"Hey? There's another little one on its back."
Ye Yaodong put it on the ground and looked at its mouth opening and closing. It looked so familiar.
"Fuck, this is a toadfish!"
He took a closer look and instantly figured out what it was. No wonder the pole on its head felt so familiar. It looked so much like the face of a toadfish. This must be a toadfish.
Common frogfish are brown, but this one was suddenly black. No wonder they didn’t recognize it at first.
"Toadfish? Aren't all toadfish brown?"
"There are also black ones, which are rare and a different species. It's really disgusting. Its big mouth is still moving. It's not dead yet. I'll hit it with a stick and let it die first."
Generally, when they pull up a big fish, they will kill it first to prevent some fish from exploding and injuring people.
They hadn't recognized this fish before, so they were curious and didn't move for a while.
After killing it, Ye's father wanted to take the small one off its back, but found that it was stuck and couldn't be taken off. The small one was estimated to be only three or four centimeters in size.
Ye Yaodong explained: "This slightly larger one is a male, and the larger one below is a female."
When a male frogfish meets a female, it will become parasitic and stay attached to the female for life until death. This is commonly known as a gigolo!
Toadfish is what the locals call it. Its official name is anglerfish. It is a carnivorous fish that lives at the bottom of the nearshore area and is usually most common in winter and spring.
Their bodies are short cone-shaped, but their heads are broad and flat, just like a toad. They have big mouths full of jagged sharp teeth, eyes on the back of their heads, and no scales on their bodies.
But they have low, round tumors on their frontal ridges, and it is these tumors that make them look "irregular" and extremely ugly.
The last time he used longline fishing, he did not have a float, but instead sank to the bottom to fish for low-level fish, so he was able to catch this black toadfish.
The characteristic of this fish is that there is a fleshy protrusion on the top of its head, like a small lantern, which is formed by the first dorsal fin of the anglerfish gradually extending upward. The reason why the small lantern can glow is because there are glandular cells inside the lantern.
Many fish in the sea are attracted to light, so it often uses its small lantern to hunt.
It has a lot of sticky mucus on its body, which feels disgusting to touch, but it is a kind of gelatinous substance. The fibers in the flesh bubbles inside are very elastic. The skin is rich in gelatin, which beautifies the skin and increases skin elasticity.
But because it looks ugly and feels disgusting, the price is very cheap.
"Ugly fish are making trouble, it's a waste of time, just keep reeling in the line."
One this big one would cost no more than five cents per pound at most, and a smaller one might only cost two or three cents per pound.
Ye Yaodong muttered something and continued to reel in the line, but the result was an empty hook. The bait on it was long gone. It must have been too long since he came to reel it in, and the fish must have escaped.
He didn't have much hope at first, and it would be great if he could get these lines back.
I continued to reel in the line and found another toadfish. This one looked normal and was brown in color.
It may be because we were fishing for bottom fish, except for most of the empty hooks, the remaining hooks were filled with toadfish one after another, and they were all quite fresh.
Although it’s cheap, it’s better than nothing.
As he was reeling in, he found the hook a little heavy and he immediately perked up. As the line became shorter and shorter, both father and son saw a large, long, white fish, splashing water and being pulled out of the water.
Father Ye was also surprised, "Tarpon!"
This fish can be caught not only in the sea, but also in some freshwater rivers. Tarpon has the habit of migratory migration. It is distributed near the coast of the ocean and in the waters at the junction of freshwater and sea.
Ye Yaodong grinned, finally he caught a big fish, "Dad, please help me get the hand net over, this one weighs several dozen kilograms, it's hard to pull it."
Maybe because it took too long to be hooked, the big silver carp is not that active, and it feels like it is exhaling more than inhaling.
He had heard before that when a big silver carp was hooked, it would easily jump out of the water 2-3 meters.
Just as he was shortening the distance he pulled the line to allow the fish to be closer to the side of the boat for his father to catch, he saw a large group of tarpon jumping on the sea surface not far away, one after another.
"Dad, look there."
Father Ye was holding a hand net and preparing to bend over to catch fish, but he heard his call. He looked in the direction of his finger in confusion and was also surprised, "Are they all tarpon?"
I saw that they actually performed some fancy moves and kept changing directions while flying.
The body of the tarpon is slender and flattened, like a heavy saber, shining silver, and exuding a chill.
This slender fish is an adept leaper, and can change direction from time to time during a leap using the extended fin rays on the back edge of its dorsal fin.
"First, fish this one up. I'll put the buoy again. Just when this fish is pulled up, it's right at the interface of a branch line in a basket. Untie the line and bring it back. Tie the upper buoy again and throw it down as a mark. Let's drive the boat over there and take a look."
