164: Chasing large yellow croakers

The net mouth of the cast net was tied with lead weights, pulling the fishing net down.

The two opposing forces, one pulling up and one pulling down, caused the net mouth to quickly close, giving the fish no escape until the net mouth was completely tightened, and the fish were firmly trapped in the huge net.

Yang Qi felt a great strain pulling the net rope; he could see at least a hundred Large Yellow Croakers thrashing around, trying to escape from the bulging net.

But it was useless!

Even the thin net lines were something these mere Large Yellow Croakers couldn't resist.

Bai Xue had already positioned the setting sail in a suitable spot and rushed out of the cockpit to help Yang Qi pull the net; to save time, she raised the crane from the freezing compartment.

Yang Qi hung the cast net on the crane's hook, and Bai Xue started the machine, quickly pulling the Large Yellow Croakers onto the deck.

The characteristic of a cast net is that if you don't pull the retrieval rope tightly, the bottom of the net pouch will loosen.

Yang Qi stepped forward, shook the bottom of the pouch, and emptied the Large Yellow Croakers from the net.

"Slap, slap, slap" — a deck full of Large Yellow Croakers flopped around, like shimmering gold bricks dazzling the eyes.

Yang Qi observed that most of them weighed around two to four catties, with the largest dozen or so definitely over six catties.

"I clearly saw some Large Yellow Croakers over ten catties in the school!

How come not a single one was caught!"

Yang Qi felt somewhat downcast.

It was fortunate that Bai Xue had brought out four or five fish baskets and lined them up behind him.

Yang Qi tried his best to shake the net pouch into the fish baskets.

Still, many Large Yellow Croakers were flapping their tails and flopping around on the deck.

Yang Qi immediately picked up a fish basket and poured the Large Yellow Croakers from it one by one into a small live fish tank.

He picked up any fish under half a catty and threw them back into the sea.

The value of Large Yellow Croaker fully deserved individual compartments.

Bai Xue also seized the time, grabbing a fish basket and quickly picking up fish.

"Bai Xue, those under half a catty don't deserve a small individual compartment; throw them all back into the sea, let them grow bigger and come back later."

"Okay, got it, no fish under half a catty!"

By the time Yang Qi had sorted through those four or five baskets of Large Yellow Croakers, removing the smaller ones and pouring the rest into the small individual compartments, Bai Xue had already filled two more baskets.

Keep moving, what else is there to say?

Even with their combined speed, about ten Large Yellow Croakers were losing vitality or had their scales scraped and skin damaged by the net.

Among the eight Large Yellow Croakers on the electric reel hooks, three had their stomachs protruding, clearly not long for this world.

Yang Qi told Bai Xue to wrap these dozen or so Large Yellow Croakers individually in towels and place them in a foam box with crushed ice, piling them in a corner of the freezing compartment.

He himself looked at the school of Large Yellow Croakers, which had already drifted dozens of meters away from the setting sail, and quickly started the boat to chase after them.

Yang Qi roughly estimated in his mind that this net should have caught about 130 Large Yellow Croakers.

"Hehehe, not bad, not bad, let's keep at it!"

Since the previous net had targeted the middle part of the school, the leading fish hadn't been too flustered and continued to lead the school forward after a certain distance.

This time, he still deployed three electric reels; it was all up to fate, it would be great if they caught fish, but it didn't matter if they didn't.

Bai Xue felt that her most important role was to provide good logistical support for Yang Qi.

If they worked well together, they might be able to cast another net.

Yang Qi waited for the fish school to approach, then, following the same pattern, cast the net again; this time, he aimed for a spot slightly behind the very front of the school.

It was like the very front of the second echelon in a marathon race, though Yang Qi didn't know what significance this might have.

He just felt that those big ones were a bit sly, neither leading the charge nor bringing up the rear, nor staying in the very middle.

Now, Yang Qi was very adept at casting the net; he simply raised his hand, turned, and cast the net.

The series of movements was fluid and seamless, and with a "whoosh," the cast net perfectly covered the water surface.

After a while, under Bai Xue's expectant gaze, Yang Qi began to pull the rope and retrieve the net.

In his extraordinary vision, he could clearly see many large Large Yellow Croakers circling continuously within the net pouch.

The Large Yellow Croakers inside the net pouch were in a panic, darting left and right, but not a single fish swam straight down.

Yang Qi didn't know if eating these fish would affect his intelligence.

Who cares, he was doing it for the money.

Within dozens of seconds, before the panicked fish could react, the net mouth at the bottom had already tightened.

There was truly no escape now.

Yang Qi hung the net on the crane, and as Bai Xue operated it, the crane arm slowly pulled the cast net out of the sea.

The Large Yellow Croakers brought up this time were noticeably heavier, and the fish were larger.

It was very clear that Large Yellow Croakers weighing seven or eight catties were abundant in the net pouch, and many even exceeded ten catties.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue worked together to pull the net over the seven or eight fish baskets that had been arranged beforehand.

Slowly lowering the crane arm, Yang Qi loosened the pull rope at the bottom of the net pouch, and piles of Large Yellow Croakers eagerly flowed out of the net pouch and into the fish baskets.

Yang Qi tidied up the cast net, threw it aside, and immediately began transferring Large Yellow Croakers into the live fish tank.

For him, these were like gold bricks, and he dared not delay.

Since the fish were larger this time, he filled four or five more boxes.

After they had both finished organizing all the Large Yellow Croakers on the deck, Yang Qi and Bai Xue estimated that the quantity was similar to the previous net, around 130 fish.

However, the quality was clearly much better, as a difference of one or two catties in individual Large Yellow Croakers made a significant difference in the overall price.

Yang Qi looked in the direction the fish school had fled, preparing to chase after them to see if he could catch one or two more nets.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue went into the cockpit and saw that the fish school was no longer visible on the setting sail's fish finder screen.

So he said to Bai Xue, "Bai Xue, go check if there are any Large Yellow Croakers on the electric reels.

I'll try to find them."

They had been so busy earlier that they had forgotten about the electric reels.

Actually, in Yang Qi's extraordinary vision, he could still faintly see the school of Large Yellow Croakers.

He couldn't say anything else, so he could only send Bai Xue away.

Unexpectedly, six Large Yellow Croakers were also caught on the electric reels; those with insufficient vitality or poor appearance, just like before, were all wrapped in towels and iced in the freezing compartment.

A few minutes later, Yang Qi finally caught up with the Large Yellow Croaker school, and then it was back to casting nets and fishing.

In this way, Yang Qi and Bai Xue continued to chase the Large Yellow Croaker school and cast three more nets, with each net yielding less than the previous one, until the last net only caught three fish.

Only then did Yang Qi give up the chase.

It wasn't that he was being magnanimous; in fact, the fish school had dived deep and escaped.

The ocean covers 71% of the Earth's surface.

There are countless creatures in the ocean, and it has always been a case of the fittest surviving.

As long as you don't touch protected species, no one can tell anyone what to do.

Moreover, just this morning, Yang Qi and Bai Xue alone returned over thirty Large Yellow Croakers under half a catty to the ocean.

These were Large Yellow Croakers!

It's estimated that over 90% of fishermen wouldn't do that.