"What's all that noise outside!"
Ye Lin was the first to exclaim in surprise, put down his bowl and ran outside.
The others followed closely behind, and at the same time, sounds kept rising from the deck, like firecrackers going off, crackling and popping endlessly.
As Fu Wan followed Ye Lin and stepped through the small door leading to the deck, she could already see what it was by looking past Ye Lin.
Fish, lots of fish.
It rained down on the deck, leaving the arriving crew stunned.
"May Mazu bless us! Aren't these flying fish? Why are they all flying onto our boat?"
Fu Jinshui exclaimed in surprise, and Fu Haishun pointed to the large light on the nail plate.
"The lights we were using to sort the fish were left on. These flying fish are attracted to light, so they must have all come for it."
Upon hearing this, everyone looked over and indeed saw that there were many more fish under the light. It seemed that Fu Haishun was right; the light was what attracted the fish.
Ye Lin slapped his thigh and laughed heartily, then turned to Fu Wan and said, "Wan, we've finally made back the money for the lamp. It wasn't for nothing that you specially asked someone to buy such a bright lamp."
"See? I told you we wouldn't lose money."
Fu Wan smiled, but Fu Haishun and the others were still confused, so Ye Lin patiently explained it to them.
On their last trip out to sea, they caught a lot of squid with a homemade flashlight, but the flashlight itself was ruined.
After returning, Fu Wan thought about it and then asked Fu Laoda and Chen Balang to go to that person and order ten more large lanterns. Several were placed on each of the four boats, with the intention of using them for squid fishing later.
Taking this opportunity, Boss Fu not only bought a modified squid fishing light, but also replaced the lights on the deck.
At night, when it's pitch black, sorting the fish is much easier with bright lights, and the boatmen are less likely to get pricked by poisonous fish.
But these lights weren't cheap. Fu Liang paid for the lights on the Xiangqian ship himself, while Fu Wan and Fu Ming paid for the lights on the other three ships.
Putting everything else aside, the lights on the "Sailing Against the Wind" alone cost nearly a hundred yuan.
However, the lights are very effective; once turned on, the deck is as bright as daytime.
While they were sorting through the fish, Fu Haishun and the others thought the light was nice. After they finished sorting the fish, they were all attracted by the aroma of instant noodles and forgot to turn off the light.
I didn't expect it to attract so many flying fish.
As everyone was talking, two more flying fish landed in front of Fu Wan one after another.
"Wow, it's not small at all!"
Fu Wan gestured with her hand; the flying fish in front of her was longer than her palm and looked to weigh at least a pound.
It has a good weight and a good appearance.
The most distinctive feature of the flying fish is its pair of wing-like fins. This fish has a slender body and looks like a small glider.
Because of their naturally sleek body shape and wing-like fins, flying fish can store energy in the water and fly out of the water at an astonishing speed.
This type of fish is generally about 30 centimeters long. Its back is usually dark blue, its belly is silvery white, and its pectoral fins have spots. The color of the spots on the pectoral fins varies depending on the species of flying fish.
Image from Feiyu.com, please delete if infringing.
Flying fish are strongly attracted to light and like to migrate in groups. The strange scene on the deck at this moment is clearly an encounter with a school of flying fish migrating on the sea surface.
Considering the time, this is the season when flying fish breed. Thinking of this, Fu Wan instructed everyone, "It's rare for fish to come to us on their own. When you're catching fish later, remember to keep an eye out and throw the ones with big bellies back into the sea."
"Okay, I got it!"
Ye Lin and the others readily agreed. Seeing that fewer flying fish had landed on the boat, they all rushed to collect the fish, pulling their baskets along the way.
Flying fish is actually not very expensive because fresh flying fish doesn't taste particularly good.
Fu Wan estimated that the fish wouldn't cost more than 50 cents a pound. Actually, dried flying fish would be more expensive, but Fu Wan was too lazy to bother with it.
Cleaning and drying the fish takes a lot of manpower. If Ye Xiaocui is willing, she can dry some for her own consumption later.
Although the meat isn't particularly tasty, flying fish meat has medicinal value and is somewhat effective in treating stomach aches and hemorrhoids.
Fu Wan wasn't particularly interested in the flying fish, but everyone else just thought it was fun. The scene of fish flying right up to you without needing to cast a net or use bait was no different from money falling from the sky in broad daylight.
No fisherman could resist such a scene.
About half an hour later, the "Riding the Waves" had sailed quite a distance, probably far away from the location of the flying fish, and gradually no more flying fish continued to fly onto the ship.
We collected four or five baskets of flying fish from the deck, weighing about 200 pounds. The ones carrying eggs and the smaller ones were all thrown back into the sea.
Fu Wan glanced at her watch. Time flies when you're sorting through the fish. It was almost four o'clock, and she estimated that it would be at least two more hours before the next net was hauled in.
After Fu Laoda and Dong Haiyang took turns guarding the deck, Fu Haishun and the others would also take turns keeping watch. Seeing that there was nothing for her to do, Fu Wan simply went back to sleep.
Before going to sleep, she suddenly remembered the sea iron tree that Sun Youjin had asked her to find.
She knew she would definitely have to go into the water to help him search this time. She planned to wait until it was light and the visibility in the water was high before going in to take a look.
I slept soundly until dawn, and when the ship's clock rang again, it was almost 7 a.m.
The trawling took a long time, and Old Fu didn't sail fast. He only rang the bell to call for help when the trawling reached its limit.
After resting for most of the night, everyone was still in pretty good spirits.
When Fu Wan finished brushing her teeth and washing her face and arrived on the deck, Ye Lin and the others were already picking out fish.
The net had yielded a pretty good catch. Fu Wan glanced around and saw that there were several hundred kilograms of mackerel alone, as well as a lot of transparent glass squid and various other fish.
To Fu Wan's delight, almost all of the mackerel were blue-spotted mackerel, which had the best taste. Overjoyed, Fu Wan picked up two mackerel whose bellies had been split open from being trawled for a long time and planned to fry them and eat them with porridge.
Not only mackerel, but also a basket or two of pipefish, and two particularly large ??? fish, piled on the deck, were so ugly that it was unbearable to look at.
Fu Haishun got up the earliest. Last night, he and Fu Daniu took turns watching the trawl net behind them. These men are never idle. While watching the trawl net, he also ran to the side to set up a coal stove and cooked a pot of fragrant sweet potato porridge.
There were no fresh sweet potatoes on the boat, so they used dried sweet potatoes that Fu Haishun had sun-dried himself. They simmered them over low heat for an hour, and the sweetness of the dried sweet potatoes infused the rice.
While everyone was sorting through the fish, the congee had just cooled down.
Fu Wan would be happy if someone cooked breakfast. It had to be one of the men from her village, someone who was attentive to detail.
Seeing that the fish had been sorted out, Fu Wan took the mackerel to the kitchen. This time, with Fang Min helping her, in less than half an hour, the mackerel, gutted, became fragrant fish meat.
After breakfast, Fu Wan took out her fishing rod. She felt it wasn't good to go into the water right after eating too much, so she needed to find something to do to digest before diving and trying her luck.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com