1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 157: The Best Crab, the Airplane Crab
At first, Liang Ziqiang and Lin Baixian thought that there were only a dozen red flower crabs in front of them.

Just these ten or so were exciting enough. They picked up four or five each with bent iron pliers.

After picking them up, I stuck the bent pliers into the depression at the bottom of the reef and poked around a few times. I didn't hold much hope at first, but after a few pokings, two or three came out.

After collecting them and pounding them again, two or three more jumped out.

This happened again and again, making the sunken reef bottom look like a machine that automatically spit out things, continuously.

Both the people responsible for collecting the crabs and the people responsible for throwing the crabs out seem to enjoy it.

In total, there were probably more than 20 or 30 fish that escaped, and they were all collected by the two of them in the bucket. This was mainly because it was easier to catch a few fish each time they escaped, and they would not all scatter in a swarm.

Including the dozen or so at the front edge, the two of them probably caught nearly twenty red flower crabs each.

Seeing that they couldn't make any progress, the two gave up and moved on to another place.

Relatively speaking, the most common is the stone crab. In the crab family, the stone crab is considered a common product.

The two of them walked along the way, picking up stone crabs along the way.

They encountered a lot of shrimps on the way, but they didn't want any. Usually, you can catch some shrimps when you use the stilt net, and you can just barely catch some to make up the weight when you cast the net at sea, but now that we have arrived at Fox Bay Island, who wants shrimps?

There were a few red seals lying under the shallow water, and they looked quite big.

The red seals were worth several cents per pound, so the two of them immediately collected a few of them. When they were put into the bucket, each one looked to weigh about half a pound.

The octopuses we saw this time were obviously less than the last time we came to Fox Bay Island. Like the conger eels, some of the octopuses had already started to move away in advance, so the number of them in the coastal area was greatly reduced.

Soon after picking up the red seal, I came across a small group of shrimps floating among the algae.

"White shrimps? They look like prawns!" Lin Baixian exclaimed after squatting down and taking a closer look.

The hairy shrimps before were ignored by the two of them, but the prawns in front of them were very different.

Prawns are actually a type of shrimp. There are many species in the shrimp family, such as the nine-segmented shrimp that likes to "die with honor", also known as the island shrimp; and the famous white shrimp introduced from abroad in later generations.

The prawns, also known as the Chinese shrimp, are a typical shrimp species native to my country.

Prawns are not cheap. The price of ordinary prawns is at least as high as that of the best red crabs.

Unfortunately, probably due to the influence of the season, the number of prawns in front of them was not too many. The two of them caught them together with the algae, and each caught about a dozen.

A little past the algae, there is a clump of grass next to it, which seems to be the kind of crown grass that likes to grow on the coast.

As they were fishing for prawns, the clump of crown grass suddenly shook violently.

"Any fish?"

They both turned their heads to take a look. Any creature that could cause the crown grass to shake violently could not be too small.

Liang Ziqiang walked over and tried to push aside the clump of seaweed with a pair of bent pliers, revealing a patch of colorful patterns.

At the same time, the other party was frightened and moved sideways quickly, obviously trying to escape from under the water plants.

Liang Ziqiang was secretly delighted. Who could have thought that there was such a big crab hiding under the grass!
It's not an ordinary stone crab or blue crab, but the red flower crab that we caught before.

But in terms of size, it is much bigger than the previous ones, and can be said to be the king of those red flower crabs. Judging from the visual, it may be close to two kilograms!
The large crab covered in a crimson flowery coat rushed forward, instantly attracting Lin Baixian's attention. He was even more anxious than Liang Ziqiang himself, and hurriedly said, "Hurry up, don't let it escape. The legendary airplane crab is worth a lot of money!"

Once the red flower crab grows to a certain size, it is no longer called red flower crab, but has a special name - airplane crab!

Red flower crabs are the aristocrats among crabs and have a distinguished status.

From red flower crab to airplane crab, there has been a fundamental change. The price has not increased little by little, but by leaps and bounds. This is because it is so rare to grow to such a large size.

