The second net had been pulled up long ago, so it took them less than 10 minutes to collect it.
This net of fish was not that heavy, but it was still over 30 kilograms, and there were also several shoe sole fish and turbot.
Ye Yaodong looked at his watch. It was already eight o'clock. He had been out for almost two hours but had only collected two nets. He began to feel a sense of urgency.
If there is anything else to do, and he keeps procrastinating, he won’t be able to finish the work today even if he works until dark.
"Dad, can you hurry up?"
The workload of fifty nets was not low. Just the harvesting alone would take them a whole day, from morning to night, if they worked fast.
Because when collecting the net, you have to pay attention to collecting it in order. You cannot mess up the net because of catching fish. You have to tie the knots as they are so that it will be convenient to continue releasing the net after collecting it.
The work was very tedious, and his father loved the fishing nets, so he was very careful when collecting fish. He would carefully pick up any garbage or grass roots or seaweed stuck on the nets, and tried not to pull them and damage the nets.
With him collecting the fish and sorting the fishing nets in the back, Ye Yaodong felt at ease, but his efficiency was a bit too slow.
If the machine here runs, it can be faster, but I'm worried that his father won't be able to collect the fish fast enough and won't be able to keep up. It will be troublesome if he messes up the fishing net in a hurry.
The most feared thing about this kind of sticky net is that it becomes a mess. If it becomes a mess, it will be scrapped.
Whether it is disposable or not depends on how you collect the net. If you collect it well, you can use it several times. If some parts are damaged or hooked, it will not affect the use. It is just a pity that it will be messy, after all, the net line is too thin.
Father Ye also felt that he was collecting the nets too slowly, and was afraid that he would not be able to collect all the nets in one day.
"How about you collect the fish faster? I'll take over the nets in the back, put them on the table, and then collect the fish one by one. Or you can come over and help me collect the fish after you finish collecting two or three nets. That way it will be faster."
"Okay, let's try it!"
If we don't speed up, we really won't be able to finish it.
No wonder when Uncle Lin found out that he had put out 50 nets and also used longlines, he said he would definitely have to hire someone or he wouldn’t be able to catch all the fish.
He had originally wanted to give it a try today, but now it seems that he might not be able to collect all the 50 dip nets, let alone the longline fishing.
However, you still have to give it a try first.
Ye Yaodong had just hung up the rope of the third net and it had only turned five or six meters when he immediately sped up. Ye's father, who was pulling the fishing net from behind, no longer picked up the fish slowly. He put the entire net neatly on the table, ready to take it back later.
Only after Ye Yaodong quickly collected three nets and they were too full to fit on the table did he stop collecting the nets and work with his father to take the fish out of the nets.
"There aren't many fish in these few nets, most of them are toadfish."
"Yeah, there are two golden pomfret, that's not bad."
"Golden pomfret is not as good as white pomfret, it's just so-so... Oh, damn, Dad, are those otters still there?"
As Ye Yaodong was speaking, he caught a glimpse out of the corner of his eye that several otters had surfaced on the water. He was immediately surprised and pointed in a direction for his father to look.
They move forward and backward, left and right in the water, tumble freely, and swim in circles. Their behavior looks cute.
"Are you still there? Haven't you found a place to go ashore yet?"
Otters generally live in coastal areas where salt water and fresh water meet. They often go to the sea to fish, so otters are also distributed on some small islands near the coast.
Although they are on the seaside, there is an island town nearby. There is a large freshwater lake in the island town, which is right at the junction of salt water and fresh water.
"It just so happens that no one is collecting the nets right now. Why don't we go over and see if we can catch any?" Father Ye felt envious when he saw so many of them on the sea.
Ye Yaodong nodded. It was still several decades before they became protected animals. Now was the time when there were the most of them. It would be a waste not to catch them if he saw one. Once they became protected animals, he would not catch them.
He is a man of principles. He catches those he can catch, and doesn't catch those he can't catch. He doesn't catch those he likes, and he doesn't catch those cubs that are too young.
But I didn't expect that these otters were so vigilant. Maybe they had just experienced a wave of stimulation. As soon as they approached, they all dived into the water and hid when they heard the sound.
"Well, I've come up empty-handed again. Forget it."
Father Ye also said regretfully: "Forget it, let's get all the goods out of the fishing net first."
"Um."
The father and son continued to work on the fishing nets in their hands. After all the goods in the three bowls were taken out, the fishing nets were straightened out and the knots were untied, Ye Yaodong continued to collect the nets.
This continued to happen, but what they didn't expect was that in the afternoon, when they were halfway through collecting the fishing nets, Ye Yaodong's rolling wheel actually caught another otter, and this time it was an adult otter, not a cub.
This made both the father and son happy.
"This is what they call "looking for something in vain, yet finding it is easy to find." I didn't expect that I couldn't catch one in the morning, but I caught one in the afternoon."
"Catch it first and tie it up to prevent it from running away." Father Ye excitedly ran over and took the net from his hand.
"Then you hold it, I'll go get the rope from the cabin."
