Ye Yaodong drove the boat towards the distant sea. When he first set out, there were various headlights flashing on the sea. As he drove further away, there were fewer headlights. Each ship headed towards the sea area that it was familiar with.
While the boat was sailing, Ye's father began to chop and hang baits, including various small fish, shrimps, and small tubes. Ah Cai had just given him five dead small conger eels as bait, which were also chopped and hung by Ye's father.
The boat had been sailing for more than an hour, but the baits had not been hung up yet. There were simply too many hooks, and they had to be cut and hung, which took a lot of time.
Ye Yaodong specially changed to a new fishing spot today, far away from the sea area where he operated yesterday.
He looked ahead intently, controlling the direction of travel. In order to avoid losing sight in the dark and causing the ship to run aground, he shone his headlight to the left and right from time to time on the sea level.
At this moment, he saw a large number of seabirds appearing on the sea ahead, covering the sky and blocking out the sun. The entire long coastline was almost full of seabirds, and it felt like there were too many to count.
All fishermen know that where a large number of seabirds gather, there are often schools of fish. Before the sea surface ahead appears in sight, there are so many seabirds flying continuously in the air. The school of fish in the sea must be large.
He looked at the sea with eyes wide open in surprise and increased the speed of the engine. He saw more and more seabirds appearing in his field of vision.
The coastline was getting closer and closer, and he could clearly see the sea surface in the distance, which was barely illuminated by the headlamp. There were countless white foams rising up, and seabirds on the sea were diving towards the sea surface one after another.
He quickly slowed down the boat and made it move slowly, then looked carefully and confirmed that there were indeed a lot of fish thrashing in the sea. His heart was pounding.
"Dad, put down what you are doing and come over to take a look."
Father Ye had been cutting fish and hanging bait with his head down, and was not paying attention to the sea. He just felt that the speed of the boat had just slowed down, and thought that the third brother was going to set the hook here.
When I heard his serious call, I thought something had happened and ran over quickly.
"What's wrong? What happened...?" Father Ye put down the work in his hands, and just as he stood up, he saw a large number of white seabirds gathered on the sea in the distance. They were particularly conspicuous in the dark night.
His voice suddenly stopped, and he quickly ran to the bow and shone his headlamp carefully into the distance.
I saw a large number of seabirds gathering in the air ahead, and the water on the sea was rolling violently. It was not just one area, but an entire continuous coastline was rolling with water, and the area was not small.
Father Ye said in surprise: "There is a school of fish under the sea ahead, so there are so many seabirds gathered in the air. Judging from the distribution of the seabirds, the school of fish should be several kilometers long. I wonder what is happening under the sea? This school of fish is not small."
"I just saw a large group of seabirds appearing on the coastline from a distance. I was startled, so I slowed down and called you."
"Come closer and take a look!"
Ye Yaodong nodded heavily excitedly.
There is such a big school of fish, and they are spread over such a long coastline. We don't have to do anything today and can just follow them and cast the net, right
I don’t know what kind of fish it is
He increased the horsepower again.
When you get closer, the sea is even more spectacular!
“It turned out to be a school of sardines!”
"They are migrating from north to south!" Ye Yaodong said affirmatively after just one glance.
Sardines migrate en masse every autumn and winter, and if a fishing boat encounters one at sea it's like winning the lottery!
They really hit the jackpot today.
Father Ye was a little excited. The scale of the sardine migration was astonishingly large. It was difficult to see clearly in the dark, but it was estimated to be several kilometers long and 1 kilometer wide. He had no idea about the situation on the seabed.
"Dongzi, come closer."
"good."
Ye Yaodong had a huge smile on his face, as the sardine school was known as the "largest school of fish on earth". He knew that every time a school of sardines migrated, the number of sardines would be no less than billions, and it all depended on luck whether one could encounter one.
All the fishing boats operating in this sea area today will make a fortune.
The boat continued to move forward. The waves became bigger and bigger, and the boat swayed violently. This was all because of the school of fish.
After they had traveled almost the same distance, Ye Yaodong stopped and said excitedly, "It's a sardine storm! There's a school of sardines that stretches as far as the eye can see!"
Father Ye looked at the school of fish in front of him with shining eyes, without blinking, and said with saliva flying: "Catch, catch hard."
"Damn it, luckily I borrowed a hand-cast net yesterday, or I would have slapped my thigh and cried to death!"
"The longline bait is almost all gone, so we can't waste it. I'll put out the longline later while you cast the net. With such a large school of sardines migrating, there must be big fish preying on them."
"There are definitely big fish, but they won't bite. These sardines are ready-made live bait. We can just put hooks to catch the small fish at the bottom that can't eat the sardines."
"Yeah, that's right."
Ye Yaodong quickly ran to the cabin to get the hand-cast net, and adjusted it as he walked. The shaky boat did not affect his efficiency at all.
Sardines are warm-water fish that live near the coast and are phototactic. Large numbers of sardines will gather in the area illuminated by the headlights.
