1983Fishing and Farming between Mountains and Seas

Chapter 263: Ugly and Expensive Underwater Vampire

Liang Ziqiang and his friends brought not only longline fishing rods today, but also conventional fishing rods.

Because the sea area where they first tried longline fishing was none other than the waters near Niu Shi Island!

On Niu Shi Island, there are still some snappers that they haven't caught yet. How can they just leave this rare and valuable resource there? They have to keep fishing.

Today they plan to go to the waters near Niu Shi Island to cast longline fishing and see what the harvest is.

In the afternoon, before heading back, we headed to the reef area of ​​Niu Shi Island and used both longlines and conventional fishing rods to see if we could catch some more snappers.

The two boats sailed all the way towards Niu Shi Island. When they reached Niu Shi Island but could see the gray shadow of the island in the distance, they slowed down the boats.

"How about trying fishing here?" Liang Ziqiang asked.

"Let them go! I think we encountered the peach blossom shrimp in this area last time?" said Liang's father.

Judging from the general location, it seems that they did encounter a wave of peach blossom shrimps in this area last time and caught a lot of them to sell.

However, the water in this area was very quiet today. There were not many fish or shrimps, let alone any peach shrimps.

It looked no different from any other calm sea area.

However, the fish under the water are not easy to see, and they cannot determine whether there are bottom or bottom fish, so they try it first.

Pulling one of the basins over, Liang Ziqiang removed the fifty iron hooks that were already hung with baits from the mud, and then tied this branch line to the thicker main rope.

The lower end of the branch line is tied with a sinker.

The main rope and the buoy rope had already been connected and tied. Liang Ziqiang put each branch line into the sea after connecting it.

Beside him, Zhu Tianpeng had also tied a fishing line and put it into the water beside the boat together with the main rope.

Liang Ziqiang has twenty-four basins, or fishing lines, on his boat, but they have not been fully released yet.

I just put all the twelve pots of shrimp bait that I had caught that morning into the water. Of course, I kept the other empty hooks on the boat.

There are twelve basins, each with fifty hooks, which means there are six hundred hooks in total.

These twelve fishing lines and six hundred hooks are evenly spaced and lined up side by side in the sea water, starting from the top and falling vertically to the bottom of the sea.

The main rope at the top is connected to the side of the ship through many ropes.

After everything was done, the ship did not stop completely, but maintained a certain speed and slowly moved on the sea.

In this way, the hooks in the water will continue to float under the dual effects of the fishing boats and the ocean currents.

The shrimps on the iron hook seemed to come back to life and swam gracefully with the iron hook.

In fact, there are many slightly larger fish in the water that like this kind of swimming "live bait" the most. They are not interested in dead fish and shrimps, but prefer to chase these small living things.

I waited for more than an hour, maybe close to two hours, and I guessed it was time to stop fishing.

This is more uncertain than casting a net or fishing. You have no idea whether there is any fish on the fishing line, which makes people feel nervous and expectant.

Liang Ziqiang slowly pulled the first fishing line out of the water and pulled it back to the boat piece by piece.

What's disappointing is that if you use a large section of fishing line, there's nothing at all.

Some of the iron hooks still have shrimps on them, but on others, even the shrimps have been soaked by water, leaving only empty iron hooks.

But based on the subsequent feel, Liang Ziqiang felt that there were fish under the water. There must be some fish at the bottom of the fishing line!
He quickened his hand speed, and as he got closer to the bottom of the fishing line, a fish finally appeared.

The disappointment on their faces did not ease, but became more obvious because of the fish that emerged.

The shape of this fish is very easy to recognize, it’s a sea catfish!
Sea catfish usually prefer to crawl on the seabed, no wonder it was caught near the bottom of the fishing line.

The size is bigger than the most common shallow sea fish, this one is probably two or three pounds. But this fish is cheap!

Although it is not as cheap as the five-cent pike perch, it is not much better either, just one or two cents more, and is about the same as the dragon head fish.

Liang Ziqiang pulled the line onto the boat, and Zhu Tianpeng was busy helping him pick the fish. The fish was still wiggling after being taken off the hook. Except for the mouth being hooked, there was not even a scratch on the body, so it would look good when sold.

