Chapter 147: Pulling fish until my hands cramped

Chapter 147: Pulling fish until my hands cramped

Chapter 147: Pulling fish until my hands cramped

Li Changle felt that the line in his hand was very heavy and it was much more difficult than when he pulled the second hook of the blue-spotted Spanish mackerel.

The sweat on his body flowed down his ears, his cotton shirt was also soaked with sweat, the flesh on his hands was sunken by the thread, and the slightly pink body of the fish slowly floated to the surface.

Brother Li shouted, "It's not tuna, it's red snapper."

Some red snappers are also called red snappers. The big ones are one meter and five or six meters long, and the small ones are one or two feet long. The scales are fine and soft, and the meat is delicious. It can be made into sashimi and is delicious when stewed with tofu.

It also has the effects of warming the stomach and middle, calming and lowering liver yang, dispelling wind, treating arthritis, stopping malaria, benefiting the intestines and improving eyesight.

"Brother, let me help you." Chen Yongwei hurriedly helped Li Changle to get the fish onto the deck. "Fuck, it's up to my thigh. It must be at least 14 or 15 pounds."

"I'm so tired!" Li Changle panted heavily and wiped the sweat that was about to flow into his eyes. "Awei, you take the next step. I need to rest for a while."

His hands were marked with deep red marks from the line, and his hands were cramped from pulling the fish, and he couldn't even straighten his palms.

"I've wanted to replace you for a long time."

Chen Yongwei and Li Erge carefully took the hook out of the fish's mouth, and instead of carrying the fish to the live tank, they pinched the red snapper's lower mouth shell and dragged it directly into the live tank along the deck.

Brother Li looked back, his eyes wrinkled with joy, "Haha, this hatch is full, the next one we pull up will have to be filled with the one next to it."

Chen Yongwei said with a look of regret: "Brother, if we had known earlier, we would have brought more bait and put it down again after collecting the fish. We can come back to collect them tomorrow morning."

Brother Li said: "Longline fishing is different from ground traps. Ground traps can be collected every two days, and the fish are not damaged in the fish bag and will not die.

When a fish is caught in a longline fishing line, it will struggle for a while before dying. In such cold weather, if we wait too long to collect the fish, they will no longer be fresh.”

"Then we should bring more bait when it's cold." Chen Yongwei straightened out the line group, walked to the side of the boat and started pulling the line.

"Brother, how much does a pound of red snapper sell for?" Li Changle remembered that in his previous life, he could sell it for fifty or sixty yuan per pound when it was brought to the dock and sold to a seafood store, and the price would be even higher when it was sent to the market.

"Such a large fresh product should be able to sell for two yuan per pound."

The price is not high and the weight is sufficient, so even a dozen kilograms can be sold for twenty or thirty yuan. Li Changle felt that it was not a waste of effort to pull it up, and sat down with satisfaction to help organize the line group.

Chen Yongwei was lucky as well. He caught a yellow croaker weighing three or four pounds with his first hook. The second and third hooks were empty hooks, and the fourth hook caught a tuna weighing three or four pounds.

Brother Li took it and put it into the cabin after draining the blood. "Ah Le, I'll pull the third line. Ah Wei, pull up the next one. I'll teach you how to deflate it."

"Okay!" Li Changle put the line group in place and saw that Chen Yongwei had already pulled up the line. "Damn, you're faster than a machine!"

Chen Yongwei looked at the fish he had pulled up with disdain, "It's a stinky yellow croaker. It's not bad for you to try the needle."

"Yes, it's best to use Huang Zhan to test the needle."

Brother Li was glad that it was a worthless yellowtail, otherwise A Le would have stabbed it to death with one shot. The price of a living seafood is more than half that of a dead one.

Li Changle didn't know what he was thinking, so he took the fish with a smile and said, "Brother, don't worry, I can learn it after just one look."

Brother Li rolled his eyes at him and said, "You've blown me up! I'm telling you, you have to learn it well. We sell fish for freshness. If the fish can live a few more hours after the air is released, we can sell it for more money."

"Oh, that's it! I remember it." Li Changle pretended to listen carefully, watching the movements of his hands and nodding continuously.

"Look at your third or fourth brother's appearance, you didn't listen carefully."

"It will definitely be interesting to listen to, my good second brother." Li Changle took him over to watch Chen Yongwei pull the fish.

"Fuck, another yellow croaker. Why are the ones I fish only worth a few cents per pound?" Chen Yongwei looked at him, "Brother, how about you take over?"

"Hurry up, I still need to learn how to deflate. Don't try to be lazy!"

"Oh oh!" Chen Yongwei handed the fish to him, but he didn't know that all three hooks he pulled were yellow ones.

It was not until he pulled up a black sea bream weighing more than two kilograms and a conger eel that he regained his confidence and successively pulled up two sea bass, several bluefin bream and mullets.

The funniest thing was that they pulled up a cuttlefish weighing more than two kilograms. When they took out the hook, the shrimp head used as bait was still in its mouth and it had not been swallowed in time.

After receiving the third row of longline fishing, it was Li Erge's turn. The first hook pulled up a sole skin weighing more than two kilograms.

Then came black porgy, sea bass and eel. He caught four or five hooks in a row. He was so excited that his hand speed in pulling the line almost caught up with the machine.

Chen Yongwei put the fish back into the live tank and said cheerfully, "Brother, it's better to use longline fishing. The fish caught are all big ones."

