"Brother Fisherman, are you really that lucky? You caught a fish right away! Quickly, bring the fish up and see how much it's worth."
Upon hearing Bai Yu's voice, Li Shuang, who was fishing at the spot to his left, immediately came over and asked about the species of the fish.
"Shuangzi, don't be impatient. I just caught a fish. Let me play with it for a while. Also, don't be so materialistic. Who asks how much the fish is worth right away? You have to understand that we go out to sea to fish for fun. Making money is just a side thing."
Feeling the pull from the fishing rod, Bai Yu first applied some pressure to the drag, making it harder for the fish that had taken the bait to escape.
Then he turned to Li Shuang, who was standing to the side, and said, "You know, there's a video camera behind him. Even if they like making money, they still have to put on an act in front of the camera."
Bai Yu didn't play with the fish for too long afterward, mainly because he didn't feel much for it, and the pulling force transmitted by the fishing rod was very limited.
As Bai Yu began reeling in the line, the creature soon surfaced.
Just as Bai Yu had expected, this fish was indeed not very big. It was a black sea bream weighing about one pound. Bai Yu lifted it onto the deck without any effort.
"A black sea bream weighing a little over a pound is not bad. It can sell for thirty or forty yuan a pound, and if the market is good, it can sell for more."
Although it was a bit cliché for Li Shuang to ask about the price right away, Bai Yu still mentioned the value of the black sea bream to Li Shuang while holding it.
"It costs 30 or 40 yuan per jin. I spent more than 2,000 yuan on this trip to sea. That means I need 100 jin of these black sea bream to break even."
From now until we return to the pier tomorrow night, the time will be about thirty-six hours. After deducting the time for eating and sleeping, it will be about twenty-four or twenty-five hours.
Based on this timeframe, I only need to catch four pounds of black sea bream per hour to break even. That doesn't seem too difficult, does it?
After obtaining the price of the black sea bream, Li Shuang did some calculations and finally came to the conclusion that breaking even didn't seem too difficult.
"Hey, Li Shuang, you're pretty good at math. But you can't calculate the catch from sea fishing like that. Besides, fishing is inherently unpredictable. You can't just say you can catch as many fish as you want."
"Alright, I won't discourage you. Just go with your plan and fish as you see fit. Good luck!"
Hearing Li Shuang's conclusion, everyone present was stunned, especially Liu Tianyu. He wanted to say something, but he was afraid that saying something would dampen Li Shuang's enthusiasm.
So Liu Tianyu could only send Li Shuang his best wishes.
On the other hand, Bai Yu put the black sea bream he caught into the bucket he brought. The fish wouldn't die for the time being, and he could keep it alive in the bucket.
If it's still alive when it gets back to the dock, the price won't just be thirty or forty yuan per kilogram; it will grow at least another third.
For some sea fish, apart from those that die immediately upon leaving the water, there is a significant price difference between live and dead sea fish.
Especially for sea bream, whether caught by trawling or sea fishing, there is a high chance that these fish will survive until they reach the dock.
This has led to significant price fluctuations for sea bream, with the largest fluctuations seen in red sea bream, where the price difference between dead and live fish can be several times.
The black sea bream that Bai Yu caught was in the upper waters. From the moment it took the bait until it was brought to the deck, the fish did not experience any pressure loss. So as long as the black sea bream is resilient, it will have no problem surviving until they return to the dock.
Bai Yu then took a shrimp from the fish box, hooked it on the fishing hook again, and threw it into the sea.
In the same spot, at the same depth, Bai Yu believed there were still fish for him to catch.
Two minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and while the others hadn't caught a single fish, Bai Yu's float disappeared once again.
Having learned from his previous experience, Bai Yu didn't shout this time. Instead, he silently picked up his fishing rod and gave it a sharp jerk.
However, the feeling transmitted back from the fishing rod this time made Bai Yu feel that something was wrong. It wasn't that Bai Yu's attempt to hook the fish failed, but rather that the size of the fish that took the bait was problematic.
He was certain that he had successfully set the hook, and there was a pull on the rod, but the pull was too weak, not even as strong as the previous black sea bream.
"Tsk, what's going on? Are there small fish swarming the bait? But that doesn't make sense, I didn't even bait the bait, so where are these small fish coming from?"
Bai Yu didn't hesitate at all when it came to this fishing rod; he just grabbed it and went for it.
