Chapter 236: Fisherman Never Goes Empty-Handed
There is little grass on the riverside in winter, and the trees are all bare, but this open river valley is still full of interest. After walking along a path for more than ten meters, you will reach the valley. Any bluestone is at least half as tall as Lin Heng. The pebbles here are generally the size of a baby's fist, so it is not easy to sprain your ankle when walking on them.
This place is so beautiful to lie on the bluestone to rest or have a picnic, but Lin Heng is more concerned about whether there are fish in the river.
In this era, rivers are still very pristine, and various native fish species should be very abundant. As a large river originating from Taibai Mountain, the Heihe River has excellent water quality, and the native fish in it are said to be three kinds of flowers and five kinds of fish.
Lin Heng even brought a plastic bucket with a lid, ready to catch some alive and take them back.
Lin Heng and his two sons quickly came to the water's edge, but at first glance they found nothing.
But this is normal. If there were so many fish, people would have been worried about them a long time ago.
The three of them first turned over stones in the shallow part of the river to look for the fish. The river water came from icebergs and was cold in summer, let alone winter. The fish must be hiding under the stones.
"It's so cold." Lin Heng touched the water and felt like his hands were not his own. It was really cold.
After a while, Father Lin made a discovery: "I found a lot of minnows here. These fish are so beautiful."
Lin Heng just took a look and didn't go over. This kind of native fish is everywhere and is not rare.
After turning over two stones, he saw another kind of native fish, the ground tiger and the sand loach. He didn't care that the sand loach was not tasty, but the ground tiger was quite big.
The meat of this fish is fresh and delicious. The largest fish is only about ten centimeters long, but the one under the stone that Lin Heng turned over is more than ten centimeters long.
"The ecology is really good these days."
Lin Heng sighed and began to roll up his sleeves. Before his rebirth, the fish he caught were only two or three centimeters long, and he rarely saw any big ones.
In the middle of winter, the activity of this ground tiger was very low. It did not run away even when Lin Heng lifted the stone. It lay on the sand without moving, as if it thought it could deceive Lin Heng.
Enduring the freezing cold water, Lin Heng reached his hands in and slowly closed them from two directions, scooping up the sand together. This was the secret technique for catching small fish.
The only thing you need to pay attention to is that when you put your hands together, there must be no gaps. As the village's number one fish-catching expert, Lin Heng has a success rate of 90%, so it is natural for him to catch fish easily.
“It’s so cold!!”
Lin Heng shuddered and opened his palm, and a fat tiger was struggling in his palm.
"What did you catch?"
The eldest brother Lin Yue ran over with a smile, and when he saw the fish in Lin Heng's hand, he was surprised and said, "It's so big, ten of them are enough for a plate."
Lin Heng grinned: "Yes, this fish is quite easy to catch."
He was no longer an air force soldier, so he was very happy. He found a small pool of water, put the fish in it, and continued to investigate the situation.
"Holy crap, come here son, big guy!"
Lin Heng had just put the fish down when he heard his father exclaiming in the river ahead.
"What kind of fish?" Lin Heng asked while running without saying a word.
"Oh, it's running away, it's a really big mandarin fish."
Before Lin Heng arrived, he saw his father slapping his thigh in regret.
"Mandarin fish?"
Lin Heng came over to check curiously. The water was quite deep where his father was, and there was another splashing area further ahead. There was a one-meter drop between the water surface and the top, causing this area to be covered with white bubbles.
"Under this rock, there is a big mandarin fish weighing one or two kilograms. I just looked at it for a few more seconds and it ran to the middle in a flash."
Father Lin pointed at the big rock under his feet and said with great regret.
Lin Heng took a look and said, "It's hard to catch it if it doesn't run. This kind of fish needs to be fished. It's good to have it. We have a great chance."
Since everyone was here, he was too lazy to leave and started searching here.
Just as he was about to leave, he saw three or four fish appearing four or five meters ahead of the dense water splashes, and he couldn't help but exclaimed: "Plum fish, this place is good for fishing."
The plum fish is the most precious freshwater fish in the Heihe River, the Qinling salmon, a type of freshwater salmon. According to scientific research, it originated from the last Little Ice Age.
These plum blossom fish were much bigger than the ones he saw in the creek in Sanchagou. They were probably more than one or two kilograms. No wonder people said that Heihe could catch a lot of them with fishing nets every year.
Father Lin nodded and pointed to the hillside on the road and said, "Yes, let's go get some bamboo. I think there are some on the hillside over there."
No matter where you go fishing, you need a fishing rod.
