Chapter 278 Fishing for Shrimp
The corn stalks cannot be harvested for silage now, so we have to wait a little longer.
She calculated the time so that after she finished harvesting the corn stalks, she could harvest the red beans, green beans and sesame seeds.
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It took Mu Xi half a month to burn all the charcoal. The burned charcoal was first piled in the hay house. The newly built hay house was very stable and there would definitely not be the worry of leaks like last year.
There is still half a month left before the corn harvest, and this period is a rare period of slack season for farmers.
The last time Zhao Yeqing went to the lake to take the cage back, there were only a few tiny shrimps in it, not even enough to fill his stomach.
I immediately decided to weave a fishing net. I must take advantage of the right season and eat to my heart's content!
The two of them twisted ramie into ropes and weaved a large net. They were not skilled and kept weaving and unweaving. Fortunately, both of them were not very clumsy, so it took them a week to finally figure out the method.
The mesh of the fishing net is very fine, so as long as the shrimp is not particularly small, it should be able to be caught.
The net was a bit heavy, so the two of them worked together to carry it to the shore. Mu Xi checked the safety of the bamboo raft that had been built earlier.
The previously green bamboo raft has now been tanned to light yellow, but fortunately there is no sign of cracking or insect damage. He pushed the raft into the water, then went on to try it himself, and only pulled Zhao Yeqing up after making sure it was safe.
The two men rowed and stopped about ten meters away from the shore, preparing to start casting the net from here.
The fishing nets they have seen since childhood are of two types. One is a round fishing net. After throwing it out, they pull the rope to close the net and pull it back, and the fish will be wrapped in the net.
There is also a kind of fishing net that is in a row of long strips. A line on the top of the fishing net is tied to a floating object. The net sinks into the water and is pulled into a long "wall". Any fish passing by will be caught in the net.
The long strips are usually put into water and collected after a day or half a day.
The two of them made round ones, thinking that this kind is easier to catch shrimps.
But it is not so easy to spread the fishing net. Zhao Yeqing believes that she is now much stronger than an ordinary adult male, but the fishing net is made of hemp rope after all, and is very large.
Unlike lightweight nylon, small stones are tied to the bottom of the net to accelerate the sinking speed of the net and quickly wrap up the fish.
Therefore, you need to be quick and agile when casting the net. You need to swing the net and turn it around once or twice. Then, you need to use your hands, shoulders, and waist to exert force at the same time so that the net can be thrown out and spread out at the same time.
Zhao Yeqing tried several times and almost threw himself out before he barely succeeded once.
The lake was very deep and the rope they left was quite long. Zhao Yeqing slowly lowered the rope into the water bit by bit and tied the end of the rope in his hand to the bamboo raft to prevent it from falling.
When the rope in her hand was almost untied, she hurriedly called Mu Xi, "You can collect it now!"
When collecting the fishing net, it is obvious that the weight in the net is quite large, so two people stand one in front and one behind to prevent the bamboo raft from tipping over due to uneven weight.
Pull up the fishing net little by little.
Zhao Yeqing made a worst-case scenario plan, thinking that catching a few small fish would be considered a harvest, and he would accept it as long as he didn't come up empty-handed.
The fishing net gradually approached the water surface. The moment it left the water surface, Zhao Yeqing's eyes were dazzled by the shimmering silver scales in the fishing net.
There was half a bag of fish in it!
"Quick, quick, put the net bag in the big basin!"
This time they brought a large stainless steel basin and a small plastic bucket from home. The basin was as big as three or four ordinary washbasins. The two of them put the net bag in it and shook it vigorously.
Small and big fish all fluttered and fell into the large silver basin. In addition to the common fish, there were also some species that Zhao Yeqing had never seen before. They were probably usually hiding in the upper and lower water layers of the lake.
The fish fry were thrown back into the water, and the largest fish weighed nearly five or six kilograms.
Zhao Yeqing laughed so hard that his eyes disappeared. "This is such a great sense of accomplishment."
The start was a good one and she reaped the rewards. She took all the fish stuck on the fishing net and put them into a basin, then handed the fishing net to Mu Xi.
"You go and try it."
It was impossible to fish in one place all the time, so Mu Xi paddled the bamboo raft to another place.
As expected, casting a net is not easy. Mu Xi tried several times before gradually mastering the trick. However, the catch he got after casting the net was not as good as Zhao Yeqing's.
There were only some small fish in it, but no lake shrimps that the two wanted.
Is it the wrong location or the wrong time?
Zhao Yeqing recalled the time when her grandfather took her to the small pond to catch shrimps. It seemed that they always went to pick wild vegetables first, and when they were about to go home, it was already dark before they took back the shrimp cages.
"Shrimp seem to feed at night, right?"
And it seems to like shady waters where there are aquatic plants and cracks between rocks.
It is difficult to find cracks in the rocks in this big lake, but you can still find some on the shady side near the water plants.
The two men rowed the bamboo raft over there. It was already five o'clock in the afternoon. The two men chatted on the bamboo raft. After waiting for an hour, Zhao Yeqing killed a small fish, chopped the fish meat into pieces and scattered it on the lake.
The fish meat was neither too big nor too small, and it slowly sank to the bottom of the water. After more than ten minutes, Mu Xi took the fishing net and walked to the front of the bamboo raft and cast the net out.
This side was only five or six meters away from the shore, and the cast fishing net was almost touching the reeds on the shore. He controlled the force and saw the fishing net enter the water smoothly. After waiting for a few minutes, the rope in his hand was exhausted.
Whether it will succeed or not depends on this wave.
The two of them slowly pulled the rope back and felt that the weight was obviously not as heavy as the two nets before.
But after pulling it onto the bamboo raft, Zhao Yeqing took a closer look and saw that it was full of lake shrimps. It was estimated that one of the shrimp groups below had been caught by them.
"This! It must weigh several dozen kilograms, right?"
Mu Xi nodded while holding the fishing net to indicate that there were indeed some. Now he didn't dare to put the shrimps together with the fish, for fear that they would all be eaten when he got home.
I could only put all the shrimps in a small plastic bucket.
The mouth of the bucket is not big, so some shrimps are bound to fall out when being put in. One person shakes the fishing net above, while another picks up the shrimps into the bucket from the ground.
Finally, we harvested a big bucket full of lake shrimps.
Mu Xi grabbed the largest one and examined it in his hand. "It's the right season, these shrimps are so many and fat."
This one is nearly six or seven centimeters long, which is considered super large among wild lake shrimps.
It was not easy to carry so many things back. The two of them pulled the fish scrapers out of the middle of the large stainless steel basin, placed the plastic bucket in the middle of the basin, and it was already half past seven when they carried the basin back home together.
It's time to make dinner.
After getting fresh fish and shrimp, I put the mutton soup that I had originally planned to eat back into the refrigerator.
Large sea bass are steamed. Sea bass can still be caught in this season, but when the weather gets colder in a while, there will be fewer warm-water fish, and it will be the time to eat less.
The big carp that cannot be eaten are put into the fish pond.
The fish inside are now very saturated. Zhao Yeqing shook off the water droplets on his hands and planned to process them all tomorrow.
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