After several rounds of back-and-forth fighting, the fish underwater stopped struggling so much that Uncle Li began to reel in the line. He held the fishing rod to his belly, using his left hand to hold the rod and his right hand to laboriously spin the reel.
Seeing his veins bulging and his head covered in sweat, Old Lu, who was waiting beside him, quickly took the fishing rod and took over for him.
As soon as he started reeling in the line, Lao Lu said, "No, there are at least two fish on this line. The way they struggled to break free was like that of a grouper or a bass. They weren't working together, otherwise it would have been much harder to pull them away."
Chen Hong secretly peeked underwater and saw that there really was a grouper, a bass, and a mullet weighing one pound.
The old fishermen's decades of experience are truly invaluable; they can identify a fish just by the force and direction of its struggles and movements.
He cheated by using his good eyesight to see the fish directly. If it were nighttime and the light was poor, his eyesight would be useless. The old fishermen are really good; they can fish with their eyes closed without it bothering them.
With everyone cheering them on, a string of fish was pulled out of the water in no time. Uncle Li took the net and scooped it up, bringing the net full of fish onto the deck.
"I really admire Lao Lu's skills. He really caught a grouper, a sea bass, and a small mullet. Are there some fish coming down here? Fish usually don't bite at noon," Lao Yang said happily.
Old Lu put down his fishing rod and looked at Chen Hong's live bait bucket. It contained only ordinary live bait such as sea silkworms, shrimps, and small squids, so it shouldn't be the bait that caused the problem.
However, the fact that the fishing rod can catch the hook so many times and so quickly is not something that can be achieved by simply using a good fishing rod. The fishing rod is indeed good, flexible and sensitive, and it is not afraid of being broken by strong pulls. It is very likely that Chen Hong was just lucky.
That's the only reason. Otherwise, there's no way to explain it. The three of them had only been on the boat for a little over ten minutes when they caught four fish on one fishing rod, which must have weighed 30 pounds. That's too fast and too many. It's something no one could have dreamed of, yet it happened right in front of them.
Chen Hong packed up her fishing rod and sat down with the three men for tea. She refilled their cups one by one and chatted about the interesting things that had happened recently.
Old Lu said that since then, people in their village have learned to be flexible, and several people have found someone to take the exam for them and obtained captain's licenses. Currently, the fishing boats in their village are being counted and registered. It's surprising to learn that their village alone has scrapped eight expired fishing boats.
Ordinary people are frugal wherever they can. As long as the boat can still move and doesn't leak, they dare to go out to sea. Now the government is forcing expired fishing boats to be scrapped. At first, the villagers were unwilling and couldn't understand it.
Through government publicity and education, everyone has come to understand that there are no small matters when operating at sea. A fishing boat carries anywhere from three or four people to more than a dozen people. If an accident occurs at sea due to the quality of the boat, no one can explain it.
The government can provide some subsidies for scrapped ships. With a little extra money from their own pockets, they can buy a new ship and go to sea again without worrying about their families.
Even if we don't buy a boat again, we can still use the compensation to do some small business, which is better than before when we sailed out to sea in a dilapidated boat, with our families living in constant fear.
After discussing national policies, the group moved on to the current fish prices. It's still the fishing moratorium, so there are fewer boats going out to fish, making fish very expensive. They expect the price to drop significantly after the moratorium ends in about two weeks.
However, after the fishing moratorium, net fishing and extended fishing can be used. Although the price is lower, the quantity is also larger, and the income is not much different from now, or even increases.
Chen Hong asked Uncle Lu, "Uncle, do you sell your catch to fishmongers or do you retail it yourself? Do you have any good channels?"
Old Lu said, "The fishmonger's price is too low, almost 10 yuan per jin lower than the market price. My family doesn't catch much fish every day, only about 100 or 200 jin. Since there are many people in my family, we usually sell them at the market. This way, we can earn more than 1,000 yuan more."
If we sold the fish to fishmongers, we could only make two or three thousand yuan. After deducting fuel costs, fishing gear wear and tear, and food expenses on the boat, we'd only have less than 2,000 yuan left. There are three of us on the boat, so each of us would only get about six or seven hundred yuan, which is less than what the fishmongers earn.
Uncle Li chimed in, "My family also sells them ourselves, but we send most of the fish to restaurants. My classmate's family owns a restaurant in the city. He picks out the good fish first and pays a good price. We then take the rest to the market to sell in smaller quantities."
Sometimes, if we can't sell the fish, we make it into dried fish and sell it; it's more profitable than selling it to fishmongers.
Old Yang laughed and said, "This saves me a lot of trouble. My third brother-in-law runs a seafood shop, right? I sell most of my catch to him. He gives me a good price, six or seven yuan more than fishmongers, and three or four yuan less than retail. It's convenient and worry-free. If I have a lot of fish, I can call him to come and pick it up himself. If I have a small amount, I have to deliver it myself."
Chen Hong, he needs a lot of fish. If you have any fish to sell to him, I'll leave you my contact number. He pays immediately upon delivery. His shop is quite large now; he even built his own cold storage this year, so he can handle any amount of fish he wants.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com