Chapter 156: The herring has many spines, the dwarves are wise

Chapter 156: The herring has many spines, the dwarves are wise

Chapter 156: The herring has many spines, the dwarves are wise

Li Changle and the other two walked down the reefs, one step deep and one step shallow. When they saw the large flower snails and oyster shells in the shallow water, they picked them up and put them in buckets.

"Brother, come here quickly, the puddle that eldest brother mentioned is here." Chen Yongwei shouted while standing on the reef below.

Li Changle picked up the backpack and ran over. He saw a puddle under a large reef, which was about twice as big as the previous puddle.

The water in the pit was not as turbid as the water on the other side of the big rock. I could clearly see the stones inside and the happy little fish and shrimps swimming in the water. I felt that there must be something hidden in there.

Chen Yongwei walked into the puddle and measured its depth. The pit was not deep, with the deepest part less than two meters. There were just a lot of rocks at the bottom of the pit.

"We've been trying for a long time but it's still down there. How can we find it if we look for it up there?" Brother Li said breathlessly while standing on the reef.

"Brother, you may have remembered the wrong location." Chen Yongwei climbed ashore and took out the plastic tube from the backpack. "Brother, can you pump out the water?"

Li Changle bought a white plastic hose, one coil was six or seven meters long, and there were six coils in total.

There may not have been recycled plastics in those days, and the smell of plastic pipes was not like the black pipes of later generations, which had a strong pungent smell.

Li Changle looked at the terrain and nodded, "Yes, it's the same as when we pump diesel."

As soon as he said that, Chen Yongwei and Li Erge understood. They picked up a circle of plastic tubes, untied the hemp rope tied on it, put one end into the puddle, picked up the other end, squatted on the ground, aimed at the tube mouth and sucked hard. The sea water climbed up along the tube and soon flowed into their mouths.

"Puh, puh, puh!" Li Changle spat out a few mouthfuls of salty sea water and watched the water in the puddle flow out through the pipe.

Chen Yongwei looked at him with admiration, "My brother is really awesome. Now I don't have to work so hard that my wrists cramp."

Second brother Li looked calm. The third brother had been willing to work hard on things that save effort since he was young, and he had a lot of clever ideas!
"Brothers, you have to use your brain when doing things, only then can you save time and effort." Li Changle proudly took out a cigarette, handed one to each of them, sat on the warm stone baked by the sun, leaned lazily against a reef, and leisurely puffed out smoke.

Watching the water flowing out of the six pipes and the water level in the puddle dropping visibly, I felt that since I had money to make things easier for myself, there was no need to work myself to the point of being out of breath like an ox or a horse.

Brother Li leaned against the reef and looked into the distance. "Ah Le, you see there are fishing boats working on the sea in the distance. I wonder how the catch is?"

Li Changle smiled and said, "I haven't been on the boat to cast the net for a few days. Are your hands itching?"

Brother Li nodded with a smile, "Yeah! I've actually thought about it. After we clean this puddle, we'll go cast our nets."

The sun was scorching. Chen Yongwei sat for a while, but couldn't sit still anymore, so he picked up the bucket and went to the nearby reef pit to look for his catch.

Brother Li finished his cigarette and spat the butt far away. He couldn't sit still, so he stood up, patted his butt, picked up the bucket and went to the puddle next to him to pick up oyster snails and clams.

Water came out of six pipes at the same time, and the stones in the puddle were soon exposed. He walked to the edge of the puddle, took a look and frowned. The water was already very shallow. Logically, if there were big fish, he should be able to hear the noise!
No movement at all, probably out of stock!
"Brother, Awei, let's get started." Li Changle flicked the cigarette butt far away, took off his yellow rubber shoes and prepared to work.

"Here I come!" Brother Li came running over with a bucket in his hand, took a look and said, "Hey, it looks like there's nothing to do!"

Chen Yongwei also nodded repeatedly, "Not even a splash, it's clear that there is no big product."

Li Changle became even more discouraged after hearing this. "I think so too. How about we go to the beach and pick up turtle eggs?"

"The turtle eggs won't run away!" Brother Li glared at him with amusement. "The water has been almost drained out. Whether there are dates or not, we have to try our best to get them."

"Get in the water, get in the water!" Li Changle rolled up his trouser legs to his thighs and went into the water. He picked up the scoop net on the reef, scooped up a few mantis shrimps, poured them into the bucket, and turned around to see a tiger fish swimming out from the crevice in front of him.

He gently inserted the scoop net diagonally into the water, pushed it forward towards the fish's head and scooped up the fish. He looked down and saw that it weighed about one kilogram, with brown markings somewhat similar to tiger skin, and sixteen or seventeen spines on its dorsal fin.

"Ah Le, be careful!" Brother Li hurriedly grabbed him, "This is a tiger fish. The spines on its fins are poisonous, more poisonous than sea snakes. If you get poked by it, at best you'll roll over in pain, or at worst the whole village will eat a feast."

When he was a child, he saw villagers in the village who were bitten by this kind of fish die before they even made it to the shore. He still feels scared when he thinks about it now.

Li Changle felt warm at heart when he saw his worried look. Not only did he know that tiger fish was poisonous, he also knew that it had high nutritional value and medicinal value, and was a great tonic.

"Brother, I recognize it. Although it is poisonous, it tastes very good. The meat is tender and delicious. If I send it to a restaurant, I can sell it for several dollars a pound!"

Brother Li heard that one pound of fish could be sold for several yuan, and that he could earn back the money from selling such a big fish with diesel. "First, fish it out and put it in a small puddle nearby. After we have searched the puddle, fish it out and put it in a separate bag."

