Chapter 362 Zhang Hang Receives the Goods

Chapter 362 Zhang Hang Receives the Goods

Chapter 362 Return to Ship and Receive Goods
It took more than an hour to pull all the traps onto the boat. There were eighty traps, which collected more than forty sea cucumbers, a dozen small black dragonfish, sea bass, black porgy, yellowfin croaker, and grouper, weighing a total of more than one hundred pounds.

There are more than ten pounds of prawns, and the blue crabs, swimming crabs, orchid crabs, etc. together weigh seventy to eighty pounds. The most numerous are conger eels, at least two or three hundred pounds.

Placing ground traps around here is really a good choice. If the ground traps are left in the water for too long and there is no time to put them away, the fish inside will die.

If the trap net is not brought ashore and cleaned for a long time, it will be covered by aquatic plants and mud on the seabed and cannot catch prey, so several people had to reluctantly take it back.

Collecting the cans was much easier. They just grabbed the fishing rope and pulled them up in a string. Several people picked up the cans and poured the octopuses and tide-watchers living in them into buckets.

If they don't want to come out and want to stay inside, use a bamboo rake that looks like a scratcher to dig them out.

It was the first time that Wang Jie saw someone fishing with a jar. He picked up the jar with a curious look on his face and started to fish, even forgetting about being seasick.

Chen Yongwei saw three or four octopuses being poured out of a jar. The harvest was more than the first time they put them on the beach over the big reef. He said distressedly:
"Brother, look at this one, there are three of them. That's more than what we got from the big rocky beach. Otherwise, why don't we just take these jars back?"

Li Changle stacked the emptied cans in a row in a bamboo basket. "How can we not collect them? We have less time to go out to sea in the second half of the year. It's impossible for us to come back just for these cans, right?"

Chen Yongwei thought about it and it was true. "Then send it here next year."

"Okay, we'll release it next year." Li Changle looked at the rubber bucket and said, "Go back and get the longline fishing rod that I gave to Yufang.

I will go to Zhangjia Pier and ask them to make a longline winch. I will use more longlines in the future. It should be more profitable than using ground traps.”

Brother Li took over the conversation, "Ah Le, we'll be using the sticky net next month. Soak it well this time when you go back and tie our buoy to it, so you don't have to worry about it being unprepared when you need it."

"I bought a lot of sticky nets last time, and I think the remaining floats at home are not enough. I have to buy more floats when I go back."

"A Xiang came to my house this morning and told me that her sticky nets are made of imported nylon silk. She told us to go to her store to order them later. The price is guaranteed to be cheaper than in town."

"I'll go back and see what the quality is like. If it's okay, I'll order from her in the future."

The sticky net is called silk screen in some places. It is woven with a transparent filamentous nylon thread. Because it is transparent, it has strong concealment.

Once a fish touches the sticky net, its scales, fins and gills can easily get stuck in the mesh, and the more it struggles, the tighter it gets, making it difficult to escape.

But the wear and tear is high, sometimes several need to be replaced a day, and dozens of them will not last long.

There are three types of sticky nets: floating sticky nets, sinking sticky nets, single-layer sticky nets and triple-layer sticky nets. Most fishing operations in freshwater areas use floating nets.

Ocean fishing uses sinking nets, which are specifically used to catch mid-bottom-bottom fish and crabs.

Single-layer sticky net has only one layer of net surface and is cheaper. Three-layer sticky net is made of two layers of large-mesh outer nets and one layer of small-mesh inner net. The inner net is longer and the outer net is shorter, so it is more expensive.

However, the three-layer sticky net has a better fishing effect. After this kind of net is put into the water, the inner net is loose and the outer net is tight. As long as a big fish sticks to the fishing net, it is not easy to break free.

The mesh sizes of sticky nets also vary. Different mesh sizes are used to catch fish of different sizes, ranging from two-finger-wide mesh sizes to five-finger-wide mesh sizes.

