Chapter 276 - 123: The Giant
On the morning of January 5th, I read a book at home for a while and teased Hui Hui and Xiao Huihui, who like to sleep at home.
After lunch, Chen Zhou took a nap to recharge. By the evening, he took his fishing gear and led Lai Fu to the familiar lakeside.
The lake's water level had dropped significantly as it was mid-dry season.
The yellow clay surface of the shore had become hard and dry, and the water grass growing in the soil lay languidly on the ground. If it weren't so close to the lake, it would've dried to death long ago.
Chen Zhou had a bad habit when fishing—he always liked to stay in one spot, like a dog urinating at a designated spot, as if there was a magnet attracting him there.
For a competent fisherman, changing fishing spots is a necessary skill.
Even if it's useless, it gives you a reason for not catching any fish.
Yet Chen Zhou didn't change spots; it wasn't due to stubbornness but because he had an unrealistic dream—
that by waiting in the same spot, he might catch the fish that once slapped him in the face.
He always believed losing a hooked fish was a shame, not to mention that fish was so large.
If it had been an experienced fisherman who let such a big fish escape, they'd regret it for several sleepless nights. Even on their deathbed, as life's images flashed before them, they'd remember the moment the fish dived back into the water.
...
Chen Zhou placed his hand-knitted rattan fish basket into the water and set up a small bucket before sitting on a small wooden stool by the shore.
Wearing a straw hat for shade, he took out a small clay pot from his backpack, containing cooked barley grains. Still warm and exuding a unique aroma.
Chen Zhou knew that using corn kernels, wheat, or bran cakes to attract fish was effective.
But he was reluctant to waste wheat that could be ground into flour, so he opted to "cut corners" by boiling barley, which was usually fed to lambs, hoping it would work as bait.
These barley grains were hulled and cooked. They resembled two grains of rice stuck together. When scattered in the water, they wouldn't sink immediately but floated momentarily before some sank.
As the barley grains sank, they constantly released their aroma.
A lot of small fish, less than a finger long, rushed over. The timid ones watched from underwater, showing faint shadows, while the bolder ones dashed up to feast, swiftly devouring a grain of barley at a time.
As the fish gathered below the barley grains, Chen Zhou had already set up his new fishing rod and cast the hook.
This time, he used live shrimp as bait. The shrimp weren't large, about the size of half a pinky finger, but they were lively, freshly caught from a crab trap placed on Rock Beach.
These unnamed small shrimps were harmless and liked to cling to the roots and stems of water plants, finding the woven crab traps an ideal refuge, that's how Chen Zhou easily caught them.
The new fishing rod was much longer than the old one, with a longer fishing line and small foam pieces as bobbers, conspicuous on the water's twilight surface.
With the new rod and line, Chen Zhou could now cast the hook directly into the deeper parts of the water—over three meters deep—where the light gradually became dim, creating an exceptionally deep atmosphere.
Sitting steadily on his stool, Chen Zhou casually watched the small fish scramble for barley grains without any movement from the bobber, showing no urgency.
He'd grown tired of catching such small fish; catching a hundred of them in a day would be no problem if he wanted. He's after a larger catch.
Having fished on and off dozens of times, Chen Zhou's mindset increasingly mirrored that of a real fisherman, slightly squinting his eyes while displaying a nonchalant demeanor about his potential catch, sometimes glancing at Lai Fu, other times at the lake, maintaining a relaxed state.
...
As the sun slowly set, Chen Zhou caught a few small fish and placed them in the bucket. He baited the area again and then took out his secret weapon.
It was a clay lamp as thick as two thumbs, round like a small gourd, with oil contained at the bottom and a windproof hollow design on top with a wick inserted inside.
Once lit, this small clay lamp could be mounted at the front of his fishing rod, using its light to attract light-inclined insects and some fish at night.
The barley's aroma already had an allure for fish; coupled with the active insects, it could potentially draw large fish lurking in deep waters to rise.
Of course, using a clay lamp to attract fish wasn't a fisherman's exclusive secret; it was something Chen Zhou devised himself.
In truth, harnessing fishes' attraction to light is a discipline worth studying, with careful attention to the brightness, positioning, and color of the lights. Chen Zhou's inconspicuous little lamp had a negligible effect on fish.
However, Chen Zhou wasn't a proficient fisherman and had never deeply studied "fish psychology". His creative ideas often bordered on mysticism, in contrast to scientific methods.
...
Fish active at night tend to be bigger than those during the day, and after nightfall, fish drawn by the barley gathered below the rod, frequently biting the hook.
Several fish, nearing four pounds each, tugged fiercely when hooked, and it was apparent when fish were caught without even looking at the bobber.
The woven fish basket housed a few "big ones", but Chen Zhou remained unsatisfied, longing for much more.
His obsession was with the massive fish measuring 60 to 70 centimeters, weighing conservatively over ten pounds. He took the time in his busy schedule to craft this new rod and stronger line just to tackle that beast.