"I found a bream over there, and it ran away in the blink of an eye."
Lin Yue trotted over and said.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "I guess there's no hope for bream. Let's see if we can catch plum fish and mandarin fish today. These are fish that really like cold water."
The river valley in this section is wide, so the water is shallower at the edge and you can see the bottom of the water. If it were a narrow river where the water would be turquoise or dark, fishing would depend on luck.
Taking machetes, the three men went to the road to cut bamboo.
There was no road on the mountain, and there were many bushes and thorns in the forest, making it difficult for the three of them to get through. But there was no other way, as there were only bamboos there, and other trees were too heavy and not very resilient to be used for fishing.
They felt better after walking more than 200 meters. When they were about to reach the small bamboo forest, they found something unexpected.
"There is an itching tree in this place. It seems that there are many wild boars on this mountain." Father Lin said while looking at the tree in front of him.
The Itch Tree is a tree that wild boars use to scratch themselves. They have all kinds of bugs on them, and they habitually scratch themselves on a tree. Over time, the bark of this tree has been worn away, making it very obvious, and is a way to find wild boars in the wild.
Lin Heng looked around and shook his head, saying, "This should have been abandoned. Maybe the wild boars here have migrated or been killed."
The Itchy Tree Boar uses it every two or three days, and there will be obvious traces of footprints and other signs around it.
But even if it is abandoned, it is enough to show that there are more wild boars here and they are more rampant.
After taking a look, the three of them entered the bamboo forest to look for bamboo.
The bamboos in this forest were all as thick as fingers, so it was not difficult to find a suitable one. The three of them picked one and the other picked two, then cut them down and pulled them back.
When we got to the road, we cut the bamboo branches and smoothed them, and a simple fishing rod was made.
The three of them made five fishing rods and then took everything to the river.
Lin Heng walked two or three hundred meters upstream from where he found the mandarin fish. The water here was much deeper and so green that the bottom could not be seen clearly. He measured the water depth with a fishing line and it was about two and a half to three meters.
"I have dug a nest here. If you can't catch plum fish and mandarin fish, you can also try to catch crucian carp and carp here."
Lin Heng was making a bait while talking about this. The crucian carp in Heihe River is famous for its deliciousness, so making a bait is a guaranteed option.
He even felt that the nest was not well maintained, so he walked fifty meters up and dug another nest.
After the nest is ready, first throw two homemade seven-star float line sets made from bamboo characters into the nest for fishing, and press down the tail with a large stone of thirty to forty kilograms.
The three of them took their fishing rods and went to the place where they had just discovered the smelt and mandarin fish to try to catch the mandarin fish.
"Both of these fish are carnivorous, so just hang the earthworms whole."
Lin Heng gave some instructions to his father and elder brother, then he also hung a big black earthworm and threw it into the water to test the situation.
There is more than one meter of water at the edge of this place, and the splashing point is about two or three meters deep. There is no trace of fish at this moment.
Lin Yue threw the fishhook directly into the deepest part of the water, Lin's father threw it in the middle, and Lin Heng threw it next to the rocks, because he knew that it was the habit of mandarin fish to hide among the rocks and ambush passing small fish.
There is a high chance that you can catch mandarin fish using this method.
He kept trying in places with many rocks, using the teasing fishing method to try his best to make the mandarin fish notice him, as they have an instinctive desire to chase such active creatures.
The sky is azure blue today with only a few white clouds dotted around. It is already noon and the sunlight is extremely warm.
As long as there is no river breeze, sitting on the rocks by the river and fishing is an extremely pleasant thing. When you look up, you can see mountains, rivers and beautiful scenery.
In the blink of an eye, the three of them had been fishing for half an hour, but no one made any movement, and they were all a little disappointed for a moment.
"Could it be that these fish don't eat in winter?" Father Lin asked doubtfully.
"Yeah, it's been such a long time." Lin Yue also nodded.
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "It's impossible for them not to eat. Maybe they are not interested in earthworms. I'll go get some stream groupers and give it a try."
As he said this, he dropped his fishing rod and went to the shallow water to look for brook grouper. There would always be brook grouper in any river.
After searching for more than ten minutes, Lin Heng finally found the stream grouper in shallow water. He used his superb fishing skills to catch four of them at once.
After shaking off the water on his hands, Lin Heng ran back with the bucket.
“We’ve caught a fish!!”
When he was halfway there, he heard his father's exclamation from upstream.
Looking up, I saw a beautiful plum fish being pulled directly out of the water, and its beautiful scales were reflecting colorful light in the sun.
"That's great, how did you catch it?"
