421: A bumper harvest of yellowtail

“Alright, understood. Heading back to retrieve the nets.”

Bai Xue's crisp shout came through the walkie-talkie.

Yang Qi immediately raised the Crane from the Freezer Hold; next, he would need to rely on this big darling to do the heavy lifting.

After Bai Xue parked the boat at the target location, she also ran out of the Cockpit to help.

Yang Qi noticed that the floats tied to the Gillnet had all been dragged underwater, leaving them half-submerged.

This showed just how many yellowtail amberjack were stuck in the net.

After he hooked the floats and tied them to the boom, Bai Xue started the Crane to begin hauling up the net.

The beginning of the net was densely packed with yellowtail amberjack; fortunately, he had specially bought an extra-large Gillnet to catch these yellowtail amberjack.

If he had used the original Gillnet, it would have been a joke.

Because none of the yellowtail amberjack on the Gillnet weighed less than ten catties.

Only this large-sized Gillnet could hold them.

This was actually related to the special circumstances of the yellowtail amberjack; this type of fish generally only migrates long distances to spawn after reaching sexual maturity at three years old.

Therefore, these yellowtail amberjack following the long migration were all mature fish over three years old; there wasn't a single small fish among them.

The hauled-up fishing net was covered in large yellowtail amberjack, and everywhere they looked were big fish sixty to seventy centimeters long, leaving both of them stunned.

Yang Qi and Bai Xue worked together, one hauling the net and the other picking off the fish as much as possible.

Since there was no time to bleed them now, they could only pick the fish off first and toss them into the Live Well.

At this moment, Yang Qi noticed there were no more swimming yellowtail amberjack in the water.

It seemed the school of fish had already swum far away; from discovering the school to the end, it had been less than half an hour.

Since that was the case, they might as well slow down and retrieve the net and pick the fish.

At the very least, they had to clean the fish off the net before they could catch the next school.

Otherwise, when the school of fish arrived, if you still had fish on your net, you could only watch helplessly and fret.

Next, after Yang Qi and his companion picked off the yellowtail amberjack, they used a small knife to poke two holes in the gills to bleed them before tossing them into the Live Well.

The yellowtail amberjack's blood vessels are concentrated in its gills; after poking two holes and throwing it into the Live Well, the more it swam, the faster and more thoroughly it would bleed out.

And the price difference for yellowtail amberjack that hadn't been bled was more than half.

Now, not only the deck but even the Live Well was a river of blood.

“Little Snow, no need to rush too much now. Throw the ones that have been bled into the other Live Well, and we can deal with the ones we just threw in when we have time.”

Just like that, it took them four hours to pick off all the yellowtail amberjack from the four Gillnets and bleed them properly.

Although bleeding yellowtail amberjack wasn't as troublesome as bleeding Tuna, the sheer number was overwhelming.

This time, it wasn't hundreds of fish, but over fifteen hundred.

That meant poking over three thousand holes.

The two of them were completely numb from picking fish and bleeding them.

And this was even with three of the large Gillnets full of big holes; it seemed some even larger yellowtail amberjack had crashed through the nets.

“Holy crap, how big must those fish be!”

Yang Qi cursed in frustration; without those big holes, they would have had a much larger harvest.

Next came the four baskets of Longline Fishing gear, and the two of them quickly realized something was wrong.

Based on current estimates, there was no need to wait for a second or third wave.

As it stood, it was already a bit difficult to fit all the yellowtail amberjack they had already caught into the Freezer Hold.

Because this wave of yellowtail amberjack was both large and numerous.

Especially a portion of the large yellowtail amberjack caught by Longline Fishing, which weighed fifty or sixty catties.

“Forget it, no need to bleed all of them. If we stuff them into the Freezer Hold, I reckon keeping them in the Live Well should be fine, right?”

Yang Qi said, a bit uncertain.

“Let's fill the Freezer Hold first, and the rest will just have to go in the Live Well. Hopefully, they'll survive.”

Bai Xue was also a bit uncertain.

“That's all we can do. If it doesn't work, we'll catch one more wave and hurry back.”

Yang Qi proposed.

In the end, the over one hundred and eighty large yellowtail amberjack caught by Longline Fishing were all placed in the Live Well; after all, yellowtail amberjack caught by Longline Fishing were relatively more energetic.

But they still had to check on them every once in a while to see if any showed signs of dying.

If there were any such signs, they would have to bleed them all and stuff them into the Freezer Hold to be safe.

At this time, Bai Xue, exhausted and panting, wanted to go make a meal.

She was stopped by Yang Qi, who proposed:

“Little Snow, on such a cold day, let's make some noodles! Besides, we don't know when the next school of fish is coming, and noodles are faster.”

Yang Qi secretly calculated in his heart; the two of them had fought through the whole night, and this wave had yielded about seventeen hundred fish, worth at least 1.5 million.

He blew on his hands, slurping down the noodles Bai Xue had made; with a large bowl of noodles in his stomach, he finally felt warm inside.

“Little Snow, it's too cold outside. Finish eating and go rest for a while; I'll call you when the school of fish comes.”

Bai Xue shook her head and said:

“That won't do. I want to stay with you and wait for the school of fish.”

Bai Xue wouldn't listen and insisted on staying with him.

Yang Qi had no choice but to take her to the Cockpit.

There was no bone-chilling sea breeze in the Cockpit, and they could turn on the air conditioning, which would save them a lot of suffering.

They could also keep an eye out for any patrol ships from the two countries; if there was any sign of trouble, they would have to immediately sail back to their own East China Sea waters.

If they got blocked in another country's Exclusive Economic Zone, it would be bad; there would definitely be fines and torn nets.

After finishing two large bowls of noodles, Yang Qi thought about going to the deck to smoke a cigarette.

Just as he had taken two puffs of his cigarette...

...the vanguard of a few dozen yellowtail amberjack appeared in his Supernatural Ability vision.

“Little Snow, start the boat! The school of fish is here again.”

Yang Qi shouted toward the Cockpit.

“Understood!”

Bai Xue didn't say a word and immediately started the boat, driving toward the location Yang Qi specified.

Yang Qi once again deployed the Gillnets into the sea; three of the Gillnets were already quite damaged, but it was better than nothing—they would catch what they could.

Because he had been busy eating just now, he had forgotten to bait the Longline Fishing gear; now it was definitely too late to bait them, so he had to give up on that.

This made him feel deeply guilty: “Why did I have to eat first!”

By the time he had finished deploying the fourth damaged net, he noticed that the first Gillnet already had quite a few fish stuck in it.

So Yang Qi immediately directed Bai Xue to drive the boat back to the position of the first Gillnet; without saying anything else, it was time to retrieve the net!

This time, they picked off the yellowtail amberjack and threw them straight into the Live Well, thinking they would deal with them later.

After all, it was already bright out, and they were stealing fish at someone else's doorstep, so it was easy to get caught.

“Hubby, I think there's a boat.”

At this moment, Bai Xue suddenly called out.

Yang Qi looked up and, sure enough, spotted a black dot in the distance, and made a prompt decision:

“Little Snow, you go drive the boat and head toward those fishing nets over there first. I'll haul up the last net, and we'll take the remaining two and run toward the East China Sea waters.”

As he spoke, he tied the net head of the third net in his hands onto the boom.