"This darn weather can change as it pleases."
The rain grew heavier, and the wind whipped up the waves. Though the fish finder showed plenty of fish below, he dared not go out. He wouldn't even dare to set down the crab traps. In this kind of wind and waves, the ropes could easily snap.
Unable to fish or set crab traps, Li Haochen had no choice but to hide in his bunk and rest. The wind wasn't particularly strong, only a force six. If there had been a typhoon, he would have received a satellite phone call. This wind strength was no problem for the Starry Sky.
"Alas, with no internet, drifting at sea is truly a difficult way to pass the time."
Li Haochen lay on his bunk, staring at the cabin ceiling. Before long, he had fallen asleep.
When he awoke, he felt the rocking of the boat had lessened considerably. He walked out to see, and sure enough, the rain had stopped. The seawater had turned murky, and the sky was still obscured by clouds. It looked like it would rain again.
Li Haochen returned to the cabin and checked the fish finder. The display screen was nearly blank. He had no choice but to start the engine and change location.
Before starting the engine, Li Haochen shucked a lot of mussel meat, rigged the longline with bait, and tossed several mussels into the bait boxes of the crab traps. Then, he raised the anchor and started the engine. The speed was not fast, only three knots.
As he sailed, he observed the fish finder. After a few minutes, the fish finder's screen began to show red dots, though not many. Half an hour later, many red dots suddenly appeared at a depth of fifty meters. Although the red dots were small, Li Haochen was very satisfied. He quickly checked his surroundings, confirmed it was safe, and went out.
First, he set the crab traps, then the longline. All were tied securely with long nylon ropes to the ship's side.
After mooring the boat, Li Haochen, based on the fish finder's feedback, switched back to the original low-tension electric reel. He installed four fishing rods, checked the power supply, and when everything was fine, he set a deep depth and began lowering the mussels as bait.
After finishing with the four fishing rods, Li Haochen walked into the kitchen, took an apple from the refrigerator, and went out munching on it. As soon as he came out, the four bells were already ringing their pleasant tune of money.
Li Haochen wolfed down the apple, finishing it in haste. He tossed the core into the sea to feed the fish. He walked up, picked up the landing net, and pressed the button.
Judging by the changes in the fishing line and the rod tip, the fish shouldn't be too big, perhaps one to two pounds. After thirty to forty seconds, a fish about twenty centimeters long, with a bright red body and unusually large eyes, was pulled out of the water.
"Big-eye bream? Heh, not bad. I haven't eaten this fish in a long time. Didn't expect to catch one. I can pan-fry a couple tonight."
The big-eye bream, scientifically known as *Priacanthus macracanthus*, is also called big-eye fish or red-eyed fish in the Chaoshan region. Its entire body is red, and it comes in both long-tailed and short-tailed varieties. Most live at depths of several hundred meters where light is weak, so their eyes are not very large. However, some living below two thousand meters are entirely different. There is no light there at all, so even large eyes are useless. Thus, the big-eye bream living near two thousand meters have very small eyes, or even atrophied ones.
The scales are fine and the skin is tough. When eating this fish, the skin is usually removed. Cooking methods vary by region. The Chaoshan region prefers chilled preparations, while Hong Kong favors pan-frying or braising. Some places like to use it for congee.
The flesh of the big-eye bream is firm and very sweet, though the price is not high, generally around 30 to 45 yuan in the market. The biggest factor affecting its price is freezing. Because this fish lives in deeper waters, when caught, the pressure difference usually causes its stomach to protrude. It dies quickly. Therefore, this fish is caught by large vessels and then flash-frozen and preserved for a longer period, making it very popular with large ships.
While the fish was still fresh, Li Haochen quickly rushed into the cabin with the fish and tossed it into his spatial sea.
After baiting and lowering another line, he went to handle another fishing rod, and so on. The four fish from the previous round were all big-eye bream. Li Haochen did not keep them, throwing them all into his spatial sea.
With the species in his spatial domain increasing, in another ten to twenty years, Li Haochen would be able to live a life of leisure. Even thousands of Forbes billionaires combined probably wouldn't be able to smell Li Haochen's exhaust.
Although it wasn't the same as the time he caught *chunzǐ* and his hands went numb from reeling, catching a big-eye bream every minute or two made Li Haochen very satisfied. Moreover, he constantly monitored the changes on the fish finder. After more than an hour, it was still full of red dots, so he did not change location.
Li Haochen continued fishing until dusk before stopping. It wasn't that there were no more fish to catch; the fish finder still showed many. But after several hours, he was a bit tired, and his stomach was growling with hunger.
The catch was quite gratifying, all uniformly big-eye bream, weighing about sixty pounds. Most were around a pound each, with a few weighing two or three pounds. This fish can also weigh ten to twenty pounds, but those are mostly from the deep sea. Four or five-pounders from shallow waters are already very rare.
Li Haochen carried four big-eye bream into the kitchen. He first removed the gills and internal organs. Skinning the fish requires a certain technique. First, cut along the dorsal fin, then cut close to the head down to the belly.
Peeling the fish skin is quite skillful. Gently tear it from the tip of the dorsal fin, paying attention to speed and force. Do not go too fast, or you will tear off the meat near the belly.
After half an hour, the white congee was ready. He added some ginger slices, put in two big-eye bream to simmer for a few minutes, turned off the power, and let it steam for a few minutes.
He heated a frying pan, poured in an appropriate amount of peanut oil, and felt the temperature with his hand inside the pan. He then added garlic and ginger slices to stir-fry until fragrant. Slowly, he placed the fish in the pan, flipping it every ten seconds or so, repeating the process three times. Then, he poured in an appropriate amount of water, covered the pan, and braised it for two minutes. Finally, he added cilantro, and the dish was rich in fresh aroma.
Although the dinner wasn't filling, the taste experience was first-class. He finished the entire large rice cooker of fish congee.
After eating and washing the dishes, Li Haochen went to the deck and sat on the lounge chair to rest. After the rain, the weather was quite cool, neither hot nor cold, which was most comfortable.
Despite the pleasant temperature, there was a lack of warmth. Apart from the light from the boat, the starry sky was completely covered by thick clouds.
Before long, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky. He put away the lounge chair, put on his raincoat, and began to retrieve the crab traps.
The waves were not small, making the retrieval more difficult. Furthermore, the water depth here was over a hundred meters. After pulling for a good part of the day, the first trap had not yet appeared.
"Next time I need to install an electric winch. My hands are exhausted."
Two minutes later, the first crab trap finally emerged from the water. Two lively red groupers made Li Haochen exclaim with joy. "Hahaha, this is great! With more fishing methods, the harvest truly increases."
The next two crab traps also yielded good results, all being green groupers. The offshore resources are indeed abundant, and the fish are not small. The seven groupers caught in the three crab traps were all four to five pounds.
The crab pots also performed well, with three blue crabs weighing over a pound each, five red crabs, and one spiny lobster weighing over three pounds, as well as some deep-sea conchs. The eel traps, however, came up empty.
Li Haochen was extremely satisfied with such a harvest from the crab traps over several hours. This single haul alone was worth at least four to five thousand yuan.