Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 568 Raft Fishing (Part 2)

"Yes, this is near the coast, so we can quickly bring the catch back to port without losing value."

When encountering schools of red snapper in the deep sea, the leader of the fish usually ignores them, only releasing nets when returning to port.

Whether it's trawl, purse seine, or longline fishing, casting and retrieving the net is a major undertaking.

If you try to catch small fish in the open sea, you might lose your underwear.

Those fish bosses would rather drift aimlessly at sea waiting for a large school of fish than casually cast their nets.

However, the tiger grouper in the coral area was quite good. Qin Dahe caught two in a row, making Awei extremely envious.

He cast the line again and was reeling it in when the reel suddenly made a creaking sound, indicating that the drag had been released.

"Damn!" he exclaimed, quickly increasing the drag to the 10-kilogram level, but he was still stuck at the finish line.

"Damn it, what kind of fish-catching thing is that? It's so strong."

I opened the drain by another 10 kilograms, and that's the maximum. Tightening it any further will lock it in place.

At this point, the fishing rod was tucked under his arm, with the tip submerged in the water.

Fortunately, I brought a long-casting rod this time, so I was confident in my ability to fight such a large fish.

The sudden take of a large fish caught the attention of the other three boats.

"A crazy chicken, oh, it's not a tuna, is it?"

"Nonsense, there are very few tuna in Dapeng Bay."

Even ten kilograms of drag couldn't stop it; the line was coming out faster and faster, so the fish must be quite big.

Awei glanced at it enviously, thinking, "Damn, that strength is definitely like a tuna's."

Qin Dahe's heart was in his throat. With only 30 meters left on the line, he had no choice but to lock it.

Fortunately, the line held up; the drag of the four-meter casting rod was sufficient, and the fish didn't look big.

Then he wouldn't hold back; as soon as the struggle weakened slightly, he would reel in the line.

100 meters, 90 meters, 70 meters. As the line was pulled closer and closer, a big fish suddenly burst out of the water, splashed water to wash its gills, and then began to dive back down.

"I knew it! It's a bullhead trevally. No wonder it's so strong," Awei said with a smile. He had been staring at this spot and saw a big-faced fish as soon as it came out of the water.

"Bullfish?"

"It's the Seawater GT."

"This is GT." Qin Dahe suddenly realized.

Silver carp and bighead carp are known as freshwater GTs, and this time we caught a saltwater GT too, awesome!

The pull was really strong; my arms are sore.

"This fish is known as the 'sea sports car,' and it's really fun to catch, but it's not worth much money."

"That's fine, as long as you enjoy yourself." Qin Dahe chuckled.

This fish weighs at most twenty pounds, yet it has a greater impact than a forty or fifty-pound silver carp or bighead carp. It's simply outrageous.

Since I didn't bring a landing net or a special hook for catching fish, I could only pull it up by hand.

Fortunately, I had wire gloves, so I grabbed the fish by its gills and pulled it up.

When catching fish normally, even freshwater fish, you can easily cut your hand while trying to remove the gills.

"Not bad either. A pound of bullhead tuna costs about ten yuan, and this one probably costs three hundred yuan." Awei could tell the weight at a glance.

"Is it good?" If it is, take it home and eat it. If you can't finish it, give it to the neighbor.

"The taste wasn't great, and the meat was tough." He shook his head.

You can tell how good seafood is just by looking at the price. A grouper that costs four or five hundred yuan is definitely tastier than a tuna that costs ten or so yuan. Except for the rock mackerel, which, despite its cheap price, tastes amazing, just like freshwater whitebait.

Freshwater whitebait is also inexpensive, but its taste is just as good as mandarin fish.

Upon hearing that the food was unpalatable, Qin Dahe simply left it in the hold and ignored it. Today, their ship had two large cargoes, which was great.

"Hey Li, did you guys catch any grouper? Let's catch one for hot pot today," he called out, determined to bring something good back for dinner.
"I have a blue grouper here, I'll give it to you when it comes ashore," Uncle Li said with a smile. "Your bull tuna is awesome."

"Haha, I came here for the big catch." He boasted a couple of times, then lit a cigarette to rest for a bit; fishing for GT (Giant Taro) was still quite tiring.

We fished until 4 p.m., and the fish were biting really well, but then the coast guard changed shifts and came to chase us away.

Brother Shui didn't want to keep trying to build a friendship with them, and since everyone had had a good time fishing today, they decided to head back.

The catch was quite substantial, with the smallest catch weighing over ten kilograms, which is difficult to achieve if left on the shore.

For example, Qin Dahe and Awei each caught a large fish; Qin Dahe caught nearly forty jin (20 kg).

There was one bullhead trevally, three tiger grouper, one mackerel, two black sea bream, as well as yellowfin sea bream, red snapper, rock bream, and so on. There were so many of these small fish.

Brother Li sent his men over again in a tractor to collect the fish, telling them to hurry and deliver them to the restaurant so they could make some extra money that night.

"Brother Li, how much are the blue grouper?" I walked over to Brother Li, whose fishing box was also full of fish.

The three tiger groupers I caught were all farmed; wild ones are nowhere near as rare.

"I have a rat-shaped one here, you can eat this one, it tastes better."

"Anything is fine. How do we eat this?"

"Braised or steamed, it's delicious, the fish skin is soft and chewy." He knew Qin Dahe was taking it home to eat, so he didn't care about the price difference and directly offset it with the purchase price.

A three-pound grouper can fetch over 600 yuan at the market, and wild-caught ones can sell for 1,000 yuan at the docks and people will be scrambling to buy them. If they are sent to the Chaoshan region, they will be even more expensive, as wild seafood is highly sought after there.

"Okay, thanks." He was delighted to hear that the fish skin was soft and tender, and he was happy to be able to eat something good again.

Lately, I don't know if I caught it from my wife, but I've been craving things more and more, damn it.

Qin Dahe had a good catch of fish, but GT and other miscellaneous fish were cheap and didn't fetch a good price.

Including the squid, it's only about 1,500, which is much less than others, and he's not even planning to sell the squid yet.

Then I called my aunt and told her about the grouper and squid, asking her to prepare the seasonings.

Upon hearing that there were three pounds of wild rat-spotted rats, she was overjoyed; it was truly a good thing that her nephew had come.

Wild seafood, which used to be hard to buy, is now available every day.

Quite a few anglers caught grouper today, but they were all farmed. The blue grouper was also bought by an uncle.

This is a common practice among fishing enthusiasts: when they get good catches, everyone buys them first, and the rest are sold to Brother Li.

With a folding boat this time, Li Ge alone caught two wild grouper and two farmed grouper, and the other catches were also valuable.

Even miscellaneous fish, as long as they are fresh, can sell for more than ten yuan. That's how it is during the fishing moratorium.

Prices will only come down when the first batch of fishing boats return to port in October, but the drop won't be significant.

The Pearl River Delta region, along with the Chaoshan region, has a very strong seafood consumption capacity.

According to Qin Dahe's own observations, seafood in Shenzhen is significantly more expensive than in Shanghai.

"Awei, shall we go to Dameisha tomorrow?" Qin Dahe doesn't have a boat, so he'll have to hitch a ride with one for the next couple of days.

The coast guard said they were told to spread out, so they'll definitely obey.

"Okay, it's conveniently close by."

They agreed to meet at eight o'clock the next morning, and the two began packing their things to go home.

(End of this chapter)