Reborn in the Millennium: Building a Fortune from Fishing

Chapter 582 A sumptuous seafood feast

There are still many fish in this current confluence area; the loudspeaker announced it seven times this afternoon.

A guy fishing at a depth of 400 meters pulled up a deep-sea grouper, which caused the price of his amberjack to skyrocket.

Although it only weighs about 40 kilograms, the shopkeeper said the selling price is over 500 yuan.

Then others followed suit, fishing at a depth of 400 meters, and after getting snagged twice, they calmed down.

Groupers love to dive into obstacle courses with their fishing line at a depth of 400 meters. They only realize what's happening after they've already hooked the fish and they've already dived in.

The fishing line used on the boat is almost all imported. Cutting the line costs six or seven hundred yuan, and then you have to go through the trouble of replacing it. It's too much of a hassle.

Qin Dahe's catch today is quite impressive on his own. He started at 10 o'clock and has caught nearly 500 catties of fish so far. However, compared with others, he is still at the bottom.

The others used electric reels, fishing at one level 2 spot and one level 1 spot. Excluding travel time, they fished for more than six hours and caught a total of 5,700 catties of fish, averaging more than 500 catties per person.

After being cut up, these tuna are first frozen in an ultra-low temperature chamber, and then transferred to a regular chilled warehouse, where they can be taken back and sold for money.

The valuable items will remain in the refrigerated storage.

Manual fishing is indeed exhilarating, but right now he was in pain all over, slumped in a chair, his hands trembling uncontrollably.

My shoulder blades, shoulders, and arms are sore, and my lower back is also aching.

This was with a fishing belt on; if you just put a bunch of fish bones in your crotch to weigh them down, you could crush a hundred-pound tuna roe.

The workers were still busy cleaning the fish, cutting up the valuable fillets to send to the refrigerated storage, while the grouper and other fish were being kept in ultra-low temperature storage.

The others who could move helped with the cooking, and seeing Qin Dahe's arrogant demeanor, they even came over to light his cigarette.

"Damn, that's amazing. No wonder they can catch 200-pound fish in freshwater."

"Haha, you can fish if you want, just get all the gear ready and give it your all." He took two deep drags on his cigarette, then took it down with trembling hands. He should rest tomorrow; he had just applied some ointment.

The grease on the hot plate was sizzling. I caught quite a few black-toothed ribbonfish today, and I just marinated them with scallions and ginger. They're being fried right now, and I heard they taste really good when fried, so I might as well give it a try.

I also fried the tuna belly that had been drained yesterday, but the ones I caught today won't be available for another two days.

There were also many other dishes, including two groupers and one pomfret, all steamed, and a large tray of sea bream fillets for hot pot.

This one table of seafood would easily cost tens of thousands on land, but they ate it casually at sea without feeling the pinch.

"Cheers! I hope everyone has made back their ticket money today?" Boss Li said with a smile.

"I've had enough." Qin Dahe spoke first, taking a bite of the pomfret. The meat was so damn tender.

"I'm almost there too."

"It's still a bit short. One match tomorrow will be enough."

Everyone shared their achievements; with the help of underwater fish finders, four people managed to earn back their boat tickets.

Tuna is only valuable when it's caught in large quantities. Because the price of fish is halved after it's caught, another 30% is given away as fishing fees.

Even if you catch 500 pounds of fish, only 300 pounds might be valuable, with an average price of around 40-50 yuan. If there are too many small fish, after deducting the profit, you might not even be able to catch any.

"There will be no punctuation tomorrow. We'll anchor at Shenhu tonight, refuel the other reconnaissance ships, and then we can only move when the support ship arrives."

"No gas?"

"Out of fuel. The reconnaissance boat burns fuel too fast. We'll use fish chunks to create a heavy baiting spot for you tonight."

Although this fishing trip was cost-effective, the main purpose was to patrol the designated spots, and no one objected.

We've given them all the secondary punctuation marks, what else can we say?

