1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 141: One Cut, the Value Doubles
This fish is bigger than the previous bamboo sword, blue scale, fat eye herring and the like, but it is not as densely packed, only appearing a few at a time.

Indeed, tuna and bonito also have a certain degree of phototaxis, but their phototaxis is not that strong, not to the extent of saury and burbot.

The fish were pulled up and Liang Ziqiang caught three of them in his net, each weighing about seven or eight kilograms.

This is not a big size among bonito (bomb fish).

After pouring the fish out, Liang Ziqiang immediately used a flashlight to take a closer look and realized at a glance that it was the flat-rudder bonito, a type of bomb fish.

There are many different sub-categories of bonito, all of which are basically called "small golden tuna". As long as they are handled properly, they are very valuable.

The flat-rudder tuna in front of us have a spindle-shaped body, thick, brown-black, with irregular black stripes above the lateral line. The tail horse is relatively short, the tail peduncle is thin and strong, and there is a central ridge and two small lateral ridges on each side. The fish body has few scales, and there are only some round scales on the breastplate on the sides of the body, and no scales elsewhere.

Among all the bomb fish, round-rudder bonito and flat-rudder bonito are relatively small in size.

After pouring out the fish, Liang Ziqiang immediately ran into the cabin and quickly found a kitchen knife.

Hold one of the fish, aim the kitchen knife at the lower edge of the gill cover towards the belly of the fish, and cut it off quickly and forcefully.

A stream of blood gushed out immediately.

In fact, if you use a sharp knife, you can cut more accurately and neatly, but unfortunately there is no sharp knife on the boat, so you can only use a kitchen knife instead. Just clean the kitchen knife after use.

The reason why this cut needs to be made immediately is related to the characteristics of bonito.

Generally speaking, fish do not have much blood in their bodies, usually only about 1.5-3% of their body weight, and most of the blood is concentrated in the gills, with very little blood in the meat. For these fish, you only need to remove the gills before cooking, which will not affect the texture and taste of the meat.

For this reason, most fish, even those from deep sea, do not need to be bled.

But tuna and bonito are very different.

Their blood accounts for up to 20%, and once out of water, they are very likely to die from lack of oxygen. Once dead, the blood will not only remain in the gills, but also in the body. In this way, the taste of the fish meat will be greatly reduced. And if the blood is not drained, it will be enriched with lactic acid and more prone to rot.

Tuna and bluefin tuna that have been bled and properly processed can be used as sashimi. Bluefin tuna that has not been bled is not edible.

If the flathead bonito is not bled, it can barely be sold for 10 cents per pound, which is a very cheap price. If it is bled in time and the method is appropriate, the same flathead bonito can be sold for 60 cents, which is a very high price. Bleeding and not bleeding are simply not the same kind of fish, and the difference in price is really huge!

The reason why you have to choose to cut below the fish gills is because cutting this position is equivalent to cutting off the blood vessel connection between the fish gills and the body. At this time, the fish gills will still instinctively transport blood to the body, and the body will also instinctively return blood, and eventually all the blood will flow out from the incision.

Liang Ziqiang skillfully cut one piece and then quickly followed suit, cutting the cheeks and draining the blood from the remaining two pieces.

After everything was handled properly, a new net was immediately cast.

Fortunately, although the flathead bonito did not come in large numbers, they continued to appear and did not disperse quickly.

Therefore, each net may have three or four fishes at most, or one or two at least. As long as the fishes are cast, there will basically be a harvest.

In any case, if this fish is handled properly, it is much more valuable than the five-point thornfish mentioned above.

Liang Ziqiang seemed to have forgotten the tiredness, and also forgot the sweat that felt like a bath when he caught the more than 1,000 kilograms of thorny fish. He kept looking for fish, casting the net, and collecting the net.

Fortunately, Liang Zifeng learned very seriously this time. After carefully watching the parts and techniques of cutting, he also began to learn how to use the kitchen knife to help with bleeding.

In this way, Liang Ziqiang finally relieved some of his workload.