With just that little bit of pulling force from the fishing rod, Bai Yu didn't need to exert any effort at all; he sent the guy flying up in an instant.
Just as this creature left the water, sunlight shone on it, and a silvery light instantly reflected into Bai Yu's eyes.
A long, thin creature was caught by the white fisherman. This creature had a big mouth and came straight at him.
"Holy crap, ribbonfish? You can actually catch ribbonfish while fishing? This ribbonfish is really fat!"
Just as the ribbonfish was about to crash into him, Bai Yu took a step back, causing the creature to fall onto the deck.
Once it found a foothold, the ribbonfish jumped around with incredible gusto, leaping and bounding across the deck like a snake.
Seeing this, Bai Yu lifted the fish up with the fishing line, and after thirty seconds, the ribbonfish stopped moving.
Unlike black sea bream, ribbonfish are marine creatures that die very quickly after being taken out of the water. Even if this one is caught in the upper layers of the sea, it will still inevitably die.
The ribbonfish that Bai Yu caught may not have seemed to exert much force on him, but it's definitely one of the biggest ribbonfish in the world.
This thing is over a meter long and more than four fingers wide. This ribbonfish must weigh about seven or eight ounces, close to a pound.
However, due to its thin and long shape, the pulling force that a ribbonfish can exert after taking the bait is not very large. Among sea fish of the same weight, the ribbonfish has relatively little strength.
"Xiao Yu, you're so lucky! We haven't even caught a single fish yet, and you've already caught two."
Especially this ribbonfish, it has a really nice head and is quite plump. The only downside is that ribbonfish aren't worth much; they can't compare to the black sea bream we had before.
"Huh? Cousin, do you know how much ribbonfish costs per pound? I don't really know much about this stuff. The ribbonfish I used to find while beachcombing were all dead, and I don't even know how long they'd been dead. I've never actually sold any of this stuff."
Seeing that the ribbonfish on the deck had stopped moving, Bai Yu placed it in a box next to him. The box was filled with ice and was specifically used to store seafood that would die as soon as it was out of the water.
"The price of ribbonfish here is not high, about ten yuan per jin. If the size is larger, the price can go up a bit, but no matter how much it goes up, the purchase price will be at most twenty or thirty yuan."
"Between ten and thirty, this price is not bad. So I have already made several tens of yuan. Not bad, not bad, a good start!"
Another big ribbonfish came in, and Bai Yu could hardly suppress the smile on his face.
Especially now that there are five people on the fishing boat, and he's the only one who's made a sale, how could you not be happy about that?
Bai Yu wasn't gloating; he was simply happy to have caught a fish.
Bai Yu hadn't been happy for long when Lu Sheng's anxious voice rang out behind him.
"I caught a fish! I caught a fish! I caught a fish! Brother Fisherman, what should I do? What should I do next?"
"Hmm? Ah Sheng, have you never fished before? When a fish bites the hook, you should definitely seize the opportunity to lift the rod and hook the fish firmly in its mouth."
Just then, Bai Yu was about to cast his third line when he heard the noise and came to Lu Sheng's side, instructing the latter on how to fish.
"Brother Fisherman, would you believe me if I said this is my first time fishing? Don't you even know where I'm from? Inner Mongolia. There aren't any rivers near my home. Where am I supposed to go fishing?"
"Brother Fisherman, I've finished lifting the rod, what's next?"
"Try the tension on the fishing rod. If it's too high, let out some line, play the fish a bit, and then reel it in."
If you don't feel the tension is too high, then just retract the line and push it back against the tension.
With Bai Yu's guidance, Lu Sheng first felt the tension on the fishing rod, and then without saying a word, he prepared to reel in the line.
In his opinion, the creature that took the bait wasn't very big; at least in front of him, a man from Inner Mongolia, it was nothing to mention.
Unlike Bai Yu, who chooses to fish in the upper waters, Lu Sheng chooses bottom fishing. According to him, he has 50 to 60 meters of fishing line in the water.
As the reeling began, things went very smoothly at first. However, as the fish that had taken the bait got closer and closer to the surface, it probably sensed a change in its own air pressure and suddenly began to struggle violently.
This sudden turn of events caught Lu Sheng completely off guard, and he almost dropped the fishing rod from his hand.
"Hey, we're almost ashore, and now you're getting all excited? Too late, get on board now."
After stabilizing the guy's offensive, Lu Sheng intensified his efforts to finish off the remaining enemies.
