Chapter 400

Ye Yaodong was cursing, pulling and tugging there, and after a while, he loosened the fishing line again.

"Just having this line and wanting to tire out the fish is too damn exhausting. Fortunately, I'm wearing gloves, so I can buffer it a bit. Dad, hold this wooden stick that reels the line for me, so I can free up my other hand."

He felt that using one hand to both pull and release the line, with the line winding around his arm and then releasing, didn't feel very convenient.

Ye Fu actively stepped forward to help hold the wooden stick that reeled the line and squeezed to the front.

Ye Yaodong freed up his hand and pulled with both hands. His right hand had already wound the fishing line around his upper arm. He felt that the struggle of the fish under the sea was no longer as strong as it was at the beginning.

At the beginning, it was really too fierce. It bit the hook and darted out directly. Caught off guard, let alone the wooden stick, half of his body was dragged out of the gunwale.

The fishing line on his arm wound more and more, and his right wrist kept turning to release the line from time to time. The fish below was clearly being pulled up bit by bit.

"Dad, how much line did you release? Why does it feel like I've been pulling for a long time, and there's a circle after circle wound around my arm, and there's still so much left below?"

"Don't you use a long line to catch big fish? Who told you there was no movement for a long time just now, so I thought I'd release more fishing line to try."

"That makes sense. It really is a big fish, but it's a bit hard on the hands!"

"Can you do it? If not, I'll do it."

"How could I not do it? This fish feels like it's been tired out enough. Wait, I'll give you the goods immediately."

Ye Yaodong felt that the fish below was no longer struggling, so he pulled with all his might. The fishing line in his palm wound circle after circle, and his right hand kept turning flexibly to reel in the line.

Before long, the fierce big catch gradually revealed its true colors, looming under the water.

"Ah damn, is it a yellowtail amberjack?"

Ye Fu stretched his neck and looked carefully at the sea surface, happily saying, "Amberjack is good, amberjack is good. Pull it over quickly, I'll go get the hook..."

As Ye Fu spoke, he directly handed the wooden stick in his hand to the soldier next to him and hurriedly ran to the cabin to get the hook.

His ears were filled with the sounds of their excited discussion.

"It's pulled up, it's pulled up..."

"It's up, it's on the water surface..."

"So big..."

"So big..."

"This fish is so big, no wonder it ran with the hook as soon as it bit it."

Ye Yaodong was also very excited, "Damn, it wasn't a waste of effort after all. Fortunately, it's a yellowtail amberjack, not some other trash fish. This fish is good."

"Is it very expensive?"

"It's alright. It's enough to break even today. The wages and fuel money are covered, it wasn't a wasted trip..."

Ye Fu took a hook tied to a wooden stick, which Ye Yaodong had made earlier. It was convenient for fishing, in case the fish was too big and not easy to pull up. When it was hovering by the gunwale, he could directly use this hook to hook the fish's belly and lift it up.

The soldiers were all taller than him. As Ye Fu squeezed, he said, "Make way, make way, let me in... It's pulled up, right? The size is not small at all... Let me, let me..."

Ye Fu, full of excitement, lay on the gunwale and stretched out his stick, hooking the yellowtail amberjack that was hovering by the gunwale because of exhaustion, and then quickly lifted it up and threw it onto the deck.

This yellowtail amberjack even bounced once when it was thrown onto the deck.

Ye Yaodong didn't care that his arm was covered in fishing line and followed up to kick it twice, "Good guy, it's really not small. My arm was left with a whole arm of red marks by the fishing line."

"This one is estimated to be 20 jin. The size is really not small. This trip out today was worth it. I'll go get a knife to bleed it. It'll be a long time before we go back, so don't let it go bad."

Captain Chen also happily said, "There are indeed quite a few fish hiding around the reefs below. We only fished for a while and caught such a big fish. There must be many more below."

"Yes, before when we went into the water, we saw many even when we were in a hurry. They were all kinds of colors, colorful and quite good-looking."

Ye Yaodong smiled while untying the line wrapped around his arm, "Tomorrow I'll get each of you a hand-line."

There was a pile of line wrapped around. When untying it, some were knotted, and a small section was twisted into a mess. That was because he reeled it in a bunch when reeling in the line, and didn't bother to untangle it when winding it, making it a bit troublesome.

He untied all the lines and threw them on the deck, first rolling up the sleeves on his arms.

Afraid of getting tanned, he wore long sleeves even in the hot weather, but wearing long sleeves couldn't stop the fishing line from cutting into his arms. The red marks circle after circle on top were distributed quite evenly.

The fish caught before weren't this big, and pulling them up wasn't very difficult. This yellowtail amberjack was indeed powerful. He shook his arms and said, "This hand-line is not suitable for catching big fish, it can only catch small fish. Catching small fish is quite fast, it's easier to fish than with a rod."

"Who can be sure about that?" Ye Fu said without raising his head while bleeding the fish.