Before they knew it, they had cast about ten nets, and only stopped when it became increasingly difficult to find the flathead bonito on the sea surface.

Liang Ziqiang counted them and found that there were about twenty flathead bonito on the boat. If each one weighed about seven or eight kilograms, there would be about 150 kilograms in total.

After stopping, Liang Ziqiang felt tired and didn't want to move. This was the most tiring night fishing since he started fishing. The two waves before and after, with repeated bending and pulling the net, would make even an iron man exhausted and out of breath.

"My waist is going to break!"

On the other two boats, Li Liang, Zhong Kang and others also complained of being tired. Even Deng Zhaocai, the most noisy, spoke less.

After resting for a while, the three boats started again and headed directly to the sea near Guanqi Island. They threw their submarines into the water, and then went behind the islands and reefs as usual to take turns to keep watch.

The next morning we returned to shore to ship out the goods.

There weren’t that many miscellaneous fish in the catch this time. It was very simple, mainly a kind of thorny fish and a kind of flathead tuna.

Zheng Liu picked up a few flathead bonito and looked at them carefully, then couldn't help but give them a thumbs up:
"You're not very old, but you're all experienced in handling fish! If you didn't bleed this bomb fish, I wouldn't even bother to buy it at ten cents a pound. You handled it well and drained the blood very cleanly. Uncle Zheng will take the full 60 cents from you!"

The kind-hearted man spoke brightly and beautifully, but when it came to actually weighing the fish, he instructed his helper Deng Fei to look carefully under the gills of each fish to make sure the blood had been drained properly.

Fortunately, it was morning. If it was during the peak period of selling fish, if he dawdled like this, the fishermen behind him in line would have fucked him on the spot.

Liang Ziqiang caught a total of 21 flathead bonito, weighing a total of 164 kilograms, an average of nearly 8 kilograms per fish.

60 cents per pound, and the price of the flathead bonito alone is 98.40 yuan.

The next step was to weigh the thorny fish, one basket after another. After weighing and adding up, Liang Ziqiang alone weighed 1,527 kilograms of thorny fish.

Unfortunately, the price of this fish is too cheap, only five cents a pound, and more than a thousand pounds only sells for seventy-six dollars and thirty-five cents.

Not as good as those twenty or so flathead tuna.

Adding the two together, last night's income was one hundred and seventy-four dollars and seventy-five cents.

This time, Zheng Liu was generous and gave five cents, giving one hundred and seventy-four dollars and eighty cents.

This time the income difference among the three boats was not that big. After the calculation of the fish, the sum of Zhong Kang and Li Liang's fish was around 160 to 170 yuan.

This time Liang Ziqiang was really exhausted. He returned home, handed the more than 160 yuan after deducting 6 yuan as wages to Chen Xiangbei and asked her to keep it. He took a shower, had a meal, and fell on the bed, not wanting to move.

It was his wife who prepared lunch and brought it to his bedside. After he finished eating, he quickly lay down on the bed and continued to sleep.

For the next two nights, the six men did not go to the sea area where the thorny fish were caught. Although 1,500 to 1,600 kilograms could be sold for about 70 yuan, that amount of money was too expensive. In comparison, the money earned from the bomb fish was easier to make.

We continued to catch some flat-rudder bonito during these two nights, but the number was smaller. We did catch some smaller round-rudder bonito.

We catch about 120 to 130 yuan worth of fish every night.

Although winter was approaching little by little, the stack of money at the bottom of Liang Ziqiang's box was getting thicker day by day.

It was like he was racing against the seasons. He had to save up a considerable amount of money before the off-season came!
Fortunately, in addition to the steady income from night hunting, there are more exciting moments coming.

Another half month passed, almost twenty days had passed, and it was time for Yuehai Restaurant to restock goods again.

The various groupers on the nameless island were like blind boxes. He didn't know what kind of groupers would be waiting for him this time...

Two chapters were released in a row. The chapter that was released at noon was released together with the one that was released at dawn today. Happy reading, fellow readers.

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(End of this chapter)