322: Armyfish

Yang Qi and the others left Liu Zheng's house after eating, letting them arrange their affairs at home that night. They might head straight onto the highway tomorrow afternoon.

The next morning, they returned to Liu Zheng's house and picked up the couple's luggage.

Then, led by Liu Zheng, they came to a stream twenty li away, where it was said that military fish were often caught in previous years.

Locals generally use lure fishing for military fish because the stream water is crystal clear and relatively shallow.

military fish are also very cautious; they vanish without a trace as soon as they see a human silhouette, so one can only cast lures from a distance.

Yang Qi and the other three cast for two or three hours but didn't catch a single military fish, only some Horse-mouth fish. This made them wonder if there were any military fish here at all.

"That's not right! There used to be plenty of military fish here!"

Liu Zheng also scratched his head, finding it hard to understand.

"Brother Zheng, when was that?"

Yang Qi asked.

"The year before last. Several people from my village caught quite a lot here."

"The year before last!!"

Yang Qi's face darkened; this was way too unreliable!

"There are a few people fishing for Zacco over there; I'll go ask what's going on."

Before long, Liu Zheng returned and said with an embarrassed expression:

"Well, I checked. They said a Pig farm was built upstream last year, polluting the water here, and all the military fish have fled."

"Oh dear! What a mess. How about we change locations?"

Yang Qi checked the time; it was already nine o'clock, and it was too late to change locations. At that moment, he had a sudden inspiration and pointed upstream:

"Forget about changing locations. Let's walk upstream and see. Maybe the upper reaches haven't been polluted yet, and there might still be military fish."

Everyone thought it made sense, so they packed their fishing gear and headed upstream along the stream.

The RV drove for about half an hour, and the sight before them brightened their eyes; the water here was significantly clearer, with the stones and aquatic plants on the bottom clearly visible.

Everyone quickly found their spots and started casting. After a while, Yang Qi felt his rod sink, and he shouted excitedly:

"A fish is on the hook!"

Everyone gathered around as Yang Qi carefully exerted a lot of effort to pull the fish up; it turned out to be a plump military fish weighing about two pounds.

Everyone suddenly perked up and focused on fishing.

Over the next while, everyone caught many military fish and other types of fish one after another.

Finally, Yang Qi picked four or five of the best-looking ones to take home and raise. He kept another two to taste for lunch, and released the rest of the military fish back into the pool.

They prepared lunch by the pool. After Yang Qi and the others tasted the military fish, they were full of praise, especially for the unique flavor of the fish's scales.

After lunch, Yang Qi got onto the nearby highway to head home. He and Liu Zheng took turns driving, and they arrived back at Qingshan Town in the early hours of the next day.

Since he had called a few days earlier, a huge Stream aquarium had already been installed near the koi pond in the backyard.

Bai Xue carefully put the specially selected peach blossom fish and stream groupers into it.

military fish are carnivorous, so they could only be put into the koi pond, with some Horse-mouth fish raised as bait for them.

From the moment they entered, Liu Zheng and his wife were shocked by the situation at Yang Qi's home; they knew his family was wealthy, but they hadn't expected them to be this rich.

Yang Qi helped the couple settle into a room on the second floor of the guest house. It was fully equipped, essentially move-in ready.

Then everyone returned to their respective rooms for a good catch-up sleep, not waking up until eight in the morning.

He took Liu Zheng and his wife to a breakfast shop in town for some delicious Clam Cakes before returning home to organize their luggage.

After taking Liu Zheng and his wife on a tour of the front and back yards, everyone sat in the Sea-Viewing Pavilion, drinking tea and chatting.

"Is that ship yours? It's quite beautiful!"

Liu Zheng asked, looking in the direction Yang Qi was pointing.

"Yeah. You guys get some good rest today, and I'll take you out to sea at dawn tomorrow to watch the sunrise and fish."

"No problem. Since we're here, we'll follow your arrangements."

For lunch, Yang Qi took them to his mother's place, bringing some of the stream fish they had caught, specialties from Qiandao Lake, and of course, the Dried bamboo shoots Liu Zheng had brought as a gift.

The families shared the items. Upon learning that Liu Zheng and his wife were friends Yang Qi had met at Qiandao Lake, Mother Yang, Zheng Jin, warmly prepared a sumptuous meal.

"Brother A Qi, your boat is a real gas guzzler! It actually costs over forty thousand yuan to fill up once."

After eating, the three women went to buy supplies for tomorrow's sea trip. Yang Qi took Liu Zheng to fill up the tank.

That night, Yang Qi lay in bed and carefully planned the itinerary for the next day's sea trip. In the early hours of the next day, they arrived at the pier early and boarded the boat.

Yang Qi first sailed to the pier to buy ice, live bait, and frozen bait.

The boat slowly sailed towards the sea. The horizon gradually turned pale, and then a red sun burst forth, casting golden radiance over the sea surface—it was breathtakingly beautiful.

Liu Zheng and his wife excitedly took commemorative photos. For people from inland, seeing such a sunrise over the sea for the first time left them with nothing but pure admiration.

The ocean is vast, but it doesn't mean you can fish everywhere. Some areas are aquaculture zones where people use cages to farm kelp or certain sea fish. You definitely can't fish in those areas.

Then there are the main shipping lanes where all sorts of vessels travel back and forth. If you occupy a shipping lane to fish, never mind whether you catch anything; the Coast Guard might even come in an enforcement vessel to 'invite you for tea.'

You also can't fish in anchorages. Large ships at sea have to queue to enter the port, and they drop anchor in the anchorage beforehand. If you fish there, how are they supposed to park?

There are also places where fishermen frequently set nets. Fishing isn't prohibited in such spots, but if your hook snags their nets, they might come after you across the whole ocean with a forty-meter blade!

So Yang Qi and the others had to avoid these places for fishing.

More than two hours later, he steered the "setting sail" to a spot he had marked before. Meanwhile, Bai Xue and Yao Shanshan helped Liu Zheng and his wife assemble their fishing rods and connect the Electric Reels.

An Electric Reel isn't as simple as just having a throttle that automatically retracts the line with a push.

From assembling the rod to spooling the line and then fishing, one really needs to learn how to operate an Electric Reel properly.

While explaining to Liu Zheng, Bai Xue installed the Electric Reel. Mounting the reel on the rod was simple enough; to catch large fish, there were also two iron buckles that could be screwed onto the rod, making it much sturdier than ordinary reels.

"Your line is a bit loose. Let it out and spool it again in a bit! Otherwise, it'll be a hassle if you hook a big fish!"

Bai Xue pressed the line in the spool and reminded Liu Zheng.