Although it was just one bite, the little mouse lure was already swallowed deep into the throat, and the two fish hooks on the mouse’s back were lodged in the upper jaw, fitting just right.
"See, this dogfish is really aggressive when it takes the bait. Look where the mouse has gone. In this situation, it’s very difficult to unhook with lure pliers, special unhooking tools are needed."
After saying this, Lin Yang took out a strangely shaped special unhooking device. It looked like a pair of tongs modified into an expander. After fitting it onto the mouse’s rear, he pressed down and poked inside, and voila, the double-hooked lure mouse that was stuck in the fish’s upper jaw was removed.
After removing the lure, he locked it again with the fish control device. Holding the fish control in his right hand and draping a towel over his left, he lifted the catch sideways.
"So heavy, by my estimation, it’s about thirty-something pounds, excellent, the achievement of a meter-sized dogfish is unlocked."
Lin Yang excitedly showed the viewers in the live broadcast room the catch. The feeling of catching the target species and breaking through size and weight limitations was exhilarating, much like achieving some milestone.
"Wow, it looks even bigger in the hand than it does in the water, feels like more than meter-sized."
"Host, quickly check its body, see how long and how heavy it actually is."
"Alright, let’s examine it and see what size it really is."
Seeing that many viewers couldn’t wait, Lin Yang nodded and agreed. Then, he flipped open a cover at the handle of the fish control device to reveal the electronic display inside.
"Let’s weigh it first."
After zeroing the data, he lifted the fish with both hands. The big fish was completely exhausted and hardly struggled. The number quickly stabilized to display a weight.
17.2kg!
"17.2kg, about 34.4 pounds, successfully breaking the 30-pound mark. Now, let’s measure its actual length."
He laid the fish flat in the cabin and, with Yue’er’s help, pulled out the tape measure. They measured from head to tail using the standard measuring method.
Soon, the tape measure’s data stopped at 1.28 meters, just two centimeters shy of breaking the 1.3-meter mark.
"Wow, so long. This fish is even longer than the meter-sized one I expected, just two centimeters short of 1.3 meters," Lin Yang said somewhat exaggeratedly.
"A nearly 1.3-meter dogfish, that’s outrageous, even rarer than a 1.3-meter snout fish."
"Wonder if a fish this big is delicious, taking it home for hotpot would definitely be great."
"Fishballs made from it would also taste good; such a big dogfish has fewer parasites, and the meat is rich and firm."
"Why stick to only one way of eating? Only children make choices, adults want it all. With a fish this big, wouldn’t it be delicious to make a ’nine dishes from one fish’ feast?"
Seeing the chat getting more and more absurd, Lin Yang gestured with his hand to stop, "Hold on, you all have been watching my live broadcast for more than a day or two now, such large individuals are very rare even in aquaculture, and it’s not easy for them to survive. We can eat fish meat, but if given the choice, we shouldn’t harm such large fish. Let’s release the fish back into the water, it’s better to preserve the excellent genes..."
Although dogfish are fierce predatory fish, their impact is much less than that of pike or zong fish, only a bit more ferocious than blackfish.
Nature itself is about the survival of the fittest with the law of the jungle; Dongting Lake has herbivorous fish, so naturally, there must be carnivorous ones as well. As long as they are not overpopulated, there’s no need for humans to overly interfere with their existence.
After saying this, Lin Yang turned to Xiao Li, who was operating the boat, and Li Xiaopeng, "Catching the fish was partly thanks to you guys, wanna take a photo together? After the photo, we should probably release the fish."