Back to the small fishing village in 1982

Chapter 1098: Longline Fishing for Hairtail
When he arrived home with a thousand yuan in his pocket and was surrounded by a group of boatmen, he happily took out 20 yuan and gave it to the two boatmen who would be on duty the next day.

"Tomorrow we'll have an extra meal. Buy 10 pounds of meat and bring it back for the cook to make braised pork."

"Ah, there's meat to eat."

"Haha, the fish they caught today are pretty good, so we can get more tomorrow."

"If you have oil in your stomach, you won't be anxious."

"You have a good harvest of sea urchins?"

"It's OK. Eat better so that you can have more energy. Your body is your capital..."

The whole rental place was filled with joy. Even those who didn't go into the water could still get a meal of meat. Everyone was very happy. Ten pounds of meat could be cooked into a large pot without any side dishes. Although it was impossible to eat as much as they wanted, it was enough for so many strong men to replenish their energy.

They were very happy, and the other villagers around them also looked envious when they heard about it.

Not everyone has the financial conditions to eat meat every other day, and what they eat on a daily basis at the seaside is basically light boiled seafood, and everyone lacks oil in their stomachs.

Now the price of fat meat has risen to two or three yuan per pound, and even pork belly costs two yuan per pound. A pound of meat is equivalent to an average worker's daily salary. No one is willing to waste it like this.

Anyway, they don’t have to spend much money on food and drink in their daily lives. There is plenty of food from the sea. There is no oil or water, but it can fill their stomachs. Everyone has low desires.

Just like today's dinner, besides whole grain rice, there are vegetables, fish and shrimp, all free of charge. There is not much oil, but it is enough to fill me up.

Father Ye followed him into the house curiously and asked, "How much did you sell today? And you took out 20 yuan to buy meat?"

“It sold for 980 yuan.”

"so much……"

"So let's improve the food for everyone."

People nowadays work hard just to have something to eat and drink. After all, no one has the pressure to buy a house or a car, they just work to make a living.

He's making a lot of money now, so he can give everyone better food, so they can work harder and the working atmosphere can be better. Who doesn't want to make money happily?
Father Ye also had a big smile on his face. "Great, great, great. I had a great start on my first day out and earned so much money. That's great, great."

"How did the other boats catch their trawls today?"

"It's OK, just a little bit of subsidy. After all, we haven't started to make a lot of money yet, so we're just spending money. I heard that the good ones sold 20 to 30, and the average ones sold for more than ten yuan. Not to mention the money from the sales, the money left is enough for food and drink. I just heard them discussing that they don't know what will happen tomorrow, so they plan to go out to trawl at night, and then wait until dawn to check the trench, so they can do both."

"Oh, that's fine. If there are no jellyfish, at least we can trawl first. It's not a loss."

"Yeah, but some people were in a bad mood and complained about coming early."

"Don't bother with them. There are gossipers everywhere. We didn't force them to come here. If they make money, they will flatter us with a smile. If they don't make money, they will curse us. It's normal."

Ye Yaodong doesn’t care, that’s human nature.

"Alas, your eldest and second brothers came back from fishing, and your cousins ​​found him and started to curse and make a scene. What kind of thing is this? Once you get involved, you can't get rid of it."

"How to say?"

He was so immersed in catching sea urchins that he almost forgot that Ye Yaoguo and his brothers had no boat today. They could only row their small wooden boat around the coast and watch the large group run away.

"What else can I say? If you ask your elder and second brothers to go out to sea, they have to take them with them, just like other small boats. Your elder and second brothers won't agree to that. We have already agreed at home that they won't charge any money, they just bring the people here and will take them back when the time comes. During the time they are here, they will figure out how to salvage the fish themselves. How much they earn has nothing to do with others."

"If it was just one or two ships, it would be easy to deal with. But with five ships there, who has the energy to take care of them? Why don't you make money for yourself but help others make money?"

"I couldn't say anything more. I made a scene, but they ignored me. Everyone tried to help me speak up, so I just had to swallow it. Then I went to find Ah Sheng again."

"Ah Sheng also said that he had no choice. If it was just one boat, he would accept it, after all, we are brothers, but he really couldn't do anything about five boats. What's more, he rented the boat from you, and you own half of the money. How could he partner with others without permission and help others without caring about himself?"

"Even if he agrees, you will definitely not agree."

Ye Yaodong nodded, "Yes, that's right, let them solve it themselves."

"So there was a lot of noise and a lot of commotion in the afternoon. Later they had to find another way on their own. If they had no other choice, they could only do what the local fishermen did and wait for the peak season to come and fish around the coast."

