Pokémon: Master Pokémon has a fish-frying system.

Chapter 138 New Era Fishing Methods

"Gangjie, is this what you meant by 'never air force'?"

Lu An lay on the swaying fishing boat, a reed he had casually broken off dangling from his mouth, looking at the boundless lake and the motionless fishing rod, and muttered to himself.

They had been drifting on Lake Farmountain for two hours, but they hadn't caught any rare Pokémon, or even a single Magikarp.

Even though he hadn't seen a single fish beside Lu An, Gang Jie, who was already sweating profusely with anxiety, kept saying:

"Don't rush, don't rush. Fishing is about taking your time and doing it carefully. People who are impatient will never catch big fish."

"We've just set up our bait here. It will take a little while for the fish to arrive. Let's give them some more time."

Although Gang Jie kept offering words of comfort, they were very gentle, making it unclear whether he was comforting Lu An or himself.

"Lachi~"

~~?(o*?w?)?

Lu An gazed into the distance. On the lake's surface, far from their fishing spot, a giant swamp monster was swimming aimlessly, its eyes filled with contentment.

Yuanshan Lake truly lives up to its reputation as a famous lake in Jinhuang City. Its environment is beautiful, the water is clear, and some small fish seem to be swimming in the air without anything to rely on.

Even the Swampert, which is usually very fastidious about cleanliness and picky about water quality, is willing to roll around in the Far Mountain Lake to its heart's content.

Although we didn't manage to catch any fish, if we look at it from another angle, treating it as a picnic with a giant swamp monster seems like a pretty good form of entertainment.

Lu An, an amateur angler who hadn't seen the fishing rod tremble even once in half a day, was almost treating this competition as just entertainment.

Just then, the reeds began to sway gently, and Lu An saw a fishing boat appear beside them.

Lu An hadn't paid any attention to the appearance of the fishing boat.

After all, there are over a hundred fishing boats on Yuanshan Lake at this moment, and everyone is doing their best to fish.

If you don't bait the area a day in advance, some people will naturally look for new spots if they can't find a good fishing spot for a long time.

However, the appearance of this fishing boat made Lu An's eyes narrow:

"Gangjie."

Lu An patted his roommate on the shoulder.

On the fishing boat, the three men, including Lao Ba, whom I had met before the competition started, were sitting, with a long-winged gull hovering on Lao Ba's arm.

As soon as Lu An saw Lao Ba and the others, Lao Ba had already seen them as well.

The eighth brother said in a distant voice:

"Gangjie, no way! It's already this late, and you're still using your old-fashioned fishing methods? We just caught a super carp weighing a full fifteen kilograms, led by a long-winged gull!"

A typical Magikarp weighs about 10 kilograms, so a 15-kilogram Magikarp truly deserves the title of "super".

"Old-fashioned fishing methods?"

Facing genuine amateur players, Imai, who knew a little more about Lu An, explained:

"Old-fashioned fishing is actually a nickname, referring to fishing methods that do not rely on Pokémon or special tools, but only on a fishing rod."

"Just by looking at the long-winged gull perched on Lao Ba's hand, you can tell that he must have used the long-winged gull to find places where fish gather in advance, and then went fishing where there are many fish. Naturally, his success rate will be higher than ours."

Lu An suddenly realized.

"So using Pokémon for fishing isn't against the rules?"

Imai shrugs:

"As long as you don't use prohibited fishing gear for large-scale fishing as defined in the competition rules, Pokémon are not included."

"After all, sometimes if you catch a ferocious Water-type Pokémon, you can't just fight it with a fishing rod. Appropriate Pokémon battles are also part of fishing competitions nowadays."

Imai then added:

"Before you catch a fish, Pokémon can only be used as an assistant, such as using Lillard to scout out the location of fish schools, but they can't directly go into the lake to catch fish. That would be called catching fish, not fishing."

"Therefore, using Electric-type Pokémon to blast fish in the lake is also not an option."

Lu An rubbed his nose dejectedly. He had just been thinking that if there was a Pikachu at this moment, it would solve everything by firing a 100,000-volt shot at the lake.

It seems that even in this world, using the "fish-frying" method is against the natural order.

Faced with Lao Ba's provocation, Gang Jie, contrary to his usual behavior, did not retaliate, but instead stared intently at his fishing rod.

Imai leaned close to Lu An's ear and whispered:

"Gousuke is known as the king of 'air-catching king' in the fishing club. This is because sometimes even if he catches a fish, he can't battle it because he doesn't have a Pokémon. So he can only watch helplessly as his prey jumps into the water and swims away."

"The reason he's so determined to win first place and the top-grade fishing rod is, I heard, because the bait hook on that top-grade fishing rod is made of the same material as the catching net inside a Poké Ball. If a Pokémon bites the hook, it won't be able to escape as easily as with a regular hook."

Lu An glanced at Gang Jie, who was completely absorbed in fishing.

I never expected that my usually carefree roommate would have such an exciting activity. It seems I can't be such a lazy bum anymore.

Thinking of this, Lu An sat up straight and patted Gang Jie on the shoulder:

"Gangsuke, do you want to win?"

Although Gosuke ignored Lao Ba's provocation, he would still respond to his own teammate and roommate.

Gangjie looked up, completely bewildered.

"Of course I want to win, Lu An, why are you bringing this up?"

Lu An gave Gang Jie a mysterious smile:

"Since that's the case, why don't you trust me this once?"

Having said that, Lu An whistled sharply at the giant swamp monster a hundred meters away:

"Shh!"

The Swamp Monster, which had been swimming freely in the lake, immediately turned over and swam off in one direction.

Lu An patted Gangjie, who was still in a daze:

"What are you waiting for? Follow them!"

"oh oh."

Just as he was waking from a dream, he slowly steered his small boat to catch up with the giant swamp monster in the distance, and asked in confusion:

"But Lu An, why do you want me to follow the Swamp Monster?"

Lu An smiled calmly:

"What are you doing? Others can use Pokémon to locate schools of fish, why can't we?"

You mean?

"The Swamp Monster has three fins on its body. These fins can sense the sound of the waves and subtle changes in the sea breeze, making them an excellent helper for sailors to predict storms in advance when they go to sea."

"My Swampert happens to have a more special ability in this regard; it can even clearly sense the ripples caused by fish swimming in the water."

Lu An narrowed his eyes at Gang Jie:

"So Swampert actually always knew where the fish were the most numerous."

"You mean, Swampert is going to lead us to the place with the most fish?"

"Bingo!"

Gangjie was stunned for a moment, then flew into a rage:

"Lu An, why didn't you say so sooner that your Swampert had such abilities!"

Lu An shook the reed in his mouth and said innocently:

“My Swampert has been in the lake since the start of the match, but you haven’t said a word. I thought you were going to fish it out on your own. I was even praising you for your perseverance and integrity.”

"Forget about perseverance and integrity, fnmdp! As long as you can catch fish, it doesn't matter if it's an old-fashioned or new-fashioned fishing method, it's all a good fishing method!"

"Well, so you actually listened to what Lao Ba was saying when he provoked you. I thought you were completely focused!"

"Hehehe, I fooled you, didn't I?"