Ye Yaodong drove the boat towards the sea in the distance. When he first set off, there were various headlights flashing on the sea. After driving further away, there were fewer. Each boat headed towards the sea area that they were familiar with.
Father Ye also took advantage of the time when the boat was moving to start chopping bait, hanging bait, various small fish, shrimps, and small tubes. Ah Cai just gave him 5 dead small moray eels to use as bait.
Father Ye chopped them all off and hung them up.
The boat has been sailing for more than an hour, but the bait has not been hung yet. There are too many hooks, and it takes time to cut and hang them.
Ye Yaodong deliberately changed to a new fishing spot today, far away from the sea area where he worked yesterday.
He looked ahead intently and controlled the driving direction. In order to avoid seeing clearly in the dark night and causing the ship to run aground on the rocks, he shone his headlight on the sea level from time to time to the left and right.
At this moment, he saw a large number of seabirds appearing in his field of vision on the sea ahead, blocking out the sky and the sun. The entire long coastline was almost filled with seabirds, and it felt like they were countless.
All fishermen know that where a large number of seabirds gather, there are often schools of fish. Before the sea ahead appears in sight, there are so many seabirds flying continuously in mid-air, and the school of fish in the sea is definitely not small.
He opened his eyes wide in surprise and looked at the sea surface, and increased his speed. He saw more and more seabirds appearing in his field of vision.
The coastline was getting closer and closer, and he could clearly see that the sea in the distance barely illuminated by his headlight was covered with countless white foam, and seabirds on the sea were swooping towards the sea one after another.
He quickly slowed down the boat again and let it move slowly. Then he observed carefully and confirmed that there were indeed many fish churning in the sea. His heart was beating fast.
"Dad, please put down what you are doing and come over and take a look."
Father Ye had been lowering his head to cut fish and hang bait. He didn't pay attention to the sea surface. He just felt that the speed of the boat had slowed down just now, and thought that the third child was going to set the hook here.
When I heard his cautious call, I thought something had happened, so I hurried over.
"What's wrong? What happened... did..." Father Ye put down what he was doing and just stood up when he saw a large number of white seabirds gathering on the sea in the distance. In the dark night, they were particularly conspicuous.
.
His voice suddenly fell silent, and he quickly ran to the bow of the boat and carefully shined his headlight into the distance.
I saw a large number of seabirds gathering in the sky in front of me. The water on the sea was rolling fiercely, and not just one area, but the entire continuous coastline was rolling with water. The area was quite large.
Father Ye said in surprise: "There is a school of fish under the sea in front, so there are so many seabirds gathered in the air. Looking at the distribution of seabirds, the school of fish should be several kilometers long. I wonder what happens under the sea? This school of fish is not
Small."
"I just saw a large group of seabirds appearing on the coastline from a distance, and I was startled, so I slowed down and called you."
"Look closer!"
Ye Yaodong nodded excitedly.
Such a big school of fish is spread over such a long coastline. You don’t have to do anything today and just follow it and cast the net?
I don’t know what kind of fish it is?
He increased the horsepower again.
After getting closer, the sea becomes even more spectacular!
"It turns out to be a school of sardines!"
"They are migrating from north to south!" Ye Yaodong confirmed with just one glance.
Sardines carry out collective migration every autumn and winter. If they are encountered by fishing boats at sea, it is no less than winning a jackpot!
They really hit the jackpot today.
Father Ye was a little excited. The scale of this sardine migration was astonishing. It was difficult to see carefully in the dark, but by visual inspection, it was several kilometers long and one kilometer wide. The situation on the seabed was unclear.
"Dongzi, come closer."
"good."
Ye Yaodong had a big smile on his face. The sardine school is known as the "largest school of fish on earth." He knew that every time a sardine school migrates, the number is no less than billions. Whether he encounters it or not depends on luck.
The fishing boats operating in this area today will all make a fortune.
The boat continued to move forward, and the waves rolled bigger and bigger as it went forward, and the hull of the boat also undulated and swayed violently. This was all because of the fish.
After traveling almost a distance, Ye Yaodong stopped and said excitedly: "It's a sardine storm! There are endless swarms of sardines as far as the eye can see!"
Father Ye looked at the school of fish in front of him with shining eyes. Without blinking, he spat and said, "Catch, catch hard."
"Horse riding, luckily I borrowed a hand-thrown net yesterday, otherwise I would have slapped my thighs and cried to death!"
"The bait for longline fishing is almost gone, so we can't waste it. I'll release the longline later, and you can cast the net. Such a large school of sardines is migrating, so there must be big fish preying on it."
"There are definitely big fish, but they won't bite the hook. These sardines are ready-made live bait. Let's just put the hooks on the bottom to catch the small fish that can't eat the sardines."
"Yeah, that's right."
Ye Yaodong quickly ran to the cabin to get the hand-thrown net, arranging it as he walked. The swaying hull did not affect his efficiency at all.
Sardines are warm-water offshore fish and have phototaxis. A large number of sardines gathered at the location illuminated by the headlight.
