Chapter 224 Toad Fish

"Huh? There's a small one on its back."

Ye Yaodong placed it on the ground and looked at it with its mouth opening and closing. Why did it look familiar?

"Damn it, this is a toad fish!"

He took a closer look and immediately thought of what it was. No wonder the pole on its head felt so familiar, and it looked so similar to the face of a toad fish. This horse was a toad fish.

The common toad fish is brown, but this one is suddenly black. No wonder they didn't recognize it for a while.

"Toad fish? Aren't all toad fish brown?"

"There are also black ones, which are rarer and have different varieties. It's really disgusting. The big mouth is still moving there. It's not dead yet. I'll give it a stick and let it die first."

Usually when they pull up a big fish, they will kill it first to prevent some fish that are not dead from exploding and hurting people.

They had not recognized this fish before, so they were curious and did not move for a while.

After it died, Ye's father wanted to take off the small one on its back, but found that it was stuck to it and could not be removed. The small one was only three or four centimeters in size according to visual inspection.

Ye Yaodong explained: "The slightly bigger one is male, and the bigger one at the bottom is female."

When a male toad fish encounters a female, he will become parasitic and stay attached to her for life until death. This is commonly known as eating soft food!

Toad fish is the name of the locals. Its official name is angler fish or angler fish. It is a carnivorous fish on the bottom of the sea. It is usually most abundant in winter and spring.

Their bodies are short cone-shaped, but their heads are wide and flat, like a toad. Their mouths are large and full of jagged teeth. Their eyes are on the back of their heads, and their bodies have no scales.

But there are low and round protrusions on their forehead ridges. It is these protrusions that make them look "irregular in facial features" and look very ugly.

The longline he launched last time also did not use a float, but sank to the bottom to catch low-level fish, so he was able to catch this black toad fish.

This fish is characterized by a fleshy protrusion above its head, like a small lantern, which is formed by the anglerfish's first dorsal fin gradually extending upward. The reason why the small lantern glows is because there are gland cells inside the lantern.

Many fish in the sea have phototaxis, so they often use their little lanterns to catch food.

There is a lot of sticky mucus on it, which makes people feel disgusting when touching it, but it is a kind of gelatin, and the fibers of the flesh bubbles inside are very elastic. The skin is rich in gelatin, which can beautify the skin and increase the elasticity of the skin.

But also because it looks ugly and feels disgusting, the price is very cheap.

"Ugly fish tend to cause mischief and waste time. Just keep reeling in the line."

This one is so big, it doesn't cost more than five cents a pound at most, and the smaller one may only cost two or three cents a pound.

After Ye Yaodong muttered something, he continued to reel in the line, but it turned out that the hook was empty, and the bait on it was long gone. It must have been too long since he didn't come to reel in the bait, and it must have been ran away.

He didn't have much hope at first, it would be great if he could retract these threads.

I continued to reel in the line, only to find that I had caught another toad fish. This one was of normal length and was brown.

Maybe it was because I was fishing for bottom fish. In addition to half of the hooks being empty, the remaining hooks were loaded with toad fish one after another, and the freshness was quite good.

Although it is cheap, it is still better than nothing.

As he reeled in the hook, he found that the hook was a bit heavy, and he immediately cheered up. As the line became shorter and shorter, both father and son saw a big white long fish, shaking in the water and being pulled to the surface. figure.

Father Ye was also surprised, "Tarpon!"

This fish can be caught not only in the sea, but also in some Danshui rivers. Tarpon has the habit of migration. It is distributed near the coast of the ocean and in the waters at the junction of the Danshui River and the Danshui River.

Ye Yaodong grinned. He finally found a big fish. "Dad, help me fish the net over. This one weighs several dozen kilograms and is difficult to pull."

Maybe it’s because it took too long to take the bait. The activity of the big silver carp is not that good, and it feels like there is more air coming out and less air entering.

He had heard before that when a big silver carp takes the bait, it can easily jump 2-3 meters out of the water.

Just as he was shortening the length of the line to bring the fish closer to the side of the boat for his father to catch, he saw a large group of tarpon jumping up and down on the sea surface not far away.

"Dad, look there."

Father Ye was holding a fishing net and was about to lean over to catch fish when he heard his call and looked in the direction of his finger with confusion. He was also surprised, "Are they all tarpon?"

I saw that they actually jumped out of tricks and kept changing directions while leaping.

The body of the tarpon is slender and flat on the side, like a heavy saber. It is shining with silver and has a cold air all over its body.

This slender fish is very good at jumping and can change direction from time to time with the help of extended rays on the trailing edge of its dorsal fin.

"Fill this one up first, then I'll put the buoy back on. This fish will come up and just reach the interface of a basket of branch lines. Untie the line and take it back. Re-tie the upper buoy and throw it down to mark it. Let's start the boat. Go over there and have a look.”

