Ye Yaodong cursed and pulled and tugged at the fishing line, but after a while he loosened the line.
"It's too much effort to reel in the fish with just the line. Fortunately, I'm wearing gloves, so I can take some time. Dad, hold the wooden stick with the line so I can free up my other hand."
He felt that he had to pull and release the line with one hand. The line was wrapped around his arm, and then he let it go again, which didn't feel very convenient.
Ye's father actively stepped forward to help take the wooden stick for winding the line and squeezed to the front.
Ye Yaodong freed his hands and pulled with both hands. His right hand had already wrapped the fishing line around his upper arm. He felt that the fish under the sea was not struggling as hard as at the beginning.
At the beginning, it was so ferocious that it rushed out with the fishhook in its mouth. He was caught off guard and half of his body was pulled out of the boat's side, not to mention the wooden stick.
The fishing line on his arm became more and more tangled, and his right wrist occasionally flipped to loosen the line, and the fish underneath was obviously being pulled up little by little.
"Dad, how long did you let the string go? Why does it feel like I've been pulling it for so long, it's wrapped around my arm in circles, and there's still so much left underneath?"
"Switch to a longer line to catch a bigger fish? Since there was no movement for a long time just now, I thought of putting out more fishing line to try."
"That makes sense. It's really a big fish, but it's a bit difficult to catch!"
"Can you do it? If not, I'll do it."
"How can I not do this? I think this fish has been fished out. Wait, I'll get you some soon."
Ye Yaodong felt that the fish below was no longer struggling, so he pulled with all his strength. The fishing line in his hand rolled around and around, and his right hand was still flexibly turning to reel in the line.
After a while, the ferocious big fish gradually revealed its true appearance, looming under the water.
"Oh my god, red fish?"
Father Ye stretched his neck and looked carefully at the sea, and said happily: "Hong Gan is good, Hong Gan is good, pull it over quickly, I will go get the hook..."
As Father Ye spoke, he handed the wooden stick in his hand to the soldier next to him, and hurriedly ran to the cabin to get the hook.
All I could hear was the sounds of their excited discussions.
"Pull it up, pull it up..."
"It's coming up, it's on the surface..."
"So big..."
"so big… "
"This fish is so big, no wonder it ran away with the hook as soon as it bit the hook."
Ye Yaodong was also very excited. "Damn, my efforts were not in vain. Fortunately, it was a red snapper, not some other junk fish. This fish is good."
"Is it expensive?"
"It's OK. I made back my money today. I got my wages and gas money. It wasn't all in vain..."
Father Ye was holding a long hook tied to a wooden stick. It was made by Ye Yaodong before. It was convenient for fishing. In case the fish was too big to be pulled up, he could just use the hook to hook the fish's belly when it was hovering by the side of the boat and pull the fish up.
Every soldier was taller than him. Father Ye squeezed through the crowd and said, "Make way, make way, let me in... You've pulled it up, haven't you? You're not small... Let me do it, let me do it..."
Father Ye lay on the side of the boat with excitement on his face, holding out his stick. He hooked the red snapper that was still wandering on the side of the boat due to exhaustion, then quickly pulled it up and threw it on the deck.
This red snapper bounced a bit when it was thrown onto the deck.
Ye Yaodong didn't care that his arms were tangled with fishing line, and he also stepped forward and kicked it twice, "Wow, it's really big. My arms are all red from the fishing line."
"I estimate this fish to be around 20 kilograms, which is quite large. It's worth the trip today. I'm going to get a knife to bleed it. It will take me half a day before I return, so I hope it doesn't stink."
Captain Chen also said happily: "There are indeed a lot of fish hiding around the reefs below. We have only been fishing for a while and we have already caught such a big fish. There must be many more below."
"Yes, when we went into the water before, we saw a lot of people coming and going in a hurry. There were all kinds of colors, and the colorful ones were quite beautiful."
Ye Yaodong untied the string wrapped around his arm and said with a smile: "I'll give each of you a hand string tomorrow."
There were a lot of tangled lines, some of which were tangled when they were untied, and a small section was twisted into a tangled ball. That was because he had gathered the lines into a ball when he was reeling them in, and he hadn't taken time to untie them when he was winding them, so it was a bit troublesome.
He untied all the lines and threw them on the deck, then started by rolling up the sleeves of his arms.
For fear of getting tanned, he wore long sleeves even in the hottest weather. However, the long sleeves could not stop the fishing line from squeezing his arms, and red marks were evenly distributed on his arms.
The fish I caught before were not this big, and it was not difficult to pull them up. This red snapper was really amazing. He shook his arms and said, "This hand line is not suitable for catching big fish. It can only be used to catch small fish. It is quite fast to catch small fish, and it is easier to catch than with a rod."
