Chapter 139: Bryde's Whales Driving the Fish School

After putting the ground cages back into the sea, Ye Yaodong rowed his boat to a slightly more distant part of the sea to find a new fishing spot, only to see a flock of seabirds circling in the sky above the water not far away.

Where there are circling seabirds, there are usually schools of fish. He rowed the boat over with some anticipation, only to discover that there were two large whales hunting on the sea surface not far away, one of which had its bloody mouth wide open.

At this, he didn't dare to go over, only daring to watch from afar. He didn't know what kind of whales they were, but they were huge, looking to be several meters long, and their mouths were big enough that he estimated they could swallow him whole.

Suddenly, one of the whales leaped out of the water to hunt, and only then did he see clearly that it was a Bryde's whale.

My goodness, another second-class protected animal.

Whales are large marine mammals that, like humans, breathe with lungs, so they surface to breathe from time to time, but they cannot leave the ocean.

Although Bryde's whales are large, they are very timid and will flee to the deep sea when frightened. If there are always boats on the surface, they might not even dare to come up to breathe, effectively drowning themselves.

With the seven-day fishing ban, no boats from their side had gone out, so it was no wonder they had swum into their area.

He stood on his small boat and watched curiously for a while, seeing the two Bryde's whales working in tandem, one driving the fish school in the water while the other sat back and enjoyed the fruits of the labor?

Ye Yaodong thought about it and decided it was better to stay further away; such behemoths were not something he could afford to provoke.

He rowed the boat to a slightly more distant position, but then saw several small boats rowing rapidly toward this side from the sea not far away.

He guessed they must have also seen the seabirds circling over that part of the sea.

He glanced at the two Bryde's whales again, guessing they would be scared away soon.

Just as he took out his fishing rod and prepared to bait the hook while watching, he heard someone shouting his name loudly.

"Dongzi?"

Ye Yaodong looked over in surprise at the sound; it was Xiao Xiao and A Zheng.

He put down the fishing rod in his hand and waited for their boat to approach.

"Why are you here?"

"Why aren't you going over there to take a look? There are so many seabirds circling overhead; there must be a school of fish."

He raised an eyebrow, "You two are so diligent?"

"Aren't you even more diligent? We were thinking, since we're idle anyway, and we haven't been out to sea for a week, we figured we'd come out for a stroll, try our luck, and incidentally drop the few Korean nets we just had someone make."

He glanced at the Korean nets on their boat, "Such high efficiency, it's only been a few days?"

"Isn't it fast to have someone else make them? We only made seven Korean nets anyway. We'll just drop them off first, collect them the next day, and catch whatever we can."

Korean nets are larger than ground cage nets, consisting of circular rings layer upon layer, but Korean nets can only catch fish, not shrimp or crabs.

As they approached, the other small boats all headed toward the distant sea. A Zheng hurriedly asked, "Why aren't you going over there where there are so many seabirds, staying here instead?"

"There are two huge Bryde's whales feeding over there."

"Huh? Bryde's whales? What kind of whales are Bryde's whales? Never heard of them. So... there really is a school of fish over there." Both of them were very surprised.

"Yeah."

"Several boats have already gone over; shall we go take a look too?" A Zheng looked at Xiao Xiao, asking with an itchy curiosity. He was very intrigued.

"Suit yourselves. Bryde's whales are timid. With so many small boats approaching, they'll definitely flee."

"Being timid is good; if they're timid, they won't attack people. Let's go take a look first to see what they look like," Xiao Xiao nodded, also very curious, "Wait for us to go over and take a look first."

Ye Yaodong waved his hand, "Go ahead."

Watching them row away, he continued to bait his fishing hook.

Fearing that the small shrimp in the bucket would die, he prioritized using the shrimp as live bait, threading it through the hard bone in the middle of the shrimp's head cover.

He confidently cast the hook into the sea. Shrimp are known as universal bait, capable of catching any fish. The ones in his bucket were all small sword shrimp or small white shrimp; fish under half a jin couldn't fit these shrimp in their mouths, and even one-jin fish were a stretch.

He was very confident that he would definitely catch a big fish this time.

He glanced at the fishing boats in the distance and didn't seem to see the Bryde's whales anymore; he didn't know if they had really been scared away.

If they ran, that was fine too. With their huge size, he felt they would never be full no matter how much they ate; better they eat less and leave some for him!

Just because he was distracted for a moment, he felt the fishing rod move. He hurriedly and anxiously lifted the rod, but it was empty; the bait had been eaten, and the fish had run away!

"Damn, I can't believe it took the bait so fast, and yet it still got away."

He felt depressed for a moment, then hooked another live shrimp. This time he didn't dare to look around, focusing all his attention on the fishing rod.

Unexpectedly, not ten seconds after casting it, the rod moved again. He pulled it up without any effort; it was a black porgy weighing over a jin.

Fortunately, it didn't run away this time. It took the bait so quickly.

Perhaps under the driving of the two Bryde's whales, these fish were fleeing in fear all around?

Putting the black porgy into the bucket, he took the opportunity to look into the distance again, only to see two or three nets being cast there.

