Chapter 322

Everyone was sitting at the entrance bundling firewood; the straw ropes were twisted on the spot. They snapped each thin branch and bundled them into small bundles, then set them aside.

Then, Ye Fu and Ye Mu tied the fishing nets onto a frame made of three fixed bamboo poles, leaving only a cone-shaped opening on the outside of the net, and hung a bundle of branches in the center inside the net to serve as an egg-attachment device.

Making them in a cage style or branch style both have good egg-attachment effects.

The cage style can effectively prevent a large number of squid eggs from piling up together without affecting the squid's spawning. Moreover, it can effectively protect the squid eggs from being destroyed by other marine life.

Actually, if one wants to farm squid, now is the best time.

After catching the squid, one can also retrieve the branches with eggs attached to hatch and cultivate them, maximizing profits.

But there is no concept of farming at this time, and no one knows how to farm them. Ye Yaodong doesn't know either; he plans to retrieve the attached branches once the spawning period is over.

They also call squid eggs "squid roe," which is also a good thing.

Several children were there helping to transport, putting the bundled branches onto the cart and stacking them well; some were also helping to snap branches.

Lin Guangyuan was bored and dragging a bundle of branches over, also joining in the snapping, "Why do we need to tie so many branches to catch squid?"

Ye Chengyang asked naively, "Do squid eat branches?"

"They hang the 'rice' in their bellies onto the branches, and we take the opportunity to catch them; we can catch more squid that way."

They colloquially call the roe in the bellies of squid and small squid "rice" because it looks very much like rice.

The children seemed to understand but didn't really, and Ye Yaodong didn't explain further.

After a short while, Ye Mu called them to eat. After eating, they continued, working under the lights until it was pitch black outside.

After helping Ye Yaodong finish, Ye Fu and Ye Mu went to help Ye Yaopeng and Ye Yaohua, and only after everything was finished and cleaned up did Ye Fu return to the old house to sleep.

At night, the father and his three sons took their two boats and headed far out to their respective familiar fishing grounds.

Squid like to spawn near the outer islands of the near sea. Ye Yaodong steered the boat to Ribbonfish Island as usual; this was the outer near-sea island he visited most frequently, and the day before yesterday, he had discovered a large number of squid that had died after spawning outside this island.

This indicated that the water quality and sea area around this island were very suitable for squid spawning, so this was naturally the first choice.

Using the faint light from his headlamp and flashlight, Ye Yaodong looked around and stopped within a 50-meter range around the reef.

Just as he was preparing to deploy the egg-attachment branches, Ye Fu stopped him and drew a bucket of seawater, pouring about two jin into a soup pot. He also gently tapped the pot with his hand, and five or six points of light appeared in the water.

Ye Yaodong was surprised, "What are you doing, Dad?"

"This is an old method. The points of light inside are bioluminescent insects; this can be used to judge the squid fishing season. When 2 to 5 bioluminescent insects emit points of light, the squid season has begun. When the number of light points reaches 10 to 15, it means the peak squid season has arrived."

Sure enough, ginger is still spicier when it's old.

"That means the fishing season has just begun and hasn't reached its peak yet."

"Right, the catch will only get bigger day by day from here on."

"Ginger is still spicier when it's old; I've learned something."

Ye Fu was somewhat smug, "There's still a lot you don't know."

"Mm-hmm, shall I start deploying?"

"Go ahead, don't put them too deep; the effect is better within ten meters of the sea surface. And when the squid swim over, we can see them clearly on the surface. Remember to deploy them evenly."

"You got it."

One must listen to the advice of the elderly when it's time to listen.

Ye Yaodong took out the bundles of attachment devices, connected and secured them with ropes, tied on sinker ropes and floats, and deployed them evenly into the sea, keeping them at about five meters below the surface.

After deploying them all, he dropped a buoy to mark the spot.

Doing these things at sea requires markers, otherwise, it's hard to find them; having markers can prevent one from becoming a headless fly.

Ye Fu watched from the side, feeling very satisfied and thinking his role had become important again, "Just deployed, the effect won't be that fast. Come back after noon; squid spawning time is generally from the afternoon to dusk. The harvest is larger during this time period; this is everyone's many years of fishing experience."

"Understood, then let's go trawling and come back after 12 o'clock."

Because he was determined to catch squid today, he didn't collect bait. Anyway, the trawling harvest had been good recently, and he still had to collect the ground cages. He didn't know how the harvest in the ground cages was after not coming for a day, or if they had been knocked by the waves and jammed into the reef crevices again.

It was not yet four in the morning, and the sky was pitch black. Although they were close to the reef, it wasn't suitable for going into the water.

After the boat had sailed for a distance, Ye Fu dragged the organized fishing net to the stern slipway and slowly lowered it.

While working, they unexpectedly encountered two other boats in the distance also working at the same time; the lights on the boats allowed them to be spotted from afar.

Most people are generally decent; as long as they aren't deliberately looking for trouble, most just avoid each other. No one wants to stir up trouble on purpose.

Seeing this, Ye Yaodong also kept his distance. Several lessons had made him remember to stay away from fishing boats at sea unless there was an emergency.

