American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 164 Automatic Fishing Device
On the eighth day, at 6:30 in the morning, the horizon was still immersed in a deep indigo blue, with only a few of the brightest stars still stubbornly twinkling.

Lin Yu'an had already opened his eyes; his biological clock dictated that he wake up on time.
Despite the intense labor last night, his body, enhanced by the Golden Finger, felt perfectly fine. Clearly, after a night of recovery, yesterday's fatigue had completely disappeared.

He didn't stay in bed. In the challenge of survival, time is a scarcer resource than food, and every minute must be carefully counted.

He quickly crawled out of his sleeping bag, put on his clothes, and left the temporary shelter.

The biting morning breeze invigorated him, and he began his unwavering morning routine.

He first walked towards the coniferous forest, where the multiple sling traps still stood silently, showing no signs of being triggered.

He was not surprised at all, and did not say a word in front of the camera.

The harvest from the trap is highly accidental, and the daily checks are more like a necessary routine task, a continuous investment in probability.

No harvest means no need to spend time processing the prey.

He immediately changed direction and headed towards the cattail patch, where he dug for over an hour and harvested more than ten kilograms of cattails.

Then we headed to the coastline, as the golden window of low tide was approaching.

He arrived at the rich rocky area with practiced ease, his movements as efficient as a sophisticated harvesting machine.

Bending over, rummaging through the shells, prying with a knife, and placing them into the collection bag... every movement was clean and efficient, making him look like a seasoned harvester. Mussels, limpets, and conches were all in his pocket.

Just as he was about to leave, he made an unexpected discovery in a large tidal pool surrounded by huge rocks and where the sun could shine through.

He turned over a stone that was submerged in water, and deep in the crevice beneath it, he saw a dark red figure.

It was a rock crab about the size of a palm. Because the water temperature was extremely low, its movements became unusually slow, almost as if it were frozen.

It merely waved its claws in vain before Lin Yu'an easily pulled it out of the crevice.

"A surprise." Lin Yu'an showed the camera the crab, which was almost powerless to resist.

"It's lucky to find it at this time of year. It will add a touch of extra flavor to tonight's soup."

He placed this unique, precious crab, along with other seafood, into his collection bag.

In just over two hours, he harvested nearly twenty kilograms of seafood.

He quickly returned to camp and began preparing a simple but high-protein brunch as fast as he could.

Put the mussels, whelks, rock crab, and at least two pounds of cattail roots into a pot, add a little lake water, and cook until done.

Soon, the water in the pot boiled, and the rock crab's shell quickly turned an enticing bright red under the high temperature.

He first picked out the crab, skillfully broke open the shell, and a fresh, sweet ocean scent wafted out.

Although there wasn't much crab meat, every strand was incredibly delicious. This unexpected find added a rare touch of flavor to the otherwise monotonous breakfast.

It was already past 11 a.m.

The sun was shining brightly, and the wind had subsided slightly, but he did not immediately begin the arduous stonemasonry work.

Instead, he looked up at the calm freshwater lake, and a more efficient plan took shape in his mind.

He said to the camera, "During periods of high-intensity construction, I don't have a whole block of time to actively go fishing."

"So, before I start today's physical work, I must first set up a passive fishing system that can work automatically 24 hours a day."

"Maybe with a bit of luck, this small investment will secure food for the next few days."

He took his fishing kit out of his backpack, along with a spool of tough Dyneema PE line and a small box of Gamma Kazzi hooks.

The first step wasn't to go to the water's edge, but to walk into the nearby woods and begin searching for the perfect material to make the spring rod.

“We can’t expect to find a perfectly positioned, flexible tree by the water,” he explained to the camera as he searched.

“A more reliable approach is to make your own fishing rods and then install them wherever you want.”

"The best materials are birch or willow saplings, whose wood fibers are long and extremely tough."

He quickly found an area in the forest where young birch trees were growing, and he selected three saplings that were about the thickness of a wrist, straight, and over four meters long.

Using an axe and saw, he quickly felled them from the base and cleared away all the side branches, obtaining three smooth, slender, and flexible wooden poles.

He carried these three future "automatic fishing rods" back to the shore of the freshwater lake.

Now, he begins to survey the terrain, searching for three perfect "workstations".

Ultimately, he selected three locations that were more than ten meters apart.

Next comes installing the fishing rod, which is by no means as simple as sticking a wooden rod into the ground.

He first used the back of an axe to drive a thick, half-meter-long wooden stake deep into the ground next to the first fishing spot.

Fortunately, the soil by the river was relatively loose, so it was easy to smash it in without much effort.

