The next morning, Ye Yaodong got up and opened the window to check the weather.
It was a cloudy day, with little wind, the ground was dry, and it didn't rain at night, so we could go out to sea.
He put on his clothes rustlingly. The two children were sleeping in a mess on the bed. He grabbed the quilt and covered them with it. It was very cold in the morning and evening, so he must not catch a cold.
Originally, a small bed was put in the room, but the eldest brother refused to sleep on it and insisted on squeezing in with them. He was waiting for an auspicious day to give him a beating and make him move over.
He is so old, but still sleeps next to his mother all day long. How shameless.
After a quick wash and a filling porridge with pickled mustard and dried fish, he poured the bowl of sea centipedes left over from yesterday into the bucket, said hello to his wife, listened to her instructions, put two large pieces of rice cakes she had fried for him in his pocket, took two baskets of coiled fishing line, and went out to sea.
He had just collected the traps yesterday, so he didn't need to collect them today. He just picked up one at random. There wasn't much in it, mainly to use it as bait. Sea centipedes were a bit of a luxury as bait, so he didn't take much. He still needed some small fish and shrimps.
After collecting the fish, he rowed the boat to the place where the hook was placed. The surrounding sea area was only that big, so he was not afraid of not being able to find it.
After finding the familiar buoy, he stopped the boat and began to reel in the line. He had no idea what good catch he would get today after throwing the hooks in the sea all night.
This is only possible if you are close to the shore. If you are far away, you still have to reel in the line every day.
He began to reel in the line with great anticipation, and the first fish surprised him, a grouper!
Looking at the blue spots appearing on the water surface, he instantly smiled. It was a blue grouper.
When the fish was pulled ashore, he was even happier. He estimated that the fish weighed about 8 kilograms.
The blue melon seed grouper is a small-spotted grouper with a laterally flattened body, shaped like a melon seed. Its body color is mostly light blue, sometimes whitish and sometimes black. Some fish have some light brown spots on their bodies, while others do not.
The common size is around two or three pounds, but there are also individuals weighing more than four or five pounds or even ten pounds. This size is already very good. This species of grouper is relatively large in size and is the rich among groupers, with the reputation of "chicken of the sea".
Ye Yaodong muttered to himself, "The head and belly can be steamed, the meat can be stir-fried, and the bones can be used to make soup... Never mind, just think about it."
Although this fish order is valuable, it is heavy and already dead, so it is not as valuable as the manta ray we caught yesterday. This one is probably worth 20 yuan, which is a good start!
When he pulled up the first fish, he also saw a small boat sailing towards the sea from afar. It was Zheng and Xiao Xiao.
After taking a look, he reeled in his own line, and ended up catching three croakers weighing about 2 jin each. He had a hunch that the next catch would be a lot of croakers, as these fish come in groups.
"Dongzi, you're here so early?"
"Well, I didn't reel the line in yesterday. If you're worried, come out early to reel it in."
"What?"
Ye Yaodong smiled and let go of the main line in his hand, then picked up the blue grouper to show them.
"Fuck!" The two of them said the same catchphrase in unison!
"What kind of luck do you have?" Ah Zheng glared.
"Not bad. We have to choose between quality and weight, right? We've got a good start, so I think we'll have good luck today."
Xiao Xiao said sourly, "If I had known, I wouldn't have come over to say hello. It's so early in the morning that it's attracting attention! Let's go and cast the fishing hooks."
After they left, Ye Yaodong continued to reel in the line. Suddenly, he felt that the main line could not be pulled at all. He was delighted. Could it be a big catch? He could not even pull it.
He continued to try hard but still couldn't pull it out. He couldn't help but wonder, how big is this fish
After thinking about it, he rowed the boat forward for a distance and continued to reel in the line. Unexpectedly, he saw a tangled and messy ball of line!
It turned out that the main line and the line for hanging the fish hook were completely tangled together, forming a big ball. Ye Yaodong was so angry that he vomited blood, and his happiness was in vain.
"Fuck, I thought it was a big fish, but I can't even pull it. Damn it, I got fooled."
Cursing, he pulled up the rope and tried to untie it, but found it difficult and time-consuming. Now he was busy reeling in the line, so he could only wait until he got home in the evening to untie it slowly.
He skipped the knotted line and continued to reel in the fish along the rope. This time, a large red conger eel came up, weighing an estimated seven kilograms. Looking at the large red eel, his depression was immediately soothed.
This is a big red moray eel that strangled itself!
After taking the hook, the moray eel likes to curl its body, and in the crazy twisting, it becomes more and more entangled with the fishing line, entering a dead loop that it cannot escape, and finally strangles itself to death.
He cut the limp red moray eel off the hook, threw it into the bucket, and continued to reel in the line.
Next came another red eel weighing seven or eight kilograms. The bait was still hanging on the hook. This bait was a small fish that Ye Yaodong had casually hung yesterday. As he had no small tube, he just hung it up to try his luck. The unlucky red eel couldn't escape after just one bite.
Life is so unpredictable, the big intestine is bound to the small intestine!
I don’t know why, but there are suddenly a lot more big red eels today.
Suddenly, another fish came up, and this one was bigger than the previous two. This time the hook was stuck very deep. It might be that the hook was too small and the eel was too big, so it swallowed the hook directly and penetrated its jaw.
The moray eel already looked scary, and now it opened its huge mouth, revealing its sharp teeth that had never been brushed, as if it was not convinced at all and was roaring.
Ye Yaodong had no choice but to pick up a knife and perform a small operation on it. He took out the fishhook and threw it onto the boat. He would repair it when he took it back at night and throw the fish back into the bucket.
Three more giant eels were caught at once. Ye Yaodong's confidence increased again. He caught several in a row without any empty tubes, except that the main line at the front was entangled by a fish hook. The rest should be fine, after all, they had been hanging in the sea for a whole night. Unless the bait was eaten, the big fish would run away.
He continued to collect fish with joy, and sure enough, there were no empty hooks. The worst was a 5-jin (1.5-pound) mullet. As he expected, most of the fish were fish.
Fortunately, as long as it is not the cheapest stupid fish, a pound of croaker is worth 20 cents. Even if the quality is not good, at least there is weight and quantity.
He loaded the eels one after another and when he came to the connection point of the fishing lines of two baskets, he looked forward to it again. Wow, it was another big red eel, and it was still alive.
After Ye Yaodong dragged it up, he pinched its head, took off his rain boots and knocked it unconscious before removing the hook. With such a big creature, if it bit him, he would lose a large piece of meat.
It's not easy to gain weight these days.