1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 187: Fishing for Hundreds of Kilograms

I picked up sea lettuce, kelp, camel hair, etc. and brought them home and dried them into dried seaweeds so that I could eat them later.

In addition, Liang Ziqiang also picked up some shrimps, snails, clams, flower clams, and purple clams, which he took to Zheng Liu to exchange for some money.

The most valuable of them are the purple clams that are unique to winter. They are 30 cents more expensive than the blood clams which cost 90 cents per pound, at 1.2 yuan per pound.

More than two kilograms, sold for 2.6 yuan. Shrimp and clams are not many and cheap, so the money is very small.

Although I only earned a few dollars from an afternoon of fishing, it was relaxing and I caught a lot of delicious sea vegetables, so it was a good deal.

For dinner, Chen Xiangbei made seaweed buns with sea lettuce and camel hair. To be honest, Liang Ziqiang hadn't eaten this unique seaweed bun for decades. To him, the taste was far better than the usual green vegetable buns or meat buns.

The wind stopped for a while in the afternoon, but it started blowing again in the evening. It seems that at the end of the year, windy days are the norm, and days without wind and waves are rare.

After a few days of intermittent wind and waves, the weather finally cleared up again. Although the temperature was still low, it was still possible to go out to sea.

Liang Ziqiang and Li Liang had been anxious for several days. They finally breathed a sigh of relief when they heard the forecast on the radio that tomorrow the weather would be clear and the sea would be calm.

If the wind doesn't stop, the winter flood season will be over and Longju Mountain will soon return to calm, with no more fish to catch.

After waiting for a few days, they set sail for the sea this morning before dawn as usual.

As soon as we arrived at Longju Ridge, we encountered a large number of gobies.

Liang Ziqiang and others were a little hesitant, not knowing whether to cast the net or not.

The price of goby is neither high nor low. Compared with the croaker and tofu fish which cost a few cents, this fish is at least one cent per pound, and there doesn't seem to be much to pick in this season; but compared with those fish which cost a few cents, it doesn't feel cost-effective to catch them.

In the end, they decided not to take any action and wait and see.

After the gobies had passed, the water surface of Longju Mountain was calm for a while. When the fish gathered again and there were more and more of them, they were getting more and more powerful, dense and continuous, boiling the entire sea surface of Longju Mountain.

The last time such a huge noise was made was when I encountered a spiny croaker during night fishing.

Before this wave of fish approached the boat, the first thought that flashed through Liang Ziqiang and Li Liang's minds was the thorny fish.

If they are really spiny bream, what's the point of having a dense population? Five cents is far less than the goby season that just passed.

They sailed towards the fish in confusion. In a blink of an eye, they found out that it was not a thornfish, but another kind of fish that is also very gregarious - the bluefin bream.

This fish has a spindle-shaped body, slightly flattened laterally, a blue-green back, a yellow-white belly, and irregular blue markings.

Therefore, some people call it bluefish.

This fish is more valuable than the five-cent thornfish. This year it seems to be priced at around 1.5 cents, which is better than the goby just now.

Liang Ziqiang decided to win by quantity. If he cast more nets, he could make a lot of money.

At the beginning, the boat does not need to go too fast, just sail slowly, half moving and half stopping, because there will always be schools of bluefin bream passing by the boat.

It's so easy to encounter such a densely packed school of fish. Almost a thousand pounds of fish were caught on the boat, and the winter season of bluefin bream was gradually coming to an end.

Seeing this, their two boats also sped up accordingly, following the fish stream and heading towards the deep-sea wintering grounds.

By the time the fishing season was over, Liang Ziqiang's boat was full of bluefin bream, probably weighing several thousand kilograms.

The whole morning, everyone was busy casting nets to catch bluefin bream.

By the time the net was completely closed, it was time for lunch. This time, Liang Ziqiang didn't even cook rice.

Green croaker has a very interesting nickname - fish rice.

This is because this fish is not expensive, but its meat is more popular among fishermen. The meat is thick, and the fish bones are not only small but also few, making it very convenient to eat.

Often, fishermen cook a few bluefin breams, dip them in soy sauce, and eat them as a staple food. This is how it is called "fish rice". Of course, the disadvantage of this fish is also obvious, its meat is not so tender. Otherwise, it would not be so cheap.