Then, he pressed the thick end of the first birch pole firmly against the back of the main anchor point.

To prevent the wooden pole from sliding left and right, he drove a thinner auxiliary stake on each side of the main anchor point, forming a stable "U"-shaped groove.

Finally, he used a piece of dismantled ship cable to tightly bind the base of the birch pole to the main anchor point and the two auxiliary stakes.

In this way, no matter how strong the fish is underwater, it is impossible for them to drag the fishing rod into the water. This triple fixing system, consisting of the main anchor point, the slot, and the binding, forms the basis of an automatic fishing device.

He then used the same method to securely install the remaining two birch poles.

Then, he began to focus on creating the core trigger mechanism.

He decided to use the same "4-shaped" trigger mechanism for all three fishing spots, which he considered the most classic and reliable.

He picked up a dry wooden stick about the thickness of his wrist from the shore, sharpened one end with an axe, and then forcefully drove it into the mud about a meter away from the shore with a "thump! thump!"

This is the "pillar" of the first institution.

He then began to meticulously craft the other two parts of the trigger mechanism using that Damascus hunting knife.

The crossbar is cut to about 20 centimeters in length. A shallow groove is carved at one end to hold the fishing line, while the other end is cut into a smooth contact surface.

The support rod was used to cut both ends of the other branch into precise 45-degree bevels.

After completing these three parts, the most crucial step, "winding," arrives.

He walked to the first birch pole that had already been secured, took a deep breath, and began to "wrestle" with the flexible pole.

Grasp the slender end of the birch pole with both hands, and using your full body weight, pull it down to the ground step by step.

The four-meter length gave this seemingly slender wooden pole an astonishing resistance; it trembled violently in his hand, emitting a buzzing sound.

He gritted his teeth and pulled the treetop up until it almost touched the ground, forming a huge bow shape full of tension and potential energy.

Then, he braced one end of the crossbar against the column, and used the slanted support rod, with one end against the ground and the other end precisely wedged between the crossbar and the column.

As a final step, he used a rope loop to attach the bent birch pole tip to the end of the crossbar.

let go!

In that instant, the immense elastic force was entirely applied to that small "4"-shaped mechanism.

The three fragile wooden sticks made a slight creaking sound, as if they would fall apart at any moment, but they miraculously held on!

A bow containing immense power was thus locked in place by an extremely ingenious trigger.

The entire device is filled with tension that could be released at any moment; any slight touch on the crossbar would cause the entire balance to collapse instantly.

Over the next half hour, he used the same method, with utmost focus, to "wind up" the hooks for the other two fishing spots as well.

Three powerful installations stand quietly on the lakeshore.

With all the mechanisms completed, he began to configure the final fishing gear.

He cut a few meters of PE line for each fishing spot and tied on a fishhook of the appropriate size.

The bait was leftovers from yesterday's rabbit processing, consisting of pieces of liver and viscera that attract fish.

He cast the first baited hook into the deep water not far from the shore.

Then, he tightened the fishing line and carefully wedged the line itself into the groove of the ready-to-launch "4"-shaped trigger lever.

He meticulously completed the final setup for the other two fishing spots in the exact same way.

An hour later, when he had finished setting everything up, the three ready-to-go 'automatic fishing rods' stood quietly on the shore, ready to go.

They are like three fully wound animal traps, monitoring the underwater activity for him 24 hours a day, waiting for the target to trigger the fatal mechanism.

"Alright." Lin Yu'an patted the dirt off his hands, a satisfied expression on his face.

“The passive income system has been established, and now we can go back to doing manual labor with peace of mind.”

Around 12:00 a.m., Lin Yu'an put on gloves and walked toward the underground cave that was waiting for him.

The real battle is just beginning.

"Okay, everyone."

He calmly stated to the camera, "From now on, we officially enter the construction phase!"

“The weather is getting colder every day, and our biggest enemy is time! So I plan to finish building the stone wall today.”

He gripped the crowbar with both hands and began the core construction work for the day.

His construction method involved dry-laying stone walls directly from the uneven bottom of the pit, simultaneously leveling and stabilizing the foundation during the construction process.

He chose to start from the southwest corner of the cave, where the two walls meet and the stress is greatest.

Instead of searching for a perfect "foundation stone," he simply placed a selected, massive main wall stone in the lowest, most depressed corner of the wall.

He stood on it and stomped on it hard to make it stick to the soil.

Then, he took out another stone and tried to place it next to him. Due to the uneven ground, there was a noticeable difference in height and the stones wobbled.

"That's the difficulty of directly building a wall!"

"We must address the unevenness of the ground when laying the first layer."

(End of this chapter)