Finally, they don’t have to eat vegetarian food anymore. The children are so happy. The pickled salted fish on the table tastes very good. They eat happily and noisily.
Ye Yaodong also felt that salted fish was better to go with rice. After eating vegetarian food for a week, his mouth was dry.
After lunch, he moved the ground trap nets onto the cart, and also took a few newly made ones along, to be put down later.
It has been a week since we last set out the nets, and everyone has suffered great losses. Now that the ceremony is over, the villagers who set out the trap nets and Korean nets went out to sea to set the nets after dinner. As for those who set out the trawling nets, they would have to wait until nightfall.
The fishing boats in their village basically use these three types of nets. The trawling is also done by a single boat, not a double boat trawling. There are also hand-cast nets, which are a little more tiring, but the cost is low.
After loading all the things onto the cart, he said to Lin Xiuqing, "I'll go set up the net first, and we'll go to town to buy things tomorrow."
"Okay, go ahead and get busy."
Just as he was about to go out, he hesitated for a moment, turned around and rummaged in the storage room at the back door where firewood was stored. He found a simple fishing rod he had made before, which was just a meter-long bamboo, a fishing line, and a fish hook.
But it had been too long and the fishhook had rusted and could not be used, and it broke easily, so he temporarily found a super thick needle for sewing sacks, lit a candle, burned it red, and then used pliers to bend it into a hook.
"Dongzi, what are you doing?" The old lady standing aside, watching him doing this and that, asked curiously.
"I thought it would be a waste to put out the trap, so I wanted to try using the fishhook to see if I could catch some fish. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to eat any fresh fish at night after not going out to sea for a few days."
"Then what should we use to fish? You can't use earthworms to lure marine fish, otherwise you can just dig in the vegetable garden and find some."
"I know. I'll grab a handful of dried dancai and try it later."
"I'll pour you a pot of tea so you don't get thirsty." The old lady just loves her little grandson.
Ye Yaodong did not refuse the old lady's kindness. After making the fish hook and hanging it up, he reeled up the fishing line, took the teapot with him, and went into the house to grab a handful of dried Chinese cabbage and put it in his pocket.
Lin Xiuqing watched him coming in and out, and asked hurriedly, "What are you doing? Did you forget to bring anything?"
"Nothing, I'm leaving." He threw the fishing rod onto the cart, put the teapot on it and pushed the cart away quickly. He thought he could still get out as the tide was still rising.
After he walked away, Sister Ye smiled and said to Lin Xiuqing, "Adong seems to be getting more and more diligent. He went to set the nets right after lunch."
Lin Xiuqing smiled and said, "If I don't work harder, how can I support my family in Hukou? We will move to a new house in a few days. I can't rely on my parents anymore. If I don't stand up on my own, the three of us will all be left with nothing."
Mrs. Ye glanced at her belly obscurely and said, "Maybe she has finally gotten her bearings. Some men grow up late."
She turned her body away to avoid Mrs. Ye's gaze. She hadn't had her period for such a long time that she was sure she was pregnant. She didn't like anyone staring at her belly, which made her feel insecure.
"Leave the dishes to me today and I'll wash them. My eldest brother has to go out to sea with my father tonight, and you have to go buy things for the new home in the afternoon. Let's swap and it will be your turn tomorrow at noon."
"That's fine, let's change it."
The three sisters-in-law have a clear division of labor. Each of them is responsible for cleaning and washing dishes and cooking for a day. They only need to help out occasionally. After all, apart from fish, most other seafood can be blanched, and stir-frying vegetarian dishes is also very easy.
Lin Xiuqing took the bowl from Mrs. Ye's hand, then cleared the table and washed the dishes.
Ye Yaodong pushed the cart all the way to the dock. On the way, he would meet villagers he knew and greet them, asking if they had eaten or were going to set the nets.
He always smiled and nodded.
Originally the dock was full of boats, but now there are fewer of them. A few small boats can still be seen floating on the sea in the distance. Everyone is busy fishing in the sea.
I wonder if there will be more fish in the sea after a few days of no fishing
There were also boats setting nets in the distance, so he deliberately spaced them out a little before opening the traps and slowly lowering them into the sea one by one, rowing the boats as he did so. It was indeed a bit troublesome for one person to do this.
After he had finished setting out the nets, he remembered that today seemed to be the 23rd day of the lunar calendar, and it was a low tide. But it was of no use to them, the sea water was not rising high, nor falling low, and the tidal range was minimal, which was not suitable for fishing on the isolated island.
Ye Yaodong rowed the boat for some distance before stopping and taking out the simple fishing rod he had brought with him before going out. He hadn't gone fishing for many years, so he decided to give it a try today.
By the way, take out a handful of dried dandelions from your pocket, throw them into the bucket to make some sea water bubbles, and take one out to try. If it is difficult to adjust, you can only go back to the ground trap to see if there are any small fish or shrimps that have sneaked in.
He hung the dried water spinach, which had already softened a little, on the fishhook, without exposing the hook tip. He looked at the sea surface and threw it into the water casually. The fishhook gradually sank.