A few dozen seconds later, everything returned to calm, and Lu Sheng encountered no further obstacles in reeling in the line until the guy surfaced on the water.
"Holy crap, Brother Yu, what kind of fish is this? It's all bulging out, its eyes are practically popping out, like they're about to burst!"
Looking at the fish floating on the sea, Lu Sheng immediately uttered a phrase from the classic Chinese poetry.
It's not that Lu Sheng lacked manners; rather, the fish's appearance was truly bizarre. Just as Lu Sheng described, the fish was extremely swollen, like an inflated balloon, with its eyes bulging out and its mouth wide open, floating motionless on the surface of the sea.
With a fish that looks like this, I'm sure anyone who sees it will find it hard not to blurt out "national essence" as their first line.
"This is a pearl grouper. We caught one when we were beachcombing at school before. This guy is just depressurized. You lift it up and I'll let it vent."
After taking a look, Bai Yu, who was standing to the side, also recognized what was going on.
When Lu Sheng was fishing for it, he reeled in the line too quickly, pulling it up from a depth of fifty or sixty meters. This caused the air pressure inside the creature to become unbalanced, resulting in its inflated, ghostly appearance.
"Okay, I'll bring it in right away. But Brother Yu, this thing is in such a state, can it even survive?"
"Alive? Are you kidding me? This guy is already dead. I didn't let the gas out of it to bring it back to life. I just didn't want to see it explode."
"Explosion? Sea fish can explode?"
"I don't know about that, but I've seen related videos online. They say that fish that lose pressure might explode, but I've never seen a fish explode."
As the pearl grouper came onto the deck, Bai Yu took the fish, held a syringe in his hand, and injected it into its abdomen.
Bai Yu learned this trick from an online video. The needle is inserted into the swim bladder of the grouper, and only by inserting it here can the fish be released.
Since this was Bai Yu's first time doing this, he inserted several needles in succession. As long as one needle could hit the swim bladder, there would be no problem.
After finishing all that, Bai Yu finally had time to examine the grouper in his hand. Although Bai Yu had dealt with pearl grouper many times before, he would encounter pearl grouper every few days when he was going to the beach.
However, when it comes to fishing, Bai Yu rarely catches grouper, especially such a large pearl grouper that Lu Sheng caught.
According to Bai Yu's estimate, the grouper that Lu Sheng caught weighed seven or eight pounds, which is not small for a pearl grouper.
Although it's still a long way from the record for pearl grouper, this grouper is really quite big, and it's hard for Baiyu to estimate its price.
The main problem is that this fish doesn't look very appealing right now. Fish that have lost pressure inside their bodies look quite terrifying, so he's really not sure how much this grouper will sell for.
Unable to get a definite answer from Bai Yu, Lu Sheng had no choice but to put the fish in the box and prepare to put it in the freezer later.
As Bai Yu and Lu Sheng opened their shops one after another, the remaining people also began serving fish one after another.
After giving Lu Sheng some fishing tips, Bai Yu returned to his fishing spot, baited his hook, and continued fishing.
If you ask Bai Yu to teach Lu Sheng how to fish, isn't that just having a half-baked person teach a beginner? As for how much Lu Sheng can improve, that's anyone's guess. It's probably better than having no one to teach him at all.
Probably...
An hour later, Bai Yu looked at his catch, both large and small, in his fish tank and bucket. He then made two trips to deliver the catch to the freezer and the live fish compartment.
You know what, a luck stat of over fifty points is actually quite useful for fishing.
In just over an hour, Bai Yu had caught more than ten fish. Although there weren't any big ones, the sheer number of them was overwhelming.
Moreover, many of the fish caught by Baiyu are still alive, such as black sea bream, rockfish, and yellowfin sea bream. They are all alive and still thriving in the bucket.
He also caught several ribbonfish, and each one was bigger than the last. The largest ribbonfish was almost longer than him, and it weighed about two pounds.
In contrast, the number of the others combined was about the same as Bai Yu's, except that Bai Yu couldn't compare to them in terms of weight.
Because apart from Bai Yu, the other four people all chose bottom fishing, and the smallest fish they caught weighed one or two pounds.
"Today is a good day; all my wishes will come true!"
Bai Yu returned humming a song as she carried the emptied fish buckets and fish boxes.
"Brother Fisherman, you seem to be in a good mood. Well, you've caught the most fish so far, so it's only natural that you're happy."