Ye Yaodong shrugged. He was just saying it casually; it was like opening a blind box.

He picked up the stick on the deck again. No matter how impatient he was, he had to untangle that pile of line and roll it up.

When there are conditions, I must get a real fishing rod. The current conditions are too arduous. Either the bamboo pole breaks, or the line is in a mess, which is too delaying.

By the time Ye Fu finished bleeding the fish, Ye Yaodong was still fighting with that messy pile of fishing line.

"I'll drive the boat to the small island opposite first. It doesn't look very far, it should take five or six minutes."

Ye Yaodong said without raising his head, "Sure, you decide. Anyway, since we're idle, we're idle. There are no fishing boats at sea at this time. Let the two PLA comrades go dig for shellfish together. Anyway, they are also idle and have nothing to do. Splitting into two groups is just right."

Ye Fu looked at them with a smile and said embarrassedly, "You really know how to assign people..."

Captain Chen smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. Anyway, we are idle, so we might as well go and see, and experience a different kind of seaside life."

"Good, good, good, I'll go drive the boat..."

Having two more free laborers is naturally good.

After Ye Fu parked the boat, Ye Yaodong had also finished organizing the line. Just as he breathed a sigh of relief and raised his head, he saw his father carrying a bucket to him.

"Take it!"

Ye Yaodong was puzzled, "What for?"

"Go to the island to dig for shellfish."

"Isn't it you going? My luck seems to be better than yours. Such a big yellowtail amberjack was caught by me. You had no movement for half a day before. I'll fish and you go dig."

"Fart, that was a coincidence. It wasn't because my hook was thrown well. Hurry up."

Ye Yaodong took the bucket in frustration, watching the waves hitting the rocks around, and the boat was also constantly colliding. Although there were no big waves today, when the seawater surged to the reef, it would also bring up a little spray, and there wasn't even a bare beach around, so it was really not easy to stand on the reef.

Forget it, for the sake of his father's old bones, he'd better go.

"Remember to come pick me up when it's mealtime, don't let me starve to death."

"Got it. Even if I forget you, I can't forget the two PLA comrades. You and the two PLA comrades remember to be careful."

"Hmm."

Ye Yaodong carried the bucket and checked the tools inside. They were quite complete, and there were five or six sacks. After thinking about it, he brought a hand-net and let the other two each take a bucket, which was convenient for loading and dumping.

He carefully got off the boat first, stepped on the reef, and climbed up. Captain Chen and another soldier also followed off the boat.

"Be careful, walk to the side, I'll teach you how to identify how to dig these shellfish."

Ye Yaodong told them which rocks could be dug. Some looked gray and white on the outside, and you couldn't see anything on the surface. Only after prying them down could you see the meat inside.

For example, oysters, he told them to pry down the whole young shellfish, don't just pry the shell, there's nothing to hold the meat for them, and he demonstrated it to show them.

There are also small abalones, the shells are just like the rocks, if you don't look carefully, you'll just skip them...

He dug through the common types on the rocks for them to see. After seeing that they all remembered, he climbed to the side.

Stepping on the reef is not as solid as stepping on the beach, and the danger factor is high. Ye Yaodong didn't dare to look around and could only focus on his feet.

When he filled a bucket and dumped it into a sack, preparing to carry the sack to a flatter reef above, he saw a small cave between the gaps of two rocks above, and there was actually a fierce round-axis crab inside. This surprised him immediately.

This round-axis crab is a large land crab. There was one that just crawled to the entrance of the cave, which he saw clearly.

The width of its back shell is about 12 cm, and its body color is purple-black. Its two chelae are one large and one small. It might have broken one and then regrown one. The regrown large foot would be smaller.

It is a sea crab but a land crab that lives on land, meaning it only needs to occasionally supplement with seawater.

It's just that this crab is too, too dirty, full of parasites, and there are worms inside the crab gills. It even eats rats and cockroaches, ugh~

Ye Yaodong took a look and skipped it directly. If this kind of round-axis crab were given to him, he wouldn't want it, it's not as good as 'Ai'.

'Ai' is their local dialect, and I don't know the scientific name. It is also a kind of small crab, but it lives in the crevices of rocks. It is very small, and the shell on its back is between the size of a quail egg and a pigeon egg, and it only has a shell without meat. You can only catch it back, coat it with sweet potato starch, and fry it to eat.

It's just that he skipped it as if he hadn't seen it, but the other two were pleasantly surprised when they saw it.

Captain Chen also just filled a bucket with various goods with shells and was preparing to put the sack in a flatter position above. Coincidentally, he also saw that cave.

"Ah! There is a very big crab here, A-Dong, Aotian, you guys come quickly..."

Ye Yaodong suddenly stumbled, and he only didn't fall by supporting himself on the rock with both hands. Aotian?

He looked at the other soldier. Could it be that his surname is Long?