This large silver carp is also very cheap. Although it looks delicious, its meat is actually soft and prickly, with a poor meat taste. It is usually pickled into salted fish.

But, although it is cheap, given its size, one fish is worth a few dollars. If you can catch a few more, you can also earn some gas money. Originally, today's harvest situation was not very good.

But something went against their expectations. The father and son worked together to drag the big silver carp ashore, and when they fixed the fishing line, they found that the group of tarpon had stopped jumping and had all dived into the water.

Ye Yaodong did not give up, increased the power and drove the boat towards the sea where they just jumped.

Seeing the figure getting smaller and smaller under the sea, Father Ye quickly opened the hand-thrown net to the maximum extent. When the boat came over, he had already arranged the fishing net. When he came over, he found that they were diving to the bottom of the water. Throw it at speed.

After staying for a short while, the two of them worked together to pull up, and the biceps on their arms bulged high.

"Damn, it's so heavy."

Each one weighs dozens of kilograms, and it's hard to pull just a few.

He felt that he needed a net hoist. Towing such a heavy load every three days would be too much for his arm strength. I originally thought that as winter approaches, the opportunities to go to sea will decrease, and it won’t be too late to wait until the next spring. Now it seems that it is better to prepare and put it there in advance.

If a big fish or fish comes from time to time, the arm will not be able to bear it.

The father and son gritted their back molars and moved the net up little by little. There were only four fish in this net, but each one was more than one meter, about 1.3 to 1.5 meters. All in all, it weighs two to three hundred kilograms.

"I'll throw it into the net again and see if there's anything left."

"It should be gone. They may have swam to the depths of the sea."

Father Ye thought it would be better to give it a try, but he didn’t expect it to be gone. This net only caught 4 soft silks and 9 prawns.

"Not bad, not bad, not in vain. You can take them back to eat these nights." Ye Yaodong happily picked up the ones on the deck into buckets and put them alone.

The soft silk and large prawns are both good products to him, and their family of four all like them.

Father Ye gave him a disgusted look and was thinking about eating!

Ye Yaodong also saw the look in his father's eyes and didn't take it seriously. How could he understand the joy of simply eating and drinking?

After trying the net and catching nothing, they went back to collect the hooks.

As a result, the two sea bream I harvested were very smelly. They were left out for too long, and the hooks were swallowed deeply, so they died early.

Most of the lines collected next were empty hooks, and many fish were broken free.

After I received it, a few flounder also came up, both flatfish and turbot.

Because the left is the sole and the right is the sole.

The plaice-shaped flatfish has a peculiar shape that easily attracts attention because both eyes are located on one side of the head and there are no eyes on the other side.

Lay the fish flat with its belly facing you. The one with the head facing left is the flounder (turtle fish), and the one with the head facing the right is the plaice, also called squid.

Ye Yaodong collected two items one after another and threw them directly into the basket.

It only took him more than an hour to catch 1,000 hooks, also because there were many empty hooks, so he saved a little effort today. He didn't need to fight with the big fish, and the speed was faster.

After all the ropes were dismantled, he checked the cargo. In addition to the four tarpon caught with the hand-thrown net, he also caught three by longline. There were also two baskets of toad fish, a few little devils, and a few flounder. , are all bottom fish, and there are a few soft silk fish, which is barely enough.

"Dad, let's eat first. After eating, we can drag two nets."

"what time is it?"

In the past, when there were no watches, they would not check the time. They would eat when they were hungry and return when the sun set. If there was no sun, they would return based on the situation. If the wind picked up, they would go back early.

Nowadays, it is much more convenient to have a watch to tell the time.

"It's 11 o'clock."

"Um."

The two of them went to the cabin to block the wind, each took out their cold lunch boxes, and ate in big mouthfuls. There were no conditions, and they were not particular about it. They just wanted to fill their stomachs.

Fortunately, although it was cold, the food was really delicious and the portions were sufficient. Going to sea is hard work, so eating enough is the most basic requirement.

While Ye Yaodong was eating, he began to think about it. Maybe he could buy a coal stove when he went back and put the lunch box on it to heat it up. Otherwise, it would be uncomfortable to eat cold food in the winter.

You can also bring a small pot and some fresh water on the boat. When you eat, you can throw some freshly caught shrimps and crabs into it to cook for a snack. If you can bring a small pot of rice wine, heat it up and drink two cups to warm your body. Think about it. It feels pretty beautiful too.

Suddenly the cold food in his hand didn't taste good, but he still had to eat, so he speeded up his eating.

Father Ye also speeded up when he saw this.

After the meal, the two rested in the cabin for a while before going out and continuing to set the net.

After the weather cools down, the wind may blow up at any time. Take advantage of this moment to quickly release the net and try to drag two more nets.