After a simple lunch, Ye Yaodong took the newly made traps and a few barrels of cargo and went to the dock.
There was no internet for two days, and the weather has been calm recently, so no one dares to steal the internet. I guess there will be a lot of goods this time.
When he arrived at the dock, Xiaoxiao and A Zheng were already on the boat. He saw the two bamboo baskets on their boat at a glance.
There were countless coils of fishing line in the bamboo basket, and nearly a hundred fish hooks were hooked on the edge of the straw basket, so densely packed that I wondered how much effort it would take.
"How many hours will it take to work on these fish hooks and lines?" Ye Yaodong was tempted when he saw how complicated it was, but he immediately gave up the idea and decided to use a ground trap net instead.
"Two hours, that's not bad."
Is it okay to still be yelling after two hours? Forget it.
“It’s really hard.”
Xiao Xiao also thought so, "Indeed, next time before going out to sea, we can ask the women or elderly nearby to do it, which will save us a lot of trouble."
"Let's go, let's go. I have to collect the traps first. Wait for me while I put out the hooks!"
"Okay, we're going to collect the traps, and we'll lower the traps on the boat. When you're better, we'll lower the hooks."
The two boats sailed out of the shore one after another, and each rowed to the point where they placed the traps.
Ye Yaodong put away several rows of ground traps one after another. He was full of enthusiasm at the beginning, but now he does the same thing every few days. He no longer has the feeling of opening a blind box when it comes to goods, unless rare goods suddenly appear, but rare goods are not available every day.
The same is true today.
But the harvest was pretty good, with plenty of fish, shrimps and crabs. The most common were water carp and swimming crabs, but the valuable ones were blue crabs, which are plump in autumn.
He put all the goods into two large barrels without sorting them. After lowering all the traps again, he rowed towards the sea where Xiaoxiao and A Zheng had placed the traps.
They had already harvested all the goods and cast a few more nets, but the harvest was not great.
As soon as he approached, he heard them muttering that hand-cast nets were too difficult and that if longline fishing was easier, they would do it in the future.
"Hey, is the harvest bad?"
Ah Zheng curled his lips, "There are only two or three rows of ground trap nets, what can be good or bad about them? We have only cast a few nets with the hand-cast nets, it's so-so, just wait for you to come over, and then we will cast the nets."
"Then let's get started. Do you need any help?"
He saw that the hooks in the original bamboo basket were already full of small shrimps as bait, as if they were just waiting to be caught and he didn't need any help.
"No, we can use the shrimps we just caught online as bait. They are already hung. We only need two people, one to go down and the other to drive the boat."
After Ah Zheng finished speaking, he signaled Xiao Xiao to move the boat forward for a while. Then he threw the head anchor into the water, cast out the buoy, connected the main line, and then took the fishing hook from the edge of the basket and threw the fishing gear into the water one by one.
After lowering the first basket of main line, connect the tail end of this basket of main line with the head end of the second basket of main line and the buoy rope and sinker rope and throw them into the water, then lower the second basket of main line, and finally throw out the tail anchor and buoy.
Because we are just testing the water today, we only have two baskets of dry line, with about 200 hooks.
After Ah Zheng had lowered all the hooks, Ye Yaodong asked, "That's it? And then just wait for it to be pulled up?"
"How can that be possible? My father-in-law said that we need to drag the fishing line to make the bait swim and lure the big fish in the sea to eat the bait."
"You don't have to keep swinging it, right? Won't the water move when it flows?"
"Who knows? Maybe the swimming range is not big enough. Let's try it first."
Seeing that it would take a while for Ye Yaodong to pull the fish up, he simply took out the fishing rod from his boat, picked out a random fish, cut off some meat to use as bait, and cast the hook.
Since I have nothing to do anyway, it would be nice to do a few fishing trips to satisfy my craving.
I don’t know if it’s because there are so many rows of hooks nearby, the fish are attracted by the bait over there. He threw the hook into the sea for a long time, but there was no movement at all.
He simply lifted the hook, thinking of changing the direction and casting it again, only to find that the bait was gone.
Damn, no wonder there was no movement for so long!
Let’s use shrimp. He took out a small shrimp and continued to bait.
This time the bait was taken quickly. In just two minutes, a 6-pound eel took the hook.
"Fuck, Dongzi, you caught a fish? And it's a conger eel."
"I'm just sitting here doing nothing, and your hooks haven't been pulled up yet." Ye Yaodong happily unhooked the big eel.
The two men were itching to catch some fish, so Ah Zheng stopped shaking the fishing line. They both took out their fish hooks and prepared to try fishing for a while.
"You don't shake it to make the fish swim?"
"The water is flowing, so the bait will move anyway. Ignore it. I'll fish for a while and then reel it in after two hours."
"Hey ~ here it comes again." As he spoke, Ye Yaodong picked up the fishing rod again, and it was a 2-jin sea bass.
"You caught the fish pretty quickly, huh?"
"It's not bad, it means there are still a lot of fish in our waters."
“Is it possible that there are fewer people fishing now?”
They were chatting casually, but Xiaoxiao unexpectedly said, "I heard recently that many fishermen in the south are involved in smuggling and no longer fishing."
Ah Zheng asked in surprise: "Ah? Who told you that?"