They didn't plan to haul the first net until the sky was bright.

Just as they were slowing down and preparing to haul the net, they saw many fish carcasses floating on the sea surface at the stern of the boat, as well as two large fish sinking and floating. Looking at the dorsal fins exposed above the sea surface, they seemed to be sharks?

"Dongzi, wait a bit before hauling the net. Go get the cast net and throw it to see."

"Sure." He had also seen those fish on the sea.

The father and son, one holding the net and the other steering the boat, backed up to the side, then cast the net completely, covering the shark and the surrounding floating fish.

After waiting for a few minutes, they used the roller to effortlessly reel in the cast net.

Just as they dragged it to the side, they saw the fish wrapped inside the net.

"They're all leatherjacket fish, with only a few small yellow croakers."

"Pull them up first."

The two worked together to reel the large bag of fishing net up with the roller, dragged it onto the deck, and untied the net. Everything was poured out, but they discovered that these fish all had cutting wounds on their bodies.

Ye Yaodong didn't have time to look at those leatherjacket fish; he took a stick and killed the half-dead shark first, to prevent it from lashing out and hurting someone while struggling in its death throes.

Ye Fu squatted down, picked up a few leatherjacket fish, and flipped them over to look. He had an idea in his mind, and the shark's wound nearby was even more obvious.

He threw the fish in his hand and said, "These fish must have been hit by the boat's propeller. We must have just encountered a school of leatherjacket fish. When the boat sailed over, the propeller at the stern cut directly through the school of fish underwater at high speed."

These fish poured onto the deck not only had wounds cut by the propeller on their bodies, but some were even in two halves or several sections, and some were even cut directly into minced meat.

Ye Yaodong also picked up a few to look; they indeed looked like traces of being cut by a propeller. Leatherjacket fish also have relatively low vision, only able to see up to 1.2 meters at most; they are quite blind, so it's very normal for them to hit the propeller.

"Dad, let's cast a few more nets and scoop up those on the sea to take back and dry; don't waste them."

"Then let's cast two more nets and catch that shark while we're at it."

These fish all had cutting wounds on their bodies and couldn't be sold for a good price; they could either be used as bait or dried. It just so happened that the stock of dried fish at home was almost bottoming out.

Originally, this fish wasn't highly regarded; in this era, there were plenty of good fish, and leatherjacket fish had to be skinned to be eaten, which was quite troublesome.

Leatherjacket fish have a layer of rough, sandpaper-textured, tough, and elastic fish skin that must be peeled off before they can be eaten, which is why they are called leatherjacket fish. Their official scientific name is *Thamnaconus modestus*, but no one calls them that; they are all called leatherjacket fish.

But decades later, as marine resources gradually depleted, even pufferfish could be served on the table, and the status of leatherjacket fish naturally rose.

Especially dried leatherjacket fish; it's both expensive and delicious!

The father and son, holding the principle of not wasting what they see, cast five or six nets in a row before netting all the scattered fish on the sea surface; most were leatherjacket fish.

These fish were truly cut to pieces, and even the intact fish had slight traces of being cut.

There was no need to sort them; they were all being taken back for their own use anyway. They poured them all into baskets and pushed them into the corner. The quantity of these leatherjacket fish was not small; they piled up four baskets, which was almost 200 jin.

The two sharks also had traces of being cut one after another, cut very evenly, just like scoring a fish; it looked quite good!

The father and son also lifted them into the baskets and piled them together.

After finishing, they finally had time to start the net hauler and drag the fishing net from the seabed up.

With the harvest of leatherjacket fish just now, Ye Yaodong thought there would definitely be no shortage in this net. Unexpectedly, just after dragging it up, he discovered they were all Spanish mackerel, with only a few leatherjacket fish at the mouth of the net.

"We must have just encountered them; they were right in this area, so there were only a few at the mouth of the net."

"Spanish mackerel is good; Spanish mackerel is a bit more valuable," Ye Fu said while untying the net mouth and pouring them out, "Recently is also the fishing season for Spanish mackerel; your eldest brother and second brother have also trawled quite a lot of Spanish mackerel recently."

"As long as it can make money, the quantity of high-priced ones is small. Let's trawl another net in this area later; leatherjacket fish are cheap, but the quantity is large, so it's fine to catch a few more."

Leatherjacket fish all swim in schools; large fish are their natural enemies. By the time the nearsighted leatherjacket fish discover their natural enemies, it's too late to escape. To preserve the population, they can only swim in schools.

A sufficiently large quantity can allow some leatherjacket fish in the population to escape, so that the leatherjacket fish population can survive.

This characteristic is also the reason why the price of leatherjacket fish is people-friendly, because once encountered, a whole school is caught. With a sufficiently large output, the price becomes cheap.

After they poured out the fish cargo, they organized the fishing net and lowered it again, then one person steered the boat to work while the other sorted, working in cooperation.

They wandered around the sea area where the propeller had just hit the leatherjacket fish. Seeing that the time was almost up and it was almost noon, he steered toward the adjacent sea area.

For the last net, even the last bit of time had to be utilized. He steered the boat not far from the reef before preparing to haul the net.