HUN Chapter 66: The First Time Getting Unhooked

Day fifty-five.

After processing that huge deer hide, Lin Yu'an spread it on his bed made of reeds and pine needles.

The entire hide gave off a faint smell of smoke and plant tannins, feeling soft and warm to the touch. The "luxury" level of the entire shelter instantly improved by several notches.

Since catching big fish for two consecutive days, Lin Yu'an felt like he was a natural-born angler! His condition was excellent at the moment!

He once again came to the fishing platform by the lake. Unlike before, today he brought two fishing rods.

One was the fishing rod he had spent an entire day carefully crafting from Pacific yew.

The other was purely a "new rod" he had made on impulse because of the "mystical" experience of catching the giant northern pike last time.

He had simply broken off a relatively straight willow branch about finger thickness from the woods to use as a fishing rod.

"Today I'm doing an interesting experiment to continue testing the new rod aura!"

He first picked up that precious Pacific yew fishing rod and baited it with a piece of blood bait with a strong fishy smell.

With an extremely standard side-cast posture, he cast the baited hook toward the deep water area in the distance.

Then he firmly inserted the grip of the yew rod into the gap in the fishing platform logs, creating a fixed fishing position.

After doing all this, he picked up that crude willow branch "new rod" that was almost just a wooden stick.

He also baited it with blood bait and casually cast the hook toward another patch of water not far from the fishing platform.

He then held this "mystical wooden stick" and started fishing.

An entire morning passed.

Neither the fixed yew rod nor the "wooden stick" in his hands transmitted any movement.

"This... did the fish oversleep today?"

He changed the bait several times and adjusted the fishing spots several times, but the situation still showed no improvement.

Time flew by to the afternoon, the sunlight began to soften, and Lin Yu'an also became somewhat drowsy.

Indeed, the mysticism of new rods always catching fish wasn't very reliable!

Just as he was leaning against the wooden post of the fishing platform, almost about to doze off.

"Buzz——snap!"

A series of urgent and crisp sounds suddenly came from beside him!

Lin Yu'an startled awake, all drowsiness gone. Following the sound, he saw that yew rod fixed in the platform gap was now being pulled by tremendous force, bending sharply downward!

He grabbed the rod that already had a full arc with both hands!

A steady but not violent force transmitted through the rod body. He immediately judged that although the creature underwater had some weight, it definitely couldn't compare to those two previous giants.

"Looks like it's a small guy weighing a few pounds, perfect for dinner!" Lin Yu'an was delighted and began skillfully controlling the rod to fight the fish.

He used the yew rod's powerful flexibility to easily neutralize the underwater fish's charges.

He could clearly feel the fish rushing left and right underwater, each head shake transmitted clearly to his hands through the rod body.

He confidently lifted the corners of his mouth, preparing to enjoy this not-so-intense battle and show it what real fishing technique looked like!

Just as he was about to exert force to guide the fish toward the surface!

Lin Yu'an only felt the rod tip suddenly snap upward, and the continuous pulling force in his hands instantly disappeared without a trace!

The taut fishing rod snapped back to its original position, and the fishing line went slack powerlessly.

"It got unhooked?"

Lin Yu'an stood there stunned, then quickly reeled in the fishing line.

He saw that the metal hook at the end of the line was intact, but the blood bait that had been on it was nowhere to be seen.

"Damn it!"

"It must be that the hook set wasn't deep enough when I lifted the rod earlier, or I gave it a chance to get slack line during the fight!"

A dinner that was already in hand had just run away like this, which was even more frustrating than having no fish bite.

Next, until the sun set, neither the re-baited yew rod nor the "mystical wooden stick" in his hand had any more activity.

Finally, Lin Yu'an had to pack up his equipment and return to his shelter empty-handed.

At night, by the stove inside the stone house, Lin Yu'an gnawed on leftover smoked deer jerky while facing the camera with some unwillingness and a bit of self-mockery, saying, "Today was another skunked day... well, that doesn't seem quite right."

He argued seriously, "Strictly speaking, I wasn't skunked today! After all, my yew rod actually did catch a fish, and I even fought with it for a while."

"It was just a small technical mistake that let it get unhooked and escape."

"There are differences between getting skunked and getting skunked, right!"

Like all fishing enthusiasts, he began the serious analysis and review after each fishing trip, mainly reviewing today's gains and how impressive his technique was.

On the morning of day fifty-six, Lin Yu'an didn't obsess over going to the fishing platform for "revenge."

He understood that continuously fishing with heavy bait in the same place could very well turn into just feeding the fish. The fishing spot needed to "rest" for a few days.

"Guys, since the underwater fellows aren't giving me face, let's go see if our friends on land have brought me any surprises."

He took his bow and arrows, preparing to check the traps he had set in the forest yesterday.

He first came to one farther from his shelter, where he had set a trap on a rabbit trail using homemade wire snares.

But it was empty, and the trap was in an untriggered state.

Although somewhat disappointing, this was also expected.

He checked several other small traps, most of which also yielded nothing.

Just when he thought his luck on land would also be "skunked" today, as he approached the last snare trap, he saw a familiar figure.

The red fox cub he had once saved was crouching beside the trap, tilting its head, curiously watching a snowshoe hare struggling slightly in the trap.

It looked like this young fox had grown considerably.

Seeing Lin Yu'an approach, the young fox didn't immediately flee like ordinary wild animals, but warily stepped back a few paces.

It made low "whimper" sounds in its throat, watching him with alert eyes.

"Hey, little guy, we really have a connection. Were you helping me watch my prey?"

A smile appeared on Lin Yu'an's face. The appearance of this little fox improved his mood somewhat.

He went forward to quickly process the snowshoe hare, then instead of taking it away directly as usual, he skillfully skinned it and removed the organs.

The young fox didn't run away in fear but watched intently from the side, its nose constantly twitching, almost drooling.

Lin Yu'an threw the rabbit's organs to the young fox. The little guy happily picked them up, ran to a short distance away, and wolfed them down.

"Alright, this is your reward for standing guard today."

Lin Yu'an was somewhat helpless. This clever young fox had probably learned to use his traps as a "cafeteria" to stake out.

The appearance of this rabbit completely made up for his fishing "skunk" regret today.

In the evening, by the stove inside the stone house, Lin Yu'an enjoyed a hearty dinner.

The main dish was today's catch, snowshoe hare meat simply roasted with wild onions, with roasted wild onions as a side dish.

While eating, he faced the camera and once again reviewed today's experiences.

"Guys, although I got skunked fishing today, we harvested a rabbit, which is still pretty good!"

"Tomorrow I plan to continue looking for new fishing spots to fish and use up the remaining bit of blood bait as soon as possible."

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