"Um."
Father Ye happily caught the otter, but when he saw it moving its limbs around and trying to scratch someone, he quickly moved it away.
While waiting, he had nothing better to do so he glanced into the water. Unexpectedly, he was pleasantly surprised again.
"Dongzi, Dongzi, and Otter!"
"ah?"
When Ye Yaodong heard his father's call, he quickly stuck his head out of the cabin. He had a pair of scissors in his hand and was about to cut the rope.
"There are still two in the fishing net, so cut two more ropes."
"More? Got it?"
Ye Yaodong simply cut a few more strips and ran over quickly. The shaking of the boat only made his body unstable and he staggered a little, but he didn't fall.
As soon as he ran over, he asked, "Anything else, Dad?"
"Yes, yes, yes. I just leaned over to take a look and saw a half-finished net hanging on the side of the boat. There were two fish in it. One was hanging in the air, and the other was still soaking in the water in the net."
Ye Yaodong stuck his head out and saw it, "Sure, catch three with one net. Tie up this one first, then pull the other two up."
“Hey hey.”
The value of these three is estimated to be around sixty or seventy yuan, which is just barely enough to cover their earnings today.
The two of them quickly tied up the remaining two, but they didn't expect that there was a cub at the back of the fishing net.
Ye Yaodong held the little thing in his hand, not knowing if it was the one he had caught before. It looked as if it was not as well-behaved as the previous cub. He also didn't know if it was because the three adult otters on the boat were barking there, so this one was moving around there in a fierce and aggressive manner.
He patted the head of this one and said, "Stop barking, or I'll stew you."
After saying that, he moved his hand to the surface of the water, then released it and let it fall into the water.
Father Ye just felt a little sorry, "Another one was released."
“Sustainable development will not harm the small family, but will save the big and abandon the small.”
"What a bunch of nonsense... Hurry up and get to work. We won't be able to finish the work until dark today."
Ye Yaodong looked at his watch again. It was almost three o'clock. There were always intermittent delays. In fact, they had sped up, but still could not finish the work.
"We can only let the longline fish out for one more day. Let's collect it tomorrow morning. Go back tonight and ask someone to come aboard to help."
"We have to hire someone, otherwise there are too many to finish. Asking someone to help collect the fish will be more efficient."
"Well, then please ask Brother Sheng?"
"That's fine. We are all family after all. Your brother Asheng is having a hard time too. You should take care of him more so that he can save more money and marry someone better."
"The wife that people are talking about now is not good at all. Her husband is not dead yet, but she is still dragging on like a wretch. I don't know when they can get married, and what is she doing here? If you want to have a son, you don't have to marry a woman who has given birth to a son."
Ye Yaodong didn't want to get involved in other people's affairs, but after spending two months with this cousin, he felt that he was steady, practical, reliable and trustworthy, so now he thought of him first when he needed to hire someone.
The eldest and second cousins are also reliable, but they are not as pitiful as Ye Yaosheng.
Of course, if our family can help, they will help.
"One is willing to fight and the other is willing to be beaten. What can we do? We can only let him save more money. A man with money will be confident. Then he can marry whoever he wants."
"Yes, that's right. If your family is rich, you can marry any kind of wife you want."
The father and son chatted while working.
This time, seeing that his business had grown so big and he was still too busy to handle it, Ye's father didn't say anything, nor did he say that he was being reckless and was doing so many things without taking them one step at a time.
I have been convinced imperceptibly and only think about how to help solve the problem.
The two of them got along more and more harmoniously.
Ye Yaodong also felt that his father had gone from being very dissatisfied with him in the beginning to now being able to chat with him calmly and solve problems through consultation, which was a huge improvement.
I don’t know whether I think his father has made great progress, or he himself has made great progress, or both.
They worked from dawn until pitch dark, and finally the father and son had collected all the nets and let them down again.
There is no way to harvest the longline fish anymore, so I can only let them continue to be released into the sea and sway with the waves. I will have to rely on my luck tomorrow to see how much I can catch. Fortunately, it is cold now, so even if the fish die, I can still keep them for a day or two.
The longline fish we released yesterday will be collected tomorrow. There is a day gap in between so it shouldn’t be a big problem. As for the fish that struggled and escaped, there is nothing we can do about it.
But today’s harvest was really amazing!
Come back with a full load!
There really was a boat full of fish. The boat was filled with baskets, stacked up on top of each other, and each basket was filled to the brim.
At first glance, there are toadfish everywhere, sticky and ugly, but there are so many of them.
This fish becomes abundant in winter.
Today we harvested nearly 1,200 kilograms of toadfish alone.
We also harvested about five to six hundred kilograms of other fish, which was a very gratifying harvest.
Including the three otters, today's harvest is estimated to be over 200 yuan. It was worth his investment of nearly 700 yuan to buy the rolling wheel.
Including the fishing nets, today's costs have been recovered by 1/4.
It’s a pity that this kind of fishing net can only be used for three days of fishing and two days of drying the net.