As soon as he arranged the hand-thrown net, he used the light of his headlamp to cast it toward the distant sea. The hand-thrown net was stretched to the maximum in his hand, and a large number of fish were caught in the net at once, and he didn't even need it.
Just stay and you can pull up directly.
The heavy fishing net made the muscles in his arms bulge, and the veins on his temples popped out. Father Ye also quickly helped pull it out.
The weight of this net is at least 200 kilograms, and it is even harder to pull in the water. At this moment, Ye Yaodong thought about how great it would be if there was a small net hoisting machine. That would be more efficient.
This sardine is cheap, the price is about 9 cents to 1 cent, and it is not big, about 14 to 25 centimeters long. It is also very flat and light in weight. Six or seventy-eight sardines are enough to weigh one pound, but it cannot hold it now.
What a big kid!
There are billions of sardines in the sea now, so it’s called winning the jackpot!
It took a lot of effort from the father and son to pull the net of sardines onto the boat, and they threw them directly on the deck.
Ye Yaodong untied the net, and a large number of slender, flat silver fish poured directly out of the net, covering half of the deck.
"many!"
"Keep going!"
The father and son are so happy that they don't want to stop. It's a rare opportunity. If you add more people to the network, you can get dozens of dollars more. There is no suspense at all. There is no better way to make money than today.
Ye Yaodong continued to cast the net, and once he was almost right, he actually caught two seabirds that were rushing down to hunt for food.
He and his father continued to drag without taking it seriously. After a large number of sardines were pulled ashore, the two seabirds were also crushed to death.
After they all fell onto the deck, he realized that the two seabirds looked wrong.
The light in front was not good and he could not see clearly. When he was casting the net, his attention was always on the sardines in the sea. When he got closer, he realized that the two horses riding on them were gannets!
"Fuck! Dad!" He directly threw the gannet in his hand towards Father Ye.
This gannet is not small, with a body length of 150-160 cm and a weight of about 10-12 kg.
"Gannet?" Father Ye also recognized it.
They call it Gannet in their dialect, but its scientific name is Spot-billed Pelican. It looks like a big gull, big and beautiful. It has a short and fat body, a long and slender neck, a white body, a long and straight beak, and a lead-blue beak.
Color, there is an orange-yellow skin bag under the mouth.
Ye Yaodong thought it was a seagull at first, but he didn't expect it to be a gannet!
He said happily: "Good stuff! I'll cast a few more nets and catch a few more."
These seabirds are now so abundant that they are all over the sea. Usually they are difficult to catch while flying in mid-air and they are very wary. Now they are actually flying in mid-air in large numbers to hunt for food. This is a rare opportunity.
Father Ye's face was also happy. Fortunately, he brought a fishing net with him today.
Ye Yaodong pointed his headlight at the location where he was going to cast his net while arranging the hand-thrown net. When he finished arranging it, a large number of sardines gathered again on the sea surface illuminated by the light.
He threw the fishing net as high as possible and stretched it as wide as possible. This time, he caught three greedy gannets and dragged them ashore together with the sardines.
Borrowing its phototaxis, with his unremitting efforts, more and more sardines on the deck were visible to the naked eye, and the number of gannets also increased intermittently.
Human strength is limited, and the strength in your hands will be exhausted if you continue to pull a fishing net weighing several hundred kilograms.
After pulling six or seven nets, the father and son had no strength left, and their hands were so sore.
At this time, the sky was also glowing. The two of them leaned against the side of the boat tiredly and decided to take a break. If they had to follow the fish and cast the net for a day, they would not be able to lift their arms for several days.
The father and son kept shaking their arms and looking at the sea in the distance. They were reluctant to move their eyes away and sit down to rest.
Because it was daylight, they could clearly see that in addition to some boats that were lucky enough to encounter a school of sardines at the same time and were fishing hard, there were also many large fish chasing the sardines.
It was dark before and visibility was limited. Their attention was entirely on the sardines in front of them. Occasionally, their headlights would illuminate large fish, but they could not see clearly after dawn.
In the distance, there are a large number of various sharks, whales, dolphins, seals, marlins, ghost-headed swordfish, tuna, swordfish, swordfish, etc., which are rare deep-sea large fish.
They are everywhere, emerging from the sea from time to time, chasing and catching sardines.
All kinds of seabirds also gathered on the sea, and it was endless as far as the eye could see.
Ye Yaodong exclaimed repeatedly, "Damn, this is such a famous scene, it deserves to be called a sardine storm!"
Ye's father's eyes were not clear enough. It was the first time that he saw such a spectacular scene so clearly.
"Dongzi, I'm going to sail the boat. Let's chase the fish while you set the hook. Don't waste this great opportunity."
"Although there are many big fish, they don't even have time to eat the sardines. Our bait is probably not very attractive."
"Try it and don't waste it. If you can catch one or two, you will still make money."
"Okay, those big fish are hard to catch, but the smaller ones are probably not a problem. If you catch them, you can get money."
Maybe, probably, maybe there is another chapter in the night...
As for the time, it depends on how long I wait...
It is recommended not to wait, maybe let the pigeons go???
Chapter completed!