Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

Xiao Ying Liu and Li Fulin had been carefully observing Yue Feng's actions ever since he set up the trap.

Making snowballs to block the north wind is understandable, but deliberately plucking feathers from a pigeon, rubbing them, and then scattering them back is something neither of them quite understands.

"Xiaofeng, did you rub human scent onto the pigeon feathers? Even eagles don't recognize scents, do they?" Li Fulin couldn't help but ask curiously.

Yue Feng grinned and shook his head: "Uncle Li, you're overthinking it! Eagles really don't recognize flavors! I plucked pigeon feathers and scattered them around the net to lure the big eagle!"

"Can pigeon feathers lure eagles? What's that all about?" Little Eagle Liu also asked.

Yue Feng continued to explain, "Sure! Saying it's used to lure is not an accurate description. To be precise, it's used to create a false impression for some more vigilant eagles!"
If you rub the plucked pigeon feathers in your hands, they won't easily be blown away by the wind.

By scattering them into a trap, creating the illusion of pigeons struggling violently, even the most vigilant eagles will be much bolder!
Similar tricks include deliberately smearing blood or something on pigeons!
Eagles are opportunistic by nature. Before attacking their prey, they will conduct a comprehensive assessment. If a prey is losing feathers, struggling violently, or is injured and bleeding, it will lower the eagle's vigilance considerably!
Of course, these little tricks are ones I used a lot when hunting eagles in the mountains in the fall. Now, catching eagles in the reservoir, I can't say how much it will increase the success rate, but it's not much effort, just a piece of cake!

After Yue Feng's explanation, Li Fulin and Xiao Ying Liu couldn't help but nod in agreement.

"So that's how it is! That makes sense!" Grandpa Liu exclaimed.

"Let's move on to the next place! Oh, right, did you bring an ice chisel for drilling ice holes? If we get to the hawthorn grove, it'll be a long detour to come back!"

"Brother Feng, I have it with me!" Xiao Dong said, holding up the ice skewer.

"Let's go!"

……

After setting up the first trap, Yue Feng and the other three followed the trail from the previous day to another mountain area.

The setup process is the same: first clean up, then light a firework, and finally place the pigeons and the trap net on top.

Setting up the self-trapping net together with four people is much more efficient than Grandpa Liu usually does it by himself.

After setting up the first net in the second area, Yue Feng set up the second net at a location he had chosen in the river fork.

The same operating procedure was followed for the third time, and even Xiao Dong, who was helping out, had learned most of it.

After securing the second mountain area, we continued our journey and arrived at the last hawthorn orchard.

Here, Grandpa Liu chose a rather random spot, simply placing the net pole in a small open space among a few hawthorn trees.

"This place isn't picky about location; it's flat and there's not much of an obstruction. As long as an eagle flies high with the air currents, you're sure to see it!" Grandpa Liu said confidently.

Yue Feng grinned: "Hehe, once everything is set up, it'll be fine. With the heavy snow, it'll be harder for eagles to hunt, making them easier to catch!"

The three venues and four sets of traps were all set up, and it was only a little past eight o'clock.

"Grandpa, have you brought all the fishing gear?" Yue Feng asked again.

Little Eagle Liu: "I brought it! Besides the bait and rice for catching fish, I also brought three sets of hooks and lines! I just didn't bring a stool, so I'll have to make do with the bag under my bottom!"

"Then let's not just sit idly by, let's go down and make our nest first! I wonder if the fish are dense here in the reservoir, or if they're close to the edge!" Yue Feng asked, his gaze falling on the shallow reservoir area outside the hawthorn grove.

Little Eagle Liu waved his hand: "Haha, I can't say about big fish, but catching some crucian carp and the like shouldn't be too difficult!"
My rice wine recipe is the same one I've used for years; it ferments incredibly quickly! You'll see when you try it later!

"Let's go! Let's go drill a hole in the ice and repair the nest!"

The four of them went down the slope to the edge of the reservoir, and then walked about twenty or thirty meters further in. Yue Feng stood on the ice and pondered for a moment.

"Keep moving forward! Why are you stopping? We're barely here! In previous years, I always went inside!" Little Eagle Liu urged.

Yue Feng glanced around to confirm the surroundings, then said, "If I'm not mistaken, the spot where we're standing right now is a good fishing spot where we can dig an ice hole to create a feeding area!"

"Here? What do you mean?"

Yue Feng explained, "Fishing and catching eagles are actually based on the same principle! There are also fish paths underwater. If you want to catch fish, you have to choose the places they like to stay or pass through!"