"It was also because after we towed the boat back in the morning, they saw that they had returned empty-handed and had no gains from the boat, so they felt balanced and didn't make a big scene. After a quarrel, they calmed down afterwards."

"Actually, salvaging around the coast is not bad. You can earn a lot in a day. It's better than working at home." He was telling the truth.

There were too many fishing boats in the trench, and he didn't dare to think about how many days he could fish. There were too many people and too little fish. At least there were jellyfish floating in from the coast continuously, which could last for several months.

When they went back during the Mid-Autumn Festival two years ago, the locals were still salvaging.

After all the goods in the trench are salvaged, other ships will have to search and salvage the entire sea like the local fishermen, but to be honest, it will only last for a few days.

Father Ye shook his head. "That's incomparable. Besides, most of the troops are heading that way. They can't keep up. They must be feeling uncomfortable."

"Don't worry about them, they can handle it themselves. Go eat first. I'm starving. Have you finished eating?"

Ye Yaodong locked all the money in the safe, hid the safe, and then hurried out to eat as he was starving.

"We've all eaten. Your meals are kept separately."

“How’s the longline going?”

"After lunch, everyone joined in. Basically, everyone finished a whole fishing line. We should be able to finish a little more before going to bed at night."

“It’s quite efficient.”

"With so many people working together, how can it be that hard to finish one in half a day?"

Ye Yaodong counted in his mind, "If I make another batch tonight, I will have more than 3000 fishing lines and more than hooks."

"After the materials ran out in the afternoon, I bought another batch and asked them to modify it. Anyway, for fishing in the trench, I asked them to put five or six hooks on each fork of the fishing line, making it a little denser. There are about five or six hundred hooks on one fishing line."

"I'm worried that if there's too much fishing line, it will be stretched too far out along the coastline. Then I'll have to drive the boat into the water all the time and run back and forth to reel it in, which is too tiring."

Ye Yaodong also thought about what his father said and felt that it made sense.

This time they are targeting the cutlassfish in the trench, not the usual longline fishing on the sea surface. It is a disadvantage if the longline line is too long. It would be better to change it and make the hooks more densely packed, so as to concentrate the fishing in one area, as there are densely packed fish underneath anyway.

"Dad said that makes sense. We have to change it this way. We can catch more fish if we make it denser. Otherwise, the coastline will be too long and we will have to go into the water frequently to find a good place to put the fish. I'll tell you how much I spent later."

"Don't worry, let's see the situation tomorrow."

"know."

He was already looking forward to it.

As soon as the boatmen came back, they stripped naked, drew a few buckets of water from the nearby wells, rinsed themselves casually, and went to eat with their bare chests.

When Ye Yaodong arrived, everyone rushed to eat the delicious food, and people from other fishing boats also ran over to ask him how much he sold the sea urchins for today.

He just perfunctorily said that he sold a few hundred yuan, and then emphasized that he had hired so many people, and the daily expenses would be more than 100 yuan without food and drink. The pressure was also great, so he had to find a way to make more money.

Everyone couldn't help but ask, when will the number of jellyfish increase?

"Wait a few days. The number will increase day by day. Be patient. The other group of people in the town haven't arrived yet, and the factory hasn't started work yet. That means it's not time yet. Don't worry."

"We just thought we could salvage them before others arrived, but we didn't know the number was so small."

"If the number really increased, people would have arrived long ago, and the factory would have started work long ago. This is normal now, and it's not time yet."

Since everyone was asking him, he just patiently tried to comfort them.

"Why are you doing longline fishing there this afternoon? You can't catch jellyfish with this..."

"Well, it's also useful."

"I heard that a school of cuttlefish was found in the water, but will this temporary measure be useful? By the time we release it into the sea tomorrow, the school of fish will have already swam away..."

"Are you going to give it a try? You really want to do something when you have money..."

"It's not bad that there are no schools of fish, but I can still catch other fish..."

The news could not be concealed, but many people only knew one side of the story. After all, he had only told his father and Pei's father, and the salvage boat workers knew about it. The salvage crew had just returned, so many people only knew that they were doing longline fishing to catch cutlassfish, and they didn't know anything else.

Ye Yaodong certainly wouldn't say too much, but after the meal, when Ah Zheng Xiaoxiao came to ask him, he didn't hide anything and told the truth.

The two people who heard it felt extremely regretful, and lamented that it would be great if they also had such a set of equipment, or they could have gone into the water with him at that time, discovered it together, and even benefited from it like A Guang.

Now even if they wanted to ask Dongzi to lead them, they couldn’t catch the longline fishing.

There is no place to buy materials so late at night, and they have to rush to make it tomorrow. With so few people, they can't make much fishing line, and the fishing line they make can only be used the day after tomorrow, when there might be more jellyfish and they won't be able to use it.