After that, he reached out and took the scoop net from his hand and dumped the fish into the shallow water pit next to him. Chen Yongwei looked at the tiger fish jumping in the water pit, and the fin spines on its dorsal fin that looked like steel needles, "Oh my goodness, there are such poisonous fish!"

"There are so many poisonous things in the sea, such as sea catfish, stone nine-fish, golden drum fish, oil cone, blue-ringed jellyfish, cone snails... Whenever you encounter these poisonous creatures, you must be careful."

As he spoke, he directed two people to poke the cracks in the rocks in the puddle with the handle of the scoop net. Two more tiger fish came out from the cracks, and they also caught two large blue crabs and several white carp.

Brother Li tied up the crabs happily. "The two crabs weigh about five pounds. It was not a wasted effort."

Li Changle was not satisfied at all and threw the mantis shrimp into the bucket. "We worked so hard for so long and only got this little catch. Wasn't it all in vain? We moved the rocks away and saw that there were no fish. Let's quickly move the drift."

Brother Li was worried that he had made a lot of money every day these days, and he was getting carried away and looked down on the small money. "A Le, it's impossible for you to make hundreds of dollars every day. If that were the case, the people in the fishing village would have become rich long ago, and our family would have built a new house long ago."

"Yes, brother. When I was fishing in the sea by myself before, I was so happy to have such a harvest that I was singing a little opera." Chen Yongwei said as he put the white mullet into the bucket.

"I see. You two are as nagging as an old woman." Li Changle said toughly but he understood the situation. He realized that he was a little too proud and started to work honestly.

After a while, all the rocks in the puddle were exposed and the water pipe could no longer absorb water. The three men put away the plastic pipe and started moving the rocks.

As soon as Chen Yongwei moved a stone, an orchid crab fled away with its claws and teeth bared. "Brother, hurry up, the orchid crab ran away."

Li Changle quickly covered it with a scoop net, and Chen Yongwei stepped forward to press down the crab shell, picked it up, took out a hemp rope and tied it up neatly, and put it into the bucket.

Over there, Brother Li caught a few more mantis shrimps. They lost interest in the remaining small fish, so they went ashore and used a small scoop net to scoop up the four tiger fishes, quickly put them into a bucket, and carried them back.

After getting on the boat, they poured the fish and shrimp into the live hold and added a few pieces of ice in it. Chen Yongwei started the diesel engine and the fishing boat slowly sailed away from the island. The three planned to cast two nets in the sea ahead.

It would be great to have big fish, but if not, small fish are also good. Anyway, there is not enough bait in the ground trap, so this is just the right amount.

The boat was moving very slowly. When it arrived near the place where Hu Zi had fished yesterday, Brother Li came out of the cabin carrying a fishing net. He walked towards the bow, wrapping the fishing net around his wrist in circles as he walked.

When the net weight leaves the deck, hold the net at the waist with your right hand and hold the net little by little. When there is only a little bit of the net left, pull it to the level of your shoulders, hook it with the middle finger of your left hand, squat slightly with your legs, turn your upper body, and throw the net far away with force.
The net that was thrown out spread out evenly in the air, forming a large circle, and the fishing net fell into the water in unison under the gravity of the net weight.

After the net sinker completely sank to the bottom of the sea, after a while, Brother Li slowly pulled the net back together, trying to reduce the space for the fish to move around in the net as much as possible.

As the fishing net was pulled closer, the waves on the water surface began to spread out, and water splashed up. The fish in the net seemed to have realized that they were trapped in the cage, and were running around in the net in an attempt to escape.

The bigger the waves stirred up by the fish in the net, the more splashes there were, which meant that there were not only many but also big fish. Li Changle stretched his neck excitedly, waiting for the fishing net to leave the water.

"Wow, this website has the goods!"

Brother Li nodded, "I felt it when I pulled the rope. It was so heavy that it was a bit strenuous."

Chen Yongwei turned off the diesel engine and ran over. "Are the fish big? What kind of fish are there?"

"It hasn't been pulled up yet." Li Changle excitedly stepped forward to help Brother Li pull the net up. The two brothers worked together to easily drag the net onto the boat, shook out the fishing net and began to pick up fish.

There were three knife fish. This kind of fish is not big, only a few taels each. There were three swordfish, weighing about ten pounds. There were eight or nine green mackerels, weighing more than ten pounds. The most were yellow mackerels, weighing about seventy or eighty pounds in total. This kind of fish is slightly more expensive than green mackerels, and can be sold for four cents per pound.

There were also seven herrings, all of good size, the big one weighed about four or five pounds, and the small one weighed two or three pounds.

The body of herring is as slender as a knife, with soft silvery scales. When eating herring, it is the same as eating shad, without scraping off the scales. The fish jelly made with it is as delicious as yellow croaker jelly and hairtail jelly.

In the past, the herring caught in the fishing village during the fishing season in April and May would be marinated with salt mixed with wine lees, and placed in ceramic fish jars, with a layer of fish and a layer of wine lees, stacked layer by layer until the jar was full and sealed.

After about three weeks, the herring is taken out and steamed. The meat is soft and tender, tastes fresh and salty, and exudes a faint aroma of wine lees.

The only drawback is that, in addition to a few large bones on the belly, the fish flesh is covered with small bones. When the people in the fishing village mock someone for doing things too complicatedly, they say that he is doing things like "sperm bones."

There is also a saying that goes "The herring has many thorns, and the dwarves are smart", which means that the herring has many tiny thorns, and the dwarves are smart.

(End of this chapter)