Era-Ch36

Chapter 36: Unexpectedly Encountering Valuable Catch in the River

“That’s really big!”

Lin Heng said happily. Both of these yellow eels were as thick as his thumbs and about 30 cm long. They were orange-yellow in color and very beautiful.

After taking a quick look, he extended both hands to catch them. After aiming, he swiftly pulled them out, and as soon as the yellow eel surfaced, it began to struggle violently.

Splash!

“Damn, the one in my left hand got away!” Lin Heng said regretfully as he watched the eel speed off into the middle of the field. He helplessly put the other one into the snake skin bag.

They were standing on the embankment of the rice field to catch the eels, without stepping into the field. Once they ran off, it was nearly impossible to catch them again.

“It’s okay, there are plenty more, and we still have many fields to check!” Lin Heng’s older brother, Lin Yue, laughed.

Lin Heng didn’t mind much. It’s normal to fail when catching yellow eels. They continued, and after catching five more eels in this field, they moved to the next one.

Not every rice field has yellow eels. Only fields with muddy, never-dried-out water are suitable. At the very least, the fields need to be damp.

Of course, they checked other fields along the way. If they didn’t check, they might miss something unexpected.

“Damn, there really is a yellow eel here! This must be a super big one from over a decade ago, right?” Lin Heng whispered in surprise.

At first, he thought it was a snake, but upon closer inspection, he confirmed it was a yellow eel.

“Really big, as thick as Xiao Xia’s fist. But it’s too far, half of it is still inside the hole. How do we catch it?” Lin Yue said, excited yet troubled.

“No worries, I came prepared.” Lin Heng took out the fishing hooks, fishing line, and bait (earthworms) he had already prepared at home.

He then found a stick, tied the line to it, and gently dropped the bait near the eel’s mouth.

“Lin Heng, can this work? If not, I’ll just get into the field and try myself.” Lin Yue doubted the eel would bite such an obvious hook.

Before he finished speaking, the big yellow eel suddenly snapped forward at lightning speed and swallowed both the worm and the hook.

Lin Heng was quick and immediately pulled the eel out. A giant yellow eel, over 40 cm long, was lifted into the air.

“Damn, it really works!” Lin Yue exclaimed in shock. The yellow eel was surprisingly dumb.

“Of course, don’t think they’re too smart,” Lin Heng laughed, grabbing the eel, removing the hook, and tossing it into the bag.

He was still a little nervous as he tossed it in. This was a more than one-kilogram yellow eel. If it escaped, he wouldn’t sleep for three days.

In terms of carps, this would be like a big one weighing over ten kilograms.

This is the fun of catching yellow eels: the battle of wits and strength between you and the eel. It’s more exciting than playing video games.

The two of them continued searching in the same field for a while, but it seemed that there was only that one eel. They moved on to the next muddy field.

“This field has a lot, I saw two right as we arrived!”

Lin Yue got interested and reached out to grab one. Unfortunately, he missed, and it fell off the embankment. After some effort, he finally got it into the bag.

“Forget it, you do it,” Lin Yue laughed helplessly. It looked easy but required quite a bit of skill.

Lin Heng nodded without refusing.

Before acting, he moved carefully, and when he reached out, it was fast, accurate, and forceful. For yellow eels thicker than the index finger, the success rate of capture was almost 100%.

The thicker, the better. If they were thin and small, they were impossible to catch, and the failure rate was around 90%. Lin Heng simply gave up on them.

After catching the three eels from their muddy fields, Lin Yue weighed the bag and smiled:

“Big harvest today. We have at least eight or nine kilograms of yellow eels. The town buys them for 80 cents per kilogram, so we can sell them for about six or seven yuan.”

Yellow eels are quite nutritious, and some restaurants in Huangtan Town buy them to serve to leaders and wealthy people.

“There are still other fields, let’s go take a look.”

Lin Heng pointed to two more muddy fields on the other side of the river. Since yellow eels are wild, no one minds catching them. Plus, it helps prevent water leakage from their holes.

The most important part is that this was a unique skill that Lin Heng and his older brother had developed over time. Other people in the village didn’t know how to catch them.

It wasn’t that no one had noticed them catching yellow eels at night; some people tried to follow along and learn, but without the technique, they were unsuccessful. After running around without many results, they eventually gave up.

“Alright.” Lin Yue didn’t object. They weren’t stealing, so there was nothing to fear.

Lin Yue took the bag and led the way, kicking the grass now and then to avoid snakes hiding nearby.

When they reached the Shiban River, they walked along the riverbank. At night, the fish in the river came out, and the creek bass swam to the shallow waters to hunt.

However, Lin Heng wasn’t interested in catching them. They were too small, and catching them all night wouldn’t even amount to a kilogram. It was faster to use medicinal tree leaves to poison the fish during the day.

“Damn, it’s a good turtle!!”

Suddenly, Lin Yue shouted, startling Lin Heng.

When Lin Heng heard it was a turtle, he quickly ran over, but didn’t see anything. “Where’s the turtle, Brother?”

“The damn thing is too fast. As soon as it saw me, it darted to the deep water under the big stone.” Lin Yue pointed to a huge stone about three meters long in the middle of the pool.

“What a pity, I didn’t notice it. That turtle must weigh two or three kilograms. Just one of them is worth the same as over two hours of yellow eel hunting.”

Lin Yue regretted it deeply.

Lin Heng glanced at the stone. The water was over a meter deep, so it was impossible to catch the turtle now.

“Brother, I have an idea. Let’s try our luck, maybe we can catch it tomorrow.”

Suddenly, Lin Heng had an idea.

“What’s the plan?” Lin Yue turned and asked.

Lin Heng didn’t reply immediately. He went to the water, grabbed a creek bass, and cruelly pierced the hook through its tail.

“We’ll fish for it! This fish won’t be able to resist, but we’ll see if the hook holds. After all, this hook doesn’t have barbs.”

After securing the creek bass, Lin Heng placed it in the water, tying the cotton swab to the stick. The rest was up to fate. It all depended on luck.

“Guess that’s all we can do. We’ll check early tomorrow morning,” Lin Yue nodded, not expecting too much.

They went to the two other muddy fields across the river, and the hunt for yellow eels resumed.

The yellow eels in these fields weren’t very big. The first field yielded about two kilograms and ten eels.

By the second field, they were getting a little discouraged.

“Let’s go, let’s head home,” Lin Heng shook his head.

“I’ll give it a try!” Lin Yue, not willing to give up, let Lin Heng hold the snake skin bag while he reached out to catch one.

There were many yellow eels in this field, and they spotted several after walking just a few steps. But all of them were thinner than their little fingers and impossible to grab.

After chasing around a dozen, Lin Yue gave up and sighed, “Let’s go home. These little yellow eels are too hard to catch.”

“Of course. But we could try making a yellow eel trap. Catching them by hand is unrealistic,” Lin Heng smiled.

Actually, Lin Heng preferred the smaller yellow eels. The taste of the Panlong yellow eels was absolutely amazing. Just thinking about it made his mouth water, but unfortunately, the small ones were too hard to catch.

However, tonight’s harvest was still decent. They had about ten kilograms of yellow eels. From 8 PM to past 11 PM, it wasn’t a wasted trip.

As they neared home, Lin Heng noticed a flashlight shining in front of his house. Several people were gathered together. Did something happen?

“Let’s go take a look. Why are they still awake at this hour?”

Lin Yue was also worried. If they were still awake at this late hour, something must have happened.

(End of Chapter)