Marine resources are abundant these days, and Li Changle bought three-layer sticky nets that were four to five fingers wide, specifically for catching big fish.

Before dark, all eight sets of cans were finally brought onto the deck, and the tide began to rise.

The octopuses we caught this time almost filled up the big rubber bucket, and there were about one or two hundred of them at the tide.

After finishing the work, Chen Yongwei and others cleaned up the deck. Li Changle grabbed some tide pools and gave them to Wang Xincheng to clean, while he went to the kitchen to cook rice.

At some point, the rice on the boat was replaced with freshly harvested rice. The late rice is softer and tastes better than the early rice.

After the rice is cooked, chop the pickled vegetables into small pieces and stir-fry them with lard for a few times, add water to boil a pot of shrimp and salted vegetable soup, and then stir-fry a pot of stir-fried meat.

Wang Xincheng brought the prepared meal to the deck. Li Changle poured the plump Wangchao into boiling water and boiled it for a few times. When the eight fat claws bloomed like petals, he took the dish out of the pot.

We poured some soy sauce and vinegar into a bowl, brought it to the deck, and everyone sat around and started eating.

Brother Li took a big mouthful of rice, chewed it twice and said, "Late rice is still the best!"

Li Changle nodded, "I don't want to plant early rice next year, so as to avoid being exhausted during the double harvest."

Brother Li looked up and said, "If we don't plant early rice, we will have one less harvest. We don't have enough food to eat, and by then we will have even less."

"My brother-in-law's village has a lot of rice fields. Go back and tell him to buy some more late rice for next year."

"Leave the fields idle to buy food?" Brother Li glared at him. "If you leave the fields idle and don't grow rice, even if your mother and father don't scold you, the villagers will definitely poke your spine."

"Instead of growing rice, we grow snow vegetables, and we dry mustard greens and sell them. It's much easier to use the money to buy rice."

"Fluffy!" Li Erge also glared at him, "Which year did you help with the double harvest? Every time you worked for an hour or so, you would go to pee or poop, and it would take most of the day."

"My brother is like this. He always slacks off when doing farm work. This is the first time he has helped me finish harvesting the rice."

"Come, come, eat Wangchao, paired with late rice, it's authentic and fresh enough to make your eyebrows drop."

Li Changle smiled and picked up a fresh and plump Wangchao, rolled it in the bowl of sauce and vinegar, and it tasted crispy and chewy, so delicious that it made your eyebrows drop.

"Greedy cat!" Brother Li scolded with a smile.

After eating and drinking, the few people rested for a while, and then they heard Chen Amao's call from the intercom.

"Boss Ale, I'm going to return. Where are you now?" "We are in the sea area where we stopped last time. We are going to rest for a while and then return."

"I'll be waiting for you at the Shatou Village dock. Do you want any other fresh produce besides cuttlefish, yellow croaker, conger eel, hawk-clawed shrimp, prawns, and mantis shrimp?"

"If you have small silver pomfret weighing less than 6 taels, give me ten baskets."

"Okay, I'll pick them all out for you. See you at the Shatou Village dock!"

"Okay!" Li Changle put down the intercom, looked at the time, and waved to the others, "Let's go."

"I'll drive the boat." Brother Li got up and went to the cab, started the engine, and controlled the rudder to turn the boat slowly towards Huzi Island.

Li Changle and his companions lowered the fishing nets into the sea and returned to the cabin to sleep.

The wind and waves at night are much stronger than during the day, and the sea breeze makes a whistling sound.

Wang Jie was feeling better than when he first got on the boat. He didn't vomit, but he lay on the bed, not daring to move.

More than two hours later, the fishing boat arrived at Chuiyuan Island. Along the way, they did not encounter any fishing boats operating. It seemed that they all went back to the harbor to take shelter from the wind.

The two nets of fish caught on the return voyage did not bring any surprises, but the quantity was large.

