Ye's father was a native of the seaside and was over 50 years old. He had heard of some local legends. Although he had never seen them, he could identify them.
This damn royal cutlassfish is known as the earthquake fish!
It's not hairtail!
Most people may mistakenly think that the oarfish is a giant cutlassfish. In fact, although the oarfish and cutlassfish look similar, they are actually completely unrelated.
Officially, oarfish belong to the order Oppaiformes, while cutlassfish belong to the order Perciformes.
In addition to differences in body shape, they also differ in appearance.
The hairtail is covered in silver and looks quite plain.
The oarfish is much more beautiful. In addition to its "silver-clad" appearance, it also has a beautiful "lace" - its red fins that are both cool and beautiful.
The long fins on its head look like a dazzling red crown, hence the name "oarfish".
"Live by the mountain, live by the mountain; live by the water, live by the water." Fishermen living by the sea naturally make a living by fishing.
For fishermen, discovering a big fish is a cause for joy, for it means their labour has been well rewarded.
But what they found was an oarfish...
At this moment, Father Ye suddenly felt a little scared.
Because according to folk legend, the oarfish is the "devil's messenger" that brings earthquakes.
Seeing his father's unpredictable expression, Ye Yaodong couldn't help but pat his shoulder and comfort him, "We've always heard that there was an earthquake in Taiwan. We only get affected by aftershocks occasionally. This fish might have escaped here from the Taiwan Strait in a panic. It's also possible that the legend is false."
Although he felt that it was very likely to be true, because he had seen news in his previous life that when oarfish were found on the beach, an earthquake would often occur shortly afterwards.
It was because I had never encountered it before, and when I saw the "white ribbon" on the sea just now, I did not associate it with the oarfish.
Father Ye's frown relaxed a little. It was true that there were more earthquakes in Taiwan, and they were only occasionally affected here.
"Then take this fish back?"
"Of course! Such a big oarfish is so damn rare. It's not like there won't be an earthquake if we don't catch it. It ran to the beach on its own initiative."
This is not a sunfish, so there is nothing to be taboo about. I just heard that it has a legendary early warning function.
"Then let's carry it onto the boat first."
The father and son tried to hold the fish, one at the head and the other at the tail, but they found that it didn't work because the fish was too long. When they lifted it this way, the middle section would still hang on the beach.
The two men had no choice but to have one hold the head and the other hold the middle part a little lower, letting the tail hang on the beach, and then carry it towards the boat.
"Fuck... This one is several meters long and weighs over a hundred pounds. I won't give it to Ah Cai. I'll send it to the dock in town and see if there's a knowledgeable owner who'll pay a high price for it."
"Yes, sure. By the way, let me warn everyone that there might be an earthquake coming."
After this huge oarfish was lifted onto the boat, it directly occupied half of the boat.
"This one is about four or five meters long..." Father Ye couldn't help but smile again when he saw the long imperial belt.
"We haven't seen this fish here before, have we?"
"No, I've lived for so many years and I've only heard of this legend. I thought it was just a legend. I didn't expect that oarfish really existed. Not everyone in the village may have heard of it."
At this point, he couldn't help but wonder, how did the third brother know about the oarfish? This fish is so rare that most people have never even heard of it.
"How do you know about oarfish?"
He didn't react at first and thought it was a huge oarfish. It was only when he pointed it out that the memory of the oarfish came to his mind.
Ye Yaodong was gesturing at the oarfish's head with his palm stretched out with a smile on his face. Its eye sockets were almost as big as his fist. When he heard his father's question, he said nonchalantly, "I saw a news article in an old newspaper and I know about it."
"Old newspapers? Who are you trying to fool?" Father Ye glanced at him unhappily. "You only went to the second grade, and you skipped classes every other day. You get headaches and stomachaches when it comes to exams. You can't even recognize a few words, but you can still read a newspaper. I'm so stupid..."
"Don't do that~ Dad, you are not that old, why do you have to curse yourself..."
Father Ye suddenly glared, "How do you talk like that?"
Ye Yaodong said with a grin, "I have been blessed by the God of Literature recently and I am diligent and hardworking. I am taking literacy classes and plan to study at Tsinghua University or Peking University for a few more days to bring honor to my family..."
Father Ye was surprised by the first half of his sentence, but he didn't expect the second half. He just wanted to say "Pah"
"Do you think you haven't grown up yet?"
"I heard there are classes for bosses. No, that's called advanced studies..."
"Okay, I'll wait. I'll set off firecrackers for you from the entrance of the village to your home, and then I'll hold a family memorial ceremony for you with 18 tables."
"Hey, keep a low profile. It's fine if we just know about it. There's no need to set up 18 tables. It's a waste of money. It's not easy for us to earn some money..."
Father Ye looked at him with disdain and shook his head. He actually thought that the third son had grown up. He was the only one in the village who talked nonsense like him.
Ye Yaodong boasted to his father for a while, then he untied the rope, intending to reel in the longline. However, as he was untying the rope, he saw all kinds of shellfish densely packed on the rocks on the shore, and his hands suddenly began to itch.
I had seen it before, but my attention was always on the oarfish.
