As time went by, half an hour soon arrived.
Just then, Bai Yu took a moment to glance at the system's search panel. He saw that the light spots belonging to the fish school were very close to their fishing boat, only a few hundred meters away.
For sea fish, such a short distance is a distance they can cover in the blink of an eye.
Although the croakers that Bai Yu searched for were not considered fast-moving sea fish, most sea fish, except for a few other species, are not slow.
Sure enough, in just two or three minutes, the school of fish had already overlapped with the light spot where the fishing boat was located, and they had come to the bottom of the fishing boat!
Just then, Bai Yu clearly felt his fishing rod suddenly sink down, and a fish took the bait!
He wasn't the only one; the other anglers fishing on the deck at that time all had fish biting their hooks at the same time, essentially achieving synchronized bites.
After feeling the fish bite the hook, Bai Yu immediately turned his attention away from the system panel and then suddenly lifted the fishing rod upwards!
First, lift the rod and set the hook, then reward the fish that has taken the bait!
His hooking maneuver successfully kept the fish on the hook, and then Bai Yu began to quickly reel in the line, as fast as he could, completely disregarding the feelings of the fish that had taken the bait.
Others might not be clear about the current situation, but Bai Yu, who possessed the system, was very aware that a school of croakers was waiting for them right below the fishing boat.
If they can't speed up their fishing and maximize their efficiency, wouldn't that be a loss for Bai Yu and the others?
Bai Yu was 90% certain that the fish that had taken the bait was a croaker, and a large one weighing about ten pounds. He was eager to catch it.
As for why it's 90%?
This is naturally to leave room for a 10% chance of something going wrong. After all, Bai Yu doesn't have X-ray vision. He can only know that there is a group of croakers under their fishing boat, but he has no way of knowing the species of the fish that have taken the bait.
With each cast and reel in of the line, Bai Yu, seemingly unconcerned about the fish's feelings, quickly hauled the fish up and onto the surface of the sea.
Just as Bai Yu was about to grab the net to scoop up the fish, someone else grabbed the net first and scooped the croaker into it.
"Hey, Brother Li, you're awake! How was your sleep last night?"
"Not bad. Xiaoyu, you've all started fishing. Why didn't you call me to help you net the fish? You paid to go fishing at sea, so you shouldn't waste the services you're entitled to!"
However, it must be said that this croaker is quite large; it must weigh at least ten pounds. I just wonder how big its swim bladder is.
That's right, the person who gave the white fish to Bai Yu was naturally Brother Li. He had also woken up and come out of the cabin to go to work.
"Brother Li, what kind of relationship do we have? Why are you talking about service? Besides, you just woke up and came over by yourself. There was no need to go out of your way to call you."
After Brother Li scooped the croaker onto the deck, Bai Yu saw that Brother Li had removed the hook, so he immediately put a shrimp on the hook and continued casting.
For Bai Hao now, time is money. The more efficient he is at fishing, the more fish he can catch.
Especially since he's currently using a rig for catching giant croakers, if he can catch a super-sized croaker from this school of croakers, he'll definitely make a fortune.
After all, the most valuable part of the croaker is its swim bladder, and the larger the fish, the larger its swim bladder.
Even if he doesn't catch any big croakers, as long as a fish bites the hook, whether it weighs ten or twenty pounds, it doesn't matter to Bai Yu. He can use brute force to pull the fish out of the sea.
Just then, Brother Li, who was processing croaker, spoke up.
"Xiao Yu, are you reeling in this croaker too fast? Look at how depressurized it is. I feel like if I let it deflate a little later, it'll explode in the next second!"
As Li Ge spoke, he showed the croaker in his hand to Bai Yu.
The croaker, which had only been on the boat for a little over a minute, had already begun to change drastically. The entire fish swelled up, just like an inflated balloon.
The most terrifying thing about this guy is his eyes, which are bulging out, and his mouth is also extremely large, as if he had suffered a great shock before he died.
The croaker's current state is exactly what happens when a fish is caught from deep water and then experiences severe decompression.
For many marine fish, the most serious consequence of internal decompression is that their swim bladders begin to swell, eventually causing them to choke to death.
This is especially evident in croakers, because croakers have a large swim bladder. When the pressure inside their bodies is lost, it can be quite terrifying; if not treated promptly, they can really burst!
"Yeah, I was fishing too fast just now, but I didn't expect to catch a croaker. I thought it was some other kind of fish, which is why I was being a bit reckless."
"But it's alright. The most valuable part of the croaker is its swim bladder. As long as the swim bladder is still there, a slightly less-than-perfect appearance isn't a big deal. Anyway, it's all processed in bulk anyway, either made into canned goods or fish balls. Appearance doesn't matter."
Bai Yu wasn't particularly concerned about what Brother Li had said.
As he said, the appearance of the croaker really has little impact on its price; the main thing is that it has a swim bladder.
