up, and the caught fish were brought on deck.

“En, not bad. At least four or five hundred catties!” Chu Xian commented. Before, he had only ever fished with a rod and had at most seen some people fishing with small nets. Compared to that, using seine fishing to catch a couple hundred fish in one go wasn’t bad, of course.

“Keke.” Old Huang coughed with some embarrassment.

“It’s fine. This is your first time. We’ll practice more in the future.” Chu Xian smiled.

Although he purchased the fishing ship to fish, he wanted to mostly target precious fish. In the future, if they found some expensive fish, he would definitely dive into the sea and control the fish. Afterward, they would use the seine… Heehee, even thinking about it made him happy.

When the net was on the deck, Sword Two and Sword Three started putting everything away.

A couple hundred catties of fish wasn’t insignificant, but it also couldn’t be considered a large batch. Directly tossing them into the storage basin was fine; there was no need to freeze them.

After the first attempt, the other fish in the school had already scattered. There was no point of trying again.

“Let’s head back. If there are other schools of fish, we’ll stop and try to catch them!” Chu Xian called out then returned to his chair.

However, it was obviously difficult to encounter schools of fish in the Yellow Sea area, and they had already been quite lucky to find a school so close to shore.

The fishing ship returned to harbor without any incident.

Such a large fishing ship attracted a lot of curiosity, and the bold Mermaid letters were prominent against the white paint.

“Eh? It looks like they have fish on board. Did they go fishing?”

“That’s right. The past few times they went out must’ve just been to get a feel for the waters, and today, they finally went fishing. I wonder how many fish they caught.”

“It’s only been eight or nine hours, how much could they have caught? It would be considered good if they got a couple thousand catties!”

“Nonsense, such a large ship, they can get three or four thousand catties just by dragging a net for seven to eight hours, but if they only caught some small yellow croakers, that’ll barely be enough to pay for the fuel.”

“Let’s go over and take a look. A day’s work on a big fishing ship like that one should be equivalent to two or three days on a small fishing ship. They should’ve made a decent amount.”

The fishermen in the harbor all gossiped and walked over to the Mermaid.

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