As the lake surface was completely frozen, Chen Wen and other contestants pulled up their mesh nets.

Everyone would later take apart their fishing lines for ice fishing to gather food.

But that’s for later.

The ones who immediately started ice fishing after pulling up their nets were just Chen Wen and Gaston.

Chen Wen did it out of boredom, planning to fish for entertainment, and to get some fresh fish and fish soup.

But Gaston had no choice.

Gaston’s ice fishing actually started two or three days ago.

Like Chen Wen, he disassembled the mesh net into fishing lines and attached fishhooks made from bone.

Gaston used rabbit bones, which are quite delicate.

While Chen Wen used musk ox bones, which are very sturdy!

As Chen Wen was about to start ice fishing.

Over by Gaston’s side.

He looked somewhat depressed at the lake surface and the stationary fishing line.

Are you kidding me?

Is it possible there are no fish left in this lake?

Gaston stood up in confusion, looking around.

He had carved out four or five ice holes over the past two days.

Some holes were in shallower areas, others in deeper regions.

But only one fish had been caught!

And it was a juvenile pike.

This made Gaston start to doubt his own luck.

Meanwhile, the difficulty of ice fishing made Gaston a bit frustrated, aside from the caught pike.

There were several times he felt the presence of fish, but when he tried to reel them in, he got nothing.

Isn’t ice fishing supposed to be easy?

Why is it so hard for me?

Gaston let out a deep sigh and squatted back down, continuing to stare into the ice hole blankly.

His food supplies weren’t abundant.

Having given up on hunting proactively, Gaston now had to rely on luck.

...

Back to Chen Wen’s side.

In the morning, he began preparing for ice fishing.

"This time ice fishing, whether I can catch fish or not is secondary."

Chen Wen said to the camera, "I’m not short on food, mainly I’m trying to find some amusement, and something to do in the meantime."

With these words, Chen Wen wouldn’t have to worry about being mocked if he ended up catching nothing.

But to be honest, for a newbie angler like him, catching nothing is the norm, getting fish is a surprise.

After packing up the fishing tools simply, Chen Wen then picked up the previously chopped wooden block.

"Fishing gear, seat, weapon for protection, and this rabbit fur cushion..."

Chen Wen listed out his items, like he was on a picnic, revealing a warm smile.

"We have a saying in Hua Country: the worse the student, the more stationery, today I’m acting as the bad student."

After a bit of self-mockery, Chen Wen called the dazing red fox and eagle to accompany him for ice fishing.

...

Arriving at the lake.

Chen Wen first searched for a good fishing spot.

The first step in ice fishing is naturally to find the right fishing point, open up a hole, and turn it into a fishing port.

Before coming, Chen Wen roughly reviewed the key considerations in ice fishing.

Among them, the choice of fishing port was kept in his mind.

"I remember the fishing port shouldn’t be in shallow areas, with lower temperatures. Generally, fishing below three meters underwater is better, so this time I plan to set the point in the deeper part of the lake."

"After the harsh cold of the past few days, Great Slave Lake has been completely frozen, and now the ice layer is at least a dozen centimeters thick, look at the ice surface here, goodness, it’s almost white."

Chen Wen said, unable to resist complaining, "I don’t have professional tools for ice drilling here, simply chiseling through the ice could take hours."

"But it’s just as well, the best time for ice fishing is around noon anyway, not wasting time."

After reaching the center of the lake, the red fox and eagle went off to play.

Chen Wen located the fishing spot he desired. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"This place is good: deep and sunny, with the ice surface being directly hit by the sun so the temperature won’t be too low. You can see here, there are quite a lot of bubbles under the ice, these small bubbles and dispersed star bubbles are made by fish below breathing. If we go further south, some places have large bubbles, these are made by photosynthesis from plants, useful for ice fishing, but there aren’t many underwater plants here, so no large bubbles seen."

As Chen Wen said this, he put down the items he brought.

Then he picked up an axe: "This is it, let’s start chiseling!"

Thunk! Thunk!

Accompanied by Chen Wen’s continuous axe swings, the ice surface was being smashed with the axe’s back into white gaps.

Following these gaps, he kept chiseling, white cracks spread like spider webs suddenly.

Chen Wen’s eyelids trembled.

This reminded him of the danger he encountered on the ice field in Yukon once.

That was the most memorable danger he ever faced.

That suffocating pressure almost gave him claustrophobia.

He shook his head, put those past thoughts aside, and continued chiseling the ice surface.

About three hours later.

Chen Wen finally opened a fishing port.

"Phew! That wasn’t easy!"

Chen Wen straightened his back, wiped the now-cooled sweat from his forehead, relieving the ache in his waist.

This time opening the fishing port was much more difficult than when he took a bath.

The ice layer here was much thicker.

Using a shovel, Chen Wen scooped up the floating ice, preparing to start ice fishing.

"The ice fishing gear actually has some specifications, but this time conditions are limited, the fishhook is made from musk ox ribs ground into bone hooks, the line from disassembled mesh net threads, and the reel is made from a polished piece of smooth pinewood."

Showing the camera his fishing tools, Chen Wen demonstrated.

Truth be told, these tools looked quite rough to him.

The lackluster performance of the mesh net earlier made Chen Wen a bit anxious about catching nothing.

But now he couldn’t worry about it much.

"First, baiting the spot, to lure some fish."

Just as Chen Wen was saying this, he took out some crushed bear meat.

This meat naturally came from that gray bear.

Since Chen Wen was quite ruthless, the meat-eating animals able to snatch food from the red foxes were nearly nonexistent now.

The gray bear meat left behind was perfectly preserved.

The only downside for Chen Wen was that it froze too hard, the elderly wolf couldn’t chew it.

Yesterday near dusk, he retrieved roughly a hundred pounds more of bear meat, leaving it in the shelter.

This was reserved for the old wolf.

Back to the point.

Chen Wen sprinkled a handful of powdered bear meat into the fishing port.

Just as he was about to prepare the bait, he suddenly remembered something, quickly saying sternly: "By the way, this time we coordinated with the local government, allowing us to use live bait and baiting for ice fishing. In certain areas, make sure to consult local policies before ice fishing, never engage in illegal activities!"

Survival instinct, in full force.