American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 60 Building a Fishing Platform
The fifty-first day has arrived.

During the few days of smoking meat, besides refining oil and doing odd jobs, Lin Yu-an's life was always interspersed with one important task.

That was to repair his barbed wire net, which had been unfortunately damaged before.

An intact gillnet is an important way to obtain food, and it is a path that Lin Yu'an will not give up.

Whenever he has a spare moment, his fingers fly across the fine web lines. This process is slow and tedious, constantly testing his patience.

Finally, this morning, after carefully inspecting all the meticulously repaired parts, he breathed a long sigh of relief; the gillnet had finally been repaired.

"My gillnet is ready to be used in the battle again!"

After repairing the gillnet, Lin Yu'an did not rush to go into the water to set it up this time.

"Having learned my lesson last time, I've decided to build a robust network platform this time!"

Lin Yu'an's gaze fell on a lakeshore near the shelter that he had already scouted out.

A sturdy and practical structure came to mind, just like the one he had seen at the logging camp before.

The wading boardwalk is supported by several thick wooden piles driven deep into the water, with a few logs laid on top to form a platform, allowing it to extend a distance into the lake.

This type of net platform not only allows him to cast the gillnet further from the shore, but also to areas where the fish may be more concentrated.

It can also serve as a great observation point and fishing platform, killing two birds with one stone! The key point is that it's sturdy, so you don't have to worry about the gillnet being blown ashore by the wind.

Another day of getting things done on a whim; having food means there's no need to panic.

Lin Yu'an took his logging axe and handsaw and began looking for suitable materials by the lake.

He needs several thick enough logs, weathered by the lake water year-round, to serve as underwater support piles, and several relatively straight logs to pave the platform.

He carefully selected several spruce trees that were about 15 to 20 centimeters in diameter, relatively straight, and with hard wood.

There were also driftwood found on the lake shore, the surface of which had become smooth from years of erosion.

"As underwater support piles, the corrosion resistance and structural strength of the wood are very important. These driftwood logs can support the water for a considerable period of time."

He used a logging axe and handsaw to cut down and trim the selected trees, and then cut four wooden stakes about two and a half to three meters long, based on the estimated water depth and platform height.

One end of these wooden stakes was carefully sharpened with an axe to make them easier to drive into the mud and sand at the bottom of the lake.

Next, he selected two relatively straight logs, each about three meters long and about twenty centimeters in diameter, to serve as the main load-bearing beams for laying the platform.

And a few slightly thinner, shorter logs, with a length similar to the width of the pre-set platform, are used as the horizontal paving material for the platform.

After preparing the materials, Lin Yu'an moved the four pointed wooden stakes to the selected lake shore.

Wearing rain pants, he carefully waded into the icy lake water, which was already extremely cold in late autumn and was about waist-deep.

He first located the first pair of support piles about one meter from the shore, about one meter apart, which would be the width of the platform.

"Make sure they don't shake easily and can withstand the storms that may come in the future."

He placed a pointed wooden stake vertically in the designated position, used the thick back of an axe as a hammer, aimed at the top of the stake, and hammered it down forcefully, one blow at a time!

He drove in three more support piles in the same manner.

These four dark brown wooden stakes stand firmly in the gently rippling lake water like guardians, forming a solid foundation.

After the support piles were driven in, Lin Yu'an began to erect the main beam of the platform.

He laboriously lifted the two logs, each about three meters long and twenty centimeters in diameter, and placed them parallel to each other on the two pairs of support piles.

To ensure a secure connection, he used a woodcutter's axe to carve matching grooves at the top of each support stake.

This allows the main beam to sit stably in the groove at the top of the support pile, greatly enhancing the stability of the connection.

Then, he took out the iron nails he had prepared beforehand and firmly nailed the main beam to each of the support piles!
After the main beam was fixed, a stable platform frame appeared on the lake surface.

After a long day of hard work, a sturdy and practical wooden net platform was finally erected, extending steadily from the shore of Lake Chirko towards the center of the lake by more than three meters.

Although it has a rough design, every connection point is exceptionally sturdy and the structure is very stable, enough to withstand strong winds.

Lin Yu'an stood on the newly built fishing platform, the wooden platform beneath his feet making a pleasant sound as it was gently lapped by the lake water. "Guys, my multi-functional lakeside work platform is officially completed!"

"With it, I can more easily lower the gillnet into deeper waters, hoping for a better catch."

"Moreover, the view is much wider from here when fishing, and this might just be the perfect spot to catch a ton of fish!"

Without delay, he immediately returned to the shelter and retrieved the repaired gillnet.

In addition, he also brought a spruce pole that was about four meters long.

As Lin Yu'an untied the barbed net, he explained his net-laying strategy.

"I need to secure one end of this gillnet firmly underwater, away from the shore."

"The other end is tied to our fishing platform, so that we can form an effective interception net."

He picked up the four-meter-long spruce pole and tightly tied the other end of the barbed wire net, along with the two paracords above and below it, to the top of the spruce pole.

He wrapped the barbed wire around the pole head several times, about ten centimeters from the tip, to ensure the barbed wire was securely attached to the pole head.

He stood at the front of the fishing platform, his hands gripping the long pole connected to the gillnet.

He pointed the tip of the long rod directly ahead of the lake surface, away from the fishing platform, and then began to slowly and horizontally push it forward.

As the long pole stretched further and further into the distance, the gillnet attached to the pole's head was also carried out in tandem.

The nets piled on the platform were smoothly pulled into the water section by section under the pull.

The wooden floats attached to the top line leave the platform one by one and float on the water, forming a gradually longer and clearer buoy line.

The boulder attached to the lower net sinks vertically to the bottom of the lake, along with the lower half of the net.

When the entire gillnet is fully stretched, it forms an "underwater wall" extending outward from the fishing platform.

At this point, a complete gillnet was set up, perpendicular to the fishing platform.

"Alright, the barbed net has been successfully set up again!"

"The water is about three meters deep at this location, and it's several meters from the shore, which is exactly the path that some large trout or pike might take to forage."

"Now, all we need to do is wait patiently."

"Generally speaking, evening and early morning are the times when fish are most active, and also the best time to harvest with gillnets."

"Let's come early tomorrow morning and see what surprises this lake has in store for us."

After all this was done, it gradually got dark.

Lin Yu'an did not engage in any other activities. Instead, he returned to the stone house and prepared a simple dinner using the dried venison he had previously smoked and some wild onions.

He lay in bed and began to review his recent plans.

Tomorrow will be the fifty-second day. Winter is coming soon, so his food problem is not a concern for the time being. The fuel problem will be the focus next.

He forced himself to have something to do every day to avoid problems with his mental state.

He had noticed this problem when he was observing solitary life in the wilderness in his previous life; loneliness is the greatest challenge in the wilderness.

Many keyboard warriors would say that food companies can simply win without any worries!

Try having him stay alone for seven days without interacting with anyone.

Why are prisoners afraid of being put in solitary confinement? When people are alone, their thinking tends to be more divergent, and they are more likely to think about many things.

So, in order to avoid overthinking, Lin Yu'an forced herself to have something to do every day.

This is also a survival skill that all contestants have reached a consensus on.

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(Thanks to all shareholders for their support; I'm thrilled to have received the "left cover recommendation" for my new book.)
(End of this chapter)