"One step late, every step late."

"I can only say that I don't have such fortune or luck."

"I always feel that after Guang became your brother-in-law, he followed you around every day to take advantage of you and get a share of all the good things."

"Yes, this trip here to catch jellyfish can earn a lot of agency fees..."

"You've earned a lot of money for him, you should ask him to share it with you..."

Ye Yaodong explained: "He also gave me a red envelope last year, but I didn't accept it. This year he asked for it and offered to share it with me."

"It's good to have points this year."

"Hey, all the good things happened to him."

The two of them complained one by one, and I was actually very envious of each other.

After chatting for a while, they stopped talking about this when they saw A Guang coming. After all, they were all good friends. Even though they were just complaining, it wouldn't be good if others heard it.

They all chatted about other topics in tacit understanding.

"Dongzi, when do you think the number of jellyfish there will increase?"

"I don't know. It's hard to say. Anyway, the jellyfish factory will start working tomorrow. I guess they won't be able to receive much. It will take at least two days to get it back. Let's wait and see."

He is not in a hurry at all now. He hopes that the flood season can be as late as possible so that he can catch more sea urchins and hairtails. Otherwise, he will not be able to do it when the peak flood season comes.

Other villagers also gathered here to talk about jellyfish and enjoy the cool air. After all, their group was the largest, while the others were scattered. After eating, everyone wanted to gather here with the main group. At least there were more people here, so they knew more and it was more lively.

There was nothing to do at night, so everyone enjoyed the cool air and chatted about today's fishing situation, while Ye Yaodong's men were busy with longline fishing.

The jellyfish blood I brought back today has been cooked and is hanging outside the door to dry.

The guys on Guang's side were also sitting in front of their houses doing longline fishing, and they were not far away.

When the locals see such a large group of people at their door, they will stay away from them as much as possible and try not to get involved with them. After all, if something really happens with such a large group of men, it will be difficult to deal with them.

Without waiting for the next day, the fishing boats all went out to sea to drag their nets at night, as they didn't want to sit and wait.

Only a few small boats and the Dongsheng and Fengshou were still at the dock.

At dawn the next day, Ye Yaodong woke everyone up. After a simple breakfast, he left two people to guard the place and had people carry all the longline fish prepared last night onto the boat in baskets.

There were only a dozen people working during the day, but at night, 30 of them worked together while enjoying the cool air. Their efficiency was very high, and they made 10 baskets out of longline fishing. If the materials purchased by Ye's father were not limited, they could have made more.

Although the number is the same as what he had put at home before, the number of hooks on each fishing line has increased five or six times. In the past, there were 100 hooks in a basket at home, and ten baskets contained 10 hooks on 1 fishing lines. Now the total number is five or six thousand hooks, which is incomparable.

Fortunately, he has a lot of people on hand, so he doesn't have to worry about finding people to work. Now he just worries that there is not enough work.

The people on the small boats also got up early and reached the shore, but they could only watch them sail away.

The flood season has not arrived yet, there are more people than fish, and even the trawlers can only go to the near sea to trawl for a living. Their small boat can only row out to the sea to try their luck like the local fishing boats.

The locals still have hand-cast nets to cast and collect some, but some of them were not prepared and did not bring anything with them. They only brought tools such as scoop nets and kitchen knives, ready to make a fortune by catching jellyfish.

Now I have no choice but to go out and try my luck, otherwise I will just sit at home.

It's not a good idea to ask someone to take it out, otherwise it would just be like yesterday, I went out for a walk and had to beg someone to bring it back.

Although Ye Yaoguo and other brothers were somewhat unwilling, they felt a lot more balanced when they thought about the other small boats that were taken out yesterday and also returned empty-handed, and today they all stayed on the shore like them.

Ye Yaodong was driving the Dongsheng, while his father also went out to trawle on another boat at night.

Ah Guang and Pei's father also followed them in the trawler. The Harvest was left on the shore today because it consumed a lot of oil and they didn't plan to start it for the time being. They were not Ye Yaodong who could earn a thousand dollars a day by catching sea urchins and cutlassfish. They only wanted to use longlines to catch cutlassfish, so a small boat was more than enough for them.

They came to the trench as usual, but because there were only two boats and no large force, and the large force did not gain much yesterday, they did not attract the attention of the locals.

When we arrived near the trench, there were only a few jellyfish floating around and no other fishing boats in sight.

Having just arrived, they certainly couldn't let go of these jellyfish floating on the sea. The number of them was twice as many as what they saw when they came out yesterday. It was estimated that there were about 100 to 200 of them. Although they were still sparse, they were definitely better than most.

"There are a little more today. It looks like in two days, more and more will float to the surface."

