Reincarnated in ToonTown With a Cooking System Chapter 155: Fish On! II

"Fish on!"

Ashe's outburst made jump into action, with my hands shooting out to take hold of the rod, "How hard should I yank it?!"

"I don't know, just give it a tug and start reeling it in!" Ashe yelled out orders like a drill sergeant as she stood up to stand beside my chair with an eager glint in her eyes, "This ain't rocket science, just grab the reel and bring that bastard in!"

Following the simple commands, I hauled back on the rod while grabbing the reel, stopping it from spinning out. Feeling the tension feeding back through the line, I worried it was going to snap if I tried to reel the fish in, "Should I give it so slack? Feels like it's gonna snap."

"Here, let adjust the drag," Ashe offered as she reached over and turned a dial atop the spool, and I felt the tension release as the line started to go out again despite holding back, "Now we start the endurance. When that fish starts slowing down, you're gonna want to reel it in, but then it's gonna fight you."

"So when do I actually get it in the boat?" I stressed and hauled back on the rod, trying to stop the fish from getting any farther out.

"When it doesn't have any stamina left, at that point you'll basically be able to haul it out of the water if you want to."

I nodded just as I felt the tension leave the line and imdiately started reeling, exploiting the fish's brief bout of exhaustion. "How far out is it?"

"About a hundred feet give or take, son of a bitch went long since you took so long setting the hook," Ashe muttered as she peered out across the water.

"Then it looks like I'm gonna be here for a minute."

---

A minute turned out to be twenty, as I fell into a rhythm, switching between furiously reeling in the fish and trying to keep it from going even further out to sea. With each cycle, the fish's bursts of energy beca weaker and weaker while also growing shorter in duration.

Before long, I was hugging the side of the boat with my rod curling over almost forming a complete circle, and the line leading directly beneath the ship, "Co on, just give it up!"

"Still fighting that sa one?" Ashe inquired, and I looked over just in ti to watch her stand back up from the side of the boat, holding a two-foot-long fish from its mouth.

"Yeah, apparently I got the most stubborn fish in the damn ocean," I swore before hauling back again on the rod, trying to bring the fish up to the surface, 'It's even more frustrating, seeing as I'm holding back from using my real strength. If I tried, I have an equal chance of snapping the rod in half rather than reeling the fish.'

anwhile, Ashe had landed several striped bass, all of a decent size, that she threw into a cooler built into the deck itself after giving them all a well-placed spike through the brain. "Well, hurry it up; all this beer is making crave sothing battered and deep-fried."

"Oh, that makes all the difference," I grunted sarcastically, even as I hauled back on the rod once more, pushing my strength just past human limitations, making the fiberglass pole creak and bend dangerously.

For a mont, I felt the fish try to fight back, but it only resisted for a second before I felt the line go slack, 'Gottcha!'

Cranking the reel, I hauled in the line, watching the water like a hawk as the fish's outline slowly ca into focus, "Ashe, get the net, there's no way I'm putting my hand anywhere this thing's mouth."

"What are you talking abou- whoa, that's a big fish!" Ashe went from surprised to grinning in the blink of an eye as she stared down at the nearly four-foot-long fish with a sleek body, covered in light silver scales and a slightly agape mouth full of needle-like teeth, "Not bad for your first fish!"

"Just what the hell is it?" I asked while staring into the fish's eyes that was nearly the size of a ping pong ball.

"That is a silver hake!" Ashe cheered, and I could practically hear her stomach growling, "Looks like all my moaning and complaining worked out!"

"I hope this fish is as good as you say it is," I muttered as Ashe leaned over the side of the boat with an extendable net to scoop the massive fish from the water, "I would hate to find out that I fought this thing for nearly half an hour only for it to taste like every other white fish."

"I guess you'll have to find out, and besides, half an hour isn't anything. The real big fish you get in deep sea fishing can fight you for several hours easy," Ashe muttered through clenched teeth as she leveraged her weight to pull up the net loaded down with the hake, which was surprisingly passive as it was pulled from the water. Though given how hard it had fought , I would be surprised if it had any gas left in the tank.

Once the fish was onboard, Ashe quickly went to work removing the hook with a pair of pliers, grabbing the barb and twisting it out with a firm yank. "Alright, now hold him up and decide on a pose."

"What?"

Ashe grinned as she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, "What, did you think I wasn't gonna get a picture of your first fish?"

I shook my head, but nonetheless picked the hake up by its tail and held it out away from my body, showing off how it almost reached past my knees.

"Classic," Ashe muttered as she snapped a couple of photos before putting her phone away, "Alright, now it's ti to put this bad boy on ice. You wanna do the honors?"

I nodded, and Ashe offered the sharpened ice pick, "Alright, you're gonna want to aim right behind the-"

Before Ashe could finish her sentence, I set the hake down and confidently drove the sharp tal spike into its head a few inches behind its eye. The fish seized up and spasd for a couple of seconds before going still on the deck as the last glimr of life vanished from its eyes. But I wasn't done just yet.

I then grabbed the knife, the now-empty bucket I had used earlier to process the bait, and with two quick slices along both sets of gills, I started to bleed the hake, ensuring there wouldn't be any clots or taint the flavor of the flesh.

"We wouldn't happen to have any wire, would we?" I asked while washing my hands free of the bit of blood that had managed to drip onto .

Ashe blinked and shook her head as my question snapped her back to reality, "What would you need wire for? And why did it look like you've done that a thousand tis before?"

"Butchering includes more than cutting up steaks, and the wire is for the last part of the Ikeji process. You're supposed to run a wire down the spinal column and sever all the nerves to prevent muscle spasms that will ultimately tarnish the at." I explained while looking around the deck for sothing that could be used as a substitute, only to co up with nothing, "But since we're cooking it tonight, it should be that bad."

"Fry it good enough, and it shouldn't matter what the fish tastes like," Ashe insisted, making laugh, "True, but I need to process those bass you got earlier as well, the dish I have planned for them is a bit more sensitive when it cos to the flavors of the fish itself."

"What, are you going to serve it raw or sothing?"

"Technically yes, but I'm not gonna spoil it what I'm making just yet." I teased.

"But there will be fried fish, correct?" Ashe clarified with a deathly serious look.

"Yes, there will be fried fish," I confird, making Ashe grin and plant a quick kiss on my cheek. "Well then, let go wrangle up a few more fish so you can cook your heart out."

"That's probably for the best. I don't think I'm really a fishing kind of guy," I admitted shalessly, "Though if you ever want to go on a trip soti, I would be more than happy to cook anything you catch."

Ashe stared at for a long mont before she suddenly grabbed by the collar and kissed again, though this ti it was on the lips and anything but quick.

After what must have been at least a couple of minutes, Ashe broke away from the kiss with a broad grin on her face, "Just know that if we both didn't sll like a fish market, I would already be on top of you."