As Li Shuang continued to reel in the line, his fish got closer and closer to the surface of the sea, while Bai Yu waited by with a landing net.
As a large, irregular shadow appeared on the sea, Bai Yu and Li Shuang knew that the fish that had taken the bait was about to surface.
The irregularly shaped shadow proved that Bai Yu's conjecture seemed to be correct. After all, a fish should look like a fish, and the manta ray is different from most sea fish, which can be seen from this one.
Just as Bai Yu and his companions had expected, the first thing they saw when the creature came to the surface was its white belly.
This guy was actually fished up flipped over!
After Bai Yu scooped it into the landing net and then worked with Li Shuang to get it onto the deck, they finally turned the creature over.
"Brother Yu, is this a manta ray? It doesn't look like the manta rays I've seen online. Is it a close relative of it?"
Li Shuang looked at the brown-skinned creature on the deck. Its wingspan—should it be called wingspan, fin span, or fin span?
Whatever it's called, this thing is incredibly wide, even wider than it is long, probably over a meter.
Is a width of over a meter large? Maybe it is, but compared to a manta ray, if this were a manta ray, it would only be considered an infant.
So, in terms of color, appearance, and size, this creature is quite different from the manta ray that Li Shuang had in mind.
"This isn't a manta ray, it's a ray. Pay close attention to the spines on its tail; those are poisonous. Even if it's not a manta ray, it's fine. Rays can be sold, and they're quite expensive—much more than the trevally I caught."
"Shuangzi, you stay here and watch this ray. I'll go call Brother Li and ask him to come and deal with it. I've never handled this guy before."
Rays are marine creatures that look quite similar to manta rays, but they are not the same species.
After all, they are not in the same family in terms of taxonomic classification. The manta ray belongs to the family Mophaniidae in the order Tripterygii, while the ray belongs to several species in the order Rayriformes. This is the main difference between the two in terms of classification.
Another difference is size. The largest manta rays can grow to over seven meters in length, while the largest rays are only a little over two meters long. The difference between the two is equivalent to the difference between a child and an adult.
In addition to these differences, they also differ in appearance and skin color.
Aside from these differences, do they have anything in common?
That's certainly true. First of all, they look similar, but only similarly; their mouths are both on their abdomens, and their tail stingers are poisonous, etc...
When Bai Yu went to find Brother Li, Li Shuang looked at the ray in the net and didn't know where to start. He was a little afraid of the creature's tail barb, as some ray tail barbs are said to be quite poisonous, and in severe cases, they can kill a person.
So, Li Shuang could only watch the ray; he dared not do anything.
Soon Bai Yu returned with Brother Li. When Brother Li saw the ray on the deck, he immediately grabbed a kitchen knife and started catching the ray in the net.
With one swift stroke, he chopped off the part of the creature with its tail spike, then kicked it into the sea.
Then, several cuts were made on the ray's abdomen, and the ray's blood began to flow out of its body.
"Xiao Yu, find a hook and hang the ray up. Once it's bled dry, you can put it in the fish hold."
"Alright, those guys up ahead are fishing for a big fish, I'll go help them."
After saying that, Brother Li left, truly coming and going in a hurry.
"Brother Yu, is that all? A few slashes and it's over?"
"What else can it be? It's just bleeding, how complicated can it be? Let's watch how Brother Li handles it, so that next time we catch a ray, we can deal with it ourselves."
While the ray was being drained of blood, Li Shuang re-baited the hook and threw it into the sea.
A few minutes later, after the ray had bled dry, Li Shuang tagged the creature and put it into the fish hold.
As soon as Li Shuang stepped out of the fish hold, he saw a huge fish leap out of the sea and then return to the ocean with a splash of waves.
"Pfft, damn, this seawater is so damn salty! Ah Hai, stop wiping your face, hurry up and reel in the line, don't stop working, let's try to catch it as soon as possible!"
"Phew, Brother Yu, don't just wipe my right cheek, wipe my left cheek too, especially around my eyes, the seawater is about to get in them!"
"Brother Fisherman, was that a sailfish just now? It was such a big sailfish, are we really sure we can catch it?"
"Why not? Can't you see this guy has lost all sense of direction and is starting to run towards the surface? If we all put in a little more effort, we'll definitely be able to fish it up."
Listening to Bai Yu and the others chatting, and recalling the big fish he had just seen, he immediately realized that this sailfish was the big fish that Wang Hai had been fishing for for half a day but had not yet caught.
"My goodness, Brother Fisherman, was that the big fish Ah Hai was fishing for just now? What round are we at now? Can I have another chance to experience it?"
Li Shuang took three steps at a time and quickly arrived at Wang Hai's fishing spot.
The fishing spot where Bai Yu and his three companions were fishing was a complete mess. Everything was wet, the deck was covered in seawater, and Bai Yu and his companions looked like they had just been drenched in a downpour, their hair soaked.
