As a Fisherman, My Fish Can Level Up

Chapter 50: 50 Song Diao Side Stove

The sea bream’s body was like it had been smeared with oil, all pitch black, with a length of about seventy centimeters.

The body length of the sea bream wasn’t as slender as that of the sea bass, so this particular sea bream made quite the impression, like a small door plank.

“What a huge ironing lady, it’s a pity this fish isn’t priced very high.” Zhao Jun was both surprised and regretful when he saw the fish, “This ironing lady only costs fifteen yuan per jin, the price could be slightly higher during the fishing ban period, but it won’t get much higher than that.”

The fish referred to as ironing lady are actually quite numerous, but those that resemble sea bream generally refer to Song Diao.

Chu Mingcheng didn’t care at all whether the Song Diao was expensive or not, what interested him more was knocking on the fish scales, which emitted a “pop pop pop” sound, indicating just how hard the scales were.

“Interesting, I haven’t had this fish before, Brother Zhao Jun, let’s have this one tonight!”

Zhao Jun was taken aback, “This fish must weigh at least twelve or thirteen jin, even with your friend coming, can you really eat all of it?”

The same length of sea bass probably weighs around seven or eight jin, but the Song Diao, like a door plank, has a broad and thick back, so it’s not surprising it’s four or five jin heavier than the sea bass.

“We can eat it, we don’t need to fuss tonight, we’ll just have hot pot. It’s best if it’s enough, if not, we’ll add some glass noodles.”

Previously Chu Mingcheng still intended to cook seafood porridge in the evening, but after catching the Song Diao, he immediately changed his mind.

Cheap as the Song Diao may be, its flesh is actually delicious. Moreover, this one is a live fish, not frozen or cold-stored, so the taste is definitely fresher and sweeter.

Zhao Jun saw his insistence and naturally had no objections; after all, it was his catch, he could deal with it however he wanted.

With Chu Mingcheng’s hands-on teaching, Zhao Jun learned how to deal with stab fish, and afterwards, he hardly lost any bait from his hook.

And with the reminder, he also started catching large fish in the middle layer.

From two o’clock in the afternoon until five thirty in the evening, he caught a total of five sea bass, the smallest weighing about a jin and a half, the largest four jin.

He also caught three black sea bream, each weighing over two jin.

The most abundant catch was stone fish, which could be found almost everywhere, it’s a pity that they were generally only two to three taels each, same price as the sea bass.

Even so, a harvest of around seven to eight hundred yuan in a little over three hours made Zhao Jun very satisfied.

But now this was extra income, and they could continue fishing in the evening. Along with the boat fee, he might not make this amount in a day of net fishing.

Naturally, Chu Mingcheng caught even more than him, eleven sea bass, apart from the first one that was a bit smaller, the rest were all over three jin, with the largest being seven jin.

And the other types of fish, besides black sea bream and stone fish, he also caught two relatively rare stone bream, each weighing three jin.

One jin of this fish could sell for over one hundred and fifty yuan, catching them around Yanmen Island really was a matter of good fortune, indeed the bridge columns are treasure fishing spots.

After fishing all afternoon, Chu Mingcheng’s wrist also felt a bit sore.

Looking at the time, he guessed Zhang Wei and Chen Yang would arrive in another twenty or thirty minutes, so he put away his fishing rod, ready to prepare the fish for dinner.

He first made a call to Zhang Wei to find out when they would arrive, and upon learning they were on their way, he instructed them to buy some small green peppers and other ingredients, as they couldn’t do without dipping sauces for the hot pot that evening.

After making the call, he then said to Zhao Jun, “Brother Zhao Jun, can you take the boat to the dock? My friends will be arriving soon. I’ll get the fish ready first, we’ll eat and rest a bit, and then continue in the evening.”

“Alright.” Zhao Jun nodded, also packing up his fishing rod, then untied the rope from the bridge column and headed back.

Of course, the bridge column they were at now was not the same one they started from.

In the afternoon, they had moved three times in total, basically shifting locations whenever there was no more activity in the water, planning to fish under the bridge columns at the bottom of the big bridge in the evening.