"I want to postpone the flood season so that I can catch as many sea urchins and hairtail as possible."

"That's true..."

"Let's fish it out first. After that, I'll find a good spot to go into the water."

As soon as their two boats, one big and one small, rushed into the area, they began to scrape off the jellyfish on the sea. After all of them were cleared away, the small boat followed the big boat.

As soon as the Dongsheng stopped, A Guang drove his boat over and climbed onto the Dongsheng.

Seeing Ye Yaodong putting on his equipment, he also took another set and put it on.

"I'll join you in the water later and help you fish out the sea urchins. I'll take turns with you and let the longline go down with you, giving you an extra free worker."

Ah Guang had a good idea. He would borrow his equipment to find a good spot to cast his longline, and then use his spare time to help him catch sea urchins, thus repaying the loan with his labor.

Ye Yaodong nodded, "Okay."

We found it together yesterday. Although I borrowed his equipment and wanted to take him for a spin to satisfy his curiosity, it can be said that we found it together. He certainly couldn't catch all of these cutlass fish, so it's okay to give A Guang some credit, since he's not an outsider.

It would be nice to have one more worker to help him salvage now.

He reminded again, "I have a large number of them, so we have to spread them out a bit to avoid them getting tangled."

"I know that trench is pretty wide, and I can't tell how long it is. When we release it later, we have to go into the water and find a good spot. The fishing boat may also have to move, otherwise the air tube is too short and the distance it can swim under the sea is limited."

"Well, let's put a fishing line down and see first. I'll follow and aim the hook neatly at the trench. Hurry up, I'm ready."

After waiting for A Guang for a while, they both went into the water after he was ready.

The longlines had already been put down before them, and after they got into the water, they just had to dive to the bottom following their respective longlines, then find the location of the trench and pull the longlines into the trench.

Also, because there are quite a few forked lines in each, they swim and pull them underwater.

Fortunately, they used fewer fishing lines and placed the hooks on the forked lines more densely, so the front line was slightly shorter. Only after going ashore halfway and causing the fishing boat to drift a little outward, everything was done with the next trip to the water.

The fishing boat did not move after they came up. Ye Yaodong inspected the location where the fishing line was placed. There were many sea urchins growing densely in that trench, which was a little far from the location they dug out yesterday. So they could make a big catch today.

The trench below was unknown how many meters long. He went up and down the water twice to move along the trench. The cliffs on both sides were crowded with sea urchins, and there was still no end in sight.

The entire silver-white ribbon underneath was also glowing, and it was unknown how many meters thick it was. Except for the empty black holes that could be seen when jellyfish floated up, the rest of the time the ribbons were gathered together and glowed, like a flat white road.

When he came up from work, he was already panting with exhaustion. Going up and down twice was too tiring.

A Guang had less fishing line, so he came up and lay on the deck before him.

After the longline fishing was done, the rest was the job of the other boatmen. The two men took off their equipment and handed it over to others to go into the water and fish for sea urchins.

"It's quite tiring to get down to the bottom of the sea."

"Of course, there is pressure at the bottom of the water. Let's take a break. The hairtail fish are in the ditch. They should be able to bite the hook easily. Let's take a break for half a day and try to reel in a line at noon to see."

"it is good."

Ye Yaodong also took off his wet shirt and pants and sat there to rest wearing only his shorts.

The other people on the boat who had not yet had a turn to go into the water were sitting there chatting. A Guang's boat next to them was also idle. Everyone on the boat was standing there bored and enjoying the breeze. They only started to move when they saw jellyfish coming up.

To be honest, so many people are not needed. Two or three people can be used to cast and collect longlines. However, the father and son planned to go out and see if it is feasible, so except for the people who stayed behind, they brought everyone else out as well. Anyway, they would be paid whether they worked or not.

After resting enough, Ye Yaodong stood up and observed the sea. He thought that the flood season was approaching, and the number of jellyfish floating up today was much greater than yesterday.

After A Guang had rested enough, he also took turns to go into the water. If there was one person missing, he would join the team to make up the number and go down together.

It was already noon after the 12 people had taken two turns. Except for the first turn when they had time to cast longlines, they went into the water to fish for 1 sea urchins in total, and the deck was piled full.

Everyone's performance became more stable. After becoming proficient, each time two people came out of the water, they could catch about 200 kilograms. In these two rounds alone, they caught more than 2000 kilograms.

They had been fishing with the longline for quite some time, and Pei's father and the others were already there waiting to collect them.

Ye Yaodong also wanted to see the effect of densely placing fish hooks, so after calculating the time for half a day, he called A Guang to try to catch one together.

　I will release it at the appointed time. I will add another one before 12 o'clock. I will add more if you give me monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)