"You flatter me, you're all pretty good too, especially Shuangzi. He caught a red sea bream, and it was quite big, probably weighing almost ten pounds."
Although it didn't survive in the end, it's still not bad. The price of red sea bream is quite good; I got this one for several hundred yuan.
Upon returning to his fishing spot, Bai Yu did not immediately bait his hook and start fishing. Instead, he sat on the deck to rest.
Fishing should be considered a sport, and a very physically demanding one at that. Bai Yu had only been fishing for a little over an hour when he started to feel tired.
The main reason is that fishing requires the use of the waist, and the space on their fishing boat is limited, so they can only fish standing up, which is very tiring.
If you ask Bai Yu to do anything else, even running for an hour, he has no problem. But standing for an hour, with constant strain on his waist, is something he really can't handle.
"Brother Fisherman is so leisurely. We're still working ourselves to the bone fishing, and Brother Fisherman has already started to rest. What am I going to do if I want to rest too?"
"Shuangzi, if you want to rest, then rest. Take a break and then continue fishing. It's all about balancing work and rest."
Bai Yu didn't just rest; he pulled out his pockets and found snacks and drinks, and immediately started eating and drinking.
By noon, Bai Yu had fished three times, each trip lasting about an hour and a half, with a short break of about ten minutes in between.
He went fishing three times and sent the catch into the fish hold three times. The best time he sent in about twenty fish, the largest of which was a golden pomfret weighing more than two pounds. This fish was also the biggest fish Bai Yu had caught in one morning.
Today's Baiyu focuses on quantity, with a large number of fish, but the quality varies greatly.
As the clock struck twelve and the sun rose directly overhead, Bai Yu and the others decided to pack up and stop fishing.
One reason was that it was too sunny, and another reason was that they were hungry and it was time for lunch.
"Brother Yu, there's a question I forgot to ask. Does anyone among us know how to cook? What are we having for lunch?"
Bai Yu and the others sat down in the living room, the air conditioning was on, and then Li Shuang asked a question that they had overlooked.
"Shuangzi asked a good question. Who cooks is indeed a big problem. Let me start by saying what I can do: I can cook noodles and make fried rice. As for stir-fries, I can only make a few simple ones, and the taste is not necessarily good."
Li Shuang's question surprised everyone present. Then, starting with Bai Yu, everyone talked about what they were good at.
"I can only eat, nothing else." - Wang Hai
"I can cook rice and make a tomato and egg stir-fry." Li Shuang
"I know how to grill meat, but given our current conditions, it seems we won't need it." - Lu Sheng
After Bai Yu and the other three finished explaining their strengths, they all looked at the last person: Liu Tianyu.
"Why are you all looking at me? I'm the captain of this ship. You're not expecting me to cook, are you? What, am I not only going to be your driver on this voyage, but also your cook?"
"Cousin, it's just that none of us really know how to do it. If you do, then you can help out. When we get back, we'll treat you to a nice meal."
Seeing Liu Tianyu's reaction, Bai Yu's first thought was that everything was fine; her cousin could cook!
No wonder my cousin was the most careful when we were buying groceries yesterday.
Finally, thanks to Bai Yu's silver tongue, Liu Tianyu was successfully persuaded, and his cousin went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.
An hour later, three dishes and a soup were laid out on the living room table: stir-fried pork with chili peppers, stewed chicken with potatoes, stir-fried water spinach, and a fish ball and vegetable soup.
"Cousin, you've worked so hard. I've realized that the best decision I ever made on this voyage was bringing you along. Otherwise, we might be eating instant noodles right now. Thank goodness you were here."
"Thank you, cousin (Brother Tianyu)."
After expressing their gratitude and offering flattery, Bai Yu and the other three began to eat.
To be fair, Liu Tianyu's cooking skills are quite good. Bai Yu was not really aware of this skill before, and this was the first time he had eaten Liu Tianyu's cooking.
"Cousin, I didn't know you had such skills! Where did you learn them?"
"Where else could I learn it? On the ship, of course. With my job, I'm at sea all year round. When I'm not busy, I spend time in the kitchen, and over time I learned from the ship's chefs."
"Being a sailor has this advantage? That's great. Cousin, I'm counting on you for the next few meals."
After lunch, Bai Yu and the others lay down in the living room for a while before preparing to continue fishing.
.............
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