Look, over there, there's a huge river fork! The spot we just came from has a gentle slope on the bank!
If there were no human interference below, the spot where I'm standing would be a crucial choke point where the beacon extends and intersects with the river fork!

“That makes sense! I’ve been here when it’s warmer, and there are no signs of artificial repairs; it’s a gentle slope!” Grandpa Liu nodded and said.

Hearing this, Yue Feng felt even more confident: "Then let's dig a hole here! Let's give it a try, and we'll know if it works or not after we try!"

"I'll do it! I'm good at making ice holes!" Xiao Dong volunteered and came over with the ice drill.

Although the temperature in Beijing has dropped below zero, it can't compare to that in Northeast China. There's still more than a month until the coldest period of winter, so the ice layer isn't very thick, only about ten or twenty centimeters deep.

After confirming the location with Yue Feng, Xiao Dong immediately got to work.

The repeated impacts shattered the ice, creating a large amount of broken ice that slowly formed a pit slightly larger than the rim of a bowl.

Another shovel of ice went down, and clear water gushed up, clearing the blockage!

"Hehe, it's working!!" Xiao Dong grinned and, after the water stabilized, swept away the floating ice and snow foam around his feet.

"Alright, that's enough! Grandpa, the rice and wine!" Yue Feng called out.

Little Eagle Liu took a short canning jar out of his bag, poured out a handful of corn grits, and gave it to Yue Feng.

In just a moment, Yue Feng was able to determine the approximate ingredients of the recipe by the taste of the rice wine.

"Tsk tsk, strong liquor, honey, cloves, and a hint of osmanthus! Not bad, sir, you're really willing to spend money on the rice for making this liquor!" Yue Feng said with a smile.

"Hey! Xiaofeng, you have a really good nose! You can make this thing too?"

When Xiao Ying Liu heard that Yue Feng had described most of the recipe after only smelling the aroma, he immediately became interested.

Unexpectedly, Yue Feng, despite his young age, knows quite a lot.

Not only is he a master at falconry and falconry, but he's also a seasoned angler.

"Hehe! You know a little bit! If I'm not mistaken, the cloves you used to soak the rice in wine were female cloves, right?"

The flavor is rather mild, and when combined with the osmanthus fragrance, it's slightly overpowered!

“It is indeed a female clove. How do you suggest we adjust it to make it work better?” Little Eagle Liu continued to ask.

Yue Feng explained, "This combination works perfectly for fishing with rice soaked in wine during the spring, summer and autumn! The water temperature is high, and the aroma diffuses quickly in the water, which is enough to attract fish!"

If you're using it in winter, it's a little less appealing! When using cloves to soak rice, there are actually two types to choose from: male cloves and female cloves! Male cloves are the unopened flower buds of the clove tree, which have a stronger aroma and a more intense flavor!
Mother cloves are the mature fruit of the clove tree. Although their flavor is mellow and mild, they are not very flavorful when used to soak rice in wine.
After the water freezes in winter, the temperature drops. Soaking rice in cloves will help attract fish even more!
Of course, if you use cloves to soak rice, you can't use too much bait at once, otherwise there is a risk of the bait being destroyed!
It's a matter of pros and cons!

He spoke eloquently, explaining everything from the ingredients to the principles behind them.

After hearing this, Little Eagle Liu couldn't help but give Yue Feng a thumbs up.

"Wow, impressive! I'll try using cloves instead, as you suggested! Should we add osmanthus too?"

"You can add it or not! The fragrance of osmanthus can't mask the scent of cloves. The two fragrances don't conflict and can both mask the strong taste of alcohol!"

"understood!"

Seeing Xiao Ying Liu nodding repeatedly in front of Yue Feng, Xiao Dong cast an admiring glance at Yue Feng.

No wonder Jin Shao and Ye Shao have such a good relationship with Yue Feng and respect him so much. It turns out he has a wide range of knowledge and knows a lot.

Seeing that the bottle was almost full, Yue Feng poured a small handful of rice into his palm: "This amount of rice should be enough! Let's bait the area and keep it there, then come back to fish later!"

After saying this, Yue Feng poured the rice wine into the ice hole and clapped his hands.

"Should we also attack other holes here? Or move them further away?" Grandpa Liu continued to ask.

"Just follow your previous experience; I don't know if this method will work!"

"Alright, let's keep going in then!"

Grandpa Liu led Xiao Dong and Uncle Li to continue walking forward, while Yue Feng lowered his head and pondered the snow foam on the ice.

It had only been snowing for a short time, and the temperature wasn't too cold yet, so the snow hadn't frozen into an ice shell.

In this situation, you can use a snowball to collect the snow from the ice.