"Shuangzi, don't be in such a hurry. If you want to go fishing, you have to wait in line. Besides, you've already fished once before, and you've experienced everything you wanted to experience. It's my turn next."
Bai Yu glanced back at Li Shuang and couldn't help but sigh that Li Shuang was lucky. He had just gone to the fish hold to release the stingray when the sailfish drenched Bai Yu and the others, but Li Shuang escaped the disaster.
After more than half an hour of effort, Wang Hai's fish was nearing its end, with very little fishing line still outside.
As the main character of this fishing trip, Wang Hai took advantage of the moment when the fish came to the surface and frantically reeled in the line, without any resistance.
When he felt resistance again, Wang Hai had reeled in nearly ten meters of fishing line in just a short while, which was much more comfortable than fighting this guy head-on.
In the blink of an eye, another half hour had passed. During this time, Bai Yu and the other two had each caught a fish, but Wang Hai hadn't caught his first fish yet.
Bai Yu originally thought he would be able to catch the fish soon, but they were wrong. The fish that took the bait this time was too big, and its strength was beyond what Bai Yu and his companions could match.
Even though Bai Yu and his group have multiple people to take turns, this guy's stamina recovers very quickly. As soon as the opponent recovers a little stamina, the opponent will launch a new round of resistance.
Whenever this resistance came, all Bai Yu and the others could do was to hold their ground. During the standoff, they would also let out a little fishing line so that the other side wouldn't fight them to the death.
Actually, if it really came down to a fight, Bai Yu and the others wouldn't back down, but they were afraid that their fishing rods and lines wouldn't hold up, and then all their previous efforts would be wasted.
After more than an hour, Wang Hai finally managed to drag the creature to the surface of the sea. Bai Yu and the others were still deeply shocked to see the sailfish again.
Especially its long upper jaw and broad dorsal fin, it truly lives up to its name as a sailfish, as its dorsal fin really does resemble a flag.
"Brother Li, it's out of the water! We weren't lying to you, were we? It really is a huge sailfish. Look at this guy, isn't it huge?"
Beside Bai Yu was Brother Li, whom he had pulled over to help.
Fishing is no problem for the group, but getting such a big fish onto the deck is no easy task.
That requires the use of a crane on the ship, which is why Bai Yu asked Brother Li for help. It's better to leave this to the professionals.
"It's really big. You guys are really lucky. Those boat owners ahead of us, they worked all morning and only caught a few half-sized tuna, and that was after using several boxes of frozen bait."
Unlike you guys, who've been catching trevally and rays all morning, and now this huge sailfish has appeared! You're really lucky, you deserve to be rich!
Looking at the sailfish on the sea, Brother Li was filled with emotion.
After all, this sailfish is really big. Even without considering its mouth, it's probably about two meters long. If you add its mouth, it's definitely two meters and four or five meters long.
As for the luck of Bai Yu and his companions, what Brother Li didn't know was that they had caught more than just these three fish. They had also caught a tuna, but it wasn't very big, so they didn't ask Brother Li for help.
Another thing that Bai Yu and the others, as well as Brother Li, were unaware of was that most of the boxes of frozen bait that the boat owners had thrown down had drifted to the seabed where Bai Yu and the others were located due to the ocean currents.
Therefore, a large part of the credit for all the fish that Bai Yu and his crew caught today goes to the owners of the frozen bait boat. They are truly exemplary in doing good deeds anonymously.
Then, under Brother Li's command, the group worked together to get the sailfish onto the crane, and it was then fished onto the deck by the crane.
After the sailfish came onto the deck, Brother Li took a hammer and hit it. After the fish flicked its tail a couple of times, it lay still, looking like its life was coming to an end.
Then he struggled to get it out of the net. Just as Brother Li was about to bleed the fish dry, Bai Yu stopped him.
"Spare the fish! Brother Li, wait a minute, give us some time to take a picture with it. We finally caught such a big fish, we want to keep a memento."
"Yes, yes, Brother Li, please wait a moment, we'll be right there."
“Ah Hai, you caught this fish, you take a picture first.”
Then, under Brother Li's watchful eye, Bai Yu and his three companions took a group photo with the sailfish.
The best way to show the size of this fish is to lie down and take a picture with it. Bai Yu, who is over 1.8 meters tall, looks rather small next to this sailfish, which is really outrageous.
"Alright, now that the photos are all taken, I'm going to make the cut."
"Yes, thank you for your hard work, Brother Li."
With a swift stroke of his knife, Brother Li instantly caused the blood of the sailfish to flow across the entire deck.
To be honest, this sailfish had a lot of blood. It took them quite a while to bleed it all out. Then, the rest of them helped Brother Li put the fish into the hold.
It was at this time that Bai Yu and the others also obtained specific information about this sailfish.
It is 2.46 meters long and weighs 236 kilograms.
A behemoth weighing over 200 pounds! The biggest fish ever caught on a fishing boat!
...........
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