He waited patiently, but saw no movement after ten minutes. He lifted the fishhook and took a look, only to find that the dried dancai was gone.
He was depressed, thinking that it might have accidentally fallen off when soaking in the sea water, so he took another one and hung it on the fishhook, intending that if it still didn't work, he would go to the ground trap to catch live fish and shrimps as bait, as live bait would surely work better.
This time, after hanging the bait, he stretched his neck and looked at the sea level with high concentration. After waiting for only five minutes, he felt the hook sinking a little, and there was a look of surprise between his brows.
coming!
I stood up excitedly and pulled up the fishing rod. Unexpectedly, there was a black sea bream on it, which was suspended in the air and kept swinging its tail.
He immediately looked delighted and thought that the black sea bream was good and could be steamed.
He took an empty bucket, filled it with sea water, unhooked the fish and put them into the bucket. "It looks a little small, maybe less than a pound. Let's catch a few more."
I looked at the water spinach in the bucket and felt like I had caught too few just now. I could only catch all of these first and then see what else I could do.
He put another bait on the hook, changed the direction and threw it into the sea again. After a while, it was hooked again. He happily pulled it up again. This time it was a redhead fish.
"We can catch a few more and add some tofu and shredded radish to make fish soup."
The red-headed fish is very beautiful, and its bright red color is particularly eye-catching. It is not just the head that is red, but the whole body is bright red. The big head is very disproportionate to the slender body. Because of its beautiful body, it is also called "Red Lady".
The head is big and the thorns are hard, but the meat is delicious. It is very tasty when cooked into a milky white fish soup.
There is no need to sell it. This fish is extremely cheap, even cheaper than dragon head fish. It is only suitable for eating by yourself.
After catching two fish in succession, Ye Yaodong gained confidence and immediately put up another bait, which turned out to be another redhead fish.
Having a harvest is a happy thing, and he will not be disappointed. This fish is cheap, and it can just make up a bowl with the previous one. He doesn't have high requirements, as long as he can have something to eat.
It would be best if I could catch two or three more fish, thinking this in his mind, he started to put bait on the hook and cast it.
It seems to be the season for redhead fish recently. I was just thinking about it casually just now, but I didn’t expect that I would catch several of them one after another.
Looking at the seven or eight fish jumping around in the bucket, he was very satisfied.
There were not many water spinach in the other bucket, only five or six. He planned to finish fishing, then go to the trap to collect a few to get some fresh live fish, and then change the fishing spot to continue fishing. Anyway, it was still early.
He put the bait on again and felt movement on the fishing rod, so he pulled it up. However, he didn't expect that he lifted the rod too early this time and the fish ran away!
He leaned over to look and saw that it seemed to be a yellow mullet. What a pity, there was only a black mullet caught before and the others were all red-headed fish.
Feeling a little disappointed that he got away, he simply pushed the boat out another twenty or thirty meters to see if he could catch something else.
The redhead fish is enough to eat twice, which is enough!
After moving the nest, he put the bait on again. After a fish escaped, he paid more attention this time. There was movement on the hook, so he waited a little longer before lifting the rod.
"Skinned fish? Not small, isn't it?"
Estimating it to be about one and a half kilograms in size, he took it off with a smile on his face and threw it into the bucket. He could use it to dry the skin of the fish, or make a bowl of braised fish in the evening.
There were still three baits left, so he continued fishing.
As a result, I caught two more red-headed fish in succession. Maybe there are really a lot of red-headed fish recently, I caught more than ten of them.
On his last cast, he was expecting to catch something else, but unexpectedly, a yellowtail fish was hooked!
He happily untied it and said, "It's mine after all, and I caught it anyway!"
No matter if it was the one that just ran away, he would just treat it as the one that ran away.
This one is quite big, almost 2 kilograms. It can be steamed together with the black sea bream in a bowl, enough for the whole family.
After throwing it into the bucket, he shook it and it turned into a red bucket. The harvest was very gratifying!
Maybe next time I can ask other people to go fishing with me. Fishing alone is a bit boring. There is no one to share my joy with. When I want to say something I feel like I am talking to myself. I can only hold it back and say a few words occasionally.
He looked up at the sky. It was already setting, but the sunlight was still dazzling. He felt that it was still early and it would not be too late to go back after the sun went down.
He casually put the fishing rod on the boat and rowed the boat towards the sea where the traps were placed.
It's only been put down for more than an hour, there's no way there's anything fishy here. A few small fish and shrimps will be enough as bait.
He randomly chose a buoy to cast the net, and as expected, there were only a few small fish and shrimps in the first net, which could be counted with ten fingers. Fortunately, they were all alive.
He pulled up a whole row of traps, but unexpectedly, the last net actually caught a sea bass weighing about 2 kilograms. He made a profit!
He picked up the sea bass and put it into the bucket he had just used for sea fishing, and poured all the others into the empty bucket as bait. There were about 20 small fish and a little over one or two small shrimps, which were enough. If he couldn't catch them all, he would have to call it a day and go home.