Four people came to set up nets to catch eagles, but they didn't bring any seats or ice fishing tents. If the wind picks up later, they're going to suffer a lot.

Thinking of this, Yue Feng bent down and got busy.

First, make a small snowball with your palm, then roll the snowball on the ice. The snowball gets bigger and bigger as you walk, and soon it reaches a diameter of more than half a meter.

Small snowballs can shelter pigeons from the wind when used as bait, and large snowballs can also shelter people from the wind; the principle is the same.

Yue Feng estimated the approximate distance, turned halfway, and pushed the increasingly large snowball back to the first ice hole and stopped it.

By this time, the snowball was almost a meter in diameter.

Seeing Yue Feng rolling a snowball, Grandpa Liu and Uncle Li didn't sit idle either. They chose the second and third spots, made holes with ice picks, and then started rolling snowballs in the same way.

Many hands make light work. In no time, the three of them rolled six or seven giants that were a meter tall. It was only because there was no cover on the ice and the ground was slippery that they could not push them anywhere else.

Since he had nothing better to do, Yue Feng rolled one snowball and then rolled two more in the same way. With the three snowballs side by side, he could lie down next to them, which was much more comfortable than having no cover at all.

Having dealt with the snowball problem, Yue Feng glanced around the shore again, then went over with his hands behind his back. After a flurry of activity, he dragged back a tree branch that had withered for some unknown reason.

With a simple bend in the branch and a quick lighting of the small fire, frozen hands were slowly warmed up.

I piled up a smaller snowball, covered it with my satchel to use as a seat, and finally I didn't have to squat there anymore. I warmed myself by the fire, waiting for the rice and wine dumplings in the ice hole to rise, which was a way to make the best of a bad situation.

With Yue Feng setting an example, Xiao Dong and Grandpa Liu also gathered firewood and started a fire nearby.

Some of the more imaginative people piled up more snowballs to a height of about one and a half meters, turning it into a simple, open-air snow house.

"Xiaofeng, why don't you come over here with us? The fire is bigger and warmer, and we can chat and brag together!" Grandpa Liu invited enthusiastically.

Without hesitation, Yue Feng got up and strolled over.

Seeing Yue Feng approach, Grandpa Liu pulled his ice fishing rig, which he had already unfurled, out of the water and handed it to Yue Feng.

Yue Feng glanced at it; the hooks and lines were thick, this fishing rig was quite rugged.

Judging by the standards of fish hook sizes in later generations, this fish hook is about the size of a size 6 Iseama hook. Not to mention crucian carp, such a large hook in winter can also catch a lot of carp and grass carp.

"Wow, this setup is pretty sturdy, with such thick lines and hooks?" Yue Feng asked with a smile.

“There’s a small one, but neither your Uncle Li nor I like using it! I went to buy fishing line, and they gave it to me! Are you going to use it?” Little Eagle Liu asked.

"Let me take a look. If you don't want to use the alt version, let me try it!"

Soon, Grandpa Liu took out a small fishing rig that had never been used in the water from his bag.

This smaller one looks much better; the hook is about half the size of the larger one, and the line is much thinner.

"This is enough for me! Give me a few more cans of rice, I'll go try to see if it's started to rise!"

"Hey, since you're far away, take a few more over. Old Li and I only need two. The hooks have barbs so the fish can't bite them off!"

While Grandpa Liu was talking, he took out the can, kept a few pieces, and gave the rest to Yue Feng.

Yue Feng accepted it without hesitation.

"I'll go try it first, and we'll meet wherever there's an opening!"

"Okay, go ahead, and if you catch a big fish, let us know! We'll come help!"

Yue Feng thought to himself that none of them had any tools, not even a grapple. The most they could do to help was to use an ice pick to knock the fish's head. He didn't expect to catch any big fish; he'd be lucky to catch a few big crucian carp.

Yue Feng took the fishing rig and bait back to his ice hole, took out a can, and with a little force from his fingertip, broke it open and took out the plump yellow larvae inside.

There's a trick to using this thing as a hook for fishing. Yue Feng hooked the tip of the hook to the larva's rear end, then pinched the black head and spun it around twice before securing it to the hook. Finally, he plucked the black head off with his fingertips.

This thing contains juice and a small amount of air inside. If you don't pull off the head, it will float after being hooked and put in the water, which will affect the fish's ability to take the bait.

Pulling the hook at the head allows air to escape and a small amount of body fluid to flow out, which is a clever trick.

Having completed all preparations, Yue Feng cast his fishing rig into the water and waited patiently, staring at the goose feather float. (End of Chapter)