Chapter 023: Catching the Big Carp

As the camera shifted, the audience in the live stream could clearly see the situation unravel.

"Wow, did the host lower the gear?"

"No, I just saw the tip of the rod get pulled into the water, he must have hooked a big one."

"Wow, can you really catch big fish with long rods, short lines, and earthworms?"

"Awesome, host."

"Students in the front row, please sit down, basics, basics."

Today, Lin Yang was lucky to be using a 2.0 pass-through line, otherwise, the thin line setup he used before would have probably snapped from his pulling.

"Not good."

Suddenly, Lin Yang exclaimed in surprise as the fishing line straightened into a straight line, indicating that the big catch underwater was heading toward the middle of the river.

Seeing this, he quickly took a couple of steps forward to allow some buffer space, then he raised the fishing rod in his hand to avoid a tug-of-war with the massive creature in the water.

However, the line, already over three meters long, along with his six-meter-three fishing rod, only managed to lift at a slight angle.

"Splash!"

The huge creature underwater provocatively breached the surface, causing violent splashes on the calm water.

However, due to Lin Yang's previous dragging, the battleground had already moved to an area with clear water. Otherwise, given the severity of that splash, any line, no matter how thick, would have already snapped.

It was at this moment that he could clearly see what the big catch underwater looked like.

It was a dark bream, with a tail fin nearly ten centimeters wide slapping against the water's surface.

Lin Yang was quite surprised to catch a bream. While Hua Jian's river did have bream, they were particularly rare.

Upstream of this river, there is an irrigation stream. Due to the rise in freshwater fish prices over the past two years, the original farmland had been transformed into fishponds. The water exchange in the ponds usually used water from upstream of this river, so it was inevitable that some fish fry, like the four major families, ended up in the river.

However, seeing such a large bream in this river was indeed very rare.

At this time, anglers from afar had also been attracted by the situation here and began to take notice, especially since the loud splash when the big bream breached the water was quite noisy.

Also, many people had been fishing since morning without any significant catch. Upon seeing Lin Yang hooking a big one, they actively gathered around to watch.

"Look how the rod is bending, the fish in the water must be no less than five pounds."

"Probably more, this young man's rod is a composite fishing rod, two-eight biased hard, to bend like this, it must be around ten pounds."

Some anglers had already noticed Lin Yang's fishing rod and began to explain.

"Ten pounds? Wow, that's impressive."

"By the way, young man, I saw the fish breach the water earlier. Did you see what it was?" someone asked.

Holding the fishing rod with both arms and leaning back at an angle of less than seventy degrees from the ground, Lin Yang replied breathlessly, "A river bream."

"Bro, you're quite lucky, to catch a big river bream on this surface."

As Lin Yang and the big fish in the water continued their struggle, more anglers gradually gathered around, and some noticed the issue with his line setup.

"Young man, are you still using the short line with a seven-star float?"

Lin Yang nodded and responded, "Yeah, I was fishing in that grassy area earlier, who knew a big guy would suddenly show up."

Hearing this, everyone around him showed expressions of great interest. They had set up their meticulous fishing gear and boxes, yet had caught only a few crucian carp.

Here was someone casually traditional fishing and encountering a big bream, his luck was truly against the odds.

Lin Yang heard the comments from the people around him and could only laugh helplessly. By now, his arms were starting to tremble slightly from the effort of half a day.

At that moment, he had already decided that he must exercise more and strengthen his body after going back. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to pull up a big fish even if he encountered one.

"Swoosh! Swoosh!"

The big bream made another powerful pull that made the line whiz through the air. Lin Yang focused his attention, stopping his chat with the surrounding anglers, and began to concentrate fully on the battle.

As time ticked by, the standoff between the man on the bank and the fish in the water went back and forth for nearly ten minutes. Just as Lin Yang was about to exhaust his strength and collapse, the big bream in the water finally gave in first.

The half-meter-long body surfaced, gasped a couple of breaths of water, then flipped over showing its pale belly.

The surrounding anglers gasped at the sight of the fish. In some stocked ponds, catching such a big one might not have been surprising, but this was a wild river. Not to mention this big bream, even spotting a grass carp over four or five pounds was rare.

Those who had been fishing earlier were aware of the fish situation here, so the look in their eyes as they gazed at Lin Yang was full of envy. This sleek wild big bream could indeed be considered a top prize.

At that moment, another older brother beside him also picked up a fishing net to help scoop the fish.

Lin Yang propped himself up with one hand and stood up, gasping heavily as he watched the Large Crucian Carp slowly get dragged ashore, finally letting out a long breath of relief.

The nearly twenty-minute struggle had exhausted him, yet seeing the fruit of his labor before him, a satisfied smile spread across his face.

As the Big carp made it onto the shore, two notifications flashed before Lin Yang's eyes.

