Chapter 25

What is Hong Tao going to do during this period? He doesn't plan to continue using the traps to catch fish, as the fish caught cannot be kept alive for long and will spoil if they die. So, he intends to try out the rolling hooks and crab pots first. Crabs are easier to keep alive, as they can survive for over ten days without food or water. If he really catches a big fish, Hong Tao can make another trip to Zhenzhou to deliver the big fish to Chen Ming'en, without affecting the sales.

To venture into the open sea, one first needs a sail, which is already available. By the afternoon, the third new sail will be completed. With two small wooden boats equipped with new sails, the safety issue is basically resolved. Supplies also need to be prepared. To catch big fish, one must go into the open sea, and a round trip plus fishing time will take at least four to five days. Therefore, food and drink, especially fresh water, must be adequately prepared.

The most critical issue is not the boats or supplies, but the weather! If one cannot predict weather changes, even the best sails, the best boats, and the most supplies will not help; the further one goes, the faster one will die. In the event of a typhoon, even modern high-tech sailboats would struggle, let alone these old wooden boats.

Hong Tao cannot predict the weather based on experience. Each sea area has its own weather patterns. Through the changes in the sun, stars, moon, and tides, Hong Tao can roughly predict the weather for the next day, but not beyond two days. However, Bo Xiaoer and Bo Xiaosan can. They have been going to sea with their father since they were teenagers and have at least two trips to the open sea each year to catch fish during the fishing season. How to judge the weather is a skill passed down from generation to generation. If they couldn't do this, the Tanka people would not survive, and the mortality rate would be even higher.

"These few days will not have any heavy rain or strong winds, but are you really going to venture into the open sea?" Bo Xiaoer received Hong Tao's order, stood at the bow of the boat for a long time, and climbed a nearby small hill to observe until the afternoon before giving Hong Tao a definite answer. However, he was a bit hesitant about Hong Tao's plan to go into the open sea, mainly because he hadn't gotten his grandfather's approval and was a bit afraid.

"But..." Bo Xiaoer, a man in his thirties, was a bit confused by Hong Tao's words, feeling something was off but unable to pinpoint what.

"Didn't Uncle Fu say to follow my lead in everything?" Hong Tao was playing a bit of a word game. Bo Fu's words clearly did not include going into the open sea, but he didn't say not to go.

"But..." Bo Xiaoer was a bit at a loss, feeling something was wrong but unable to explain it.

"Brother, you can't just think about your boat. Brother Three already has a child, but he still has to share a boat with Grandfather. Aren't you worried? We're not going too far, just a half-day's journey, then we'll set the hooks and traps. If the harvest is good, we can go more often, and Brother Three can have his own new boat sooner. And Qi Hong is about to get married. We can't let him share a cabin with me and Grandfather, can we?" Hong Tao changed his approach, starting to use the things these men were most anxious about.

"Brother, a half-day's journey is nothing. We have Huang Lang and Huang Tao too. With so many of us, we can't fail to return," Bo Xiaosan, hearing about the boats, was no longer calm and began to support Hong Tao.

"Right, Brother, let's give it a try! Huang Tao and I will go up the mountain to cut bamboo tubes and prepare more water. We'll set out tomorrow!" Chen Qihong, who was even more eager for a new boat, was getting married with Huang Sha in the New Year. If they could have their own new boat, it would be great.

Bo Xiaoer was a straightforward person. Encouraged by his younger brothers and Hong Tao's persuasive words, he no longer insisted. In fact, he also wanted to go into the open sea to catch big fish and earn more money. Not just for the new boats for his brothers, but his eldest son, Bo Jiao, was almost 12 years old and would need a boat for his future wife in a few years. Without taking risks, where would the big fish come from?

Thus, everyone got busy. Those who needed to prepare bamboo tubes went up the mountain with machetes, those who needed to use shell powder and tung oil to plug leaks in the boats went to the beach, and those who needed to clean the fishing gear busily soaked the crab traps in seawater to remove the odor. Hong Tao also had work to do; he took Bo Jiao and a few children to the beach to tie fish hooks.

These fish hooks were even worse than Hong Tao had imagined. They didn't look like fish hooks at all. If he saw them in the future, he wouldn't even think of using them for fishing. They looked more like the hooks on a balance scale. The hooks were as thick as a thumb, black and rough, and each one weighed about half a kilogram. There was an iron ring on the hook handle for threading the line, and the hook tip was quite sharp. Hong Tao tried it on a piece of wood; it went in and came out, but the tip dulled quickly, indicating poor quality steel. However, the barbs on the hook tip were finely made, with two barbs, one up and one down. Having them was better than nothing. Catching sea fish was easier than catching freshwater fish; as long as the hooks were strong, the aggressive sea fish would bite anything that looked edible, and they would likely still be caught even without the hook tip.

What Hong Tao needed to do now was to tie these 20 large fish hooks to the lines made of three-strand hemp rope, and then tie these lines, each over a meter long, to the thick main rope, ensuring each joint was secure. Each main rope would have ten large fish hooks, and four floats made of bundled bamboo tubes would be tied to the main rope. This was not an easy task. The rough hemp rope became very abrasive when wet, and it quickly made Hong Tao's hands, which were as delicate as a native woman's, sore. Everyone agreed that Hong Tao's hands were unusually delicate, and Bo Fu had always been puzzled by how a man who claimed to be skilled in fishing could have such hands.

After finally tying the hooks, Hong Tao still had to go to the reef to sharpen the three grappling hooks. These were designed by Hong Tao and made by a blacksmith in Yacheng Town at Chen Ming'en's request. They resembled ancient halberds, with a four-sided pyramid tip with barbs, about a foot long, and a backward hook extending from the back. The tip was attached to a two-meter-long wooden pole through a metal sleeve, and the holes in the sleeve and the pole were aligned and tightly wrapped with fine hemp rope. A long hemp rope, about thirty meters, was attached to the back of the pole, and the end of the rope was fixed to a bundle of bamboo tubes.

This was Hong Tao's design for a fish spear. It could be used as a grappling hook in normal times. When encountering a large sea fish, it could be pulled into the fish, and the backward hook would catch the fish, preventing it from injuring people when it struggled. If a particularly large fish was encountered, it could be used as a spear, with the barbed tip inserted into the fish's body and then released, allowing the fish to drag the rope and the float. When the fish exhausted itself, it would float to the surface, and the float would help locate the fish.