Chapter 249: Xiao Hu: Bro, you can wipe your shoes clean

So for anglers, the only use of pufferfish is——to scrub shoes!

Exactly, you take the pufferfish's plump body and scrub the shoe once, then toss it back into the sea.

Ye Cheng looked at the little thing on the fishing rod, and he also felt uneasy.

"Damn, bro, you actually caught a pufferfish, awesome, hahaha, you can now scrub your shoes clean."

"Get lost, want it or not."

Ye Cheng now doesn't even dare to scrub shoes; he isn't wearing gloves, afraid that if he touches the spines and gets poisoned, it'll be trouble.

Really having no choice, Ye Cheng pulled out gloves, put them on, and gently took this guy away, then he said to its cute little mouth,

"Brother, next time you want to eat something, just tell me; don't eat the bait, okay? Fishing isn't easy for me, so don't cause me trouble."

After saying that, he threw both hands out, obediently sending the ancestor back, making Xiao Hu laugh uncontrollably.

Ye Cheng gave him a sideways glance, "Laugh at my ass, hurry up and catch one."

As soon as his voice fell, Xiao Hu's fishing rod moved, making Xiao Hu flustered.

Ye Cheng shook his head, looked back at the pond, the water had receded by one-third; in another hour we could cast the net.

Casting again, this time Ye Cheng cast farther; the sea water surged, the bobber bobbed up and down, in less than two minutes the bobber moved, Ye Cheng gave a tug, his hand sank, he felt resistance.

Ye Cheng stood up, using his practiced fish-playing plus rod-stabbing technique, it took twenty minutes to pull the fish out of the water: blue back, white body, pointed mouth, 40 centimeters long.

Ye Cheng carefully held it at the surface and played it for another five minutes, then lifted the rod and brought it up, using a net to hold it.

This is a goldeneye perch, also called sharp-snouted perch, with strong impact, so just now Ye Cheng's rod-pulling was also rather strenuous.

The goldeneye perch's flesh is thick like garlic cloves, tender and smooth, with excellent texture; generally considered tastier than sea bass, yet not expensive, a few dozen yuan per catty; this fish is about ten catties, not bad.

After fishing a while longer, Ye Cheng caught two seven-star groupers and one blue-clothed fish, bringing the total to about ten fish, a decent haul.

On the other side, Xiao Hu caught three fish, all sea bream.

Ye Cheng looked back; the water in the pond began to show its bottom, large fish backs visible on the surface, time to act.

"Xiao Hu, work the pond." Ye Cheng shouted, then put down his fishing rod, fetched a net, and first dealt with the large fish floating on the surface.

Ye Cheng first tested the water depth; it was already waist-deep, so he went straight in; a startled black big fish leapt out from beside him, its tail slapping Ye Cheng, knocking him off balance.

"Damn, still daring to assault the police?" Ye Cheng, quick-eyed and quick-handed, swept the net down and netted this fish over half a meter long.

But this guy wasn't honest at all; still struggling in the net, trying to escape, Ye Cheng pressed him down to the bottom with one hand.

Immediately, his hand felt a prick; this fish's dorsal fin is quite sharp.

Ye Cheng adjusted the angle, then together with the net he hauled it out—a black seabream, just a bit larger than usual.

Usually black seabream are 30–40 centimeters long; this one is estimated to be the fish king, about 50 centimeters long, seven or eight catties heavy, no idea how it got in.

"Xiao Hu, come help, this guy is fierce."

Xiao Hu hurriedly waded over, helping Ye Cheng haul it up together.

Such a big guy, even the water tank feels a bit cramped.

After dealing with the large black seabream, the two continued in the water; the water level dropped further, a white fish exposed its back, and Xiao Hu netted it and lifted it up with one motion.

"Brother, a sea bass, not small either." Xiao Hu said delightedly.

"Yeah, keep going; try to get a grouper this big, then we'll strike it rich." Ye Cheng gave a half-hearted encouragement, then continued scooping fish.

"Brother, this pond is too big, scooping with the net is too slow; why not cast a net?" Xiao Hu said.

Ye Cheng looked and thought, yeah, with such a big pond, if we rely on two people using the net, who knows how long it'll take.

Still, casting the net is faster.

"Alright, let's pull the net."

Said and done, Xiao Hu went back to the tricycle to fetch the net, then the two each took a side and began pulling the net.

The net slowly closed; we could clearly feel the fish inside panicking and fleeing, occasionally bumping into Ye Cheng's legs.

As the net drew nearer, those fish were eager to jump out, splashing noisily; Ye Cheng roughly counted, estimating about ten.

"Fish up!" Ye Cheng shouted; the two pulled the net toward shore together, feeling heavy—Ye Cheng alone couldn't hold it, but combined they hauled the net up.

A lively bunch of jumping fish!

Black, white, and red—truly gluttonous kids.

No wonder everyone loves watching the net-haul scene; it's really lively, spectators delighted.

Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu fetched the water tank, first taking out the biggest few.

First was a dog shark, half a meter long; Ye Cheng grabbed its tail and tossed it into the tank, where it tussled with the black seabream.

Then a horse pomfret, not as long as the one Ye Cheng caught in his previous match—only over thirty centimeters, but still okay.

After that came smaller ones—three 20-centimeter flower-tail pepper seabreams.

The flower-tail pepper seabream is a type of sea bream; its sides have three black slanted wide bands, and the dorsal fin and tail are covered with dense round spots, like scattered black pepper, hence the name.

The flower-tail pepper seabream also goes by the name Sea Bottom Chicken, mainly because its meat resembles chicken, low-fat high-protein nutrition also like chicken, and it can be prepared by steaming, braising, frying, boiling, or soups—so it's called Sea Bottom Chicken.

Besides Sea Bottom Chicken, the flower-tail pepper seabream is also commonly called Bao Gong Fish, mainly because its body is dark brown or deep gray, with dark wide stripes, resembling the Bao Gong figure in opera, hence the name Bao Gong Fish.

Pepper seabream isn't expensive, twenty or thirty yuan per catty, quite a good value.

Besides the pepper seabream, this haul also brought up several true seabreams.

After Ye Cheng and company finished sorting this net's catch, the pond's water was mostly drained; the pump could no longer draw anything.

The two stopped the pump, then went down into the pit to search for goods.

Da Huang somehow also crawled over, squatting at the pond's edge watching; seeing the small fish and shrimp in the pond, he happily splashed in, wanting a share.

The first thing Ye Cheng saw was that pig's head.

Damn, only a bone remained.

This thing's bone growth is kinda gross, especially that row of teeth; Ye Cheng found it a bit disgusting and quickly tossed it out.