Chapter 307 Hook 1
Chapter 307 The First Hook
"Ah Le, don't move!" Brother Li pulled him aside. "This is a stingray. The spines on the tail of this kind of fish are poisonous. It's terrible to be stung by it."
Li Changle smiled and nodded, "I know this kind of fish is poisonous."
The scientific name of stingray is Stingray erythraea. Stingrays and sharks are close relatives and both belong to the family of cartilaginous fish.
One is stingray, two is tiger, three is sand-hair, four is stinky belly... stingray refers to this kind of fish.
The stingray has a flat body and looks similar to a skate, but its dorsal and caudal fins are more developed, and its long, whip-like tail usually has one or more inverted spines that are extremely poisonous.
If you are accidentally pricked by this thorn, the barb will cause serious lacerations to the skin tissue when you pull it out. The venom secreted by the venom gland in the tail stinger will cause severe pain and burning sensation, followed by body pain and cramps, and in severe cases, death.
"Brother, the last time I saw one on the seabed it was different from this one. It was much bigger than these." Chen Yongwei pointed at the stingray with a look of fear on his face. "This one might be a newly born fish."
Brother Li laughed and said, "These fish are like people. Some are big, some are small. The big ones weigh more than 100 kilograms, while the small ones only weigh a dozen kilograms."
Li Erge curled his lips in disdain, "The spines of tiger fish are also poisonous, but they are valuable! This thing is poisonous and worthless, and it will take a long time to remove the spines."
"You're still complaining about it!" Father Li glared at him angrily, "Whether it's valuable or not, it was given to us by Lord Hailong. Pack it up quickly and keep it in the living cabin."
Brother Li nodded with a wry smile, picked up the fish knife and said, "Ah Le, you guys sort out the other catches, and I'll clean up with my eldest brother."
"Let A'le and the others learn to do it. Big ships catch more fish with poisonous spines." Father Li said as he stepped on a stingray and demonstrated to Li Changle and the others. He also reminded them to clean out the spines and not let the poisonous spines remain in the fish's body.
Li Changle took the scissors and followed him, pretending to imitate him, carefully cutting off the stinger at the tail, cleaning it and throwing it into the living cabin.
It didn't take much effort to remove the stingrays of more than a dozen stingrays. Brother Li started the winch and poured out the remaining fish in the net bag.
Two large conches rolled out, followed by two large yellow conches.
"Wow, big yellow snail, this is a good stuff." Li Changle picked one up and said excitedly to a few people.
Brother Li glanced at him and said, "You still want to open a Fire Dragon Ball?"
"Don't dream. We have fished up many yellow snails on the big boat on the south bank before, but we never got a fire dragon ball."
"We are lucky, maybe two will come out." Li Changle happily put the yellow snails in the bucket, planning to take them out and have a look after he was done.
The yellow snail is also called the coconut snail. The extremely valuable Melo pearls come from the body of this snail. Melo pearls are very rare and have high collection value.
Worried that there might be stingrays among the catch, Li Changle and his companions were much more careful when sorting the catch.
Brother Li turned around and saw Wang Xincheng sorting fish with his bare hands. "Acheng, put on your gloves quickly. If you encounter fish with poisonous spines, you can protect yourself."
"Rubber gloves are not very breathable, and my hands sweat a lot, so I took them off." Wang Xincheng said as he took the gloves out of his trouser pocket and put them on.
"Get used to wearing gloves when working in the future. If you seek convenience, you will suffer sooner or later." Li Changle said as he pulled a stingray out of the pile of fish.
"I understand!" Wang Xincheng replied with a red face.
There were not many shrimps and crabs in this net, but there were more mackerels, sea bass and flounder. There were more than ten sea bass and mackerels weighing thirty or forty kilograms.
The majority of the fish weighed between three to four pounds and seven to eight pounds. A total of more than thirty baskets were sorted out, including more than ten baskets of flounder and two baskets of the ugly anglerfish.
There were two baskets each for cuttlefish, squid, water bream and mantis shrimp, and the rest were just some miscellaneous fish. When they were done, it was almost three o'clock. They had been working for seven or eight hours straight and were a little tired. After cleaning the deck, they found a sheltered spot to drop anchor and prepare to rest for two hours before going to collect the longline fishing line.
Father Li said that he slept too much during the day and couldn't sleep at night, so he asked them to rest while he would be on duty.
Li Changle and his friends thought that he could take a rest while they were reeling in the longline fishing, so they went to get some hand-line fishing line to help him pass the time.
Father Li waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about me. Just go to sleep."
Li Changle fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Soon, snoring sounds could be heard in the cabin.
Father Li sat down and drank a glass of water, then went down to the oil tank to check it out, and added some ice cubes to the live tank. Then he took the hand fishing line and sat on the deck to fish to pass the time.
Who would have thought that after the hook was lowered, a fish would be caught in just a moment. When it was pulled up, it turned out to be a tiger fish, weighing about one pound. I happily cut off the stinger with scissors and put it into the live tank.
……
Two hours passed before I knew it and the sun had set.
When Father Li saw that the wind and waves on the sea were getting stronger, he hurriedly woke up a few people and asked them to reel in the fishing lines.
"Dad, how was the fishing harvest?" Li Changle asked while putting on gloves.
Father Li said proudly: "We caught two tiger fish, a mullet, and a blue grouper weighing more than two kilograms."
Li Changle didn't expect the old man to catch three good fish in just two hours. He nodded happily, "Not bad, it seems that there are a lot of good fish near the islands and reefs!"
"Waiting for you to load the goods." Father Li happily helped to move the baskets to the deck and put them away. Brother Li and the others also came out.
"You guys pack up your fishing, Ah Cheng and I will cook. It will be dark after dinner, so we will turn on the lights to lure the fish."
"Okay!" Brother Li started the fishing boat and drove to the buoy for fishing. Li Changle picked up the iron hook and hooked the buoy, and Chen Yongwei reached out to take it.
"Brother, good luck with the grand opening!"
"Well! Good luck with the opening!" Li Changle rubbed his hands, pulled up the main line and started to reel in the fishing. When he pulled the sub-line, he felt the line tremble. He happily turned his head to look at the two people who were craning their necks to look, "We have the goods!"
Brother Li rubbed his hands excitedly, "Hurry up and pull it up to see what kind of fish it is."
Li Changle felt the force under the water was a bit strong, nodded, and pulled the line silently. After a while, the first fish caught by the new boat was pulled out of the water.
"Brother, it's a yellow croaker." Chen Yongwei shouted excitedly, pointing at the fish emerging from the water.
Li Changle was so happy looking at the golden fish body in the water that he couldn't say anything. It was the first yellow croaker he had caught since he started fishing.
Unfortunately, I caught it during the day. After I pulled it up, the color of the fish body was obviously lighter. The color did not look as good as the color when I hauled it up with the trawling net early yesterday morning.
Brother Li happily scooped up the fish with a scoop net and said, "Not bad, it weighs about four or five kilograms."
"Brother, it looks like there are a lot of good stuff here, hurry up and pull the second hook!"
I had guests over to my house today, so I only wrote 2,000 words for this chapter. I will make up for it tomorrow when I have time!
(End of this chapter)