Chapter 387 An unexpected network

When they pulled up the last two groups of fishing lines, Li Changle replaced Chen Yongwei and continued to collect. The fish catching rate in one group was nearly 80%, and in the other group it was 70%, including yellowfin mullet, black sea bream, grouper, sea bass, and more than a dozen large hairtails that were more than four fingers wide.

When everyone was cleaning the deck, the aroma of steamed pork elbows wafted into their noses. Chen Yongwei took the intercom and asked Chen Amao about the situation over there.

Knowing that there was only half an hour left, he said to Li Changle: “Brother, I will help you kill the fish, wash the shrimps and crabs, you quickly prepare the seasoning for the yellow croaker.”

“The ginger, onion and garlic are all ready. Go kill and wash them. I’ll steam and blanch them. It will only take half an hour.”

“Uncle Awei, you guys take a break. Ajie and I will go kill the food.” Wang Xincheng and Wang Jie carried the fresh produce to the kitchen.

Brother Li drove the Xusheng to the place where it had been docked last time. After turning off the engine and dropping anchor, he sat next to the three people and said, “Ah Le, what are you going to do with the engines and net-lifting machines from the black bottom ship?”

Li Changle thought for a moment and said, “I want to go to Shuilu Zhang and ask Uncle Zhang if there is a suitable second-hand iron boat. We can install these equipment on it and we will have an extra boat.”

After hearing this, Brother Li nodded repeatedly, “This is a good idea. A second-hand iron boat should not be expensive. I think the black-bottomed boat is about the same length as Boss Chen’s boat. In the future, we can use both boats to go out to sea together, which will be safer.”

“Okay, let’s go ask Uncle Zhang first.” Chen Yongwei and Brother Li also agreed to do so.

“Brother, in addition to the trawl net removed from the net hauling machine, there are two more trawl nets, four hand-cast nets, and twelve packs of three-layer sticky nets. This year, we can save a lot of money just on the sticky nets.”

Brother Li smiled and said, “We returned early this time, and with the diesel from the black-bottomed ship, we don’t even need to buy diesel next time we go sailing.”

Chen Yongwei said proudly: “There is also the gun and the bullets, a dozen fish knives and the harpoons and crowbars. I have moved all the useful ones to our boat.”

“This is called giving someone a taste of their own medicine. When they robbed others, they should have expected this day to come.”

A few people couldn’t help laughing when they thought of the empty shell of the black-bottomed ship.

After Wang Xincheng packed up the fresh produce, Li Changle went to the kitchen and steamed the large yellow croaker and simply blanched the other dishes.

After finishing, she grabbed a handful of sauerkraut and cooked a pot of sauerkraut and shrimp soup. When she came out of the kitchen, she saw the Shunfeng slowly approaching the Xusheng.

After they turned off the engine and dropped anchor, Li Changle invited everyone to the Xusheng. There were four people on Chen Amao’s boat, including A Tai, A Can and a boatman named A Yang.

It seems that Ayang is also a simple and honest person. When he was asked to eat, he kept smiling and waving his hands, “Thank you, Boss Ale, we have food on the boat.”

Chen Amao thought that Turtle Island was not a main shipping route, and since the fishing boats were docked near the islands and reefs, there was no need to worry about being hit by cargo ships or other ships, so he asked him to go over and eat together. That’s why he followed the Xusheng.

Steamed yellow croaker, blanched shrimps and crabs, and small squid, two pots of steamed pork elbows, and a large pot of sauerkraut soup were all placed on the deck.

Chen Amao looked at the steamed pork elbow and large yellow croaker in the enamel basin and said, “Wow, who made this? I’m drooling just by smelling it.”

Brother Li pointed at Li Changle and said, “Our chef Ah Le made this.”

“Kill the armor!” Chen Amao gave Li Changle a thumbs up. “When you go to the fishing grounds to catch hairtail during the winter season, don’t forget to bring mine as well!”

“Okay, come anytime you like!” Li Changle picked up the wine can and poured some for them. He held up the porcelain bowl and said to Chen Amao and the others, “Thank you!”

“Hey!” Chen Amao laughed, “You’re just too polite. I think we’re already close friends, so stop thanking me.”

“Okay! Eat food and drink wine!”

“Yes, eat and drink!”

After all, we were still on the boat, so we didn’t dare to drink too much. The family drank two glasses of old wine and then started to eat.
Wild yellow croaker has a unique aroma, with distinct layers of garlic cloves and meat. It is fresh with a hint of old wine and melts in your mouth.

Fish maw is soft, glutinous and chewy, no wonder the best yellow croaker maw can be sold for thousands of dollars per pound in later generations.

At the end of the meal, several large pots of food and half a pot of white rice, even the soup from the steamed pork elbow and steamed fish, were poured into the rice by Chen Yongwei, Acan and others.

“We’re going out to sea with you guys, so we can enjoy the food too.” Chen Amao touched his belly, “I used to know how to trawle, but today I know that longline fishing can also yield good results.”

Li Changle smiled and said, “How many hooks did you set? What’s your chance of catching fish?”

Chen Amao held up one hand and said, “There are 500 hooks. I took note and found a total of more than 320 fish. There are about 100 fish weighing more than one kilogram, and about 150 to 160 fish weighing more than two to three kilograms.

There are more than 200 fish weighing 4 to 7 or 8 jin, and the rest are about 10 jin. I also caught two big red snappers weighing about 20 jin, so the catch rate is more than 60%. Damn, it’s heavier than the net I dragged this morning, and it doesn’t use as much fuel.”

“Next time you go to Lao Zhang and ask him to install a longline winch for you. With that thing, it won’t take much effort to collect a thousand hooks.”

