As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up-Chapter 86 - Trying Fishing and Hunting

Chapter 86: Chapter 86 Trying Fishing and Hunting

The yacht approached a small rocky island, and by leaning against the railing, one could see the clear coral reef not far beneath the water.

The water depth under the boat was about twenty meters, making both the distant coral reef and the area under the boat ideal for spearfishing.

During the previous free dive training, Chu Mingcheng didn’t take off his diving gear. This time, he reattached the safety rope around himself and then entered the water with Lu Zheqiang from the staircase at the back deck.

Once in the water, Chu Mingcheng swam to the side of the boat to take the fish spear from Tong Shu Man’s hands, and then he headed towards the distant coral reef.

Lu Zheqiang followed behind, holding an underwater camera.

He had recorded all of Chu Mingcheng’s training today. These materials, once edited, would make an excellent promotional video.

...

Arriving at the edge of the coral reef, where the water was about seven or eight meters deep,

Chu Mingcheng swam flat on the water’s surface, looking down with the breathing tube’s outlet above his head so he could breathe at any moment.

This was the best way to search for prey in the coral reef area.

Soon, Chu Mingcheng spotted several prized fish swimming about two meters above the coral, Black Goldfish, also known as stone breams.

He made a show of holding his breath, and then he dove down headfirst.

The filming Lu Zheqiang did the same, following him down.

After reaching a distance of about six or seven meters from the Black Goldfish, Chu Mingcheng slowed down.

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Using the fish spear for the first time, he knew his aim probably wasn’t great, so he wanted to get closer.

He slowed his movements, first bracing the fish spear on his belly, pulling back the two rubber bands, and then slowly bringing the fish spear in front of him as he approached.

The fish spear actually had some weight to it, feeling somewhat heavy when lifted on land, but with the buoyancy underwater, it became very light and could be held steadily.

As he got closer, the distance narrowed to just over three meters.

The Black Goldfish began to act uneasy, flicking their tails to swim away from him, maintaining a distance.

Their swimming speed noticeably increased, not as leisurely as before.

Chu Mingcheng stopped, not daring to get any closer and waited for the fish to stop. Then, he checked his dive watch. It had been over thirty seconds since he had dived down. There wasn’t much time left.

With someone behind him, he couldn’t patiently wait underwater for the fish to lower their guard before striking.

Raising the fish spear to aim, Chu Mingcheng chose the largest one, and when it turned its side towards him, he decisively pulled the trigger.

“Bang~”

The rubber bands snapped open in an instant, and the spearhead shot out with a whoosh, so fast that Chu Mingcheng’s eyes couldn’t catch it. He could only see the trajectory left by the spearhead as it darted forward.

The Black Goldfish in front scattered in an explosion of movement, and the shot missed, hitting at nine o’clock of the intended target, apparently missing by only about twenty centimeters.

It was normal not to hit the target on the first try. Chu Mingcheng swam back to the surface and then reeled in the spearhead.

Lu Zheqiang swam up to him, removed his breathing tube, and said, “Ah Cheng, it doesn’t matter that you missed the first shot. You actually aimed quite well, it’s just that shooting in the ocean is different from a pool due to one factor: the ocean water is in motion, and so are the fish.”

“Firstly, you should take the direction of the ocean currents into account; secondly, predict the fish’s next move. This way, your hit rate will improve rapidly.”

“Just keep practicing, no rush.”

“Okay~”

Lu Zheqiang was right. He hadn’t taken into account the force of the current or accurately calculated the speed of the fish’s movement.

However, this would naturally come with more shooting and practice.

Once again, he swam flat to look for a suitable target. This time he saw a fish of a fresh green color, which should be a parrotfish, and it was a good size.

He took a breath and dived down again, heading in the direction of the parrotfish.

He pulled back the rubber bands, ready to approach.

He realized the fish wasn’t swimming in place, but was slowly moving in the direction of 1 o’clock, so he sped up and intercepted it.

Flipping over to stop, he raised his speargun and waited for it to come closer.

Five meters, four meters, three meters…

Watching the fish swim closer and closer, until it curiously stopped in front of the speargun’s tip, Chu Mingcheng fell silent.

In his life, he had never seen such a foolish fish, but now he finally had.

He pulled the trigger and with a bang, the arrowhead pierced straight through the fish’s body.

Only then did the parrotfish realize its regret and began fiercely flapping its tail.

But the spear had a barb on it, specifically designed to prevent the prey from escaping.

Chu Mingcheng was just about to take out his diving knife to bleed the parrotfish, when suddenly the seafood pictorial in his mind underwent a change.

But he only paused for a moment before regaining his composure and bled the fish, noting that almost two minutes had passed underwater, so he had to start pulling himself to the surface with the rope.

There was no way around it, as he couldn’t stay in the water for too long when there were others around.

“Lucky catch!” Lu Zheqiang said with a smirk as he looked at the fish, offering a half-mocking compliment.

Chu Mingcheng smiled awkwardly. Stupid fish were rare, but occasionally a fisherman would encounter them.

He clipped the fish onto a live fish holder and continued to hunt for more prey, leaving the change in the seafood pictorial for when he had some spare time to look at it.

Considering it was almost noon, Chu Mingcheng handed the speargun to Lu Zheqiang, then took out his fish lance from his back and swam toward deeper waters.

He needed to catch another fish to have enough for lunch for everyone.

In waters about twenty meters deep, one couldn’t see the bottom by simply free-diving at the surface.

He needed to dive to the middle layer to look for suitable prey, but the trouble there was the need to occasionally surface for air.

After mockingly surfacing for air four times, he finally found his favored prey, a striped stone bream hiding in the crevices of the coral reef.

Only upon getting closer did Chu Mingcheng realize this stone bream was quite large, at least five or six pounds.

The stone bream thought it was very safe hiding in the coral crack, unaware that this made it even easier for him to use his fish lance.

Chu Mingcheng slowly approached from above, aimed his lance at its gills, and whoosh—

The fish’s body was pierced, and the stone bream struggled frantically.

But it was no use; Chu Mingcheng pressed down on it and, releasing the fish lance, took out his diving knife to bleed it.

Fish blood swirled in the water, and soon it stopped struggling.

Chu Mingcheng pulled the fish up to the surface and, removing his snorkel, said to Lu Zheqiang, who had also surfaced, “Let’s call it a morning, I’ll continue to practice in the pool after lunch.”

Lu Zheqiang had no objections; if Chu Mingcheng was going to practice in the pool, then he could train the two new female members who had joined the team.

Back on the boat, Chu Mingcheng put the stone bream in ice water and then poured a bit of white wine over it for sterilization.

He had once eaten the raw oysters caught by Jiang Luoluo as a joke, and an occasional indulgence like that was fine.

But if one often ate sashimi, it was best to kill the bacteria or cook it thoroughly.

Using white liquor would have been best, but since the boat only had Western liquor, Chu Mingcheng had to settle for white wine instead.

The parrotfish had its flesh removed by him, cut into chunks for frying, and it tasted quite good.

The main thing was that such fresh fish had no fishy smell, so the taste was particularly good.

After eating lunch, Lu Zheqiang began steering the boat back.

The plan had been to be out for a day, but he hadn’t expected Chu Mingcheng to make progress so quickly.