Surprise - Fishing Image source: Alpine snow
The fish I caught in the river in my hometown were basically small fish that were less than half a kilogram in length. One day I heard that someone had caught a few pounds of big fish in the three drops of water in Qingliang Village, Guanxian County (a place name on the Jinma River), and I was itchy in my heart, hoping that one day I could catch a big fish and make a fortune.
One morning, when the rain was pouring down and there was something going on at home, my mother asked me to call the third brother who worked on the farm to come home. Two of my mogan friends took their fishing rods and set off with me.
There is a pond behind the farm, about ten acres, west of the Yangma River, I went to school and passed there, and I often saw people fishing by the pond.
When the three of us arrived at the pond, we raised our rods and started fishing. This trip shouted the important thing for the third brother to go home, and wait for a while to catch fish.
The luck of the two little friends was good and soon there was a harvest. As soon as the fish hook was thrown down the pond, it was hung on the water grass, and the water grass on the side of the pond was abundant, and it took some trouble to break the fish hook out of the entanglement of the water grass.
Then re-bait under the hook, the fish mark sinks, hooks, the bait disappears, but there is no fish hooked, and then the bait is hooked, the fish mark sinks again, the hook is hooked, or no fish is hooked. I said to myself: Luck today is really bad!
The little friend suggested that I change the fishing spot, I ignored it, said that persistence is victory, and silently read in my heart, "Taigong Taigong, please bless me with good luck!" "Sure enough, good luck finally came, a usually difficult wheat line fish caught in the middle, and then caught a few small fish, I guess the fish under the water came."
The fish mark is a sink again, I gently pull the line, feel a little strength, is it a big fish? I didn't have the skills and experience to walk the fish, so I lifted the rod to the right, dragged out a carp, and threw it to the shore of the pond. Well, it's a big carp! As soon as the carp landed on the ground, it unhooked and bounced to the ground. I saw that the situation was not good, threw away the fishing rod, and grabbed the carp, and the carp jumped again, and I simply pounced on the carp, reached out, and grabbed it tightly under my chest.
Unexpected surprise (Chen Yujun painting)
The first time I caught a big fish, I was so happy that I called my partner to come and watch. One partner enviously said that carp had four or five pounds, and another partner said that there were at least two or three pounds, and I modestly said that there might be more than one pound. The estimation error of the three is too large, and finally they are ready to bet on resolving the dispute.
I did not take advantage of the chase, continued to fish, mentioned the carp to go home, happy, went home to report the brilliant results, show off, the first time Caught such a big fish. The important task given to me by my mother to call my third brother home had long been forgotten and thrown out of the cloud of nine clouds.
When I got home, my mother asked me if the big carp I was carrying was caught by the third brother, who had caught a fish larger than this carp before. Depressed, a little lost, only the third brother can catch big fish! When I mentioned the third brother, I remembered that the big thing was not good, so I had to confess honestly and tell my mother that I forgot to call the third brother home. My mother did not scold me, saying that the farm was just on holiday due to rain today, and the third brother had already returned home, and it turned out that the third brother had taken another road when he went home, and we staggered. My mother finally told me that I had to finish the main things before I could do other things. I deeply blamed myself in my heart, and I would like to remember this sentence of my mother from now on.
Two friends wanted to win my comic book, and asked me to take out the rod scale from home and verify the weight of the big carp. The three teenagers stared at the scale in a daze, the big carp was not enough for a pound, only nine or two more! None of us had the correct estimates, and my friends, like me, did not have the ability to estimate weight.
However, the nine-two carp was the heaviest fish in my fishing experience, it was the first big fish I caught as a teenager, and the joy of fishing has been engraved in my memory for a lifetime.
This article is excerpted from the 2021 edition of the academic journal Fishing Magazine
Text/Zhao Jiaming (Dujiangyan)