Only red flower crabs weighing more than one and a half kilograms can be called airplane crabs.

Liang Ziqiang chased after it and tried to clamp it with bent pliers, but found that it was too big to clamp easily, so he immediately switched to using a hand net and continued to chase after it a few steps.

Before the airplane crab dived into the deep water, I finally managed to get past it and catch it.

After putting it in the bucket, Lin Baixian immediately ran over to watch:

"The airplane crab, I saw my dad catch one when I was a kid. Usually, few people in the village encounter one. I admire your luck!"

In fact, it is not surprising. Red flower crabs are not as common as stone crabs and blue crabs. I only encountered a few of them when I came to Fox Bay Island. Airplane crabs are naturally even rarer.

The airplane crab that fell into the bucket was unwilling to give up. It raised its big claws and tried to escape from the bucket, but the bucket was quite high and it failed.

When its claws are stretched out, they look like airplane wings, which is why it got the name "airplane crab".

"Red flower crabs are the fattest during this season. Sometimes you can come across king crabs weighing three or four kilograms around the beginning of winter. If we can find one here, there might be more. Let's look for more!" Liang Ziqiang encouraged.

Around the water plants, the two men used bent-head pliers to move them around and search.

In fact, Liang Ziqiang not only wanted to find the flying crab, but also hoped that a few heavy-shell crabs would suddenly appear. After all, the purpose of his special trip to Fox Bay Island was to catch some red crabs to sell, but the more direct purpose was to find some extremely rare heavy-shell crabs and use them to catch the best grouper and large grouper.

There was no sign of the heavy-shelled crab, so I searched for it in the area for a while, but I did catch a few red flower crabs.

After a while, Lin Baixian was heard screaming, and he actually found a large red crab weighing two kilograms - an airplane crab.

During the pursuit, the big guy fled sideways, and Lin Baixian, as if possessed by a crab spirit, also crossed his legs and chased it sideways.

He did this mainly because he was worried about being tripped by the water plants. As a result, he tripped accidentally and almost fell. Liang Ziqiang quickly pulled him up, and although he did not fall into the water, the hem of his clothes was splashed with water. In this kind of weather, it is still a bit cold.

Fortunately, Lin Baixian's luck was not bad. The big crab made a strategic misjudgment while escaping and actually tried to drill into the cracks of the rocks under the reef.

If it were any other crab, it would have surely drilled down and escaped successfully, but it was too big and got stuck halfway through drilling, with its claws and teeth bared, looking extremely anxious.

Once the direction is wrong, no matter how hard you try, it will be in vain. The IQ of this crab is obviously not as good as its size.

Lin Baixian ignored his wet clothes, chased after it and finally caught the airplane crab.

Each of them got a plane crab, which was the most amazing harvest of today's trip to Fox Bay Island.

The regret of not being able to find the heavy-shelled crab as I had hoped was somewhat compensated by the airplane crab.

Looking at the sky, it's time to prepare to go back. Fox Bay Island is not as remote as Wuming Island, but it is not too close to Guanqi Island and Chengpan Island. It still takes some time to sail on the way.

Before leaving, Liang Ziqiang changed his angle when walking and saw half of a claw sticking out from a rock. He walked over and took a look, and it turned out to be another airplane crab.

This one is not as big as the first one, but it should weigh about one and a half pounds.

With these two airplane crabs as a base, the income will not be too low. The harvest from the daytime fishing in recent days is not very good. Apart from diesel, I made almost no money. The income here makes up for it.

Before boarding the boat, he pried open some more oysters. These things are not worth much, but they are high-quality protein. He pried them open not to sell them, but to give them to Chen Xiangbei to eat.

Compared with those oysters on the shore, the oysters here are obviously much fatter and of higher quality, and are the best for her nutritional supplement.

They returned to the shore with all their gains. Today, they could be considered to have returned with a full load.

Burst

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(End of this chapter)