Rebirth of Fishing Village: Starting from Hua Axiang in Jiehu Village

Chapter 1517 Making Money from Big Fish
"A 30-pound sea bass?"

Liu Lei was startled. The sea bass he usually caught, or rather recently, were around 20 pounds each. Even with such a size, it was very difficult for him to catch them. He would often have to stop and rest after half an hour, at most an hour, and dare not continue fishing.

I really can't imagine how I could possibly catch a 30-pound sea bass. I'd probably be out of breath after catching just two, or even just one.

"Liu Lei."

"The waves are quite big today. If we really encounter a sea bass weighing around 30 pounds, its strength in the current is much greater than you can imagine. In other words, a sea bass weighing around 30 pounds would probably have the pulling force of a 40-pound fish or even more in today's seawater."

Zhong Shizhu pointed to the undulating seawater or waves beside the fishing boat, reminding Liu Lei that the current was much faster than usual. Under such circumstances, the strength of a 30-pound sea bass was far greater than imagined.

Liu Lei glanced at the sea. He felt a chill run down his spine; he knew Zhong Shizhu was right—the seawater was flowing much faster than usual when he was fishing.

"So, does that mean I can only catch one fish in an hour today? Or even none at all?"

Liu Lei was really in a bind, but he definitely had to try it to see what was going on and whether he really couldn't catch any fish.

"Forget about sea bass. If it really has a scissor tail, the pulling force in today's current is even stronger. If it weighs around 20 pounds, that would be amazing."

"Liu Lei."

"You really need to be careful, or you might end up being dragged into the sea by a fish instead of catching one."

Liu Bin wasn't joking; Liu Lei really needed to pay attention to this. The waves were really too big today, and it wouldn't be easy for someone without experience to stand firm on a speedboat.

Liu Lei gave a wry smile, realizing that the matter seemed to be more complicated than he had imagined.

When Ding Dawen saw that Zhao Dahai had decided to go out to sea to fish, he had already called the kitchen staff to bring up the cooked dishes.

Zhao Dahai, Zhong Shizhu, Liu Bin, Lei Dayou, and Liu Lei quickly finished their breakfast and rested for about twenty minutes.

"Are you really sure you want to come fishing with us?"

"The weather right now is really tough; it's not something an ordinary person could withstand!"

Zhao Dahai reminded Liu Lei that he really needed to think about it carefully.

"go with!"

"Why wouldn't I go? I absolutely have to go. I want to see if I can handle it!"

Liu Lei gritted his teeth and decided that he really had to go out to sea with Zhao Dahai to see just how terrifying fishing in such windy and turbulent conditions really was.

Zhao Dahai smiled; Liu Lei's choice was not surprising at all.

"go!"

"Let's go to the island and reef foam area and see if we can find any big sea bass or threadfin bream."

"If we find fish there, we'll fish there today. If we don't find any, we'll just come back and rest for a day."

As he spoke, Zhao Dahai descended the ladder from the large fishing boat and boarded the speedboat.

Zhao Dahai, Zhong Shizhu, and Liu Lei were on one speedboat, while Lei Dayou and Liu Bin were on another. The two speedboats headed towards the foamy area of ​​the island reef.

Ding Dawen stood on the deck of the fishing village and watched as Zhao Dahai and Lei Dayou's two speedboats disappeared in the blink of an eye. He then turned around and returned to the cockpit.

Ding Dawen took his teacup, drank a few mouthfuls of scalding hot tea, and just as he put it down, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Zhao Shi and Shi Guangming walking in while smoking their water pipes.

"Second Grandfather, Grandpa Stone!"

"It's still very early! What are we doing here? Shouldn't we be sleeping?"

Ding Dawen glanced at the sea and immediately knew that Zhao Shi and Shi Guangming were probably worried about the weather and had come here just to see if Zhao Dahai and the others would continue fishing at sea.

"Have Zhao Dahai and Zhong Shizhu already gone out to sea to fish?"

