"This is for Master Lin, for convenience," the captain said as he pushed the throttle to the max and handed a walkie-talkie to Li Xiaopeng.
The yacht was eleven meters in length, and when going at full speed, the conversation between Lin Yang and the captain was not very clear. Having another walkie-talkie made communication much easier.
Of course, the walkie-talkie was said to be for Lin Yang, but in reality, it was for Li Xiaopeng to stay by his side to relay messages; after all, Lin Yang needed to concentrate on fishing.
Li Xiaopeng took the walkie-talkie and came next to Lin Yang. He then saw the fishing line extending out from the fishing rod in Lin Yang’s hand had swerved slightly to the right of straight ahead.
"Captain, turn to one o’clock!"
The fish was changing its direction of escape, and Lin Yang hurriedly informed the captain to adjust the course accordingly.
"Cousin, how’s it going?"
"Huh... it’s not looking good."
Even as the speed of the fishing boat continued to rise, the fishing reel in Lin Yang’s hand was still rapidly paying out line, and the speed at which the line was running out did not seem to be decreasing much despite the acceleration of the boat.
There was not much line left on the reel. By now, Lin Yang had not even caught a glimpse of the fish that had taken the bait!
"It’s over, we’re in for a tug-of-war!"
Even with the fishing boat’s speed at its maximum, they still hadn’t managed to reverse the situation where the fishing line was continuously being pulled out.
Think about it: a fishing yacht like this one, eleven meters long and equipped with the corresponding propulsion system, generally has a top speed of up to 40 knots, and most don’t reach this value.
A speed of 40 knots is 40 nautical miles per hour, or about 74 kilometers per hour.
This speed, even for a car, is not slow.
But for certain creatures in the ocean, a speed of over 100 km/h is no problem, and the bigger they are, the faster they go.
The big fish that Lin Yang had hooked was undoubtedly one of them.
Not long after Lin Yang had spoken, the line on the fishing reel ran out completely, and at the same time, an unprecedented dragging sensation transmitted from the fishing rod to his body.
Despite his extraordinary physical strength, the pull of the giant force made his hands involuntarily tremble, and he felt like he couldn’t hold on.
Lin Yang was horrified!
This was not like when there was still line in the reel, which only involved dealing with the drag of the reel.
He hadn’t tested the specific drag of the fishing reel, but he roughly estimated it to be around 300 pounds, which meant that Lin Yang had been dealing with a pull of around 300 pounds.
But now that the line spool was empty, he had to directly face the violent pull of the fish in the sea!
"I’m gonna... I can’t hold on!"
Just as Lin Yang was thinking of letting the line go to save the rod, the hitherto reliable nylon fishing line snapped!
The tremendous pull vanished, and he lost control for a moment, stumbling several steps backward. The other onlookers reacted quickly and reached out to grab Lin Yang.
But reaching out was like trying to stop a moving car; they were pulled back by the force Lin Yang carried and fell in a heap.
With a few human cushions to soften the fall, Lin Yang was quickly up on his feet without a scratch.
The other three onlookers, however, lay on the deck groaning in discomfort.
"Is everyone okay?"
The incident had happened so unexpectedly that Li Xiaopeng was somewhat taken aback.
"Hiss... No worries, just a bit of a sore butt. What kind of monster were you fishing for, Master Lin!" exclaimed Li Jianping, still in shock.
He had intended only to steady Lin Yang to prevent him from falling but had not anticipated the great force with which Lin Yang moved backward; caught off guard, he too was pulled down.
One could imagine just how big the fish that had snapped the line must have been!
"Ah... I don’t even know how big; I didn’t even catch a glimpse of its shadow before it got away. I reckon it was at least a thousand pounds. Except for that giant Bluefin I once caught with a boat rod, no other fish compares to the one just now!"
The biggest fish in an angler’s eyes is always the one that got away.
But truth be told, although they didn’t see the shadow of the just-lost fish, its weight was unquestionable; it definitely weighed over a thousand pounds.
"Sigh, if only the boat had been smaller, there might have been a chance to get it aboard."
If the boat had been smaller, with the toughness of his fishing line, it could have allowed the big fish to tow the small boat around. But the eleven-meter fishing yacht under his feet was clearly not something a fish could pull.
However, a smaller boat wouldn’t have been able to carry many people and wouldn’t be suitable for competitions, since a team’s competitors alone number four, not to mention the record keepers, photographers, team leaders, adding up to nearly ten people—a smaller vessel couldn’t accommodate so many.
Even if it could, the angler wouldn’t have enough space to fish effectively.
After lamenting the lost big fish, Lin Yang checked the fishing reel to find the line cup completely empty, save for a bit of line remaining on top. With a slight touch of his finger, that piece of line fell off.
Clearly, the line had broken at the knot on the line cup.
Line knots inevitably result in some loss of tensile strength, so breaking off there was nothing unusual.