"Flounder?"
Hearing this answer, Lin Yang was a bit confused. How could a flounder have such strength?
He vaguely remembered from his school days that flounders were supposed to be small; he had eaten them during New Year celebrations at home. Their eyes are located on one side of their flattened bodies, and they taste quite good.
Uncle Victor nodded, "Yes, but the flounders here are quite large. It’s said that some have caught flounders weighing more than a hundred kilograms. In the records of deep-sea fishing boats, the largest ones have reached three to four hundred kilograms!"
"A more-than-hundred-kilogram flounder?"
Lin Yang was shocked to hear the weight. He had seen plenty of two-hundred-pound fish, but flounders over two hundred pounds? That was beyond his comprehension.
"Yes, these flounders can grow very big, but they need many years, and in cold water, fish grow slowly."
"Oh, I get it now," Lin Yang nodded, his expectations growing even more.
After struggling with the fish for a while, he gradually noticed how it differed from ordinary sea fish. Reeling it in constantly met with great resistance; at first, he thought it was due to the sinker, but then he realized, if it was a flounder, that would explain it.
Because of its flat body, when pulling it upward, its cross-sectional area with the water is much larger, therefore the resistance is significantly increased.
After busying himself for more than half an hour, the fish underwater was finally brought to the surface.
Indeed, Uncle Victor was spot on.
This big fellow looked even larger than a large child’s bathtub, vaguely visible in the water and seemingly quite sizable.
"Damn, did everyone see that? A super-sized flounder." Lin Yang couldn’t help but blurt out.
"My God, can flounder even grow this big?"
"This thing must taste really good, right? I’ve only eaten small ones. Over here we call it turbot, and it’s not very expensive. Today’s livestream really is educational."
"Slow down, pull it up for a close-up, this flounder looks no worse than a manta ray. It’s huge!"
This enormous fish could not be handled with a simple landing net; Uncle Victor turned around, pulled out a large fishing gaff from under the deck, and expertly hooked it into the flounder’s body, helping haul the big fellow aboard.
It was a huge grayish-brown fish, over one meter twenty in length and over sixty centimeters wide, with its eyes on one side, bulging out, reminiscent of a river-frog at the bank of a freshwater river.
On the other side of its belly, one could see that the underside was pale white, starkly contrasting with the camouflage of its back.
"A Pacific giant flounder, I reckon this one must be around sixty or seventy pounds. There’s a bit of a difference from the few hundred kilograms Uncle Victor mentioned, but I’m already very pleased with it. We’ll take it back and have a good taste when we return to camp!"
While talking, Lin Yang smugly bent down and lifted the fish with his arms for another photo.
"Be careful!" Uncle Victor reminded, albeit half a beat too slow.
Before Lin Yang could react, he was beaten left and right by the flounder’s vigorously swinging tail.
With a series of crisp snaps, Lin Yang, in a momentary daze, felt like his shoulder had taken more than a dozen slaps.
He reflexively let go, allowing the fish to flop down onto the deck with a splash.
"Hahaha, smacked without warning, now tell me, are you convinced?"
"This host is killing me, I’m laughing so hard my stomach hurts."
"To pull it out after a hundred meters and it still has such vitality, this giant flounder is fierce, thumbs up."
"Host, be careful, that was quite a smack."
While the crowd was unaware of the severity, Yue’er felt extremely worried and turned to fetch ice from the cabin.
"How do you feel? Can you still lift your arm?" Uncle Victor was also visibly concerned.
Lin Yang tried moving his arm; it felt awkward, and the hit area was burning with pain.
"Damn, this thing is so strong, nearly killed me. My whole arm is burning up," Lin Yang couldn’t help but complain.
He lifted his sleeve to check, and sure enough, his left shoulder and half of his left arm were all reddened, the edge already swelling.
"This looks pretty severe, you can’t keep fishing. We need to head back to camp and treat this," Uncle Victor said seriously, no longer as relaxed as before.