Zhao Shi sat down in the chair, looked at the sea, and frowned slightly.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I feel like the waves are even bigger right now than they were last night.

Ding Dawen nodded and told Zhao Shi and Shi Guangming that Zhao Dahai and Zhong Shizhu had just set sail and might not have reached the island and reef foam area yet.

"The waves are probably even bigger than last night, but I have to admit that it's very easy to fish for sea bass, especially big ones, in this kind of weather. I reckon Zhao Dahai is aiming for the big sea bass."

Shi Guangming knew what Zhao Dahai was planning just by looking at the waves on the sea.

"Correct!"

"Before Zhao Dahai went out to sea, he said he wanted to catch 30 jin (15 kg) of sea bass today, and even see if there would be any larger ones. Another thing is that there is a high chance that there will be large threadfin bream in the island and reef foam area today."

Ding Dawen smiled and nodded.

Shi Guangming was absolutely right; Zhao Dahai went out to sea specifically to catch large sea bass.

"However, Zhao Dahai said it's uncertain whether there will be any fish today, especially big ones like Yuhan. If there are, we'll arrange for them; if not, she might come back early."

Ding Dawen knew that Zhao Dahai probably thought that only big fish were worth fishing for in such rough seas, and that it was worth the hard work. If it were sea bass weighing a few pounds, Zhao Dahai would probably just give up and come back to the fishing boat to sleep.

"what!"

"Isn't Zhao Dahai just looking down on those sea bass that weigh only a few kilograms?!"

Shi Guangming burst out laughing. Zhao Dahai must have been thinking about this very idea.

"That's definitely how it is, but for Zhao Dahai, there's really no point in fishing for sea bass that's too big!"

Ding Dawen was not at all surprised that Zhao Dahai would have such thoughts.

If other people can't catch many fish, let alone sea bass weighing several pounds, even if they only catch one-pound sea bass, they will definitely try to catch them if there are enough of them. But Zhao Dahai really doesn't need to.

"Such winds and waves do indeed have the potential to attract threadfin bream, especially if you can catch a threadfin bream weighing 20 or even 30 pounds."

"It's definitely worth it for Zhao Dahai to go through all this trouble."

Zhao Shi glanced at the dark islands and reefs in the distance, and the sea in the direction of the foam zone.

A sea bass weighing 20 to 30 pounds would be great, and if you can catch one, especially a significant number, it's well worth the effort.

But the truly valuable and cost-effective ones are the imported ones that cost twenty or thirty yuan, which are much more expensive than other fish.

"Zhao Dahai's real purpose is probably to catch those threadfin bream!" "Another thing we have to consider is that the waves are quite big today. There will definitely be speedboats fishing in the island and reef foam area, but there won't be too many."

"If there are fish in the sea, wouldn't they all belong to Zhao Dahai?"

Shi Guangming suddenly remembered this matter. The current wind and waves were actually suitable for going out to sea, but the problem was that if it was a small speedboat, it would be very difficult in such wind and waves, and it would even be difficult to control the position and direction of the speedboat.

Many people who come here to fish can only try to stay in one spot and fish steadily.

The problem is that this is really not easy, and there may even be danger involved.

It's possible that many smaller speedboats will simply give up on going out to sea today.

There will still be quite a few speedboats fishing in the island and reef foam area, but the number will definitely not be too large.

"Come on!"

"Zhao Dahai and the others have already gone out to sea to fish, so we don't need to bother with them."

"Go back and get some sleep, see if Zhao Dahai and the others are back when you wake up, and see if you can catch any mackerel!"

Seeing that Zhao Dahai had already gone out to sea, Zhao Shi had nothing more to say. Even if he was worried, he could only keep it to himself. He decided to go to sleep and wait for Zhao Dahai to return.

"Hey!"

"If I had known the waves would be like this, especially if I had known Zhao Dahai was mainly heading out to sea to catch threadfin bream today, I would have definitely gone out to sea with him!"

Shi Guangming regretted not going to sea with Zhao Dahai.

