Back To the Small Fishing Village In 1982 - Chapter 38

Chapter 38: Encountering Spanish Mackerels Hunting

Ye Yaodong swam in the sea, gradually adjusting to the pressure of the seawater.

Only in the first moment when he jumped into the sea did panic overwhelm him. Fortunately, he had warned his friends beforehand, and they didn’t let him sink.

As he regained his feeling for swimming in the sea, the fear in his heart gradually subsided, his mind relaxed more, and he paddled with his arms and legs toward the shore.

Originally, they had planned to race to see who could swim to the opposite shore first, but Ye Yaodong’s actions had startled them, and now no one dared to stray too far from him.

They slowly swam toward the shore, and only after their feet touched ground did they wade through the water toward the reef. The tide was still ebbing at this time.

Ah Guang slowly drove the boat behind them. When they got close, he jumped into the water, tied up the boat, and shouted to Ye Yaodong: “Dongzi, what were you doing just now? You nearly scared us to death. Don’t you know how to swim?”

“I jumped in too forcefully and got a leg cramp, that’s why I sank. It’s nothing, I’m fine now, see? I’m perfectly okay.”

That jump actually yielded quite a harvest, though it was a close call.

Ah Guang was speechless, “You think you’re still growing?”

“Well, after too much exercise the night before, everyone has moments of weak legs and exhaustion. You single guys wouldn’t understand.”

Xiaoxiao chuckled and agreed, “That makes sense!”

Ah Guang rolled his eyes, “Who are you trying to fool? Think you’re special just because you have a wife? Come on, let’s get the tools from the boat. The reef is half exposed now, let’s look around and dig up whatever we can find!”

The group had just reached shore and hadn’t even sat down to rest when they waded back through the water toward the tied-up boat. Just as they climbed aboard, Ye Yaodong’s eyes widened.

“There… there! Spanish mackerels hunting!”

Everyone turned to look. In the shallow waters near the eastern shore, they saw a school of Spanish mackerels hunting. Their bodies were long and flat, spindle-shaped, with streamlined forms, extremely high swimming speeds, and sharp teeth. Like cheetahs hunting prey, they caused terrified small fish to scatter in all directions.

Everyone instantly became excited, “It’s a school of Spanish mackerels hunting!”

“It’s Japanese Spanish mackerel!”

Spanish mackerel, also known as sawara, are fierce by nature and commonly hunt in shallow coastal waters from June to October.

There’s an old saying: “On land eat partridge and musk deer, at sea eat Spanish mackerel and pompano.”

In this era, marine resources were abundant. Within their sight, there were probably over a thousand Spanish mackerels hunting.

They had never seen such a spectacular scene before, and were all stunned!

“Fishing nets, fishing nets, did anyone bring any?” Ye Yaodong was extremely excited. Those were thousands of Spanish mackerels – even at this era’s price of 0.2 yuan per jin, if they caught half of them, they could make a good profit.

It’s worth noting that Japanese Spanish mackerels are typically over 40-50 centimeters in length, each weighing over 6-7 jin. Thousands of them… just imagine the scale!

“Damn, we don’t have fishing nets!”

“We only brought tools for beach combing”

“How would we have thought to bring fishing nets?”

Everyone chimed in, their excitement doused like cold water on hot coals. Without fishing nets, how could they catch them? Were they supposed to catch them by hand?

As happy as they had been moments ago, now everyone was equally dejected. It was like watching silver money dancing before their eyes, but being unable to grab it.

“Let’s look in the cabin, see if there’s any? Ah Guang’s uncle-in-law is a trawler, shouldn’t there be fishing nets on the boat?”

Reminded by this, everyone suddenly came to their senses and hurried to search the cabin.

“Yes, yes, yes, the fishing nets are here, they’re in here!” Ah Guang’s voice was filled with excitement.

Ye Yaodong was overjoyed – with fishing nets, they could cast and catch fish.

“Quick, let’s lower the ropes. We’ll cast the nets while driving the boat, heading straight for that school of Spanish mackerels.”

Everyone knew what to do without being told – some untied ropes, others handled the machinery.

Ah Guang steered the boat toward the Spanish mackerels. When they had come by boat earlier, they had approached from a different direction and hadn’t seen the school of fish at all – they had almost missed it.

The four men kept watching the school of fish, either excited or thrilled. The closer they got, the more intense Ye Yaodong’s gaze became. Originally, they had planned to come to the isolated island for beach combing, hoping to gather some seafood, but they had struck it lucky instead.

He figured his bad luck must have died with him, and now his fortunes had turned – good luck had arrived!

As they approached the school, the Spanish mackerels scattered in alarm, but they couldn’t escape the already cast nets.

The boat continued forward for a while before pulling up the nets. Seeing the jumping and thrashing group of Spanish mackerels, everyone’s faces bloomed with smiles.

Ah Zheng’s eyes widened, “Damn, this net must have several hundred jin!”

“Holy crap, this many?”

Everyone’s eyes were fixed straight ahead!

“Damn, hurry up, hurry up, don’t waste time talking, throw them in the live well and cast again, they’re still around, haven’t gone far, keep casting, this is a rare opportunity, let’s catch a few more nets while we can!”

Birds of a feather flock together – they were all rather unrefined and could only express their excitement with crude exclamations.

Ye Yaodong also shouted, “Continue, continue, quick, dump them in the live well, cast the net again.”

This catch filled the live well completely when dumped in, with fish still jumping around all over the deck, but no one paid attention to these as they immediately started casting the second net.

This time they didn’t pull up the net immediately, but circled the surrounding waters twice before hauling it in. The scattered Spanish mackerels couldn’t have gone far, and this catch was also quite bountiful.

Ah Guang shouted excitedly, “Damn it, another several hundred jin, hurry up, hurry up, help out, the live well is full, throw them in the cabin, doesn’t matter if they’re alive or dead, they’ll sell just as well as long as they’re fresh.”

With a few more nets like this, catching thousands of jin, why would he need to work tomorrow?

Spanish mackerel are coastal fish, a warm-water migratory species found in coastal waters. April to June is their season, and they mainly feed on fish and shrimp and other aquatic animals. Their trip had coincidentally caught them during their feeding time.

“Keep going, keep going…”

The excited shouts of all four men kept ringing out over the boat.

They were all bare-chested, wearing only shorts, not minding the sun as they worked on the boat, their faces beaming with joy.

They cast the net five or six more times, leaving it in the water longer each time, though each catch brought in fewer Spanish mackerels than the last.

But everyone was content – this kind of luck was rare and precious.

Looking at the live well and cabin full of Spanish mackerels, their eyes sparkled with excitement.

“Except at the Fishing Well Pier, I’ve never seen so many Spanish mackerels. Haha~ Following Dongzi out was really wise, his luck has been pretty good these past few days, and now we’ve caught some of that luck too. Good thing we agreed to come yesterday – Fatty and Ah Wei really missed out big time,” Ah Guang said excitedly.

He was very self-aware – his luck had always been bad, but Dongzi these past few days seemed to have stepped in dog shit, his luck was through the roof!

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Dongzi’s luck seems really good these days.”

“Today we got rich thanks to Dongzi!”

“Did you pray to Mazu before coming out?”