1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 112: Otaki Six-line Fish

Liang Ziqiang walked towards the seawall. When he was getting close, he saw two figures in front of him, also holding fishing rods, walking forward.

Looking at the back, it turned out to be Li Liang and Deng Zhaocai.

The two men turned around and saw him. Deng Zhaocai became happy and said to him:
"How did you know we wanted to ask you out for fishing? We wanted to go to your house to ask you out, but we were afraid your mom would see us, so we didn't go!"

"That's great. Let's go to the breakwater together?"

"Yes, find a place with lots of white foam to fish!"

The three of them came to the breakwater extending into the sea and found that three or four other villagers were already sitting there fishing. They were probably annoyed by the windy weather for several days in a row and came here to catch some fish to make up for their losses.

The three began to look for an ideal fishing spot. First of all, the bottom of the embankment should have a lot of white foam, and the waves should not be too big or too violent, such as the top of the seawall. After finding it, the three sat on the embankment and started fishing.

The bait is still fresh shrimps. Fortunately, our family always keeps some of the shrimps caught from the sea and keeps them in seawater. They can be cooked and eaten when there is no vegetable, or used as bait.

This time, Liang Ziqiang deliberately chose relatively large shrimps as bait. This is because the bait will be easily washed away in places with big waves, and larger baits will be relatively better.

Not only that, there are many things to pay attention to when fishing with white foam, and not everyone in the village can do it.

Liang Ziqiang stared at the fishing line hanging in the white foam and made several adjustments before he found the most suitable state.

The next step was to wait patiently. The white foam was more abundant and richer than he had imagined, which made him look forward to it.

The formation principle of the white foam belt is that when the waves are pushed to the reef, hit the reef or the shore, and then retreat back into the sea, the waves will carry a large amount of air back into the sea. After entering the sea, these air will turn into countless small bubbles, and the bubbles will connect into large pieces, forming a white foam belt.

The reason why the white foam belt is a good natural fishing spot is related to the nature of many fish.

First, the patches of white foamy water become natural shelters for fish, blocking the sight of birds in the sky and humans on the shore, so fish can forage for food without worry.
The bubbles in the white foam belt surge up and stir the sea water, so the dissolved oxygen in the area is high.

There is a lot of food in the white foam belt. Some of it is brought down by the waves after they hit the shore. They are crustaceans, sea worms and other animals that were originally attached to the rock wall. They are natural delicacies for fish. Others are large amounts of seaweed plants that grow on the shore wall, which are also very popular with fish.

While waiting, I heard Deng Zhaocai exclaim, "Fuck!" and said repeatedly:

"What the hell! I was so careful, but I still got killed!"

The so-called bottom hanging means that the fish hook gets hung on the big rock at the bottom during swinging.

It is easy for the fish to be washed onto rocks by waves and get stuck on the bottom, which is one of the typical difficulties in "white foam fishing".

Fortunately, Deng Zhaocai finally managed it after some effort.

He had just finished dealing with it when Liang Ziqiang's buoy sank. He checked and found that there was indeed a fish on the hook.

Assuming that the hook had been firmly bitten, he quickly pulled it out of the water.

"Six-line fish? Brother Qiang's trip was not in vain, this is a good fish!" Deng Zhaocai shouted with some envy.

The six-line fish, also known as the Otaki six-line fish, is brown with a hint of yellow, with an elongated and laterally flattened body, shaped like a spindle, with a small dorsal edge and a slightly concave dorsal middle. An obvious feature of this fish is that there are about six vertical lines on the side of the body, of course, there may also be larger gray-brown cloud spots of varying sizes and irregular shapes.

Many places also call them "yellow croaker", but in fact, no matter in appearance or classification, it has nothing to do with big yellow croaker or small yellow croaker. It is completely an accidental name and they are not the same thing.

The price of six-line fish is reasonable. It is more expensive than sea bass, yellow croaker and the like, and can be sold for 70 or 80 cents.

