Chapter 283 I can’t tell

Chapter 283 I can’t tell

Chapter 283 I can’t tell

When the fishing boat arrived at the longline fishing area, Li Changle hooked up the float and started to reel in his fishing. After three or four hours, he didn't know if he had caught any good fish.

"Brother!" Chen Yongwei stretched his neck and asked, "Do you have any goods?"

"Yes!" Li Changle felt the weight when he pulled it. It didn't feel like an empty hook, but light and fluttering. It took some effort to pull the fish out of the water.

When Brother Li saw the black, oily fish body, he immediately became excited and said happily, "It's a blackfish. I think this is the first time we have caught a blackfish."

"It's not like that, it's actually the first time!" Li Changle handed him the fish. "Luckily I came quickly, otherwise it would have bitten the line and escaped."

The scientific name of the black-hair fish is Microhylidis, also known as the melon-seed bream, commonly known as black-hair, vegetable hair, and rough-scaled black-hair. It likes to eat seaweed and moss, and generally lives in sea areas with more reefs and seaweed.

"Brother, how much can black hair sell for per kilo?"

"Five or six dollars should be no problem!" Brother Li weighed it and said, "This one can be sold for more than ten dollars."

"Keep up the good work!" Li Changle turned around excitedly and pulled the fishing line with great energy. When he pulled the line, it felt light and his heart sank.

Without wasting time, he continued to pull the second hook and pulled up another black fish, which was slightly smaller than the previous one. It might be because of the empty hook in front. He felt happier than when he pulled out a black fish.

Li Changle felt that he had changed the direction of fishing, and it was indeed better than the previous one. Every time he caught stinky black porgy, this one was also black, but the two were completely on a different level.
"Twenty dollars!" Brother Li handed the fish to Brother Li, turned around, sorted out the fishing lines, and hung them on the bamboo basket one by one.

After catching another black fish, Li Changle became more confident. When he pulled the main line, he knew it was another big fish and felt quite accomplished.

The three brothers pulled the fish out of the water with sweat all over their foreheads. A large sea bass appeared in front of them. "Wow! We finally got a big one."

"Yes, this one weighs about five or six pounds." Brother Li quickly caught the fish with a scoop net, took off the hook and handed it to Brother Li.

Next, it was as if I had stumbled upon a sea bass nest. I pulled up sea bass one after another, more than a dozen hooks in a row without changing the species. The largest one weighed over ten pounds.

Li Changle rubbed his sore wrist, "Why is it always this guy? Where is Heimao?"

"Just be content! It's not bad to have sea bass!" Li Erge said with a smile, "If you use hundreds of hooks to catch this, you can sell it for a few hundred yuan."

If you do the math, it is true. There are five hundred hooks, and if one hook contains a three-pound sea bass, that would be more than a thousand pounds. At four cents a pound, that would be several hundred dollars!

"Oh no! Empty hook!" Li Changle pulled up the empty hook. He felt that he couldn't say anything when pulling the goods today, because as soon as he said it, the hook would be empty.

Two empty hooks were pulled up in succession, and also a red eel that had entangled itself to death. This kind of eel is like a river eel. After biting the hook, it curls up its body and tightly entangles anything it can.

The final result is that the body and the fishing line are tangled into a knot, strangling oneself to death.

Brother Li took over the line group and saw that the eel had wrapped the sub-line that hooked it around its body and tied a knot on the main line.

Fortunately, their line groups are spaced far apart, otherwise the other line might also be entangled by it.

Brother Li handed him a pair of scissors, freed the dead red vine from the line, and put the eel cut into several pieces into a rubber bucket. It was still fresh, so he took it back home to eat.

"No wonder the boss scolded me for talking too much when I was fishing on the boat. It was the same when Avila and I were fishing. Whatever we wanted didn't come true."

After hearing this, Brother Li laughed and said, "Speaking of this reminds me of what my father said, you didn't even tell me about the little pot falling off the rock's back."

Brother Li nodded with a smile, "When we boarded the ship, the people on the south bank even teased the new guys!"

Li Changle had also heard of this story. It was about a new crew member who came to the boat gang. In the old days, there were more taboos when going out to sea than there are now.

Before going out to sea, the old boatman told him all the taboos on the boat and asked him to speak as little as possible, for fear that he would violate the taboos.

One day, the fishing boat arrived at a small island. Everyone got off the boat and made a fire to cook in the leeward place under the rocks.

When they left after dinner, the small iron pot used for cooking fell on the back of the rock. The new waiter saw it at the time and thought that leaving the pot behind after dinner was some kind of custom, so he secretly kept it in mind.

When he tried to make a fire to cook again, the boatman discovered that the small iron pot had fallen on the island where he was cooking.

How to cook without a pot in the vast ocean? The captain had no choice but to order the ship to return to the voyage to get the pot.

After seeing them return to retrieve the iron pot, the new guy finally couldn't help but said, "I saw the small iron pot fell on the back of the rock."

The captain said angrily: "You saw it, why didn't you say anything?"

The new guy looked aggrieved and said, "When I got on board, you told me to talk less or not talk, so I didn't dare to say anything."

Later, the story spread and "You didn't tell me about the small pot falling on the rock" became an allusion. Whenever a new guy came on the boat, he would tease him about it. The three brothers were talking and laughing, and the first set of lines was unknowingly pulled to the end. Li Changle had good luck and pulled up six black hair fish, two mackerels, and a few squids. It all depended on the last two hooks to see if he could pull up something good.