"Boss Li, let's have a drink." Qin Dahe raised his Coke.

"Haha, let's have one." The fish for the hot pot are red snapper and blue snapper, neither of them are cheap fish, and the red and blue ones look quite nice.

He complained that the local Cantonese dipping sauce was too bland, so he made a small bowl with the beef sauce he brought with him, and Uncle Qing joined in to eat with him.

The small basin was placed directly on the ground, and two pots of water were used for hot pot. The fish slices were very smooth and delicious.

The steamed grouper was so fresh it made my eyebrows fall off. I just ate a little bit. The ribbonfish and yesterday's tuna belly were also grilled and everyone could help themselves.

"Uncle Qing, I'll take out the belly of that big fish the day after tomorrow, and we'll have some to eat."

"Hehe, as long as you're willing to eat, that's good." Uncle Qing took a sip of tea and said with satisfaction, "Eating on the boat is really satisfying. It's not easy to find so much wild seafood on land."

"Yeah, at the beginning of the month, there was an 11-pound grouper. My seafood restaurant spent 5,000 yuan to buy it. I wanted to eat half of the fish, but my dad wouldn't let me, saying that a customer had already reserved it," a second-generation restaurant owner complained.

"Wild barbarians?"

"It's wild, otherwise it wouldn't be worth this price."

"Haha, a rich second-generation heir can't even afford wild fish?" Qin Dahe said with amusement.

The other person's name was Hua Zai. He wasn't dressed like a rich man, and his equipment was just average, even worse than his.

"I have no money. If I go out to work, I have to pay household expenses. If I help out at home, I don't get paid. I can only use an axe when I'm harvesting fish," Hua said nonchalantly.

Boss Li and the other older Cantonese looked at him with a pained expression. How could someone so brazen as to openly say "I'm hitting an axe"?

"Don't look at me like that. A set of fishing gear costs 15,000 yuan. Where would I get the money if I didn't make an axe?" Hua Zai said indignantly.

"Uncle Qing, what does 'hitting the axe' mean?" Qin Dahe asked in a low voice.

"It's about secretly skimming profits and taking kickbacks."

A strategy of taking kickbacks from one's own restaurant—that's talent.

"Believe it or not, I'll call your dad via satellite phone," Boss Li said quietly.

"Uncle, next time I get some good stuff with my friends, I'll give you some." Andy Lau immediately lowered his stance.

However, he didn't think so in his heart. He thought that the few scoundrels in the Li family were the most capable, and that they had even colluded with each other to falsify accounts.

The rich kids in Guangdong are probably the most miserable group in the country. Their families have assets of hundreds of millions of yuan, but they can't even come up with 10,000 yuan. This is a common phenomenon.

So when helping out at home, I would ask suppliers for rebates; I would take any opportunity to make a profit.

"Get lost, don't lead Donggua and the others astray."

"Understood, Uncle, don't worry." He forced a smile, picked up the tuna, and took a bite.

Of all the members of the Li family, Donggua is the fattest. Last time, the family restaurant added 30,000 virtual orders, but he only dared to take 10,000.

The ship has started and is heading to the Divine Fox Sea.

The crew finally finished chopping the fish, labeled it, and sent it to the refrigerated warehouse before heading back to the stern to eat.

Boss Li started assigning tasks again: later, when they went to the Divine Fox Sea, they needed to prepare supplies for a reconnaissance ship and fill up its tank.

In order to keep up with the fish schools, these reconnaissance ships use high-powered engines, consuming tons of fuel per day, making resupply tasks very heavy.

The nanny boat will bring 200 tons of oil tomorrow to refuel these ships.

The diesel fuel was supposed to be enough for the first few days, but on the first day we encountered a level 3 marker, and the other two reconnaissance ships took turns following at full speed, which suddenly increased fuel consumption.

However, it's well worth it. At current tuna prices, a single haul can net hundreds of millions of dollars. By locking in the target in advance, as long as it's within the South China Sea, it can't escape.

(End of this chapter)