104: School of tuna

Yang Qi piloted the setting sail out of the dense, spherical Sardine school, feeling a quiet sense of relief.

Looking from a distance, it became even clearer: indeed, over ten sharks, led by a large, three-meter-long shark, were circling the edges of the Sardine school, crashing in and constantly devouring small groups of Sardine that had been separated from the main body.

Nearby, dozens of Tuna were doing the same, continuously charging in to feed.

Even smaller predators were also feasting on the Sardine, such as Skipjack Tuna and mahi-mahi.

Mahi-mahi, commonly known as dolphinfish, are fierce predatory fish. Their body shape resembles a marlin, but they lack the marlin's long, pointed snout.

Mahi-mahi flesh is somewhat fibrous, low in fat, and its taste is very ordinary, with a market price of only about ten yuan.

When these fish are freshly caught, their colors are vibrant and beautiful, but after they die, they turn dull grey.

Even though the massive Sardine school was diminishing every second, it was hard to tell how much had been lost. It simply formed a large, continuously rotating sphere.

Yang Qi felt that if the harvest were here, dragging a net for tens of thousands of catties would be easy. Even at ten-plus yuan per catty, it would be an incredible sum of money.

After all, if quality isn't enough, quantity can make up for it.

Yang Qi looked at the large shark, then at the Tuna schools, unable to resist!

What the hell! What should he do?

Just watching dozens of Tuna right before his eyes, letting them go and leaving, was truly disheartening.

If the shark were smaller, he wouldn't care, but that three-meter-plus shark really made him nervous.

“Damn it, I’m on a twenty-meter fishing boat; you can’t climb up and bite me, can you? Just go for it!”

Yang Qi secretly encouraged himself, but his body honestly steered the fishing boat to the other side of the Sardine school.

“Bai Xue, get the heavy-duty rods ready, be careful, there might be sharks.”

Yang Qi called out to Bai Xue while mooring the fishing boat.

“Okay! Let’s get some big ones!” Bai Xue was also excited.

Several rods, baited with Skipjack Tuna, were cast vigorously towards the Sardine school.

As soon as the hooks hit the water, the first to pursue were a few mahi-mahi and Skipjack Tuna.

Fortunately, the Skipjack Tuna on the hooks were not small; after a few bites, the mahi-mahi realized they couldn't get a good grip and gave up, continuing to chase the Sardine school instead.

The Skipjack Tuna on the hook, having just been thrown into the water, was still dizzy and then got a beating from a few mahi-mahi.

It managed to awkwardly dodge the harassment from the mahi-mahi and its own kind, only to find several even larger creatures rushing towards it.

“My life is over! Damn it, I must not have checked the almanac today. Crap!”

Before he finished speaking, it was swallowed whole by a Yellowfin Tuna, meeting its demise.

The rod in Yang Qi’s hand suddenly jerked downwards, but fortunately, he was prepared.

He gripped the fishing rod tightly with both hands, pulling it upwards forcefully. The hook instantly pierced the Tuna's mouth. After holding on for about ten seconds, Yang Qi slightly loosened the fishing reel's drag.

There was no need to fight this two-hundred-plus-pound Yellowfin Tuna head-on; getting too tired would leave him powerless for later. There were still many more to catch, after all.

However, he still needed to be moderately fast to try and catch more.

Bai Xue’s electric reel also had a fish on. Yang Qi had checked with his ability, and they were all Tuna. This was perfect.

Bai Xue, wearing gloves, manually helped pull the line, occasionally rinsing the electric reel with water to cool it down.

The automatically retrieving electric reels whirred as they battled the Tuna. Fortunately, these electric reels were all high-powered and could withstand the struggle, though line retrieval was slow.

Yang Qi felt the Tuna’s initial surge was about to end. He picked up the rod from the rod holder, braced it against his stomach, and began to pump and reel.

He stood in a horse stance, gripped the rod tightly with both hands, leaning back. Then he bent forward, and while bending, he held the rod with his right hand and reeled with his left. He then straightened his back, gripped the rod with both hands, and leaned back again.

The Tuna, which was pulling the line and swimming forward, was instantly yanked off balance. A searing pain shot through the part of its mouth pierced by the hook, making its body go limp and utterly powerless.

“Ouch, damn it, that hurts so much.”

Yang Qi chuckled, “Strike while the iron’s hot. Come here, you!”

In less than thirty minutes, Yang Qi had brought the Tuna to the boat's side. He first looped a rope around the Tuna's tail, then took a gaff and plunged it firmly into the Tuna's head.

A few seconds later, the Tuna stopped moving. Yang Qi first used a crane to lift this two-hundred-plus-pound Tuna onto the deck, then bled it to remove lactic acid.

He re-baited the hook, cast it back into the Sardine school, loosened the reel's drag a bit, and then placed the rod in the rod holder.

He then ran to the electric reel to manually help retrieve the line. Relying solely on the electric reel's power to quickly pull in a Yellowfin Tuna weighing around one hundred and fifty pounds was still somewhat unsatisfactory.

However, with Yang Qi's manual assistance, it became much faster.

Suddenly, he noticed that the rod he had just cast had hooked another Yellowfin Tuna. As it struggled, the hook was deeply embedded in its mouth, and it was pulling the hook as it swam away.

Fortunately, the reel's drag had already been loosened slightly, and the 2000 meters of line in the large drum reel were long enough, so he wasn't worried about the line running out anytime soon.

He quickly brought the Tuna to the boat's side, and Yang Qi used the rope, gaff, and crane in quick succession.

He swiftly and cleanly hoisted this approximately one hundred and sixty-pound Tuna onto the deck. He immediately bled it to remove lactic acid.

He turned to see that Bai Xue's fish was also close to the surface, so he picked up the gaff to secure her catch first.

By the time he returned to his own fishing rod, he found there was still about seven or eight hundred meters of line left in the spool.

“I gave you a chance, but you’re useless!”

Yang Qi picked up the fishing rod and tightened the drag. He pulled up forcefully, and the sudden exertion caused the Tuna to instantly turn its head.

With great force, he quickly pulled this still-confused Tuna to the surface. No matter what kind of fish, once it's pulled out of the water and choked with a few gulps of water, it's basically as powerless as a dead pig.

Here, 'choking the fish with water' does not mean literally drowning the fish.

Instead, it means pulling the fish's head out of the water, preventing its gills from contacting the water and performing gas exchange, thereby causing an oxygen deprivation reaction.

He hoisted the Tuna onto the deck and immediately bled it to remove lactic acid.

“Continue, continue.”

Yang Qi first drove the fishing boat some distance forward to the front of the Sardine school, then stopped the boat and continued to bait and cast his rods.

In this way, Yang Qi successively caught three more Yellowfin Tuna, and Bai Xue also caught two Yellowfin Tuna on her electric reel.

These Yellowfin Tuna were all quite large, weighing between 120 and 230 pounds.