Super Zoo

The Wuchang Fish, with its flattened body and smooth curves, is extremely fast in the water, and it darted to Suming's bait in the blink of an eye.

From the perspective of the Overlord Turtle, it was clear to see that once the Wuchang Fish were out of the Overlord Turtle's menacing threat, their speed gradually slowed down. The scent of the chicken intestines used by Suming as bait seemed to have caught their attention. They flicked their tails and approached the chicken intestines.

Compared to the fish in domestic ponds that are fed regularly and with nutritional balance, life is much tougher for the wild fish in the great river, where living from hunger to fullness is the norm. A tender chicken intestine is an absolute huge temptation... for the Wuchang Fish.

However, wild fish are much 'smarter' than pond fish and didn't pounce on the bait right away. They circled the chicken intestines, pecking carefully with their small mouths.

Seeing this, Suming chuckled and slowly cranked the reel to reel in the line.

Below the surface, the Wuchang Fish were startled to see the 'food' suddenly move, and they rapidly turned tail and fled. However, they couldn't quite let it go and stopped after swimming less than half a meter, turning back to stare at the small section of chicken intestine.

Under the pull of the fishing line, the chicken intestine was dragged away at a steady pace. A few Wuchang Fish hesitated; they wanted to eat but feared there was a trap. Yet, they couldn't bear to give up the tantalizing morsel, like donkeys lured by a carrot, following at a not too close, not too far distance behind.

Greed kills fish! On the boat, Suming's line started pulling faster, and the chicken intestines 'fled' swiftly below the surface. Just as they were about to disappear, a large Wuchang Fish over a dozen centimeters long couldn't resist any longer. Its tail flicked, and its flattened body sliced through the clear waves like a scalpel, rushing ferociously at the chicken intestines and biting down!

On the boat, the bell on Suming's fishing rod suddenly rang wildly. The fishing line snapped taut, and the rod bent into a large arc.

"Heh, Mr. Su has caught a fish too," Gu laughed from inside the cabin, poking his head out and looking over with a grin.

Zhao Yun laughed heartily at the side, "A worthy pupil! Not bad at all..."

Not bad my ass, Suming rolled his eyes. What does this have to do with you?

The sea rod in Suming's hands was strong enough to handle fish weighing tens of pounds, so this little fish weighing less than two pounds did not put up much of a fight. It was dragged aboard rather violently after just a few pulls.

Gu chuckled as he saw the catch, "Mr. Su, you're quite lucky, a Wuchang Fish, now that's a rare find!"

"I need to take this fish back and raise it; it'd be a pity to eat it," Suming was also beaming. The Wuchang Fish is an economically valuable species that could be raised in reservoirs. They are hardy and grow quickly, far more valuable than the 'four major domestic fishes'.

"Mr. Zhao, take a look. You've been fishing for half a day, and though you've caught more, the quality isn't there," Nangong Huang teased with a smile.

"This is just the beginning. Just wait until I catch a few knife fish to open your eyes," Zhao Yun laughed and switched to a smaller hook designed specifically for knife fish.

Gu was a very experienced fisherman, and generally speaking, Wuchang Fish swim in schools. Therefore, right beneath the spot where Suming caught the Wuchang Fish, there were likely more of them. So he gave directions to steer the boat back towards the fishing spot.

If they could net a whole school of Wuchang Fish, this trip would not have been in vain. Suming planned to buy them on the spot at market price and raise them all in the reservoir. Even if there were only about a hundred or so, it would be enough to form a small group. Given the environment in the reservoir, the Wuchang Fish could reproduce and thrive well. In just a year or two, they could form a large group and bring substantial economic benefits while enriching the reservoir's food chain.

The boat had not gone far when suddenly upstream a huge sand dredging boat appeared with great momentum, moving down the Yangtze River with black smoke billowing and cutting through the water, stopping right above the area where the Wuchang Fish school had gathered. Then, a conveyer belt several meters wide plunged into the river. The sand dredging boat began to roar loudly, crushing and transporting the riverbed's sand and stones onto the boat.

This disturbance instantly sent the Wuchang Fish school below scattering in all directions, with several fish that couldn't escape fast enough getting pulverized along with the sand. The Overlord Turtle's charge into the school had caused only a brief panic, and after swimming away a short distance, the fish would regroup. However, the continuous roaring of the dredging boat completely scared the school away.

"F*ck!" Suming was on the verge of cursing out loud. What was a sand dredging boat doing here all of a sudden?

Sand dredging causes serious damage to the Yangtze River, and if he wasn't mistaken, this part of the river was supposed to be off-limits for sand dredging.

Moreover, it was the fishing season. The dredging boat's ruckus and the loud roar in the water could travel far, scaring fish within kilometers and impacting them more or less.

The impact on the fishing catch is secondary; the key issue is the destruction of the nearby fish spawning environment. Many kinds of fish, such as the river toadfish which is amphibious in both fresh and saltwater, migrate back to the Yangtze River this season to spawn! The roar of the sand dredger is like a sound weapon to the spawning fish. It greatly affects their spawning, and if disturbed multiple times, many fish may even change their life habits and no longer come to the Yangtze River to spawn. That is the real fatal blow to the fishery of the Yangtze River.