Li Changle calculated that the four nets together had a catch of about 11,000 kilograms of fish.

The total weight of golden threadfish, small yellow croaker, hairtail, mackerel, sea bass, pike, etc. is more than 6,000 kilograms, and the total weight of yellow croaker, silver pomfret, horse mackerel, etc. is more than 1,000 kilograms.

The rest are some worthless green centipedes, yellow centipedes, mantis shrimps and water bream.

"Ah Le, do you want to sell some of the fish?"

"No, we'll unload the dried fish tomorrow morning and send the rest to Tuxiaqiao Seafood Store for retail sale."

"There are 7,000 to 8,000 kilograms of fresh produce in total. How can Ah Xi's shop hold all of them?"

"The warehouse in the backyard has been renovated. I told my brother-in-law to prepare the ice at home. We can sell all the 7,000 to 8,000 kilograms of fish in a few days, including wholesale and retail."

"There's nothing to worry about as long as there's a warehouse."

It was already past twelve o'clock when the fishing boat arrived at the Shatou Village Pier, which was full of fishing boats.

Li Changle looked around but didn't see the Shunfeng. After contacting Chen Amao, he learned that he had just arrived in the waters of Baisha Island.

Brother Li found a place with deeper water and docked. He then saw Li's father and mother standing under the dim street lights at the dock, looking at them.

Li Changle jumped off the boat and said, "Mother, I told you when I left that if we came back too late, we would stay on the boat for one night. Why did you come to pick us up again?"

"I came here because I figured it was almost time. I've only been here for a few minutes."

"We still have to wait for Boss Chen to come back and collect some fresh goods. You guys go back to sleep first. We will stay on the boat tonight."

Father Li nodded and said, "Okay, I'll pull the cart to pick up the goods tomorrow morning."

Li Changle saw them leaving and chased after them, reminding them: "Go slowly and turn on the flashlight."

"I know!" The old couple waved at them and walked towards Nanshanao.

Anan and the others can’t sleep well since they haven’t seen anyone come back. I’ll go back and tell them so they can have a good sleep.

Li Changle and his companions waited for half an hour before they saw the Shunfeng sail into the dock and slowly stop next to the Xusheng.

"Boss Chen, how was the catch this time?" Li Changle smiled and handed him a cigarette.

Chen Amao nodded and shook his head, "If I had known that we would pass through the fog wall, I would have returned with you. We have tried to drag two nets in a row but it still didn't work.

I saw something was wrong, so I turned south and the fishing situation improved. This time, I caught 30,000 to 40,000 kilograms of fish, but unfortunately I didn’t get any good catches.”

"That's not bad!"

"How can it be better than you guys?" Chen Amao looked at him and smiled, "I heard from other ship captains when I was still in the open sea that Boss Ale of the Xusheng sold three large cargoes."

"I'm lucky, we met by chance." Li Changle knew that this was how it was when selling goods at the dock. As soon as the goods were sold out here, the captain of the ship over there would know about it.

"You are lucky." Chen Amao thought of Father Li, "Is Uncle Li okay?"

"Thank you for your concern. I am feeling much better now."

While the two were talking, Brother Li and his men had already set up the gangway. A Tai and a few boatmen also moved the fresh goods prepared for them to the deck and began to weigh them.

The purchase price of cuttlefish was 4 cents per pound, and a total of 500 pounds were purchased. The purchase price of conger eels was 3 cents per pound, and a total of 500 pounds were purchased.

Four hundred kilograms of mantis shrimp, five hundred kilograms of water bream, four kilograms of large shrimps, eagle claw shrimps and small yellow croakers, for a total of eight hundred kilograms.

One dollar for yellow croaker weighing more than one catty, one dollar and fifty cents for those weighing more than one and a half catties to two catties, and two dollars and fifty cents for those weighing more than two catties. In total, we collected 1,700 catties, plus 500 catties of small white pomfret, so the total cost was 3,100 dollars.

(End of this chapter)