So bold? Did the Bryde's whales flee?

Thinking about it, he also rowed his boat over. With everyone casting nets there, there must be a school of fish they had spotted.

Ye Yaodong rowed his small boat with effort. After getting closer and seeing Xiao Xiao and A Zheng's position, he rowed toward them, just in time to see them pulling up a net.

So many fish, he estimated there were ten or twenty jin. He was extremely surprised, "So many sole and red-headed fish? And croakers, holy crap, there's even a large yellow croaker!"

Ye Yaodong saw with sharp eyes that there was actually a golden-yellow large yellow croaker in the net. At this time, no one was farming large yellow croakers yet; they were all wild.

Xiao Xiao and A Zheng also saw it and hurriedly pulled it up with joy.

The fishing boats lingering around saw this and asked one after another, "Did you catch a large yellow croaker?"

The two hurriedly poured all the fish into the bucket, picked out the large yellow croaker, and held it in their hands with bright smiles on their faces.

"Damn, this one must weigh over three jin." Ye Yaodong watched with envy.

"It should be, worth over ten yuan." The two looked at the fish with delight.

Other fishing boats also rowed over to take a closer look, saying one after another, "Impressive, there's actually a yellow croaker."

"So big? It's a pity we came out to drop ground cage nets and didn't specifically bring hand-casting nets."

"Exactly, who would have thought there would be two whales feeding here, driving a bunch of fish schools."

"Those two whales ran away, which is a bargain for you guys. It's a pity my ground cages are already all dropped."

"No need to feel sorry. Maybe these fish are fleeing everywhere, and there might be more cargo in the ground cages tomorrow."

"Hope so."

Everyone gathered around enviously to discuss. Other small boats with hand-casting nets had also cast two nets just now, but they hadn't caught any good cargo.

They couldn't help but feel envious and seized the time to cast a few more nets, perhaps they could have the same dumb luck as them.

After A Zheng and Xiao Xiao were happy, they put the fish back into the bucket, "Everyone make way, don't block our boat. Let our boat out for a bit; we still need to seize the time to cast a few more nets."

Ye Yaodong took the lead in rowing his boat to the side, clearing space for them. He also wanted to fish in this area to see if he could catch some good cargo with shrimp.

"Dongzi, you even brought a fishing rod?" Xiao Xiao cast his net, while A Zheng looked around, only to find Dongzi was actually hooking live shrimp as bait.

"Yeah, I was thinking since I came out to drop ground cages today, I couldn't go back empty-handed after finishing. I've been eating vegetarian for several days and haven't had any fresh fish. I remembered there was a broken fishing rod in the warehouse, so I brought it out to try and see if I could catch a few fish to take back."

"No worries, if you can't catch any in a while, just take some from here."

"Alright, then can I take that large yellow croaker back to steam?"

A Zheng glared, "Damn, get lost. I meant you can take any other fish."

Ye Yaodong rolled his eyes, "You should have said so earlier. I thought you were so generous to your brother and wanted to help him out."

"In your dreams."

"I don't care anyway. I've already been fishing for a good while, and you guys interrupted me. Just watch me catch another large yellow croaker!" He said while casting the hook into the sea.

"Let's see what you caught just now?"

"No time now, I need to seize the time. I'll give you some after I'm done fishing... Holy crap... holy crap... it's here, it's here..."

Before he finished speaking, he felt the hook being bitten. He hurriedly pulled upward, but it was quite strenuous, and the bamboo pole bent into a deep arc, but he was happy instead of worried.

It was a big fish!

Xiao Xiao was pulling the net on the side and looked over upon hearing the sound, "Holy crap, this rod of yours is very heavy; there must be a big fish!"

"Don't know if you can pull it up? This fishing rod of yours is too crude." People nearby who hadn't left yet also said.

A Zheng also said, "Yeah, this fish doesn't look small. Live shrimp are really useful; it took the bait before you even finished speaking."

Ye Yaodong also felt the same; this broken fishing rod was indeed too crude. Fortunately, he had brought gloves. He grabbed the fishing line and wrapped it around his hand quickly, struggling to pull the fish up bit by bit.

"Ah, it's a croaker, damn... so big! Does this weigh thirty jin? We're rich!" A Zheng's eyes popped out.

Ye Yaodong was also extremely surprised. Another big croaker? He felt this one shouldn't be thirty jin, maybe around twenty-seven or twenty-eight jin. No wonder it was so heavy. He happily put the fish directly onto the small boat and then patted it unconscious.

It was so big, and it was still alive when just caught; a moment of carelessness would let it jump back into the sea. To be safe, it was safer to pat it unconscious.

Others also saw the process of him catching it and discussed it there, full of envy.

"Boom heaven oh~ another croaker this big, rich, rich."

"I heard Ye Laosan caught one over 50 jin with a trawl net before? Caught another one this time, he's rich!"

"Don't know how much this one can sell for?"

"Definitely not cheap. Sigh~ this is yellow croaker, and this is a big croaker. Why don't we have this luck?"

"Didn't bring anything, so pissed off..."

"Sigh~ don't have this wealth luck..."