With the bridge being so long, there were many columns underneath, and certainly plenty of fish.

Chu Mingcheng pulled the Song Diao out of his tackle box, which had quite a few ice cubes in it, as he had intended to use them for some of the fish that couldn’t be kept alive.

It turned out he could keep the caught fish temporarily in the fish hold of the boat, so he tied the tails of his fish with green nylon ropes, and Zhao Jun used red nylon ropes so that they wouldn’t get mixed up.

The Song Diao that was meant for dinner was iced in Chu Mingcheng’s tackle box so that it would be “asleep,” making it easier to handle when it was time to eat it later.

After tapping the Song Diao with his finger again, he thought about it and decided to pick up the manual scaler, guessing that the electric one probably couldn’t handle the scales of this fish.

Sure enough, as soon as he got to work, the hard scales not only flew everywhere but were also particularly tough to scrape off.

After dealing with one fish, Chu Mingcheng’s arm was sore, which felt more strenuous than catching a fifty-pound sea bass.

Fortunately, once the scales were off, the rest was easy; he used scissors to open up the belly.

Inside the fish’s innards, plenty of white fat could be seen, indicating that the fish was well-fed. Additionally, its stomach was bulging and emitted a foul smell.

Chu Mingcheng, disgusted, held his breath as he cleaned out the Song Diao’s guts and set them aside to be thrown back into the sea later that night as bait to attract other fish.

He rinsed the fish clean of blood with the purified water he brought along, and then picked up the knife Zhao Jun had given him to chop off the fish’s head.

Perhaps due to the frequency of fish preparation in his household, the knife he brought was very sharp; Chu Mingcheng easily severed the head and chopped through the bones with a little effort.

This knife was so useful, it didn’t look like a kitchen knife, but more like a dagger specifically designed for cutting sashimi.

Chu Mingcheng immediately took a liking to it.

“Brother Zhao Jun, where did you buy this knife, and how much was it? I want to get one too.”

“I bought this knife from a friend, it’s quite expensive, cost six hundred.”

“Then Brother Zhao Jun, can you help me buy one too? I’ll give you the money.”

“Sure, I’ll ask my friend to sharpen it for you as well, just as he did mine. It’s been a year, and it’s still as good as new.”

After sealing the deal on the fish knife, Chu Mingcheng continued to slice off the fish fillets from both sides.

The cuts were very clean, without any bits of meat being mashed.

If it were the knife from his own home, it would definitely have left mangled bits of flesh, which made him like this knife even more.

He chopped the bones into small pieces and cut off the belly part, throwing it into the pot along with the fish head.

He added some green onions and ginger and started to simmer the soup.

For hotpot, the base is usually chicken soup, but they didn’t have that luxury now; making do with fish heads and bones was just as good and even more authentic in taste.

He then sliced the remaining fish into individual pieces and arranged them on a plate, just as Zhang Wei and his group arrived at the dock, he had finished slicing.

Zhang Wei brought a big bag of things with him and went up to the boat with Chen Yang. Seeing the fish fillets fully arranged on the plate, he raised his eyebrows and said, “Wow, what fish is this? I didn’t even see you processing it.”

“It’s a Song Diao, over ten pounds, the biggest fish I caught this afternoon. You guys are in luck,” said Chu Mingcheng, who had recorded the entire process and even taken photos. As soon as the two men came over, he immediately showed off the pictures with pride.

After looking at the photo, Zhang Wei voiced his surprise, “Wow, we have such big fish here?”

Zhao Jun laughed and said, “Certainly, there are. Remember the meter-long cod you guys encountered when you chartered the boat before? Last time when the mackerel school came to the dock, Ah Cheng also caught a thirteen-pound green spot. And plenty of people onshore have caught big fish too, so it’s not unusual.”

When he used nets, he occasionally caught large fish too, just not as visibly and frequently as with fishing. The seafood mainly caught with nets were Changyu, swimming crabs, and small yellow croakers.@@novelbin@@