Everyone was sitting at the door bundling firewood. They made straw ropes on the spot, broke thin branches and tied them into small bundles, which were then placed aside.
Then Mr. and Mrs. Ye tied the fishing net on three fixed bamboo poles, leaving only a conical opening on the outside of the fishing net, and hung a bunch of branches in the center of the net as an egg receiver.
Whether made into a cage or branch shape, it has a better egg-laying effect.
The cage type can effectively prevent a large number of squid eggs from piling up without affecting the squid's spawning, and can effectively protect the squid eggs from being destroyed by other marine life.
In fact, if you want to raise squid, now is the best time.
After catching the squid, the branches with the eggs attached can be retrieved for hatching and cultivation to maximize profits.
But at that time, there was no concept of breeding, and no one knew how to breed, not even Ye Yaodong. He planned to wait until its egg-laying period was over and then take back the branch it was attached to.
Squid eggs are also called squid eggs, and they are also good things.
Several children were there helping with the carrying, piling the bundled branches on the cart, and some also helped to break branches.
Lin Guangyuan was just dragging a bundle of branches over to him out of boredom and started to fold them as well. “Why do you need to tie so many branches to catch squid?”
Ye Chengyang asked innocently: "Do squids eat branches?"
"It will hang the rice in its stomach on the branches, and we can take the opportunity to catch it and catch more squid."
The seeds in the stomachs of squid and squid are called rice because they look very similar to rice.
The children seemed to understand, and Ye Yaodong did not explain much.
After a while, Ye's mother called them to eat. After eating, they continued working and kept working with the lights on until it was completely dark.
After helping Ye Yaodong, Ye's father and mother went to help Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua until everything was done. After cleaning up, Ye's father went back to the old house to sleep.
At night, the father and his four sons and their two boats sailed away to the sea areas they were familiar with.
Cuttlefish like to lay eggs near offshore islands. Ye Yaodong drove the boat to Oarfish Island as usual. This is the offshore island he visits most frequently. Moreover, a large number of dead squids that had laid eggs were found outside this island the day before yesterday.
This shows that the water quality in the sea area around this island is very suitable for squid spawning, which is of course the first choice.
Ye Yaodong looked around with the faint light from his headlamp and flashlight, and stopped within 50 meters of the island.
Just as he was about to throw in the branch with eggs, Ye's father stopped him, and fetched a bucket of sea water, pouring about two pounds of it into the soup pot. He also gently tapped the soup pot twice with his hands, and five or six spots of light appeared in the water.
Ye Yaodong was surprised, "What are you doing, Dad?"
"This is an old method. The light spots inside are Noctiluca scintillans, which can be used to determine the squid fishing season. When there are 2 to 5 light spots emitted by Noctiluca scintillans, the squid fishing season has begun. When the number of light spots reaches 10 to 15, it means that the squid fishing season has arrived."
Sure enough, old ginger is still spicy.
"That means the flood season has just begun and it is not yet at its peak."
"Yes, the goods will increase day by day."
"Ginger is always wiser with age. I've learned something."
Father Ye was somewhat pleased with himself, "There are still many things you don't understand."
"Well, shall I start?"
"Release it, but don't release it too deep. It will be more effective if it is within ten meters from the sea surface. When the squid swims over, we can also see it clearly on the sea surface. Remember to release it evenly."
"okay."
You should listen to the advice of the elderly.
Ye Yaodong took out bundles of attachments, connected and fixed them with ropes, tied sinker ropes and floats to them, and threw them evenly into the sea, keeping them about five meters below the water surface.
After he had cast all the balls, he threw a buoy as a mark.
When doing these things at sea, you need to mark them, otherwise it will be difficult to find them. Having marks can help you avoid being lost.
Father Ye watched from the side, feeling very satisfied, thinking that he had played a big role again. "We just put it down, so the effect is not so fast. Let's try again after noon. The squid usually spawns in the afternoon to evening, and the harvest is relatively large during this period. This is our fishing experience over the years."
"Got it. Then go trawling and come back after 12 o'clock."
Because he was going to catch squid today, he didn't collect bait. Anyway, the trawl has been catching good fish recently, and he also needs to collect the ground traps. He doesn't know how the ground traps have been catching after a day of absence. Are there any fish that have been hit by the waves and stuck in the cracks of the reef
It was not yet four in the morning and the sky was still pitch black. Although we were close to the reef, it was not suitable for going into the water.
After the boat sailed a distance away, Ye's father dragged the sorted fishing net to the tail slide and slowly lowered it.
While they were working, they unexpectedly encountered two other boats in the distance, which were also working at the same time. The lights on the boats allowed them to spot them from afar.
Most people are pretty good. As long as they are not deliberately looking for trouble, most of them will avoid each other. No one wants to deliberately cause trouble.