“The good thing about longline fishing is that it keeps the big fish and releases the small ones, unlike trawl nets that catch all the big and small fish in one net.” Li Changle believes that longline fishing also requires good luck. He used to go fishing in a boat during the fishing moratorium. He would put down half a bucket of bait, but would not catch anything good after a whole day of hard work, and he could not even earn back the money for the bait and diesel.

"The trawling nets are not that bad. The ones in the village who use the family-killing nets are really annoying. They catch even fish that are no bigger than your little finger. We don't eat them, we just feed them to the chickens and ducks."

"That's right. No one is doing anything about it. If they keep doing this, sooner or later they won't even have any fish to catch."

Li Changle thought that this was indeed the case in later generations. Take crabs and yellow croakers for example. If the country did not release crab and fish fry into the sea, the fishermen would not even be able to earn back the money for diesel.

The fishing boat moved slowly forward. When Brother Li received the last hook, he felt a strong force on his hand. The fishing line seemed to be caught on a reef, and his hand was so painful that he couldn't pull it.

Based on his past experience, he thought it was most likely a red snapper. "Ah Le, quickly get the net over here. This could be a big catch."

Li Changle quickly picked up the scoop net and climbed to the side of the boat to catch the fish. He saw a red shadow swaying under the water and said, "Brother, this might be another red snapper."

Brother Li nodded, ignoring the beads of sweat dripping down, and enduring the pain on his hands, he continued to reel in the line. When the fish was about to reach the surface of the water, he felt that the strength in his hands had weakened a little.

"Let me see." Chen Yongwei also rushed over. Brother Li heard the two people shouting and wanted to take a look but couldn't leave. He could only look at the three people anxiously.

"Here it comes!" Brother Li slowly pulled the fish out of the water.

Li Changle and A Wei exclaimed, "Wow! What a big red snapper!"

"It weighs about ten pounds!" When Brother Li saw the fish enter the scoop net, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and sat on a small stool to take a break.

"A Le, be careful when you let the air out, don't let the fish fall out." Brother Li stretched his neck and shouted to Li Changle who was holding the fish.

"Don't worry, my hands are the steadiest." Li Changle picked up the deflation needle and pricked it. When the fish's belly looked normal, he pulled out the needle, put the fish into the live tank, and went back happily to help clean up.

Brother Li took a few gulps of water and wiped his mouth happily, "Ah Le, today's hook rate is at least 50%."

Li Changle calculated, "Fifty percent is enough."

There are more than 150 hooks in three rows of longline fishing. The fish caught on them range from the smallest weighing more than one kilogram to the largest being a red snapper weighing fourteen or fifteen kilograms.

Compared with the hook rate of less than 20% in his previous life, he felt that fishery resources were still sufficient these days.

Brother Li smiled and said, "Look how happy you are. When we were sailing in the ocean, we pulled up a lot of large cargoes in the wild sea, but I never saw you so happy."

"I used to work for others, working so hard for so little money, and being squeezed by Agui, I was tired of it a long time ago." Brother Li said and looked at him, "Brother, you feel the same way, right?"

Brother Li sighed, "What can I do? When I went to sea with my father before, the three of us worked hard for a year and couldn't even earn enough to help with the boat. There was no other way out except to do hard labor.

Li Changle smiled and patted his second brother Li, "Brother, today's maiden voyage is full of big fish, and Huzi also sent fish. Don't talk about these, say something happy."

"Right, right, right!" Chen Yongwei took over and said, "Brother, no matter how much we earn in the future, it will be our own. No one will squeeze us anymore."

"Yes!" Brother Li Er put his arms around the two of them and walked to Brother Li together, "Brothers, work together and do a good job!"

"Brothers, let's work together!" The four of them said in unison, patted each other on the shoulders, and laughed at each other.

"Work, work, we'll be reaching the shore soon." Li Changle rubbed his face embarrassedly and turned to move the bamboo basket.

Brother Li put away the buoy and sinker, took a look at the line set in the bamboo basket carried by the two men, and nodded with satisfaction when he saw that everything was neatly stacked.

"In the future, just release it like we did today. Next time you go fishing, just pull it out and put on the bait. It saves time and effort."

"Got it, my second brother." Li Changle took out a cigarette and handed it to him, "You go ahead and smoke first, and Awei and I will do it."

"Okay!" Brother Li held a cigarette in his mouth, "I'll go get the green and yellow croakers and put them in a live tank, and I'll get the rest when we get to the shore to load the fish."

"No, I put them together a long time ago." Li Changle and Chen Yongwei put the bamboo basket away and walked to Brother Li, "Brother, I will take the helm."

"No need, we'll be at the pier soon." Brother Li thought for a moment and then said, "Should we dock directly at the pier or go to Tuxiaqiao Pier?"

Li Changle thought for a moment and said, "Brother, I think it's better to send Tu off the bridge. The boat is full today. If we dock at the pier, those people will be jealous when they see us."

He doesn't want to have a fleet following him every time he sets sail in the future. If he does that, he will make no money at all!
Chen Yongwei thought so too. "Yes, let's drive directly to Tuxiaqiao Pier. We will pick out the catch and sell it to the restaurant, then go back to the pier!"

Chen Yongwei sat down on the deck, holding his head and lying down, "Brother, today's income broke the record again."

"That's right!" Li Changle also lay down, "If we could open a few more beads at home, it would be perfect."

(End of this chapter)