Chapter 91: Precious Resources of Fishermen
After leaving the cabin, he saw Tong Yuanhang as soon as he came out. He was walking towards him with some vegetables in his hand.
"Aze, you're here so early too! It's just right, you can take these things in and have lunch here at your place!" Tong Yuanhang's eyes lit up when he saw him, and then he handed him everything in his hand.
Zhang Ze looked at the things wrapped in paper in his hand. It was a piece of pork, some vegetables and a bag of rice.
Now that life is better with sweet potatoes, who in the countryside would want to eat them anymore?
"You guys think I'm a chef!"
"Who told you to cook better than us? You bought a big ship and it's your first time going out to sea, so you have to eat something good." Tong Yuanhang said with a chuckle.
At this time, the other two brothers of the Tong family also came forward, each holding a big pig's head and firecrackers in their hands.
Tong Junqiang handed him the big pig head in his hand and said, "It's for offering sacrifice to Mazu."
"Can you buy two big pig heads? How much? I'll give it to you later." Fishermen on the coast do have this custom. When a new boat goes out to sea to fish for the first time, they must worship Mazu and ask for her blessing.
In many places, people even offer sacrifices to Mazu the first time they go out to sea after the annual fishing ban, asking her to bless them with a good harvest this year.
Zhang Ze knew in his heart that this was just an act of self-consolation by the fishermen, but he did not refute it and chose to follow the local customs.
"It's already been agreed."
Tong Junqiang explained and then told him the price.
Zhang Ze didn't ask any more questions. He called Zhang Qinghe out, and then they set off firecrackers together and threw the pig's head into the sea to complete the sacrifice to Mazu. After that, they went to the gas station and bought diesel with the certificate issued by the shipyard and filled up the tank. The price was lower than when there was no diesel ticket.
In the second half of the year, he estimated that he wouldn’t need a ticket to buy anything.
But the ticket is still useful for now, and I can buy things at a cheaper price.
Before setting off, they picked up some small squids and shrimps that other fishermen didn't want at the dock to use as bait. When they felt they had enough bait, both sides returned to their own boats.
Beep~beep~ Two sharp whistles sounded, and the vibration of the fishing boat caused tiny ripples in the surrounding sea water.
After five or six minutes, Zhang Ze was the first to leave the dock, followed closely by Tong Yuanhang.
The place he was going to today was the reef island he had visited before.
Seeing that Zhang Qinghe had already finished breakfast and came to the cab, Zhang Ze began to teach him how to drive a boat.
On the way, he was even asked to try driving for a distance. Although he couldn't become proficient immediately, he had no problem driving on the open sea.
It only takes twenty minutes to drive a boat to a place that takes one and a half hours to row. The two fishing boats arrived at the reef island one after another. This reef island will be the best place for him to fish for grouper in the near sea in the future.
Zhang Ze picked up the radio and said, "Ahang, we'll fish here today. You can watch and cast the nets. Bring me the grouper and lobster at three o'clock. I'll go to Yuewan County to deliver the goods."
"Okay, then let's go to the east end." Soon, Tong Yuanhang's voice came over.
Immediately afterwards, the fishing boat that was originally parked behind him started again and arrived at the east side of the island reef.
"Qing He, you drive the boat and slowly sail along the outside of the island and reef. I'll go and lower the hook first."
"Your own fishing line will be ready in the evening after I sell my fish. I will go to Lumen Island and buy some fishing line and hooks for you."
Zhang Qinghe just came here yesterday and didn't prepare anything. I had to borrow fishing line and hooks from him for fishing today.
Secondly, Zhang Ze also took into consideration that he had just arrived in Wenshui City and had to spend money everywhere, and was afraid that he didn't have enough money, so he simply let him buy it after he made money from fishing today, so that the pressure would not be so great.
As for his own equipment, he moved them all over when he sent Zhang Qinghe back to the boat last night, including ground traps, shrimp cages, hooks, a casting net, several bundles of fishing line, a large box of fish hooks, a Korean net that Tong Shuyao had just handed him in the morning, and several scoop nets he had made during this period.