As soon as he prepared the hand-cast net, he used the light from his headlamp to cast it towards the distant sea. The hand-cast net was stretched to its maximum in his hand and caught a large number of fish at once. He didn't even need to stop and could pull it up directly.
The heavy fishing net made the muscles in his arms bulge and the veins on his temples pop out. Father Ye also hurried to help pull the net.
The weight of this net is at least 200 kilograms, and it is even more difficult to pull it in the water. At this moment, Ye Yaodong thought how good it would be if there was a small net-lifting machine? That way the efficiency would be higher.
These sardines are cheap, costing about 9 cents to 10 cents. They are not big, about 14 to 25 centimeters long, very flat and light in weight. It takes six to seventy pieces to make one pound. But there is so much of them now!
There are billions of sardines in the sea right now that can be caught at will, so that’s why it’s called a jackpot!
The father and son used all their strength to pull the net of sardines onto the boat, and they threw them directly onto the deck.
Ye Yaodong untied the net, and a large number of slender, flat, silver fish poured out directly from the net, covering half of the deck.
"many!"
"Keep going!"
The father and son were so happy that they didn't want to stop. It was a rare opportunity. Every extra net they pulled would earn them dozens more dollars. There was no suspense at all. There would be no better way to make money than today.
Ye Yaodong continued to cast the net, and one time his aim was off, and he actually caught two seabirds that rushed down to hunt in the net.
He didn't care and continued to drag the sardines with Ye's father. After a large number of sardines were pulled ashore, the two seabirds were also crushed to death.
When everything fell onto the deck, he realized that the two large seabirds seemed to look wrong.
The light in front was not good and he couldn't see clearly. When he was casting the net, his attention was always on the sardines in the sea. Only when he got closer did he realize that these two damn fish were gannets!
"Fuck! Dad!" He threw the penguin in his hand directly at Ye's father.
This gannet is not small, with a body length of 150-160 cm and a weight of about 10 to 12 kg.
"Penguin?" Ye's father also recognized it.
In their dialect, they call it gannet, but its scientific name is actually the spot-billed pelican. It looks like a large seagull, big and beautiful, with a short, fat body, a slender neck, a white body, a long, thick, straight, lead blue beak, and an orange-yellow skin bag under its beak.
Ye Yaodong also thought it was a seagull at first, but he didn’t expect it to be a gannet!
He said happily: "Good stuff! I'll cast a few more nets and catch a few more."
This seabird is now in great abundance, all over the sea. It is usually hard to catch them when they are flying in the air, and they are very alert. Now they are flying in large numbers in the air to hunt, which is a rare opportunity.
Mr. Ye's face was also very happy. Fortunately, he brought a fishing net today.
Ye Yaodong pointed the headlamp at the location where he wanted to cast the net while adjusting the hand net. When he finished, a large number of sardines gathered again on the sea surface illuminated by the light.
He threw the net as high as he could and stretched it as far as possible. This time he caught three more greedy gannets and dragged them ashore along with the sardines.
Taking advantage of its phototaxis, the number of sardines on the deck increased visibly thanks to his unremitting efforts, and the number of gannets also increased intermittently.
Human strength is limited, and continuously pulling a fishing net weighing hundreds of kilograms will exhaust the strength in one's hands.
After pulling the net six or seven times, the father and son were exhausted and their hands were sore.
At this time, the sky was also glowing with rosy clouds. The two men were so tired that they slumped against the side of the boat and decided to take a break. If they cast the nets for a whole day following the school of fish, they would not be able to lift their arms for several days.
The father and son kept swinging their arms and looking at the sea in the distance. They were reluctant to take their eyes off the sea and were reluctant to sit down and rest.
Because it was bright, they could clearly see that in addition to some lucky boats that encountered a school of sardines and were fishing desperately, there were also many large fish chasing the sardines for food.
It was dark and visibility was limited, so all their attention was on the sardines in front of them. Occasionally, the headlights would illuminate large fish, but they could not see them as clearly as after daybreak.
In the distance, there are a large number of various sharks, whales, dolphins, seals, marlins, swordfish, tuna, marlin, swordfish, etc. gathered on the sea. These are rare large deep-sea fish. They are everywhere on the sea now, emerging from the sea from time to time, chasing and preying on sardines.
Various seabirds also gathered on the sea, and the end was as far as the eye could see.
Ye Yaodong exclaimed repeatedly, "Fuck, this is really a famous scene, worthy of being called the Sardine Storm!"
Father Ye’s eyes were not wide enough to see the magnificent scene. It was the first time that he saw it so clearly.
"Dongzi, I'll go drive the boat, we'll chase the fish, you can set the hooks, don't waste such a great opportunity."
"Although there are a lot of big fish, they are too busy eating the sardines. Our bait probably won't be very attractive."
"Give it a try. Don't waste it. It's a good deal if you can catch one or two."
"Okay, those big fish are hard to catch, but smaller ones are probably no problem, and catching them will make a lot of money."