The fish traps had been collected, and the longlines were next. Li Haochen untied the ropes and gave a slight pull with one hand, but it wouldn't budge. He frowned.
"Why is it so heavy? Could it be a big haul?"
Li Haochen put on his cotton gloves, coiled the rope around his palms, gritted his teeth, and pulled with all his might. The longline slowly rose. Fortunately, he had gloves; otherwise, just pulling with bare skin would have likely resulted in blisters.
The rain intensified, and the waves started to get playful, rocking the boat significantly. This added considerable difficulty to pulling the longline.
It took seven or eight minutes to reach the end of the longline. The first hook was almost up. Although the seawater was still a bit murky, he could see a shadow. Li Haochen knew there was something on the first hook and felt a surge of joy. He sped up. A few seconds later, it finally revealed itself.
"I didn't expect the first hook to bring in a big catch, hahaha."
Li Haochen saw a large squid hooked, struggling fiercely and retreating. It had sprayed ink several meters away, but it couldn't escape the hook.
Seeing that it had stopped spraying ink, Li Haochen lifted the squid. As soon as he touched it, "Pfft~~" the squid sprayed twice more, directly at Li Haochen's face. The scene was as one might imagine; his entire face was covered in black ink, making him look like Bao Gong. Fortunately, he was wearing a raincoat, or his entire body would have been covered.
"Pah, pah, pah, you damned cuttlefish, I'll roast you and eat you."
Li Haochen cursed as he wiped his black face. With the help of the rain, it was quickly cleaned. He unhooked the squid, weighed it, and estimated it was at least seven or eight pounds. He threw it into the livewell with satisfaction.
This squid, scientifically known as Sepiida, is also called cuttlefish, bobtail squid, or inkfish. When encountering a strong enemy, it sprays ink as a means of escape and to seize an opportunity to leave, hence the names. They are not expensive, only costing around 40.
These creatures grow without apparent limit. The largest known body length is 17.03 meters, weighing close to 1000 kilograms. As for whether there are even larger or longer ones, no one can say for sure. The ocean is vast, and humanity has only explored a tiny fraction of it.
After the large squid, the next few hooks were empty. By the time he reached the seventh hook, he felt a distinct heaviness below and a very strong struggle.
Ten seconds later, a golden-yellow ribbon with black spots began to sway and roll from side to side. Li Haochen's eyes widened, and he exclaimed in surprise, "Holy cow, a golden leopard print!"
Overwhelmed by the immense surprise, Li Haochen was incredibly excited. This leopard print was huge, about seventy to eighty centimeters long, weighing at least twenty pounds. He dared not pull it up directly. He picked up a landing net from the side, scooped it up, and then dared to lift it. As soon as it left the water, the leopard print's body swayed even more violently, like a ribbon in gymnastics.
Li Haochen dared not unhook it. If it took a bite, a chunk of flesh would be gone. He had to use scissors to cut the line a few centimeters above the hook. He didn't dare throw it directly into the livewell either; he tied the net securely before throwing it in.
Having caught something so good on only the seventh hook, Li Haochen's expectations for the rest of the haul soared. He felt invigorated, and even the heavy longline felt lighter.
Every few hooks, he caught a fish. It wasn't bad. He had caught seven or eight more large, decent fish. The last hook even yielded a large red seabream, weighing around twenty pounds, which made Li Haochen extremely happy.
This round of longlining had brought in over a dozen large catches, and the livewell was already quite crowded. Li Haochen estimated the value of the livewell to be at least 20,000. With the spiny lobsters in the spatial reservoir, it should be around 30,000. This was only a day and a half, an incredibly terrifying haul.
After baiting and throwing the fish traps back into the water, he returned to the cabin. The wind and waves had subsided considerably, but it was still raining lightly, so he decided to rest.
After taking a shower, he began preparing dinner. He had eaten too much seafood for the past two meals; even Dou Dou had caught two. This meal, he decided, would be something lighter.
He spent a good while searching the livewell before finding a golden drum fish weighing just over a pound. The others were too large for him to eat alone.
Dinner consisted of two simple dishes: steamed golden drum fish with soy sauce, and a seaweed and bitter gourd lean pork soup. Although it was a bit light, the taste was still excellent, especially the soy sauce from the steamed fish drizzled over the rice. Ten minutes later, all the food was gone.
He cleaned the dishes by 7 PM. It was still raining outside, so fishing was impossible. He had no choice but to hide in the cabin and read a novel to pass the time.
Although the novel was exciting, after reading for over an hour, Li Haochen couldn't bear it any longer. His eyes felt blurry from overuse, and his head felt groggy.
He turned off his phone, walked to the captain's seat, and turned on the radio, hoping to find someone to chat with and relieve his boredom. However, there wasn't a soul to be heard, only static. It made sense; the competition was over, and most people from out of town had already returned. Although there were still many local boats, it was difficult to encounter anyone in the vast sea when fishing in the outer waters.
"Sigh~ The loneliness is unbearable."
Li Haochen looked at the time on his phone, feeling like time was moving particularly slowly. The idleness was hard to endure. He wanted to fish at night or set up a seine net, but it was still raining.
"It seems I need to bring books on the boat next time. At least I can review them when I can't fish."
Li Haochen paced back and forth in the cabin as if he had gone mad, looking out the window every few steps, repeating the action countless times. Finally, around 10 PM, the rain stopped, which made Li Haochen as happy as a child. He hadn't even been this happy when he caught the golden leopard print.
He checked the fish finder. Although the red dots had significantly decreased, there were still quite a few. However, Li Haochen had no intention of fishing. It was just right to set up a seine net at night to catch some fish. He wouldn't dare do it during the day; what if someone saw him?
Li Haochen's two seine nets were custom-made and could be adjusted for depth, with a maximum setting of 5 meters.
He set a maximum depth on both sides, filled the bait boxes with mussel meat, and cast them out. He also turned on the fish attractant lights on both sides. All that was left was to wait for the harvest.
The seawater was still quite murky, making it impossible to judge the situation from the surface. He could only wait.
Ten minutes later, Li Haochen pressed the winch and slowly retrieved the seine net. However, he wasn't idle; every few seconds, he threw mussel meat into the center of the net. A minute later, the seine net was fully hauled up. It was packed tightly. All the fish were thrashing, trying to escape, but the walls of the net were too high for them to get away.
"Dropping it deeper really makes a difference."
Li Haochen smiled as he looked at the heavy catch in the seine net. He scooped out several large bags before finishing. After changing the bait and casting it back, he began to sort through the catch.
Although the net yielded about thirty pounds of fish, there were no large ones. They were mostly mullet and small reef fish. Li Haochen picked out the small juvenile fish and brought the rest into the spatial ocean.