This fish has started to move forward, and it seems like there is no way to stop moving forward.

Further down the fishing line, there are at least a dozen iron hooks, one at regular intervals.

The good news is that every hook has a catch, but the bad news is that every hook is, as expected, a sea catfish.

"There are so many sea catfish at the bottom of the water. What a pity, they are not valuable!"

Liang Tiancheng shouted to them. It was obvious that the longline fishing that his boat had brought up was also a series of sea catfish.

After collecting five or six in a row, Liang Ziqiang's hands suddenly trembled and he couldn't help but let out a "fuck".

Not only he said "Fuck", Zhu Tianpeng and Liang Tiancheng also said "Fuck" like a parrot.

Even Liang Ziqiang's old father lost his dignity and shouted "Grass, grass, grass" three times!
I saw two large sea catfish caught on two iron hooks at the bottom, weighing about three or four pounds.

But the body of this sea catfish, especially the gills and abdomen, seemed to have grown thin black tentacles!
Those black vine-like tentacles twisted and squirmed like long snakes, making people feel nauseous and their hearts tremble at the same time!

But I had to endure the nausea and couldn't just throw it away. I had to take it off the hook!

Besides, no one would be willing to throw it away.

"Can't you put on a glove by yourself? Why are you still standing there? This thing will bite your palm into a sieve soon. Who will you cry to?" On the boat over there, Liang's father was already scolding Liang Tiancheng.

After scolding him, Liang's father continued with a sigh:

"Fuck, I finally made some money from this stuff! This disgusting thing is way more expensive than sea catfish!"

Liang Ziqiang and Zhu Tianpeng had been wearing gloves since the beginning when they caught their fish. At this moment, Zhu Tianpeng and Liang Ziqiang held back their nausea and carefully removed the catfish from the hook along with the snake-like thing on its body and threw them into the bucket.

"Damn, things in the world are weird, aren't they? They look disgusting, but they are delicious and nutritious, and they are expensive!" Zhu Tianpeng said while working.

"That's not true. Lampreys are not the most expensive. Chicken snails are even more expensive. They are ugly and expensive!"

Liang Ziqiang responded by pulling up two more sea catfish that were "possessed" by lampreys.

The sea catfish they caught from near the bottom of the sea had something called lamprey firmly attached to their bodies.

I heard that it is also a primitive creature of archaeological level. It is not a real fish or eel. It has no lower jaw, and its entire mouth is just a disc full of tiny teeth.

This thing can be called the "vampire" of the sea. When it stabs salmon, trout, and catfish, it is like driving dozens of nails at the same time, sucking blood and eating flesh.

But its taste itself is very tempting, and it has been a delicacy for thousands of years.

Moreover, since the amount that can be caught is small, the price is naturally very high. As for the fact that it is hard to find in later generations and sells for hundreds of yuan per kilogram, that is even more amazing.

Even at the big dock in the village, the price would be quite considerable. Of course, Liang Ziqiang did not intend to sell it to Zheng Liu. There was no doubt that Yuehai Restaurant would definitely take it directly.

Even if Zheng Liu took it, it would have passed through several hands and most likely ended up in the Yuehai Restaurant.

Soon the entire fishing line, with all fifty hooks, was pulled out of the water and brought onto the boat.

With just this one line, we harvested more than ten sea catfish and nine lampreys.

Some sea catfish had more than one lamprey on their bodies, and some had as many as two or three. The whole fish had been sucked to death, and it was a cruel sight.

After collecting the first branch line, Liang Ziqiang discovered a small group of white shrimps on the sea surface. They were small and there was no need to cast a net, so he quickly used a hand net to catch them.

These white shrimps are like bait delivered to them.

The white shrimp was immediately strung on the hook of the branch line. All fifty hooks were baited again, so the line that had just been used to catch the catfish was thrown back into the water to continue fishing.

At the same time, the two of them collected the second and third fishing lines to see what kind of fish the other fishing lines would catch...

(Picture of lamprey, posted below in "Chapter Description")
(End of this chapter)