Will it work? Brian Carter dares to guarantee that this is 100% effective. This isn’t his own invention, but rather the essence distilled by generations of Chinese working people. Whether it’s freshwater or seawater, it works everywhere! If you want to catch big fish, just make the mesh larger; if you want to catch small fish, make the mesh smaller—very flexible. The main thing is that this fishing method doesn’t require much effort or time. Just throw the fish trap in, go about your business, and come back to collect it when the time comes.

If the level of productivity is high enough and you have machines to help, you can even improve this fish trap and turn it into a large-scale trap called a “maze trap.” That thing is really powerful. For mid-to-large fish, once they go in, they can’t get out. A single maze trap can catch tens of thousands of jin of fish at a time. In later generations, many waters don’t allow this kind of thing because it’s just too destructive.

The second method is the crab trap. Brian Carter asked Paul Foster and the others how they catch crabs, and their answer left Brian Carter speechless—they dive down and catch them by hand! That’s so much work. Even if you spot a crab, if it darts into a crevice in the rocks, you still can’t catch it. Brian Carter’s method is very simple, just like making a fish trap, except you don’t use fishing net anymore. Instead, weave a bamboo cage about the size of a fruit basket, leave a round hole at one end, then tie a funnel made of fishing net to it, and attach a weight. That’s it. When using it, hang a small pile of fish or other meat inside the bamboo cage, tie each crab trap with a rope, and toss as many as you want into the sea while rowing the boat. After half a day or a day, just row back and haul them up.

If there are a lot of crabs in this sea area, there will be one or two in each trap. Not only crabs, but also octopuses, lobsters, mantis shrimp, moray eels, and some bottom-dwelling fish might crawl in to eat the meat, only to find themselves trapped with no way out.

The third method is specifically for big fish, called the “rolling hook”! What’s a rolling hook? Basically, it’s a thick rope with a thin rope about a meter long tied every one or two meters, and at the end of each thin rope is a palm-sized iron hook with a small fish as bait. At the same time, tie a float to the thick rope every few meters, then row the boat to the area where big fish often appear and set it out. The longer the rope, the more hooks you can tie. After setting it, don’t leave—row the boat a hundred meters or so away and keep watch.

Once you see a float being dragged away, hurry over and follow it. If the fish is too big, let it drag dozens of floats around for a while. Once it’s tired, use a gaff or a spear gun to bring it in. If the fish isn’t that big, you can just haul it onto the boat directly.

Chapter 8 William Baker Stares at the Mung Bean

Someone might ask: the iron hooks in the Song Dynasty weren’t that strong, and the ropes weren’t that sturdy. Wouldn’t big fish break free and escape? The answer is no! Because this rolling hook relies on a bunch of floats to stay on the surface. After a fish bites, it can’t get enough leverage to break the rope or the hook. When it struggles, the whole rolling hook and floats move with it, and sometimes the other hooks might even snag onto it as well, eventually tangling it to death. So, these hooks have to be big, meant specifically for fish weighing over a hundred jin or even several hundred jin. If they’re too small, you’ll just get small fish biting, and you’ll be too busy unhooking them to do anything else. Before the fish is exhausted, you’ll be exhausted first.

There are methods now, but Paul Foster and Ethan Brooks’s families still need to agree, and now it should be three families. At dawn, three more wooden boats of about the same size came over. These boats are called “linked boats” by the Tanka people and are generally not used for long voyages, just as houses to live in. The three boats that came this time all belonged to one family. The head of the family was an old man about the same age as Paul Foster, surnamed Henry, given name Harry, who was Paul Foster’s brother-in-law. With him were his eldest son Henry Lane, second son Henry Carter, and youngest daughter Henry Shaw, who is also Ethan Brooks’s future daughter-in-law. These three families are all closely related.

“This method is pretty much the same as the bamboo trap for catching cuttlefish. Kids who’ve read books sure are clever. Our family can give it a try. At worst, it’s just a few fishing nets!” Henry Hayes is a bit more talkative than Paul Foster, and his Mandarin is much more fluent. After hearing Brian Carter’s method, he was the first to voice his support.

“Let’s have the Li family on the mountain weave the bamboo cages for us, and we’ll trade them fish!” Ever since Brian Carter arrived, Paul Grant’s big eyes have been watching Brian Carter all the time, whether there’s a reason or not. She probably isn’t supporting the method so much as she’s supporting Brian Carter himself.

“Let’s not rush. Let’s make one fish trap and try it out first. If it works well, then we can find someone to weave the bamboo cages. That way, we won’t waste anything.” Although Brian Carter is confident in all three methods, he has nothing but the clothes on his back. It’s still up to Paul Foster, Henry Hayes, and Ethan Brooks’s families to provide the money and materials, so he doesn’t want to go too big all at once. If something goes wrong, a single fish trap doesn’t cost much, but making a bunch of bamboo cages, especially on credit, would be quite a burden for these poor Tanka families.

“涛 kid is right, let’s not rush. This isn’t Australia—each place has its own way of life. His method might not necessarily work. Let’s test it first to be safe.” Ethan Brooks agreed with Brian Carter’s suggestion. Now that Brian Carter is his godson, if anything happens, he’ll have to take responsibility too.

“Our family will provide a net!” Henry Hayes was straightforward and ready to act.