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. The second to last hook turned out to be a small bass weighing seven or eight taels.

Li Changle threw it back into the sea and released it, and reminded it, "Little thing, remember this and don't be so greedy when you are just a little kid!"

"Fish are just like people, they are greedy and don't learn their lessons. Xiao Tao has been greedy since he was a child. He can't walk when he sees something delicious."

Brother Li thought of his youngest son's greed and laughed, "Every time we went to the market, we didn't dare to take him to the street. Your sister-in-law was worried that someone would kidnap him with a piece of candy."

"Yes, he is the greediest person in the family. Yesterday he even said that he wanted to learn how to cook so that he could have endless delicious food."

Li Changle thought of Li Xiaotao who aspired to be a chef in his previous life, but ended up having two masters, both of whom were the daughters of a flower philanderer who could only philander but not spin. Later, she could only follow Li Xiaoyang to go out to sea to be a fisherman.

After letting the small bass go, the last hook pulled up a big octopus.

Li Changle looked at its wildly twisted tentacles with disgust. The bigger this thing got, the less valuable it was. A three or four jin one was not as valuable as a two liang Wangchao.

Brother Li said with a smile, "What's wrong with you today? Either you sell good stuff worth a few dollars a pound, or you sell worthless small perch and big octopus?"

"I don't know either. It's just taking up space if I keep it. I'll just let it go."

Li Changle took the octopus off, but before he could throw it away, he was sprayed with ink in the face, "Fuck, I gave you a way to live but you are not happy, you want to die and reincarnate, I will grant your wish."

"Is it okay if I don't want to live anymore?" Brother Li took over his position with a smile, "You go wash up, I'll collect it."

Li Changle threw the octopus into the bucket, washed his face and came over. Second Brother Li had already pulled up a yellowfin fish. Seeing that First Brother Li had taken over the job of organizing the line group, he simply sat on the deck to rest.

"Brother, today is a holiday. When we return to the ship to deliver the goods to the restaurant, we will pick out two large sea bass and twelve large blue crabs and give them to Boss Gu and Uncle Kun."

Brother Li nodded, "Of course, you can give as many as you like. Also, Zhang's father gives gifts every year, so remember to pick out a few more and give them to Zhang on the way to check out the boats."

Brother Li took it and said, "Dad said he likes to eat rice fish. We just happen to have some today. Pick out one that weighs seven or eight kilograms and send it together."

"Okay!" Li Changle stood up and picked out about twenty blue crabs with only roe from the bamboo basket. After thinking about it, he picked out a few more blue crabs and swimming crabs and took them back to give to Accountant Chen.

After putting away the crabs that were given away, I leaned against the side of the boat and watched them reel in the longline. I fell asleep without knowing when.

When he woke up, Brother Li and his two companions had already collected the remaining sets of longlines. With the remaining 400 hooks, they actually caught about a hundred sea bass.

There are also squid, cuttlefish, black sea bream, bluefin bream, and swordfish. The most valuable one is the black hairfish, which has a total of sixteen in the ten groups of lines.

It was already past ten o'clock when they returned to the dock. Li Changle and Chen Yongwei pulled their catch to Tuxiaqiao Wharf. As soon as they docked the boat, they saw A Kun and A Yu walking towards them.

Li Changle waved at him hurriedly, "Uncle Kun!"

Ah Kun turned his head and saw him, and quickly turned to walk towards him, "Why are you back so early?"

"I've been working non-stop for two days, so I came back early to celebrate the festival." Li Changle said with a smile, "Why are you here at the dock today?"

"I came to pick someone up. I looked everywhere but couldn't find him. I was just about to go back!" A Kun said as he jumped onto the boat. "Did you get any good stuff today?"

"Giant silver pomfret, blowfish, sea cucumber, nine-segment shrimp, tiger fish, and a dozen black-haired fish!" Li Changle said as he poured the fish he had fished out of the live tank into the bucket.

"Black-haired fish are now priced at six yuan per pound, and a dozen of them can be sold for more than a hundred yuan. Seeing your income, I want to go fishing with you."

"Don't you know this about us? When shipping is good, we can get whatever we want. When shipping is bad, we can't even earn back the money for diesel."

Ah Kun knew that what he said was the truth, because he had dealt with quite a few ship captains. Although not many of them lost money on diesel, he had rarely seen anyone as lucky as Li Changle.

"It's a pity to be busy on a small boat every day. Let's go to the shipyard and ask them to change to a big boat to go out to sea as soon as possible."

"The shipyard said they couldn't do anything about it. I asked them when I placed the order, and they said that large ships take a long time to build, and that we would have to work overtime to finish the project even if the ship is delivered next year."

"There are more small wooden boats now than large ones. Even if you want to buy second-hand ones, it's hard to find them."

A Kun waited for them to catch the fish and put them in the car, then asked A Yu to go to the intersection to call the car over. Several people helped carry the fish ashore and put it in the car.

Chen Yongwei stayed behind to wash the deck, and Li Changle followed him into the car and headed towards the restaurant. It was a fast journey with a car, and they arrived in just over ten minutes, just the time it took to smoke a cigarette.

(End of this chapter)