The next day, Lin Xiuqing took out the clothes made of yellow floral fabric that Ye Yaodong bought for her last year.
This is her best-looking and most presentable summer outfit. She has never been willing to wear it and has folded it carefully and kept it there. She only wears it once when she goes back to her parents' home.
Ye Yaodong sat on the edge of the bed with his legs crossed, watching her gesturing with the clothes in her hands.
"Adong, I feel like I gained weight after giving birth, and my pants waistline seems a little small."
"I don't feel it, it's true that your buns are bigger! How's your waist? Anyway, I won't touch your waist. It's good that your buns are bigger, and there is milk."
Lin Xiuqing glared at him in reproach, "Didn't you say you were going to go out to sea to check out the scene? Why haven't you gone yet?"
"What's the hurry? It's only 7 o'clock, and you don't have to go to work until 8 o'clock. Why should I go so early?"
"Then go out and wait. I need to change my clothes."
"It's not like I haven't seen it before... Hey hey hey... just go out..."
After he said this, he was pulled up and kicked out.
When I walked to the door, I saw that the PLA comrades were busy again, moving bricks to work.
"I say, you are so enthusiastic, do you want to be my son-in-law? It's a pity that my daughter is only three months old, otherwise, I will ask my wife to introduce you to a big girl in the village? To help you solve the important matter of life?"
Captain Chen's dark face instantly turned red to his ears. "What nonsense are you talking about? I just thought that you haven't come out of the room yet. You have nothing to do anyway, so why don't you help out a little? Now that you are out, let's go."
"Why are you in such a hurry? I'll make a bucket of tea first. Otherwise, you'll be thirsty after floating on the sea all day. The water in the pot isn't boiling yet. You guys should work for a while longer. I'll call you when I'm done."
"Haha, you're really rude."
Father Ye quickly smiled and said, "Comrades of the People's Liberation Army, don't listen to him. Sit down and take a rest. Cool down. There are workers here."
"It's okay. Let's stretch our muscles before the sun comes out."
After Ye Yaodong prepared all the food and drinks, they went to the sea to check out the place.
Unexpectedly, there were quite a few people with such evil intentions. Before they even got close, everyone saw three more boats staying around the sea area they marked.
Those ships were also guilty and recognized them as soon as they saw the marks on their ships. They also saw the several PLA soldiers on the ships. As soon as the people who went into the sea got on board, they quickly drove away.
Ye Yaodong did not chase them. After all the boats had run away, he drove to a nearby place and set up traps.
When a few soldiers got on board and saw so many traps piled up on the boat, they wanted to ask about it. Now, watching his father driving the boat, he was putting them there, so he went forward to help.
"You're not wasting anything, are you? You have to put up a ground trap even if you can't drag the net. Where did you get it?"
"My own, where else can I get it? I have been putting out trap nets, and I would collect them every one or two days. Recently, I was delayed and couldn't even collect the traps. Yesterday, I went to collect the traps overnight and put them here for convenience. Who knew it would take me a few more days?"
"I haven't been out to sea for four days. It rained for more than 20 days recently. If I don't put out the nets to catch some fish, I'll be starving. It doesn't matter if I'm alone, but I have several mouths to feed at home. Now I have to build a house to bring my old lady over to live with me, and that costs money!"
Ye Yaodong never forgets to play the victim.
The soldier was indeed honest. After hearing his pitiful words, he immediately asked, "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Or, how about we help you put the net?"
"Or help you catch fish?"
"If you need any help, just tell me."
The corners of Ye Yaodong's mouth twitched, and he casually muttered a few words out of habit, "It's okay, there's nothing I can help with, just put down these rows of traps."
"We've been in the water before and there are a lot of fish around the wreck. Why don't we put the trap there?"
"It will get stuck. We dragged the net here before, and it got stuck when we pulled it up, and then we pulled up a bronze tripod. Forget it. You only have two or three minutes to go into the water, and you may have to come up before you find the bottom. It's better not to do it."
Just put a trap next to it for a few days. A few days won’t make a difference. The village committee has compensated his losses anyway.
"Okay, I'll help you put it away. Just support us in doing whatever work you need."
A few people always felt a little guilty for delaying his making money, and they all rushed to take over Ye Yaodong's job.
They were so enthusiastic that Ye's father felt a little embarrassed, feeling that Dongzi was bullying an honest man.
"We come by ourselves, by ourselves..."
Ye Yaodong clapped his hands and stepped out. If you want to do it, just let them do it. They were just sitting around doing nothing anyway.
He went to the cabin and took out his fishing line and hook and fiddled with it. Every few days when he took it out and tried to go fishing, various problems always occurred and he failed to catch any fish.
Damn, I've been sent out to watch over the sea again. I can't trawl, so I can only go fishing. Otherwise, I'll just sit there and drift on the sea all day, which is a waste of time.
There is no fishing rod, only fishing line and fish hook. This fishing method is also called hand-line fishing.