The swim bladder of the croaker, once dried, becomes fish glue, the kind that can sell for hundreds or even thousands of yuan per kilogram.
The most valuable fish maw is that of the yellow croaker, also known as the golden croaker. However, the yellow croaker is not the same as the croaker. Although they belong to the same family and genus, they are two different fish.
Furthermore, due to overfishing, the yellow croaker is now on the list of fish that are prohibited from being caught. It is the kind of fish that can be exchanged for several years of free room and board.
Most of the fish maw available on the market today is made from croaker.
Bai Yu's family has a lot of fish maw. These fish maws come in various sizes. Some are made from the swim bladders of croakers weighing a few pounds, while others are made from the swim bladders of croakers weighing nearly a hundred pounds.
I have to give credit to Bai Yu for this. The largest fish bladder was taken from the croaker that Bai Yu and Wang Hai caught while fishing during the Chinese New Year a few years ago. The bladder was then dried and made into fish glue.
Even though the fish maw has been dried, it still weighs two pounds, which is no small amount.
Moreover, the value of this fish maw is very high. Uncle Sun had previously asked Bai's father to buy the largest fish maw, and he had offered 20,000 yuan, but Bai's father stubbornly refused to sell it.
In the end, Bai's father couldn't outlast Uncle Sun and took about a pound of fish maw from home, which Uncle Sun then took away.
This time, Bai Yu also wanted to catch a large croaker so he could replenish his family's fish maw inventory.
After Bai Yu cast his line for the second time, the hook and bait slowly sank to the seabed, taking about a minute in total.
Just as Bai Yu felt the fishhook was about right and had just sunk, he instantly felt a fish bite. The speed was so fast that it seemed like not a second had passed.
The fish bit the hook very quickly, but Bai Yu's reaction was equally swift. Upon sensing the movement on the fishing rod, he immediately lifted the rod to set the hook!
As I said before, it's all an instinctive reaction, just like when he heard the starting gun during the competition.
In Bai Yu's perception, this time the fish that took the bait was even bigger than the last one, and it put much more pressure on him.
However, it was only much larger, not beyond what Bai Yu could bear; the guy weighed less than fifty pounds.
Since it wasn't beyond Bai Yu's tolerance, he wasn't going to be polite with this guy. He picked up his fishing rod and prepared to reel in the line.
For this fish, which might weigh 20 or 30 pounds, or even 30 or 40 pounds, Bai Yu still adopted the same aggressive approach, and just went for it.
Those quick tugs of the rod are very effective for fish of this size; the only downside is that they can be a bit tiring.
This time, it took about four minutes for Bai Yu to drag a huge croaker to the surface of the sea, exposing its plump body to the landing net.
"Wow, Xiaoyu, you're really lucky today! You caught another croaker so quickly. This croaker is even bigger and fatter. It must weigh at least forty or fifty pounds!"
The moment the croaker was pulled from the water, Brother Li was already waiting with his net, and then he scooped it into the net. The whole process went very smoothly.
Even if things don't go smoothly, it won't work. Although it took a lot of time for Baiyu to catch this croaker, the time and speed were already considered very fast.
Especially in the last twenty or so meters of fishing line, Bai Yu caught it at an extremely fast speed. Now the guy is facing the double blow of exhaustion and loss of pressure, and can only float on the sea surface at Li Ge's mercy.
It didn't take long for Brother Li to bring the fish onto the deck. Before Brother Li could even process the croaker, Wang Hai caught another fish. He had no choice but to take the net and go to Wang Hai's side to help him catch the fish.
As for handling the croaker, that task was left to Bai Yu, who took care of the rest himself.
After all, to avoid wasting too much time and causing the fish maw in the croaker's belly to expand and explode, Bai Yu had to hurry up and process it.
As for how to deal with it, it's actually very simple. Just prick the croaker's belly a few times to release the air from its swim bladder, and all the problems will be solved.
If it were any other small sea fish, Bai Yu might have to worry about not being able to find its swim bladder, but when faced with a croaker, he had no such worries at all.
Because the swim bladder occupies most of the space inside the croaker's belly, if you can't find one spot, you can just try finding several.
The tool that white fishermen use to vent the croaker is a large awl with a wooden handle, the kind used for sewing shoe soles.
Every angler who enjoys sea fishing has their own unique tools for venting air from sea fish; some use pins, while others use syringes.
However, Bai Yu prefers this kind of large-headed cone, as the wooden handle is particularly comfortable to hold.
Bai Yu took the awl and pricked the guy's stomach five or six times in a row. He only stopped when he felt air coming out of the small holes.
Bai Yu definitely couldn't put this 40-50 pound croaker into a styrofoam box. This guy was quite big, over a meter long, definitely a meter-sized fish.
This guy has such a big belly that he looks like a farmed fish, much fatter than a typical croaker.
Bai Yu immediately put the big fish on the cart, then called Brother Li and took all the fish they had caught that day to the freezer.
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