Lin Heng ran over and asked.
"I don't know where the fishing rod with the earthworm on it was thrown. I saw it moving, so I quickly pulled it up and caught the fish." Father Lin said as he took out the fishhook.
This fish weighs one kilogram. It is slender and can be barely held in one hand. It has dense scales and black spots on its body.
Father Lin looked at it again and again, and Lin Heng took out the fish guard sewn by Xiulan and threw it into the water.
"It seems that the Qinling salmon also eat earthworms."
Lin Yue said with a smile, and became more excited. As long as he could catch fish, there was hope.
"Hehe, it seems that I have good luck." Father Lin laughed, caught another earthworm and continued to wait.
The thing fishermen fear most is not catching any fish. As long as they catch one, they can keep waiting.
Lin Heng retrieved his rod and found the earthworms were intact, with no signs of being uneaten. This was normal, as if the mandarin fish had eaten them, then they would have been caught.
He just lamented that there are no lure fishing rods in the country now, otherwise it would be a sure win for fishing for fish such as salmon and mullet.
The hooks he used to catch these fish were very large. He would catch the brook grouper and cruelly drive the hook through its tail, so that the fish would not die and would just look like a wounded fish while struggling in the water. Any carnivorous fish would be tempted to watch.
After putting the fish on, Lin Heng threw it into the water. Once it entered the water, the grouper swam around with the fishing line. Whenever it was about to enter a crevice, Lin Heng took it out and threw it in again.
Just when he threw it for the ninth time, he suddenly stopped.
"I'm leaning on the fish."
Lin Heng excitedly lifted the rod, and soon a big fish floated to the surface of the water. Its green and yellow body had dark brown spots, shining brightly in the sun.
“Plop!”
With a flip, it went in again. The fishing rod was too soft and was pulled into a big bow.
"If you really caught something, I'll get you a dip net."
Lin Yue was startled at first, then dropped his fishing rod and went to the back to get the assembled scoop net.
“No hurry.”
Lin Heng said with a smile, and slowly slid around twice, enjoying the fun of fishing.
Half a minute later, the mandarin fish was scooped out directly with the scoop net.
Lin Heng took out the hook, grabbed the mandarin fish and looked at it again and again: "This fish is big, more than two kilograms, and its fur is so beautiful."
Mandarin fish doesn't eat much in winter, but that doesn't mean they don't eat, like this brook grouper that's been delivered to its mouth.
"Great, it's worth the trip today." Father Lin said with a smile.
Lin Heng nodded. He couldn’t bear to eat this fish. The pattern was so beautiful that it could be used as an ornamental fish.
Feeding this ferocious fish is very interactive, and it eats fish very aggressively.
After looking at it for a long time, Lin Heng put it into the fish basket. No matter what, today's fishing trip to the Heihe River was finally a good start.
"I'm the only one who didn't catch any. I'll try for brook grouper too."
Lin Yue said with a smile.
"I'll hang it for you." Lin Heng nodded, caught a stream grouper and hung it on the hook for his elder brother, and hung another one for himself.
The three of them were a little excited when they cast the bait again. This fish was easier to catch than they had imagined. It might also be related to the location they chose. This place was sparsely populated and the fish had not suffered from the "beating" of society.
I fished for another half an hour, but there was still no bite even with the brook grouper. This was a bit strange. Even if there were no mandarin fish, there must be smelt fish. Why couldn't I catch any?
"Forget it, let's eat. I'm hungry."
Lin Heng looked at his watch and it was almost two o'clock.
"good."
The three of them pressed down the fishing rods with stones, went to the back to find a large bluestone and started to eat lunch.
Their lunch was simple, just some braised food from home and three steamed buns.
The braised donkey meat and half a chicken are all served cold. It is so comfortable to eat while basking in the sun.
"This place becomes more and more beautiful the more I look at it." Lin Yue said with a smile.
Lin Heng also nodded, ate a bite of donkey meat and said: "It's a great place to have a picnic, barbecue and fish, but it's a pity that I didn't take anything this time."
He decided that next time he had the chance, he would bring his wife, daughter and family here to play, as this was a great camping site.
"Come next time. There's plenty of time."
Father Lin also smiled and said that he thought this place was good because he caught a fish this time. If they can get such a good harvest in winter, then summer must be even more charming.
"Damn it, the fishing rod was pulled away!!"
At this moment, Lin Yue turned his head and exclaimed in surprise.
I don’t know if it was because he didn’t press it properly or what, but his fishing rod was being dragged towards the middle of the water.
(End of this chapter)
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