It has been a long time since he last came here to fish in the sea. There was an infestation of starfish some time ago, and there will be no shellfish on the small islands around the coast for a long time. If he wants to fish in the sea, he has to look for it in distant sea areas.
Today's island is quite suitable. It has high terrain and there is a small piece of exposed beach even when there is no high tide. The boat can also be moored where the water level is high on the side.
But they had work to do today, the longline fish had not been collected yet, and they still had to trawl to make money, so they had no time to pry these shellfish, so he could only regretfully untie the ropes and set the boat sailing.
"Dad, on the 15th of a few days, bring mom and little sister here to go fishing. Let's go to this island. The terrain is high, and after the high tide, more beach will be exposed."
"Well, sure. Go back and talk to your mother. She's always wanted to come. She's just sitting around doing nothing at home anyway, and she can't make much money running the Internet." Father Ye had seen this a long time ago.
Now the boat is given to the eldest and second brother. Although the third brother often keeps some fish to share with them, there is less drying of dried goods such as shrimps, and they are all used as bait. It would be nice if we could dry some shellfish and keep them for eating slowly.
After Ye Yaodong memorized the approximate location of the isolated island, he sailed the boat away from the island and headed towards the sea area where longline fishing was carried out.
The sky is clear and the sea is calm now, so it is impossible for them to return immediately.
Ye's father had been squatting beside the oarfish, watching with great interest. He also imitated him by measuring its length with his hands, and occasionally touched its tassels, muttering something. Ye was too far away to hear anything, he could only see his father's mouth opening and closing with amazement on his face.
He thought as he was driving the boat. There had been no tsunami in his previous life. There had been a few earthquakes affected by Taiwan, but he couldn't remember whether there had been any this year. The interval was too long.
There definitely wasn't a huge impact, otherwise he would definitely remember it.
It is now November in the Gregorian calendar, and it is possible that an earthquake may really occur in Taiwan or the Taiwan Strait in the near future.
When I go back, I just need to be more alert when I sleep at night for the next few days.
His mind was spinning until the boat reached the fishing spot where the hooks were set, and then he collected his thoughts.
Father Ye also stood up to help and stopped staring at the oarfish.
The father and son are now very skilled in longline fishing. A whole basin of bait has been cut and placed there early, so they can directly hang the bait while collecting fish.
There will be less fish in autumn and winter, and some fish are more seasonal.
It is really the season for black mullet recently. He pulled up almost all 1,000 hooks and found that half of them were black mullet, half were toadfish, and half of the baskets were black porgy, sea bass, flounder and rays.
Well... In autumn and winter, there are a lot of frogfish.
We also caught five or six Niugang horse mackerel, but their size was half the size and not as big as the ones caught at night. They weighed about ten kilograms each. These small fish are not very valuable.
There were only a few hooks left. Ye Yaodong was reeling in the lines in an orderly manner, while Ye's father continued to cut the bait. 100 kilograms of small fish and 20 kilograms of small shrimps were only enough to hang the bait twice, perhaps not enough, and this was because Ye's father cut the fish into small pieces.
At this moment, he felt the line in his hand was a little heavy, and he was immediately delighted. He didn’t catch any particularly big fish in this wave today. Although he didn’t lose money, it could only be said that it was not as good as the best, but better than the worst.
In fact, it was also because of his hook. If he wanted to catch big fish, the fish hook and fishing line must be well equipped. Now he relied entirely on luck, because some fish would swallow the hook deeper when eating bait, and some fish could even run away after eating the bait.
Using strength in his hands, he slowly pulled the rope up bit by bit. The fish on the hook also floated to the surface of the water, but was struggling violently.
It’s still Niugang trevally. Fish still like to gather in groups.
In fact, he also guessed that it was Niugang mackerel. After all, he had caught several here, and this fish was a large fish. The heavy weight in his hand was exactly right.
The fishing line was constantly pulled by the fish, and you could see that the hook was swallowed quite deep and had passed through the fish's jaw, revealing the pointed part. However, it was still struggling stubbornly, and even making a "gua gua" sound.
Some fish can make sounds. This Niugang trevally is nicknamed "guagua fish" by fishermen because of its special sound.
This fish doesn't look very big, but it's not small either. Seeing it struggling on the water, it should be about one meter long.
After struggling with the mermaid for nearly 2 minutes, he felt the pulling force on one end of the fishing line gradually decrease, which meant that the big fish was tired. He slowly dragged the fish to the side of the boat, and then Father Ye found a gap and scooped it up with a hand net.
"Damn, this fish is really hard to catch."
Father Ye took it off with a happy look on his face, "It's good that it didn't run away."
Ye Yaodong continued to reel in the line. There were only a few hooks left. After that, they could continue to drag another net.
He pulled it and found that it was an empty hook. The bait had been eaten. He hung a bait on the hook and put it back into the sea, then collected it again.
When he finished collecting the last hook, he found that this hook was particularly heavy. It was the heaviest one in today's longline fishing.
He thought it was another Niugang horse mackerel, but when he pulled it, there was no struggle, it was just sinking purely, which puzzled him.
As the fishing line became shorter and shorter and the large fish under the water gradually floated to the surface, he realized something was wrong.
Why are they in a group