"My third brother went out with a big ship some time ago. When he passed through the port town of Shishi, he saw a large number of smuggling ships and various goods. I heard that the whole town was involved."
Ye Yaodong was not surprised at all. After the reform and opening up, people were full of expectations and hopes for the future, so when it came to living expenses, people were no longer just considering food and clothing as before, but had also begun to pursue variety and new trends.
However, the embarrassing thing is that there was a severe shortage of various daily necessities at that time, such as black and white TVs, VCRs, watches, motorcycles, etc. Many of them could not be bought even if you had money, which made many criminals see "business opportunities".
As the vanguard of reform and opening up, coastal areas have increasingly busy economic and trade routes, and many people have long seen the huge profits from smuggling.
Smuggling is a very normal phenomenon. The Linji in their village is involved in smuggling, but they don’t know what they are smuggling.
Some time ago, he saw them sneaking to the dock at night. They must be transporting smuggled goods at night.
The crackdown on smuggling has been intensified in the past two years. However, driven by profit, it is not so easy for the people to stop.
In his previous life, he had heard that in the past few years of reform and opening up, there had been a serious phenomenon in many places of farmers abandoning farming, workers abandoning work, fishermen abandoning fishing, and teachers abandoning teaching and engaging in smuggling.
After all, how can a fixed salary compare to the huge profits from smuggling
"Tsk tsk tsk ~ These people want to make a fortune, but we are the only ones who don't have the connections. The villagers in the village are all honest and the fishing boats are fishing peacefully. Otherwise, we would have to join in and make a fortune."
A Zheng was extremely envious. He also knew that smuggling was rampant after the reform and opening up. Cars often came to their village to sell common daily necessities such as tapes, nylon folding umbrellas, nylon mosquito nets, polyester knitted fabrics, etc., all of which were cheaper than those sold in the supply and marketing cooperatives.
Ye Yaodong shook his head and said, "Don't even think about it. We are cracking down on this now. If you get caught, you might end up in jail for life."
"I heard from my third brother that the entire county is involved in smuggling, there are so many people..."
"Don't rely on luck."
He just wants to have a wife and children, be a decent person, and earn some decent money. Even though he may not be very successful, he doesn't have to take any risks.
He remembered that at the beginning of the next year, the "first case of corruption in reform and opening up" was publicly tried and sentenced, and the official involved was directly sentenced to death.
Ah Zheng said unwillingly, "Don't we Chinese have a saying that the law cannot punish the masses?"
"So you're going to Shishi?"
"Ah, this..."
He alone does not have the courage. To be honest, he is just an ordinary fisherman. Nothing has happened around him, so he is still a little timid to take the initiative to go to unfamiliar places and get involved in unknown events.
"The fishing along the coast is very tight now. You have no connections, no money, and no courage. You'd better just work hard at sea. You can pull your fishing hook now."
"All right."
With just one sentence, he suppressed all his thoughts.
Even my little fantasies were thwarted by him.
During the time they chatted, Ye Yaodong only caught 6 fish, and his mind was actually affected.
He kept thinking about the social imagination of that era. He thought that smuggling should have nothing to do with him, but he didn't expect that his friends around him would also be tempted by it for some reason.
It’s difficult. Anyway, everyone has their own aspirations and they can choose to listen or not.
Seeing Ah Zheng start to reel in the fishing line, Ye Yaodong also put away his fishing rod and stopped fishing. It was almost sunset, and by the time he finished reeling in the longline, it would be time for them to go home for dinner.
"Hey~ Not bad, the first one is a white carp, weighing 2 kilograms."
He untied the fish and threw it into the bucket, then continued pulling.
"what fish is this?"
As Ah Zheng was about to reach out to grab it, he was stopped by Ye Yaodong with a stern voice, "Wait, don't touch it!"
"Ah?" Ah Zheng was startled and almost let the string loose. "What are you doing?"
"This is a sandfish. On the list of poisonous fish, the first is stingray, the second is tiger fin, and the third is sandfish. Sandfish ranks third. Its dorsal fin and pectoral fins are both neurotoxic. If you get stung by it accidentally, the pain will be like a nail in your hand. It will hurt for a whole day and night, and you will have cramps, spasms, and paralysis. Don't touch it directly."
"Ah? That's it. Damn, I can even catch this. Forget it, I'll let you go."
He was about to cut the fishing line with the scissors and release it, but he heard Ye Yaodong say, "You don't have to release it. Just cut off its fins. The fish meat is tender and sweet, with few bones and lots of meat. It can also cool you down and nourish your body."
"Forget it. You said its fins are poisonous. Let's not take the risk."
He simply cut the line, but he didn't expect that the third fish that came up was also the same fish, and so was the fourth and fifth.
"Fuck, did I disturb the rat's nest? Five of them came up in a row?"
"It's 4!" Ye Yaodong corrected.
Little Crow Mouth said: "Maybe the next one will be the same?"
"Don't be? He's already cursing and he still hopes for the next one? Actually, this fish tastes pretty good if you cut off its fins."
"No, you're so ugly."
Ah Zheng continued to pull, but to his surprise, there was nothing. The bait was eaten. He was depressed again, but he didn't expect that the next one he hooked was a humphead wrasse.
"Oh shit, oh shit, it's a humphead wrasse!"
"Su Mei?"
"Su Mei?!"
The three of them widened their eyes in surprise!