He wouldn't even notice other fish, even a large 30-pound sea bass, thinking they were nothing special. But if it were a 30-pound threadfin, that would be a different story.

Despite leading others out to sea and fishing in the open ocean for so many years, I've rarely encountered a threadfin bream this big.

"Humph!"

Are you blind?

"With waves like this, you're going out to sea fishing in Zhao Dahai's speedboat?"

"Don't even mention a day or two, even an hour would be enough to ruin your old bones! They'd definitely fall apart!"

"It's impossible for you to go fishing at sea with Zhao Dahai. Zhao Dahai will definitely not agree."

Zhao Shi gave Shi Guangming a look of utter disdain.

If the weather is good, there is no problem with either himself or Shi Guangming going out to sea together. Zhao Dahai will not object and even very much hopes that the two of them will be on the speedboat.

This is just something to pass the time.

But the weather right now is no joke.

Zhao Dahai would never agree to let him and Shi Guangming go out to sea on a speedboat.

"Didn't they ask for our opinion last night when they asked if we wanted to go out to sea on the speedboat?"

Shi Guangming shook his head.

"Grandpa Shi!"

“Last night, it was you and your second grandfather who took the initiative to say that you wouldn’t be going out to sea today. If you two hadn’t taken the initiative, Zhao Dahai would definitely have changed his tune and advised you not to go to sea. Or even if you had insisted on going to sea, Zhao Dahai wouldn’t have agreed!”

Ding Dawen burst into laughter.

Shi Guangming's words clearly implied that he believed Zhao Dahai would agree as long as he and Zhao Shi wanted to go to sea.

It is absolutely impossible for such a thing to happen.

To put it bluntly, if Shi Guangming and Zhao Shi insisted on going to sea, Zhao Dahai would definitely not agree. Even if he agreed last night, seeing the waves on the sea this morning would make him change his mind completely.

Zhao Shi gave Ding Dawen a thumbs up, clearly seeing the situation clearly; it really was just like that.

"Humph!"

“A person should know their own limitations. Do you think we two old men don’t know what’s going on? How could we possibly go out to sea to fish in this kind of weather? Even if Zhao Dahai doesn’t object, Zhong Shizhu, Liu Bin, and Lei Dayou aren’t stupid. They will definitely object to us going out to sea together.”

As Zhao Shi spoke, he yawned and turned to leave the cockpit. Zhao Dahai had already set sail, so he would continue sleeping.

Shi Guangming had no way to refute it; he knew that was indeed the case.

Given the current weather, it's impossible for him and Zhao Shi to go fishing at sea together.

Shi Guangming turned around and followed Zhao Shi back to the cabin to sleep, waiting for Zhao Dahai to come back and see if he had caught any big sea bass and threadfin bream.

Ding Dawen didn't go to sleep. He stared wide-eyed at the sea around him. It was still dark at this time of year.

"Judging from this, there really won't be many speedboats going out to sea today!"

Ding Dawen shook his head.

Such winds and waves are a real problem for smaller speedboats.

Most of the speedboats used for fishing here are relatively small, and they would definitely give up after seeing this kind of weather.

At this time of day, there are usually many speedboats with their lights on the surrounding sea.

Sometimes they even look like fireflies, but now we can only see a few scattered ones.

These must all be larger speedboats that came back; smaller ones definitely wouldn't have been able to make it.

"Making money is really not an easy thing."

"The fishing techniques go without saying. Sometimes, when the weather is like this, even if you know there are fish in the sea, you won't dare to go out to sea if your speedboat isn't big enough. That way, you won't catch fish like this and you won't make money like this."

Ding Dawen shook his head.

Anyone with fishing experience, especially those who frequently fish in island and reef foam areas, knows that this kind of weather is very likely to produce large sea bass, or even fish everywhere.

But what if you know?
If a speedboat isn't big enough, people might be afraid of danger and dare not go out to sea, only able to watch helplessly as other larger speedboats go out to sea to catch and earn money from larger fish.

(End of this chapter)