“What does it look like? Let me take a look!”

After Li Changle took him to see it, he said, “We put down a thousand hooks this time, and the time it took to collect the fish was twice as fast as before, when we pulled 500 hooks by hand.”

“Great! Next time I have a break, I’ll go to Zhangjia Pier to find him and get one.” Chen Amao said, looking at the time, “It’s already past twelve o’clock, I think we shouldn’t rest here, how about dragging the net back to the pier?” “Okay!” Li Changle thought about the weather in the future. He didn’t know what it would be like. If he returned to the pier at this time, it would be dawn. After selling the catch, he could make another trip.
“I plan to return to the voyage to sell the fish. I will take advantage of the good weather in the next two days to load the fish with ice and go out to sea. What are your plans?”

Li Changle nodded and said with a smile: “To be honest, the fishing conditions have been so good these past two days. If the cabin wasn’t almost full, I wouldn’t want to return.”

“It’s different for me. I only caught more than 1,000 kilograms in two nets, and most of them were worthless. I thought I would lose money this time!”

Chen Amao paused for a moment and said, “I passed by Turtle Island and saw those longline fish, so I went there to set out the longline fish. I didn’t expect to run into you and fill up the tank immediately!”

“My brother and I were lying on the roof of the cabin, being chased by them. As soon as you arrived, the situation immediately reversed and we were the ones chasing them.”

The two men laughed heartily when they recalled the experience of beating a drowning dog.

They decided to return and did not waste any more time. Chen Amao called Acan and returned to Shunfeng to prepare for departure.

“Brother, I’ll go drive the boat, you guys get ready to cast the nets.” Li Changle said as he walked towards the cab.

Brother Li hurriedly pulled him back and said, “Ah Le, you still have to sell the goods when you get home tomorrow morning. I took a nap while collecting the longline. Now I’m not sleepy at all. You go and cast the net, or I’ll drive the boat.”

Li Changle nodded, “Call me when you feel sleepy.”

“You guys sleep a little longer. I’ll let you know to get online in three hours.”

“Okay!” Li Changle agreed, and he and Li Erge and others took their positions, waiting for the fishing boat to raise anchor and set off, then lower the trawl net into the sea.

Thinking that we would have to raise the net in three hours, it would be good to sleep a little longer, so everyone went back to the cabin and lay down to catch up on sleep without even washing their faces.

When he woke up again, the fishing boat had passed Huzi Island. Li Changle looked behind him and saw the Shunfeng docked in the waters behind them.

The catch of this net was much less than the previous one, only about 2,000 kilograms. Fortunately, it was mainly hairtail and octopus, and the fish, big and small, could be sold for several hundred yuan together.

When all the fish were poured out on the deck and spread out, the guys found an unexpected surprise: a large bluefish weighing more than 30 kilograms was hidden inside.

We had all given up hope on this catch, but we finally found a good, big fish among the pile of fish, and everyone cheered excitedly.

“Wow, this big blue spot is bigger than a piglet.”

“A big blue spot is worth a lot more than a piglet.”

“Yes, I thought that was all!” Li Changle stepped forward, picked up the big fish, gave it an injection with a deflation needle, and put it into the living chamber.

Second Brother Li replaced First Brother Li. After everyone put down the trawl net, they sorted the hairtail into baskets according to size.

The remaining octopuses are much easier to deal with. After rinsing them clean, pick out the small ones and directly use the foreign pry and put the others into baskets and put them in the cabin.

The last net was cast near Zhushan Island. At this time, the sun was slowly rising from the sea.

After the net bag was opened, the amount of fish caught was completely beyond Li Changle’s expectations. More than half of the more than 2,000 kilograms were cuttlefish, followed by some shrimps, crabs, conger eels and some miscellaneous fish.

Brother Li said happily: “These plus the ones in the cargo hold make more than 2,000 kilograms of cuttlefish. We can dry a lot of dried cuttlefish this time!”

“We caught so much. I’ll go ask Boss Chen if he has caught any and ask him to collect some.”

Li Changle turned and went to the cockpit. After contacting Chen Amao on the intercom, he learned that he had only caught four or five hundred kilograms, and together with what he got from the black-bottomed boat, it was more than a thousand kilograms.

He wanted them all, and asked Chen Amao to keep the big yellow croaker and small yellow croaker for him as well. He had to have a sufficient supply for this winter.

When sorting the cuttlefish, all of the people were covered with cuttlefish ink except for the parts covered by their clothes. Even the cuttlefish in the bamboo basket were black, like pieces of flattened coal.

“Uncle, what do you think this thing is? It looks like a mantis shrimp, but not quite.” Wang Xincheng said while holding a flat, brown shrimp.

Brother Li took a look and said with a smile, “This is a mantis shrimp. The shrimp meat tastes quite fresh, but there is not much meat. It looks so big, but when you open it up, there is only a little meat in the belly. No one is willing to buy it at two cents a pound.”

The scientific name of the mantis shrimp is Coleoptera: Cibotium, and it is named because it looks a bit like a mantis shrimp.

Some people call it shrimp fillet or slipper shrimp. Its body is light yellowish brown with reddish-brown spots on the back, and it looks like a large beetle.

“Wash them clean, add some old wine, scallions and ginger to blanch them, they taste almost the same as mantis shrimps.” Li Changle threw the mantis shrimps into the bamboo basket, “No matter how cheap they are, they are still shrimps. Put them in the bamboo basket and take them home, blanch them and give them to the children to eat and play with.”

This thing was not as popular as mantis shrimp in those days. Later, it was given an imported label and its price skyrocketed immediately. The local one cost more than ten yuan per pound, while the imported one cost dozens of yuan.

(End of this chapter)