This big silver carp is also very cheap. Although it looks delicious, its meat is actually soft and rotten with many thorns and has a poor taste. It is usually pickled into salted fish.
But, although they are cheap, their size is there, and one can be worth a few dollars. If you can catch a few more, you can earn some money for gas. Today's harvest is not very good to begin with.
However, things did not go as planned, and the father and son worked together to drag the big silver carp ashore. When they fixed the fishing line, they found that the silver carp had stopped jumping and had dived into the water.
Ye Yaodong did not give up. He increased the horsepower and drove the boat towards the sea where they had just jumped.
Watching the figures getting smaller and smaller under the sea, Father Ye quickly opened the hand net to its maximum. When the boat came over, he had already sorted out the fishing net. As soon as he found them diving to the bottom of the water, he quickly threw it out.
After pausing for a short while, the two of them pulled up together, with their biceps bulging high.
"Fuck, it's so heavy."
Each one weighs several dozen kilograms, and it would be difficult to pull even if you just grab a few.
He felt that he needed a net hauling machine. He couldn't bear to drag such a heavy cargo every other day. He had originally thought that since winter was approaching, the chances of going out to sea would decrease, so it wouldn't be too late to prepare it in the spring of next year. Now it seemed better to prepare it in advance and put it there.
What if a big cargo or a big fish comes from time to time and your arms can’t bear it.
The father and son gritted their teeth and moved the net up little by little. There were only four fish in the net, but each one was over one meter long, probably between 1.3 and 1.5 meters, and together they weighed two to three hundred kilograms.
"I'll throw another net to see if there's any left."
"They should be gone. They may have swam deep into the sea."
Father Ye thought it was a good idea to give it a try, but he didn't expect that all the fish were gone. The net only caught 4 soft silk fish and 9 prawns.
"Not bad, it's not bad. I didn't miss it. I can take them back and eat them these nights." Ye Yaodong happily picked up all the ones on the deck and put them in the bucket and put them separately.
The soft silk and large prawns are both good stuff for him, and all four members of his family like them.
Father Ye looked at him with disdain and just thought about eating!
Ye Yaodong also saw his father's eyes, but didn't care. How could he understand the joy of simply eating and drinking
After trying the net and catching nothing, they went back to collect the hooks.
As a result, the two sea breams I caught were both smelly. They had been kept for too long and had swallowed the hooks too deep, so they died early.
Most of the lines that were retrieved afterwards were empty hooks, and many fish had escaped.
Later on, a few flounders, including turbot and turbot, came up.
Because left flounder and right flounder.
The flounder has a strange shape and easily attracts attention because both eyes are located on one side of the head and the other side has no eyes.
Lay the fish flat with its belly facing you. The one with its head facing left is a turbot, and the one with its head facing right is a flounder, also called an opium fish.
Ye Yaodong collected two and threw them directly into the basket.
It only took him more than an hour to collect 1,000 hooks because there were many empty hooks, so he saved a lot of energy today. He didn't need to struggle with the big fish, so he was faster.
After all the ropes were disassembled, he checked the cargo. In addition to the four tarpon caught by the hand net, there were also three caught by longline fishing, two baskets of toad fish, a few small devils, and a few flounders, all of which were bottom fish, and a few soft silks. It was barely acceptable.
"Dad, let's eat first. After that, it'll be enough to drag two more nets."
"what time is it?"
In the past, when there were no watches, they didn’t look at the time. They would just eat when they were hungry and return when the sun set. If there was no sun, they would return depending on the conditions. If it was windy, they would also return early.
Now we have watches to check time, which is much more convenient.
"It's 11 o'clock."
"Um."
The two men went to the cabin to block the wind, each took out an already cold lunch box, and started eating with big mouthfuls. Without the conditions, they were not particular, as long as they could fill their stomachs.
Fortunately, although it was cold, the food was really delicious and the portions were sufficient. Going out to sea is hard enough, and having enough to eat is the most basic requirement.
While eating, Ye Yaodong began to think that maybe he could buy a coal stove when he got back and put the lunch box on it to heat it up. Otherwise, it would be uncomfortable to eat cold food in the middle of winter.
You can also bring a small pot and some light water on board, and throw some freshly caught shrimps and crabs into the pot to cook as a snack. If you also bring a small pot of rice wine, heat it up and drink a couple of cups to warm your body, it feels great just thinking about it.
The cold food in his hand suddenly lost its flavor, but he still had to eat it, so he ate faster.
Seeing this, Ye's father also sped up.
After dinner, the two rested in the cabin for a while before going out again to continue setting the net.
When the weather gets cold, you never know when the wind will start to blow on the sea. So take this opportunity to quickly cast the nets and try to catch two more nets.