After seeing this, Ye Yaodong also kept his distance. The lessons he had learned had made him remember it well, so he would stay away from fishing boats at sea unless there was any accident.
They waited until daybreak before planning to set up the first net.
Just as they were slowing down and preparing to pull up the net, they saw many dead fish floating on the sea behind the fishing boat, as well as two large fish floating up and down. Judging from the dorsal fins exposed above the sea, they looked like sharks
"Dongzi, let's go get the hand-casting net and cast it and see how it goes."
"Okay." He also saw the fish in the sea.
The father and son, one holding the net, and the other steered the boat back to the side, then spread the hand net completely to cover the shark and the fish floating around.
After waiting for a few minutes, I used the rolling wheel to roll up the hand-cast net with less effort.
As soon as they dragged it closer, they saw the fish wrapped in the fishing net.
"They were all skinned fish, with only a few small yellow croakers."
"Pull it up first."
The two men worked together to roll up a large bag of fishing nets on a rolling wheel, dragged them to the deck, untied the nets, and poured them all out, only to find that the fish all had cut wounds on their bodies.
Ye Yaodong didn't bother to look at the skinned fish. He took the lead in using a stick to kill the half-dead shark to prevent it from exploding and hurting people during its dying struggle.
Father Ye squatted down and picked up a few skinned fish and looked them over. He had a general idea of what was going on. The wound on the shark next to him was more obvious.
He threw the fish in his hand and said, "These fish must have been hit by the propeller at the bottom of the boat. They must have encountered a school of skinned fish just now. When the boat passed by, the propeller at the stern directly cut through the underwater school of fish at high speed."
The fish that fell onto the deck not only had wounds from being cut by the propellers, but some were cut in half or into several pieces, and some were even cut directly into minced meat.
Ye Yaodong also picked up a few and took a look. It did look like the marks left by a propeller. The eyesight of the striped fish is low and it can only see 12 meters at most. It is quite blind, so it is normal for it to hit the propeller.
"Dad, cast a few more nets and catch everything in the sea to dry in the sun. Don't waste it."
"Then cast two more nets and catch that shark as well."
These fish all had cuts on their bodies, so they couldn't be sold at a high price. They were either used as bait or dried in the sun. It just so happened that the stock of dried fish at home was running out.
This fish is not popular in the first place. There are many good fish in this era. It is troublesome to peel the skin of the fish before eating it.
The skinned fish has a rough, frosted, tough and elastic skin that must be peeled off before it can be eaten, so it is called the skinned fish. The official scientific name is Pufferfish, but no one calls it that, everyone calls it the skinned fish.
But decades later, marine resources gradually became depleted, and even dogfish became popular, so the status of skinned fish naturally rose.
Especially the skinned dried fish, which is expensive and delicious!
The father and son, having seen this before, did not want to waste anything, and cast the net five or six times before they caught all the scattered fish on the sea, most of which were skinned fish.
These fish were really cut into pieces, and even the intact fish had slight cut marks on them.
There was no need to sort them, as they were all taking them home to keep. They poured them all into baskets and pushed them to the corner. There were quite a few skinned fish, four baskets piled up, weighing nearly 200 kilograms.
The two sharks also have cut marks on their bodies, and the cuts are very even, just like the fish were given flower cuts, which looks very beautiful!
The father and son also carried them into the basket and piled them together.
After finishing that, they had time to start the net lifting machine and pull up the fishing net from the seabed.
With the skinned fish harvested just now, Ye Yaodong thought that there must be something in this net. Unexpectedly, when he pulled it up, he found that they were all mackerel, with only a few skinned fish above the net mouth.
"It should have just happened. It's in this area, so there's only a little bit on the network port."
"Mackerel is good, mackerel is more valuable," said Father Ye as he untied the net and poured out the fish. "It's also the mackerel fishing season recently, and your elder and second brothers have also caught a lot of mackerel recently."
"It's good to be able to make money. The price is high and the quantity is small. I'll drag a net around this area later. Skinned fish are cheap, but there are so many, so it doesn't matter if I drag a little more."
Skinned fish swim in groups. Large fish are their natural enemies. By the time the short-sighted skinned fish discover their natural enemies, it is too late to escape. If the population is to survive, it can only swim in groups.
Only when the number is large enough can some of the skinned fish in the population escape, and the skinned fish population can survive.
This characteristic is also the reason why the price of skinned fish is affordable, because once you come across it, you will catch a group of them at a time, and if the yield is large enough, the price will be cheap.
After they brought out the fish, they sorted out the fishing nets and put them down. Then one person drove the boat while another sorted the fish, working together.
He was circling around the area where the propeller had just hit the skinned fish. Seeing that it was almost time, almost afternoon, he headed to the nearby sea.
It was his last net and he had to make use of the last bit of time. He drove the boat not far from the reef before he prepared to raise the net.