At this moment, not only the Liang Ziqiang brothers, but also Li Liang and Deng Zhaocai were too lazy to cook rice, and they directly ate the green fish dipped in soy sauce as lunch.

The only difference was that Liang Ziqiang also brought the camel hair buns that Chen Xiangbei made last night. Eating fish rice and seaweed buns at the same time, both can be said to be staple food.

Of course, he also blanched some cabbage leaves and added some salt. Vegetables are indispensable in winter. If you don't eat leafy vegetables for two days, your lips will become chapped.

A combination of meat and vegetables, health comes first. Keep healthy while fishing.

While chewing the green mullet, I heard someone humming a tune on Li Liang's boat.

The most shocking thing is that the one who hummed the song this time was not Deng Zhaocai, but Li Liang who had just finished his fish meal. Deng Zhaocai would hum a song whenever he disagreed with something, and everyone had long been accustomed to this, so it was nothing. But when Li Liang hummed, Liang Ziqiang couldn't even chew the fish:

"Li Liang, are you okay? I used to know that Deng Zhaocai's singing could kill people, but today I found out that he actually sings pretty well!"

Deng Zhaocai was very proud when he heard that someone had cleared his name:

"Yeah, I said I have some talent for singing!"

Liang Zifeng was very disgusted by Deng Zhaocai's reading comprehension ability. But he was more curious about what happened to Li Liang today:
"You're already singing a song for more than a thousand kilograms of bluefin bream. Isn't the hairtail you got last time more valuable than this?!"

Deng Zhaocai snorted:
"It has nothing to do with fish! This bastard has a wife, and he even came to my house to show off for a long time yesterday. I was too busy fishing today to pay attention, otherwise he would have started humming a long time ago!"

Liang Ziqiang and Liang Zifeng were shocked:
"Did he really go to Yuan Xiaomei's house to propose marriage?"

"Of course. Are you just joking?" Li Liang was really showing off.

"What do her parents mean? Have they agreed?" Liang Zifeng asked.

"Then it must have worked! Otherwise he would be as happy as a fool right now!" Deng Zhaocai answered for him.

As a result, Li Liang kicked him aside and said, "You are the idiot. Um... Ah Feng, I have to thank you again! Xiaomei and I will get married before the New Year, and you and Brother Qiang can come over for a drink then!"

"Congratulations, great job, Li Liang. Afeng and I will definitely come for a drink!" Liang Ziqiang congratulated Li Liang.

He was once again shocked by Li Liang's efficiency in arranging the marriage. Last time, he said that his parents had agreed to go to Yuan Xiaomei's house to propose marriage, but in just a few days when he was at home, he actually got the matter done in one go, and Yuan Xiaomei's parents unexpectedly agreed!
You have to know that Li Liang had been pursuing Yuan Xiaomei for so many years, but her parents had always been clearly against it! This turn was quite sudden.

After all, it was probably the incident caused by Lei Zhandou that caused Yuan Xiaomei's parents to change their attitude 180 degrees.

Li Liang's long-cherished wish was finally realized, and Liang Ziqiang was very happy for him.

But at the same time he was happy, he was also a little worried. He was worried that when Lin Baixian heard the news, he would probably be heartbroken again.

The hope that was finally regained was shattered again so quickly.

But no one can do anything about this. Liang Ziqiang feels that Yuan Xiaomei actually likes Li Liang more than Lin Baixian. In a sense, Li Liang and Yuan Xiaomei can be regarded as "lovers finally get married".

Liang Ziqiang did not continue to discuss this mixed news.

"Hurry up and start the boat, there are fish!"

Following Deng Zhaocai's shout, several people who had just put down their bowls and chopsticks and had no time to rest for a moment, all started pulling up the nets again.

This time, the water was trembling like thin grey papers. A very flat fish was waving like countless hands spread out in the azure water.

Toothfish!
Liang Ziqiang was obviously much more energetic than when he faced the bluefin bream in the morning. He was driving the boat and carrying the net.

Toothfish is also a typical winter fish. I finally encountered one today...

Burst

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(End of this chapter)