There is a winch on the boat, so there is no need to worry about not being able to pull up the Korean net.
However, Zhang Ze did not buy the gillnet. The gillnet was very thin and it would easily get tangled every time he pulled it up to catch fish, taking a long time to untie it. He did not want to cause trouble for himself.
Zhang Qinghe has been able to sail along the waters outside the reef island very well.
He drove the boat slowly, and Zhang Ze threw the hooks down one by one. He also spent 150 experience points to exchange for 30 grouper baits.
Since he got the magic bait, he has done this many times when setting the hook, which caused Tong Yuanhang to often sigh about his good luck.
Now the space has been upgraded to level 12, and the current experience value is 683 points. After exchanging for bait, there are 533 points left. If I don’t continue to exchange bait in large quantities, I will probably be able to upgrade if I go fishing again after today.
After the hooks were placed, Zhang Ze asked Zhang Qinghe to go closer to the reef island and put down the ground traps and shrimp cages in the relatively shallow water area.
These cages are tied with a large float to determine their location, and there are also a few stones inside the cages to prevent them from being washed away by the sea.
Of course I have to download the Korean website too. Since I have it with me, there is no reason not to use it.
This time, Zhang Ze came to the cockpit himself, took the rudder from Zhang Qinghe and drove towards the deep water area nearby.
He is very familiar with the terrain here on the reef island and knows where the water depth is suitable for setting nets.
After putting down all the fishing equipment, he drove the boat to the southwest side of the reef.
The boat stopped temporarily, Zhang Ze walked out of the cab, climbed up to the bow, and looked at the terrain of the island and reef from a high altitude. He was identifying the specific location of an excellent fishing spot.
After getting divorced in his previous life, he became a fisherman. All the resource spots he fished at that time became the most precious wealth in this life. He knew many secret fishing spots of captains.
In fact, even if there is no space, when the market economy develops and fishermen can fish freely, they can still get rich by fishing, but it is not that easy.
He had dived on the southwest side of the island before and discovered an area with densely packed reefs and ditches on the seabed, with a large number of fish swimming around in the ditches.
Later, I caught a large blue snapper weighing 50 kilograms here, and there were many red fish weighing more than ten or twenty kilograms.
But the island and reef environment decades ago was somewhat different from that of later generations. He stood at the bow and observed for a long time before he identified the excellent fishing spot about ten meters to his right.
He sailed over, dropped the anchor and turned off the engine: "Qing He, let's go fishing here today. I'll teach you how to fish later. Once you learn how, fish at the bow. I'll go to the stern later."
Zhang Qinghe nodded and followed behind humbly.
Zhang Ze took out the fishing line and hook, and first explained to him the size of the hook and the corresponding thickness of the fishing line, and told him the approximate tensile strength of various fishing lines, what size hook to use for each size of fish he wanted to catch, and so on.
He was also told how to tie the fish hook and the possible movements that might occur after the fish is hooked.
After teaching him, I watched him tie the fish hook several times. Seeing that he already knew how to tie it, I took out the bait I picked up in the morning, told him the importance of making a nest, and helped him make one.
Then I asked him to continue practicing tying fish hooks. After a while, seeing that he had become quite skilled and estimated that the bait he had just made had some effect, I asked him to put on his newly bought work gloves and start fishing directly.
The resources at Zhangze, an excellent fishing spot, are indeed very good. Not long after Zhang Qinghe threw the bait, he caught a fish.
"I caught a fish, I caught a fish!" He was excited when he found a fish taking the hook, and immediately started to pull the fishing line back.
But the next moment, the taut fishing line trembled violently a few times and then loosened, and the fish was off the hook.
Zhang Qinghe stared at the fishing line blankly, with a confused look on his face.
Zhang Ze stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder: "A fisherman who has never escaped from the fish is not a good fisherman. Didn't I just tell you that after the fish is hooked, you should pull the fishing line hard to make the fishhook pierce deeper. This is also called piercing the fish."
"You want to pull up the fish before it even takes a deep bite. If it struggles a few times, won't the hook come off?"