"Who can be sure?" Father Ye said without raising his head as he lowered his head to bleed the fish.
Ye Yaodong shrugged. He was just saying it casually, it was just like opening a blind box.
He picked up the stick on the deck again and, no matter how impatient he was, he had to sort out the pile of lines and roll them up.
When the conditions are right, I will get a real fishing rod. The conditions are too harsh now. Either the bamboo pole breaks or the line becomes a tangled mess, which is too time-consuming.
By the time Ye's father had finished bleeding the fish, Ye Yaodong was still struggling with the tangled fishing line.
"I'll drive the boat to the small island across the street first. It doesn't look too far away. It should take five or six minutes to get there."
Ye Yaodong said without even looking up, "Okay, you decide. We are idle anyway. There are no fishing boats on the sea right now. Let the two PLA comrades go dig for shellfish together. They have nothing to do anyway, so it's a good idea to split them into two groups."
Father Ye glanced at them with a smile and said embarrassedly: "You are really good at assigning people..."
Captain Chen smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. We have nothing to do anyway, so we can go and see the world and experience a different kind of seaside life."
"Okay, okay, I'll go sail..."
Of course it would be nice to have two more free laborers.
After Ye's father docked the boat, Ye Yaodong had almost finished tidying up the lines. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief and looked up, he saw his father carrying a bucket to him.
“Here!”
Ye Yaodong wondered, "What?"
"Go to the island to dig for shellfish."
"Aren't you the one who should go? I seem to have better luck than you. I caught such a big red snapper, but you didn't make any move for a long time. So I should fish and you can dig."
"Bullshit, that was just a coincidence. It's not my fault for casting the hook well. Go now."
Ye Yaodong took the bucket depressedly, looking at the waves hitting the rocks around him and the boat shaking and bumping into them. Although there were not many waves today, the sea water would still create some waves when it rushed to the reef. Moreover, there was not even a bit of exposed beach around, so it was really difficult to stand on the reef.
Forget it, let him do it for the sake of his father’s old age.
"Remember to pick me up when it's time for dinner. Don't let me starve to death."
"Got it. Even if I forget you, I can't forget the two PLA comrades. You and the two PLA comrades should be careful."
"Um."
Ye Yaodong picked up the bucket and checked the tools inside. They were quite complete, including five or six sacks. After thinking about it, he also took a hand net with him and asked the other two to take a bucket each to make it easier to load the tools.
He carefully got off the boat first, stepped on the rocks and climbed up. Captain Chen and another soldier followed him.
"Be careful, move aside, I'll teach you how to identify these shellfish and dig them."
Ye Yaodong told them that any stone can be dug. Some of them look gray and white on the surface, and you can't see anything on the surface. You can only see the meat inside when you pry them off.
For example, when it comes to oysters, he asked them to pry off the entire juvenile shell, not just the shell. There was nothing to fill it with meat, and he even demonstrated it for them to see.
There are also small abalones, whose shells are similar to rocks, so if you don’t look closely, you will just skip them...
He dug out several common types of rocks for them to see what they looked like, and only then did he crawl to the side after seeing that they had memorized them.
Standing on the rocks is not as solid as standing on the beach, and the risk factor is also very high. Ye Yaodong did not dare to look around and could only focus on his feet.
When he filled a bucket and poured it into a sack, and was about to lift the sack to the flatter reef above, he saw a small cave in the gap between the two reefs above, and there was a ferocious round-axis crab in it. He was immediately surprised.
This round-axis crab is a large land crab. One of them happened to crawl to the entrance of the cave and was visible to him clearly.
The carapace on its back is about 12 centimeters wide, its body color is purple-black, and its two claws are one large and one small. It is possible that one of the claws broke off and then grew a new one, and the new one is smaller.
It is a sea crab, but it is a land crab that lives on land, which means that it only needs to replenish its water with seawater occasionally.
This crab is so dirty. It's full of parasites and bugs in its gills. It even eats mice and cockroaches. Ugh.
Ye Yaodong took a look and skipped it. Even if this round-axis crab was given to him, he wouldn't want it. It's better to say "love".
"Love" is their local dialect, and their scientific name is unknown. It is also a small crab, but it lives in the cracks of rocks. It is very small, and the shell on its back is between the size of a quail egg and a pigeon egg. There is only a shell but no meat, so you can only catch it, wrap it with sweet potato starch and fry it.
But he just ignored it and pretended not to see it, while the other two were very surprised when they saw it.
Captain Chen had just filled a bucket with various shelled goods and was about to put the sack on top, a flatter location, when he happened to see the cave.
"Ah! There is a really big crab here, Adong, Aotian, come quickly..."
Ye Yaodong suddenly stumbled and managed to avoid falling by supporting himself on the rock with his hands. Aotian
He looked at the other soldier. Could his last name be Long