[Experience Value +20, points +20]

[Host unlocks 'Bream' pictorial, rewards ¥1500, special item (one physical enhancement card)]

After claiming the rewards, a golden glowing card appeared in Lin Yang's mind, with a line of small text beneath it.

Physical Enhancement Card: As a fisherman, how can one lack a strong physique? Once used, it enormously boosts your constitution, endurance, strength, and explosive power, far beyond ordinary people.

Seeing this, Lin Yang did not hesitate to mentally pronounce its use.

In an instant, he felt a warm flow spread from his mind to the limbs and bones of his body, significantly reducing the fatigue from his struggle with the Big carp.

"Whew, exhilarating."

Letting out a heavy breath, Lin Yang got up from the ground. Now, he felt that his body was more than twice as strong as before, and an unprecedented sense of clarity made him feel extremely refreshed.

Previously due to frequent late nights and overtime, his physical condition was a bit weaker than other men his age, yet now he felt his physique could match those muscular hunks at the gym.

Looking at the Big carp lying beside him, the forty-centimeter diameter fishing net couldn't fully contain the large creature, with half of its body still hanging out of the net. By the looks of it, even if it wasn't twenty kilograms, it seemed close to seventeen or eighteen.

Fellow anglers around him took out their phones and started snapping pictures frantically, all while clucking their tongues in admiration.

By this time, the tail of the Big carp had already lost the fierceness it had in the water, only its continuously opening and closing mouth showed it was still alive, basically motionless.

Lin Yang walked over, carefully picked it up with both hands, and approached the phone on its stand, which had been live streaming. Of course, he couldn't forget his side job as a streamer.

"My viewers, a Big carp, successfully ashore," he said, raising the Big carp to the camera.

After more than ten minutes of a human-fish tug-of-war, the excitement of the viewers who watched the entire process in the live stream could only be imagined.

I'm really not a fisherman: "Streamer is awesome, that fish must be half a meter long."

Brother Aquatic: "Bro, I'll take the fish, wait for me to come over!"

Air Force Commander: "Glad I didn't step away, otherwise I'd have missed the big catch coming ashore."

No Walk and Fish: "Same here, I was in the toilet for over half an hour, scared I'd miss something."

"....."

"Brother, you selling this Bream? I'll offer five hundred," at this moment, a man about forty, dressed in a pristine fishing outfit, came over and asked Lin Yang.

"Big brother, that's hardly fair. Those pond-raised Bream around twenty kilograms wholesale for over thirty each. From the looks of it, this one's around seventeen or eighteen kilograms, offering only five hundred is a bit unfair," hearing someone lowball the price, one of the nearby anglers spoke up to remind Lin Yang.

The man who wanted to buy the Bream visibly frowned when he heard the objection, and although there was already quite a crowd during this brief while, he did not want to make a scene and slunk away shamefaced.

"How about this, brother, I'll give you a fair price, eight hundred for the fish," another person offered a price at this moment.

Lin Yang couldn't help but laugh, "Sorry big brother, someone in my live stream already called dibs on this fish."

"Hey, Xiao Yang brother, I'm here!"

While speaking, a plump man was seen hurrying down the bank.

Lin Yang turned and saw it was Si Ge, whom he had met the day before, "Haha, speak of the devil and the devil appears. Here, the man has arrived."

"I was so anxious, brother. I saw you hauling that beast ashore in the live stream and rushed over in a panic. You haven't sold this fish, have you?"

Lin Yang smiled and said, "No, no, it's saved for you. Here, the fish is still here."

Seeing the Big carp in Lin Yang's hands, Si Ge squeezed through the crowd and approached him, clicking his tongue in amazement, "This fur, this size, this luster, beautiful, indeed a wild Big carp."

"Well, Xiao Yang brother, I'll tell you straight, for pond-raised Bream of this size the wholesale price is 30, how about I give you 40 for this wild one?"

Lin Yang generously replied, "Haha, you already gave quite a few gifts in the live stream, just take it, no worries."

Brother Aquatic: "That won't do, we need to keep things clear; loving to watch live streams is one thing, giving gifts is a must, but business deals are a separate matter, haha, that's just who I am."

Seeing the other man's generosity, Lin Yang nodded and said, "Alright then. There's also more than ten kilograms of Crucian Carp in the fish guard if you want them, take that too at a special price."

While speaking, he walked to the shore and lifted the fish guard from the water, immediately a dozen or so Big Plate Crucian Carp started hopping around inside the guard; the gathered anglers watched in astonishment, stunned into silence.

In front of their feelings, it wasn't just a significant catch that Xiao Yang landed, but there was also over ten kilograms of fish he had caught earlier; their own captures of three to five kilograms paled in comparison to Xiao Yang's haul.