Handline fishing is a kind of drag fishing method without fishing rod. It is quite old and relies entirely on the feel of the angler to judge whether the fish is caught, and use both hands to directly pull the fish spines to catch the fish successfully.
It is very simple to make. For the one in his hand, it only requires a fishing line of several dozen meters, a lead sinker and a fish hook.
He didn't have a lead sinker, but he had a stone. It would be the same to use the stone as a lead sinker. In difficult times, it's better to keep things simple.
You just need to be more particular about the fishing line. After all, you reel in and release the line with your hands, so you need to choose a relatively thicker and harder fishing line. This will not only prevent your fingers from getting hurt when you reel in and release the line, but also reduce the risk of tangles and twists in the line.
The fishing line in his hand is fine. It is used to weave nets at home. The women in the family take on different jobs each time, and the nets they weave are also different, with different lines, some thicker and some thinner.
Anyway, the one in his hand will not be thin, and he can't say how thick it will be, but it's fine as long as it can be used for fishing.
After Ye Yaodong tied a small stone as a lead weight, he went to carry the small bucket of fish and shrimp to the side of the boat. This was what he had specially brought back yesterday.
"Dad, are you guys done yet? Have you finished setting up the traps?"
"There's another row, you have to wait."
He wanted to go to the reef where the shipwreck occurred. He had gone into the water before when it was getting dark and saw that there were indeed a lot of fish there. Some fish, such as grouper, like to move around the reefs.
Since the trap hasn’t been put up yet, forget it, let’s just fish here first.
He picked up a small red shrimp to bait the fishhook, then slowly lowered the fishhook and the stone acting as a lead sinker into the sea until the hook and bait sank to the bottom of the sea.
This is because when placing the ground trap net, the boat is moving forward slowly, the current is fast, and the bait under the water will float with the current, attracting the fish underneath.
It was also his first time to use hand-line fishing. Compared with fishing with a fishing rod, the casting distance is not that far.
But he was in the middle of the sea, so it didn't matter if he was thrown too far away. It felt okay as it was now.
After throwing the hook out, his fingers never left the line. After a while, he felt the fishing line in his hand shaking. It was not the feeling of the sea breeze blowing the fishing line, but the shaking back and forth and left and right. He could clearly feel it with his fingers.
He shouted in surprise, "Oh~ Here it comes~"
When he felt the strong pulling force of the fishing line in his hand, he pulled the line with force in time to allow the fishhook to pierce the fish's mouth and hook the fish. He then held the wooden stick with his left hand and reeled it, while pulling the line with his right hand in turn from bottom to top.
When the other people on the boat heard his surprised shout, they all turned around and saw him pulling the fishing line, so they walked over curiously.
"What are you doing?"
"Fishing, what else can I do? Can't you see I'm pulling it up? This fish is not big, it struggles little, and it ran away without biting the hook."
"You can fish like this?"
“I’m surprised by something I’m not used to. I have a fishing line and a fish hook, so why can’t I fish? It’s just that I don’t have a fishing rod, so I can’t cast too far. Big fish are a little hard to catch, mainly because they are hard to pull, but small fish are still easy.” Ye Yaodong said as he reeled in the line hard.
“There really are fish!”
"I see, I see..."
"It's pulled up from the sea...it looks like a sea bass..."
"Let me see... Let me see..."
Those soldiers were leaning half of their bodies over the side of the boat, and they were even more excited than him.
With a splash, the water surface rippled and a fish was lifted into the air by Ye Yaodong. "Hey! It's a bass~ Haha, I'm lucky!"
Father Ye was placing a trap there. He felt a little itchy when he heard this. He kept turning his head and couldn't help but shouting, "How many pounds?"
"Probably more than one pound but less than two pounds." Ye Yaodong pulled the fishing line onto the boat and lifted the spotted sea bass on the hook in front of them to show them.
The striped bass still hanging on the fishhook was still wagging its tail lively, shaking off the water stains on everyone's faces, and everyone watched with joy.
"Please help me get a bucket of sea water. It's still alive and can be kept alive. Otherwise, it will die and become stale when I bring it back in the evening."
“I’ll do it, I’ll do it…” a comrade rushed to get the bucket.
"You're lucky," Captain Chen said with interest, "It seems like you haven't let it go for long, and it's already taken the bait?"
"About two or three minutes. There are a lot of fish recently, and the boat is sailing there. The bait below is floating, which can easily attract fish to eat the bait."
"I didn't expect that such a simple hook and line could be used for fishing."
"Don't underestimate it. Although it's my first time fishing this way, it feels pretty smooth. I can clearly feel the fish biting the hook."
As he spoke, he took the fish off the hook. It struggled so hard that it almost slipped out of his hands and fell onto the deck. After putting it in the bucket, it began to move alive again.
"Is this fish worth the money? If you catch a few more in a day, can you make a profit? Do you have any hooks or lines on the boat? We'll help you fish."
“Yes, yes, let us help you fish…” Everyone rolled up their sleeves, eager to get started.
How could they help him fish? It was obvious that they themselves were itching to try fishing and wanted to have a try.