"Wait a minute, you will catch something too. Most of the fish that can find food in the white foam belt are good!" Liang Ziqiang replied, and at the same time took the fish off the hook and put it into a bucket of water.

The reason for this is that the white foam belt has a certain impact force. Most of the fish that can come here to find food are agile and lively, eat bait quickly, and are strong and healthy. Small fish that are too weak cannot get in and cannot stay in the white foam. As soon as I finished speaking, I saw two other villagers not far away shouting "Wow grass".

Following the direction of their fingers, I saw two fish taking advantage of the waves and directly rushing to the edge of the embankment. They jumped and ate algae such as white hair with their mouths!
These fish are really fierce and full of energy.

Deng Zhaocai had just finished envying Liang Ziqiang when, in the blink of an eye, his own fishing line sank.

When it was pulled up, a copper-red fish appeared, which was quite bright and eye-catching.

"Red snapper!" Deng Zhaocai was very proud. "Brother Qiang, I'm going to be luckier than you this time. Your six-line fish is only 70 or 80 cents, but I can definitely sell this red snapper for one dollar!"

Li Liang looked at him with contempt and said:

"What are you doing showing off in front of Brother Qiang? Haven't you heard? Last month, their gondola went out to sea and brought back more than 700 kilograms of red snapper. How dare you say that?"

"It's different. Going out to sea is a waste of fuel and effort, but I caught this easily while sitting on the embankment!"

"Easy? If it's easy, the hook won't get stuck on the bottom. It just got stuck on a rock and I took a long time to pull it off!"

"Wait!" Liang Ziqiang couldn't stand it anymore after hearing the two of them arguing. "Who told you about 700 kilograms of red snapper? More than 500 kilograms of worthless golden pomfret, plus more than 100 kilograms of red snapper, the total is 700 kilograms. This rumor spread in the village, and I almost believed it!"

"More than a hundred kilograms of red radish? That's amazing!" Li Liang laughed.

As he was speaking, Li Liang felt his fishing rod sinking, so he quickly reeled in the bait and lifted up the rod.

As a result, there was nothing on the fishing rod.

Deng Zhaocai laughed so hard that his shoulders were shaking:
"Were you fooled by the fake fish signal? You were just laughing at my hook getting stuck on the bottom!"

"False fish signals" is another major technical difficulty faced by white foam fishing, just like "hanging on the bottom".

When the water rushing down from the waves reaches the depth it can reach, its kinetic energy is completely released and it will transform into an irregular lateral flow of water. The fishing rod will be shaken left and right by it, creating false fish signals and causing anglers to make misjudgments.

Li Liang was obviously deceived by the false fish signal just now.

"Damn, your stupidity must have been contagious. I told you not to get so close to me!" Li Liang cursed Deng Zhaocai, then threw the fishing hook back into the white foam.

In the blink of an eye, the buoys of all three people sank.

"This isn't false news!"

Li Liang raised his fishing rod fiercely, followed by Liang Ziqiang and Deng Zhaocai.

"What a coincidence, three identical fish? They are all black sea bream! Look, they are indeed three brothers, it's like they went fishing as if they had discussed it beforehand!" Deng Zhaocai laughed as soon as he saw it.

The price of black porgy is not bad, at least it is more expensive than sea bass, golden pomfret and the like. 50 or 60 cents is the price. The three black porgy caught by the three people are all quite big, weighing about two kilograms, and they have earned a few dollars.

All three of them took the fish down and put it in the bucket.

"Wait, let me take a closer look. How are they the same?" Li Liang suddenly raised his hand to stop Liang Ziqiang and shouted, "Brother Qiang, you must have seen it wrong. If you look closely, this fish is a little different. I'm afraid it's not a black sea bream!"

Liang Ziqiang smiled and said, "It was Deng Zhaocai who was calling. I didn't say it was exactly the same as yours!"

In fact, it’s not Deng Zhaocai’s fault that he made a mistake. This fish is more expensive than black sea bream, but it looks too similar to black sea bream…

(End of this chapter)