Chapter 454: Endless Giant Grouper
We drove slowly in this sea area for more than an hour.
The reason why we have to go slower than usual trawling operations is mainly because we are worried that there may be protruding reefs underwater, and if we hit them too hard, we are afraid that the steel plates of the ship will be broken.
But in fact, as long as you don't get close to that reef, you won't be hit by the reef. Maybe that small area is relatively high, and the other large reefs on the seabed may not be too high, but lie deeper underwater.
This makes it easier for them to trawle.
They were already hungry, and it was late, and they hadn't had dinner yet. While trawling, they hurriedly cooked some fish. Lu Feng and his friends had nothing else to do, so they came over to help with the cooking, and the meal was not bad.
When the time was almost up, Liang Ziqiang decided to collect the nets. All three boats slowed down further, then operated the winches to slowly collect the nets.
It looked like a big catch. Although there was still some fish from the afternoon that had not been sorted out on the deck, I couldn't care less for the time being. I pushed the fish and shrimp in front aside and made room for the new catch.
This net was dragged all the way here from far away, and combined with the more than an hour spent in this sea area, the catch was quite varied.
Liang Ziqiang was most concerned about whether there were giant groupers. The result was not disappointing, but it was not a surprise either.
The one closest to the outside of the net, which was the most recent one to be pulled in, did contain a giant grouper. It was not as big as the two that appeared in front of us, but it probably weighed more than 100 pounds.
At the same time, there were several common groupers weighing several kilograms, which are the kind that Liang Ziqiang usually encounters in the shallow sea, including tiger grouper and blue grouper.
Apart from this very large one and a few small ones, there were no other groupers. The rest were black sea bream, as well as bluefin bream, small yellow croaker, golden pomfret, swallowtail pomfret and the like that were caught along the way.
I asked Shengboqiang and Zhongqiang. Zhu Tianpeng and Lu Song said their fish were similar to Ziqiang. They didn't catch too many giant groupers, but they still had some.
This proves two points. First, there are indeed large areas of reefs that are particularly suitable for groupers to inhabit, so there must be a lot of groupers hiding in the deep water. Second, even if there are a lot of groupers hiding, it is not ideal to use trawling to catch them. Most of them hide near the reefs, and only a few come to the surface.
This is determined by the nature of groupers. It seems that although it is a pie in the sky, how to pick it up is still a problem.
It was too late today and any further effort would not yield any results, so he and the crew hastened to sort out the catch on deck.
As time is tight and there are a lot of fish, we can only use the old method. The classification is a little rougher than usual, but it will be fine as long as we can roughly sort them out.
This deep-sea grouper is supposed to have a hole poked in its belly after getting on board the ship in order to account for the difference in pressure between the deep sea and the ship.
But Liang Ziqiang didn't need to do that, because he poked the hole to keep the grouper alive, but he had a cold storage on his boat, so he could just use it to keep it fresh.
This is different from bleeding tuna or bonito. Even if grouper is directly frozen for preservation, it will not affect the texture of the meat to a great extent.
By the time all the fish and shrimp were cleaned and put into the cold storage compartment, Liang Ziqiang and his team were already sweating profusely and didn't want to move anymore.
I turned around and looked at Lu Feng and the others. They were sitting on the deck, looking up at the stars and the moon, chatting and laughing...
There is really no way that people's lives and state of mind can be the same!
Judging from the energetic mood of Lu Feng and his friends, they could easily sit here and chat all night long.
Liang Ziqiang actually wanted to tell them: Since you are so energetic, we don’t need to arrange for anyone to be on duty tonight. It’s enough for you to sit on the boat at night…
After a night's sleep, Liang Ziqiang made a decision the next day:
Today, the Ziqiang ship stopped trawling and instead sat down to fish.
After all, if you trawle here, you can't get as many fish as you do in the wintering grounds, so normally you only get a little over 1,000 kilograms of fish in one net. Even though the price of common bluefin bream has increased in recent years, it's still only a few cents per kilogram. It's unlikely that each boat's daily trawling income will exceed 1,000 yuan.
But if you catch a few more giant groupers, each one can be worth thousands of dollars, and several thousand more!
As for the fishing rods, Lu Feng and his crew were well prepared this time. They brought several spare fishing rods on the boat, all of which could be used for deep-sea fishing.
Of course, the two ships, Boqiang and Zhongqiang, continued to carry out trawling operations. After all, fishing rods could not support so many people.
Seeing Liang Ziqiang, Li Liang and the others coming to the iron railings to start fishing, Lu Feng came over and said:
"How about this, let's go fishing together. But if we catch a giant grouper this time, we won't keep it for ourselves. We'll just help you catch it. Because this is the place that the killer whale led you to. It's obvious that it wants to give these big fish to you as a token of its gratitude, not to us!"
"Ah, you guys help fishing?" Liang Ziqiang didn't expect Lu Feng to say this.
"Why, shouldn't it be like this? You Lijun was also rescued indirectly by you. Killer whales know how to repay a favor, so shouldn't we at least express our gratitude?" Lu Feng smiled and said half-jokingly.
"No, the biggest of these giant groupers can weigh more than 200 kilograms, which is as big as the bluefin tuna that escaped yesterday. Can you control it? Don't let it turn out like yesterday, it would be too scary!"
Lin Baixian was the most straightforward. In fact, Liang Ziqiang had also taken this into consideration. If a 200-jin bluefin tuna is not easy to catch, will a 200-jin giant grouper be good? Lin Baixian's words were spot-on, but they were embarrassing to listen to.
Lu Feng rubbed his hands in embarrassment: "It seems so. Why don't we take out the other rods we have and let you guys fish?"
"How about this," Liang Ziqiang thought for a moment, "It's not that there is no other solution. Let's half-fix this end of the fishing rod!"
As he spoke, he found a thick rope, came to the front of the middle of the boat, and tied the thick rope to the end of the fishing rod handle. The other end of the thick rope was connected to the winch and tied firmly.
In this way, the fishing rod can still be swung and moved up and down, but it will not be pulled forward too far by the big fish, so the fisherman will not be pulled off the boat.
After all the fishing rods were prepared, fishing began. The bait was the small fish caught by the trawl net.
Compared to normal fishing, the waiting time this time was much longer, probably because the giant groupers were hiding deeper.
After waiting for a long time, Liang Ziqiang's fishing rod moved suddenly.
It spit out a little, then sank deeper. The second time it came down it was so fast and fierce that it seemed as if the whole fishing rod would be taken away by it.
Liang Ziqiang and Li Liang hurriedly worked together to pull the fishing rod up, and Liang's father also came to help.
With the combined efforts of the three, a giant grouper with brown spots all over its body, which looked a little different from yesterday, was lifted out of the water and started struggling.
"What a big grouper! Be careful. A grouper this big is as strong as a big tuna!" the other crew members reminded.
However, the scene that happened to You Lijun yesterday would obviously not happen again. Liang Ziqiang and the other two cooperated tacitly and slowly pulled the giant grouper onto the boat...
(End of this chapter)
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