Zhang Qinghe then remembered what Zhang Ze had specifically told him, and looked a little embarrassed: "I forgot about it once the fish was hooked, I must pay attention next time."
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"It's okay. Whether you can make money depends on how many fish you can catch. I'm going to the stern now. Work hard, young man!" Zhang Ze patted his shoulder again, then packed up his things and took a small amount of bait to the stern.
Zhang Qinghe scratched his head, feeling something was wrong.
After Zhang Ze disappeared from his sight, he suddenly realized: "No, this guy is also a young man. Why do you call me a young man? Just because I have a wife?"
On the other side, Zhang Ze came to the stern, tied the fish hook and exchanged it for an ordinary bait.
Ordinary bait can increase the chance of catching fish by 30%, and it applies to all fish. The key point is that it only costs ten experience points to purchase it.
At present, Zhang Ze’s focus is still to quickly upgrade the space and unlock the next function.
And I have already used up 150 experience points, so I have five grouper baits left to use.
Now that the fishery station is open, all fish with economic value will be collected. Even if the price is much lower than grouper, it is still money. It is still necessary to save some experience points if you can make money.
Because the magic bait was so effective, Zhang Ze did not choose to make a nest.
The remaining five grouper baits were not used first, but a regular bait was hung instead.
Put on gloves, grab the fishing line and throw the bait to the water surface about ten meters ahead, and watch the bait slowly sink.
In an instant, with him as the center, a small number of fish within a range of two nautical miles began to gather towards the reef island as if possessed.
Some of the fish on the reef island began to swim towards his boat, and the density of the originally scattered fish changed instantly.
This situation actually happened once when Zhang Ze was setting the hook just now, but before that only groupers appeared, but now all fish in the range are affected.
He held the fishing line and waited for a moment. Suddenly, the fishing line became tight and he felt a strong force in his hand.
Zhang Ze grabbed the fishing line, turned his wrist and made a circle, allowing the fishing line to wrap around the glove to increase the grip, and then exerted force on his hand and pulled hard.
The fishhook immediately pierced deeply into the fish's mouth. The fish struggled frantically in pain, swinging its tail desperately to swim to the bottom of the water.
But it is not that big, and its strength is not enough. Every second, there is a huge force on the other side of the fishing line, which can pull its entire body 20 to 30 centimeters to the surface of the water each time.
Again and again, the fish was easily pulled to the surface of the water.
A gray-brown color with small orange-red spots scattered on the head, sides of the body and odd fin, and six inconspicuous dark horizontal bands on the sides of the body.
Zhang Ze sighed when he saw the fish. He didn't expect that the sea grouper he had been longing for for a long time would appear when he used ordinary bait.
This sea red spot is not too big, weighing only a little over three pounds.
He came to the boat and scooped it up with the scoop net he made.
The scoop net is not complicated to make. It is made entirely of bamboo, including the net ring.
He made several of them, both large and small, and placed them all on the boat.
Sea grouper, it is now 1980, and Zhang Ze feels that it is not a problem to sell it to Ou Shuxiang at seven yuan per pound.
As for the aquatic station, the price is much cheaper.
He often went to the fishery station during this period and found out all the prices there.
The price of red grouper at the aquatic station is only four yuan and twenty cents. It is estimated that the purchase price will rise to six or seven yuan in two years.
The price of ordinary grouper is as low as 65 cents, and tiger grouper is one dollar.
Compared with the market price, the prices here are basically cut in half.
But the only place with a large refrigerated warehouse is here at the aquatic product station, and their operating costs are also very high, so it is actually normal to cut them in half.
Now that the market economy is open, if individual fishermen do not produce large quantities, they may choose to sell these small and high-priced groupers themselves from door to door.
Of course, you will have to bear the cost of the fish dying, stinking and becoming useless.
Some fishermen would be more cautious and are willing to sell to the fishery station even at a lower price.
Zhang Ze reached into the scoop net and grabbed the sea red spot. The next moment, the sea red spot disappeared from his sight and appeared in space.
[Successfully caught a red-spotted grouper, weighing 3.26 catties, experience +18. ]
(End of this chapter)
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