Zhao Yun was also angry. He had just caught a fish, but when the sand dredger arrived, the fish on the hook struggled for a bit and somehow shook off the hook.

Seeing the sand dredger, Gu sighed with a hint of frustration and then instructed his deckhand to turn the rudder and stay clear of the large sand dredger's vicinity.

It wasn't just Gu; Suming could clearly see from the boat that as soon as the sand dredger appeared, the many nearby fishing boats dared not provoke it, as if a wolf had entered a flock of sheep. The boats that had been fishing nearby all turned their rudders to distance themselves from the dredger.

"What's going on?" Suming asked Gu in confusion, "Didn't they say no sand dredging is allowed? This boat is causing trouble, isn't it!"

"Sigh, it's the same every year, let's not talk about it!" Gu waved his hand: "Mr. Su, we fishermen can't afford to offend them. The river is so vast, we can hide if we can't confront, just moving further away is all we can do."

Only after hearing Gu speak did Suming learn that not only was sand dredging illegal in this section of the river, but the sand dredger itself was also illegal. However, the owner was a contractor from the county on the opposite bank who rose to prominence in construction projects after 2000, earning quite a bit of money. Gathering a group of people, he gained some clout locally, and the sand dredger was one of his assets. Every year, he would dredge sand from the Yangtze River, and the sand would be directly supplied to his construction projects, yielding huge profits.

Initially, the fishermen tried to negotiate with them, but it was futile. The huge profits from illegal sand dredging meant they couldn't care less about ecological damage or whether the fishermen could catch fish—it wasn't their concern at all.

The fishermen who went to negotiate, if lucky, would be turned away; if not, they might even get beaten up by 'unidentified' thugs on their way back. Over time, the fishermen no longer dared to negotiate.

Suming was also aware that there were many illegal sand dredgers in the Yangtze River. Despite seeming insignificant, the sand was essentially worthless on its own, dirty enough to be refused even as a gift. Yet, in large quantities, the insignificant sand could add up and become quite profitable. With the dredgers able to haul in tens of tons at a time, a simple startup of the engines translated into a rolling in of cash. No one did business at a loss, and some would even risk their lives when there was profit to be made. Despite the government's repeated bans on illegal sand dredging, it continued unabated due to the significant profits, causing serious damage to the local river ecology and leaving behind numerous safety hazards. Due to the backward technology of illegal dredging and the lack of regulatory restrictions, the riverbed would be left with difficult-to-repair craters after dredging, easily creating whirlpools and undercurrents.

Because the government had been cracking down hard, most illegal operations were conducted sneakily at night. But to do this openly during the daytime in the fishing ban period took a lot of guts.

"Sigh, this section of the river is quite special," Gu shook his head. It turned out that the area where the sand dredger was located was at the junction of three counties upstream, downstream, and across the bank. Due to many historical reasons, it had become a lawless vacuum zone, which the other party exploited.

As soon as the sand dredger appeared, there was no point in trying to fish nearby, so Gu stopped the boat about a kilometer from the dredger before casting the nets again.

Strangely enough, perhaps as Gu mentioned earlier, the fish didn't move much in the morning, but as it got close to noon, after changing locations, the catch increased significantly!

With his spiritual power, Suming herded the Wuchang fish that had been scared away earlier. Gu threw the net and immediately felt a heavy pull. When they hauled it in, they had almost two hundred jin of Wuchang fish, their silver scales glinting in the sunlight.

Zhao Yun caught fish one after another, and both Nangong Huang and Suming were also lucky. Although Suming used his spiritual power to regain the Wuchang fish, during the actual fishing, it was all about the pleasure of waiting for a bite. Subsequently, he didn't use his spiritual power much, and in a little over an hour, relying on luck, he and Nangong together caught seven or eight fish.

Although they didn't catch the knife fish Zhao Yun kept talking about, they did catch a spiny toadfish!

The spiny toadfish is closely related to the river toadfish and looks similar in appearance and habits, but it has a body covered in hard spines. When "angered", its body inflates, turning it instantly into a porcupine of the water, with spines that are not only hard but also carry a trace of poison, causing excruciating pain if pricked.

"Gu, quick, quick! Over there!" Suming pointed to a patch of water about ten meters away, calling for Gu to cast the net.

That last haul of Wuchang fish was thanks to Suming's directed position. Gu gave Suming a thumbs-up incessantly, even he, a veteran fisherman, couldn't pinpoint fishing spots with such precision. So, with renewed confidence in Suming, he immediately cast the net.

Indeed, once the net was cast, it sank. When they lifted the net, it was full of spiny toadfish, looking like many miniature fish caught in the mesh.

"Gurgling… gurgling..." Over a hundred spiny toadfish caught, angry and making noises.

Just then, the walkie-talkie Gu carried crackled with a joyful voice, "Gu, Gu, I've hauled in a net full of knife fish, twelve of them, weighing over five jin each. Do you want them?"