American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 36 Netting in Deep Water

He took a deep breath to calm his excited emotions, and then turned his gaze to the barbed net he had woven a few days ago.

Lin Yu-an returned to the shore, turned his back to the camera, took the gillnet out of his storage space, and displayed it in front of the camera.

"Before, because we didn't have the right tools to set up the net in the water, this gillnet had never been used."

"Now that I have the 'Pioneer,' I can finally deploy it to the ideal waters!"

Based on his previous observations on the shore and his special spatial perception, Lin Yu'an...

He had already marked a relatively calm area, which was likely a channel where fish migrated or gathered.

The water in this area is about two to three meters deep and is some distance from the shore, a place he couldn't reach on foot before.

As he slowly maneuvered the canoe toward the target waters, he explained to the camera, "I need to find areas where fish might pass by, or edge areas with abundant aquatic plants, so as to maximize the catch rate."

Upon reaching the designated location, Lin Yu'an first turned the bow of the boat towards the wind, and then began to carefully set up the gillnet.

"By turning the bow towards the wind, I can keep the hull stable and make it easier for me to operate the boat."

"I had already prepared the floats and sinkers when I was weaving this gillnet. My task was to make the boat move smoothly and to make the net spread vertically in the water."

He first firmly tied one end of the gillnet to a moderately sized stone, which would serve as the first "anchor point" for the gillnet.

Its main function is to fix one end of the net to the bottom of the water to prevent the entire net from being washed away by the current or dragged by large fish.

He gently tossed the anchor stone into the water, feeling it sink to the bottom, and caught a corner of the gillnet.

"The first anchor point is secured. Now I just need to move the boat, and the net will automatically and evenly lower itself into the water."

With one hand gently stroking the water, he controlled the "Pioneer" to move at an extremely slow speed along the interception route he had envisioned.

With his other hand, he methodically released the gillnet little by little from the side of the boat into the water.

As the gillnet entered the water, the lightweight poplar floats evenly attached to the gillnet's netting immediately came into play.

They resemble a string of tiny white lighthouses, floating lightly on the water, clearly supporting the upper edge of the net.

Meanwhile, the small stones, selected for their weight and evenly attached to the lower net, effectively and stably pull the lower edge of the net towards the bottom of the water by their own weight.

During the ship's smooth movement, the gillnet unfolds almost automatically in the water due to the precise balance between its floats and sinkers.

This forms a barrier that extends from the water's surface all the way to near the bottom.

After the entire gillnet was set up, he attached a similarly sized "anchor stone" to the other end of the gillnet and sank it to the bottom of the water.

Even if the anchor sinks into the water, the top line of the gillnet will still float on the surface because there are enough buoys and it will not be pulled down by the anchor.

To facilitate subsequent retrieval and recovery, he attached a longer marker rope with a conspicuous reed float to the rope of the second anchor.

"Alright, the fishing net is now set up!"

Lin Yu'an clapped his hands, looking at the gillnet area where only a row of small poplar wood floats and marker floats were visible on the water's surface, his face showing anticipation.

"Now, it all depends on whether the fish will 'give us the time'. Hopefully, we'll have a good catch by tomorrow morning!"

As darkness fell, Lin Yu'an turned the boat around and rowed the "Pioneer" back to the shallows near the shelter, carefully towing the boat ashore and securing it.

Back in the warm stone shelter, Lin Yu'an ate some leftover smoked beaver jerky and roasted Jerusalem artichokes. The fire was roaring, and the stone shelter was warm enough that he could wear just a sweater. As he tended to his tools, he mentally calculated what he might gain the next day.

The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Lin Yu'an was awakened by the calls of water birds.

After a quick wash, he didn't even have time for breakfast before putting on his rain pants and pushing the "Pioneer" back into the water.

He carefully followed the marks he had left the day before, heading towards the area where the net was to be laid.

The morning mist had not yet completely dissipated, and the lake surface resembled a giant blue mirror, tranquil and mysterious.

As he approached the familiar row of floats, he immediately noticed something unusual!

The gillnets beneath the water no longer appear to be as flat and loose as they were yesterday; in several places, they have been noticeably pulled downwards!
"There's movement! There's definitely a fish caught in the net!" Lin Yu'an's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement!
He rowed the boat to one end of the gillnet, untied the ropes from the "anchor," and then began to carefully lift the gillnet up section by section.

The gillnet was clearly quite heavy! As the net gradually emerged from the water, surprises followed!

Wow! The first one!

A wet net was pulled out of the water, and a large pike covered with dark green spots and with sharp teeth in its mouth was stuck in the net. Its gill covers were constricted by nylon thread, and its body was still twisting in vain!

This pike is about 50 to 60 centimeters long and weighs about three or four kilograms!

Lin Yu'an quickly untied it from the net and threw it into the cabin, which was lined with birch bark.

He continued to close the net.

"The second one! Another pike! This one's bigger!"

"My God! Here! There's another one here! It's a rainbow trout!"

Surprises kept coming! The gillnets, like a prison, precisely intercepted the fish trying to cross the waters.

When the entire four-meter-long gillnet was fully lifted out of the water, there were already five pike and two beautiful rainbow trout lying in the hold!

The largest pike was nearly 80 centimeters long and weighed about seven or eight pounds! The other pike were about three or four pounds each, while the two rainbow trout each weighed two or three pounds.

"A bumper harvest! This is absolutely a bumper harvest, guys!"

Looking at the lively fish in the hold, Lin Yu'an cheered excitedly at the camera!

"A small gillnet, in just one night, has brought us so much protein! Now I have enough food for the next week and even longer!"

He roughly estimated that the fish weighed at least thirty kilograms! This was an enormous fortune for someone surviving alone in the wilderness!

"The combination of the Pioneer and the gillnet is simply a fishing marvel for Lake Chirko! Once I've repaired the net, I'll cast it again!"

Lin Yu'an stroked the gunwale, his eyes filled with pride in his own creativity. Of course, he also understood that without the support of his special spatial sixth sense, he wouldn't have been able to so easily pinpoint the location where the school of fish might pass.

Laden with a bountiful catch, Lin Yu-an piloted the "Pioneer," cutting through the calm lake surface in the morning light, heading towards the shore.

(Please vote for me! Please vote for me! Please vote for me! Love all the readers who have read this far! Thank you to all the readers who have made it this far!)

Today's breaking point: A reader said that the fish I've ever caught has never weighed more than 10 pounds! I just lack a little luck. If I had the luck, I could even catch a whale!
P.S.: Case solved! The problem was in chapter 22. I meant to write the fish weighed at least three kilograms, but I wrote it as three jin (1.5 kg). I'm not changing that chapter; I'll keep it to use as bait...

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(End of this chapter)