As I continued watching the chunk of raw meat floating in the water, I started to notice large shadows circling around it. Looks like using a big piece of bait was paying off.

"Still... aren’t these fish kind of huge?"

The shadows were a few meters long, which was pretty shocking. I’m sure there were fish this size on Earth, but they weren’t exactly the kind you could catch with a rod and reel.

"Gahaha! If you actually manage to reel that in, I’ll teach you how to clean it for free!"

His tone made it sound like he was adding a silent "not that you will" at the end. But did he just make a promise? Because I’m definitely holding him to that, Mognov.

"Alright, I’ll be counting on you!"

Smirking to myself, I suddenly felt a massive tug on my line.

The rod bent violently as something bit down on the bait, pulling with incredible force. My makeshift rod didn’t have a reel, so before I knew it, I was being yanked forward.

Even as I planted my feet firmly, the boat started tilting dangerously.

"Uwoooah! W-wait a second!"

Mognov shouted incoherently, but I understood his concern. At this rate, the boat was going to capsize. I glanced at my catch—it was a fish over three meters long. No wonder the pull was so strong.

"This isn’t good."

Rather than risk the boat tipping over, I decided to take things into my own hands—literally.

Letting go of my stance on the deck, I floated up into the air.

"Whaaaa!?"

Mognov let out a strangled yell as he watched me levitate above the sea, distancing myself from the boat to keep it safe.

Now that I thought about it, did I even need a boat in the first place? I could have just fished from midair. But, well, Mognov had been a great help, so it wasn’t a waste.

"You got this!"

Rio’s voice was relaxed, as if this were all routine for her.

"Alright, no need to be gentle anymore."

Since I no longer had to worry about the boat, I decided to go all out. I steadily lifted myself higher, pulling the fish toward the surface.

Just as it began to emerge from the water, another massive shadow shot up from below.

"Whoa!"

The new shadow—easily over seven meters long—lunged out of the water and swallowed my catch whole, then turned its gaping maw toward me.

In a split second, I kicked back, dodging the attack. I hadn’t expected it to leap out of the water.

I had sensed its presence underwater, but still… well, if it wanted to be caught that badly—

"Fine, I’ll reel you in too!"

With a well-placed palm strike to its head, I knocked it unconscious, then immediately stored it in my dimensional storage. The three-meter fish I had originally caught was still thrashing, so I subdued it as well and placed it onto the boat.

"That’s quite the haul!"

"Haha, we’ve only caught three fish so far, though."

"Ahaha, true."

"But at this rate, we might actually end up with a huge catch."

Considering the boat’s size, the three-meter fish was already pushing it. I quickly unhooked it and stored it away.

"Alright, next one."

Just as I was about to rebait my hook, I hesitated.

"Hmm?"

"What’s wrong?"

"I don’t think our lines are long enough to reach the fish deeper down."

"Yeah, they don’t extend that far."

"I’d been thinking I needed to keep the hook close to the surface so I could pull the fish up, but since I can fly, I could just reel them in from high above instead."

"So, should we extend the lines?"

"Yeah, let’s do that."

Taking out some metal spider silk from my storage, I lengthened our lines. Since the water seemed pretty deep, I extended mine to about twenty meters, while Rio opted for ten. We also switched to larger hooks and used even bigger pieces of bait.

"Alright, all set!"

Hovering about a meter above the water, I let the bait sink. I could sense fish circling cautiously, but they weren’t biting just yet.

Glancing at the other side of the boat, I saw Rio fishing in a similar manner.

"W-whaaaat the hell is thaaaat!?"

Mognov, who had been frozen in shock, finally snapped out of it and shouted.

"Why isn’t the line breaking!? There’s no way you can catch fish that big with a rod! That’s the kind of thing people with giant ships struggle to reel in!"

Thinking back to the ships at the port, I realized he had a point. Catching a ten-meter fish probably wasn’t easy, even with a proper fishing boat. On Earth, whales could grow over twenty meters, so it wouldn’t be surprising if this world had even bigger creatures.

"Oh?"

While I was pondering this, I noticed a sudden shift in the water. Something was headed straight for me.

Its shadow grew larger beneath me—was it aiming to eat me directly this time?

Since this was the second time, dodging it was easy. I waited until the last moment, then moved aside just as it breached the surface.

The fish leapt so high that it blocked my view of the boat.

"Gyaaaaaah! It ate him! Are you alright!?"

From the other side of the massive fish, Mognov’s panicked screams reached my ears. From his perspective, it must have looked like I was swallowed whole.

"Caught another big one!"

For me, though, this was fantastic. The sea was practically offering up its bounty.

Realizing that I could use myself as bait, I no longer even needed a fishing rod. Ignoring Mognov’s increasingly frantic reactions, Rio and I continued hauling in fish after fish.

For reference, when I appraised the giant fish, the strongest one had a stat in the 3,000 range.