A teenager casting a net behind his back

I have always kept in my mind the image of a 14-year-old boy, walking briskly on a field path with a net on his back and a fish basket around his waist.

The destination is a lake beach and puddle a few kilometers away. There seems to be countless fish in the water there waiting for teenagers to cast nets to catch them. Teenagers are confident and stubborn, and there is no cowardice in their eyes, but there is a kind of fortitude.

Of course, this is just my imagination. I have never seen him walk, but the fishing experience is true.

That boy is my second brother, Wu Shuang.

By the end of that year, my second brother had graduated from primary school. Just in time, it is the adjustment of the national semester plan. From the first month's adjustment to the autumn, the primary school graduated smoothly in the fifth grade and half a year.

In those years, according to the regulations, I went to grade one at the age of nine, and my second brother was fourteen when he graduated.

A very sensible teenager. That year, his sister went to junior high school and her academic performance was not bad. Knowing that the family's financial situation is not enough to support two children to go to school, the teenager resolutely told his uncle that he would not go to school and could help his family at home.

My second brother, who didn't go to school, went home and made a member of the production team with my second uncle.

Almost every family in the polder area has a net made of nylon thread. At ordinary times, my second brother practices casting nets in the field at home. Under the guidance of my second uncle, you will soon be full of confidence.

This is due to my second brother's good health. I only remember that he was tall and strong. In those years when I was in my twenties, I stood with a horse stance just look, split bricks with my bare hands and beat tree trunks every morning, which I have seen from a distance and admired.

In winter, the production team has no work to do. Leisure members invited them to go fishing in the lake beach, and the second uncle and the second brother went together.

It is said that the lake beach is five kilometers away from the lake, and there are potholes of different sizes near the dry bottom of the lake, which contain some fish more or less, depending on everyone's fishing skills.

You can't go back at noon. Bring some homemade burnt noodles (similar to rice noodles now) for dry food. When you are thirsty, you will drink the clear water by the lake.

The fish in the lake beach are not so easy to catch, and the people who go with them will be busy all day and return empty-handed with a full face of disappointment.

Two uncles and two brothers cast nets, and there will always be different gains. The fish they caught will be sold on the street the next day in exchange for some pocket money. If the amount is small, it can be preserved and dried.

Casting a net is a fishing tool. People can stand on the shore or in the water, pay attention to the range of fish activities at any time, and throw out their fishing nets. Whether you can catch fish depends on your luck.

The thrown fishing net is like an open umbrella cover. The top of the umbrella cover is a thick nylon rope, and the end is usually tied to the hand to prevent the forcibly thrown fishing net from slipping off the hand. The position of opening the net is always within the controllable range of the rope.

The second brother always boasts that he is as good as the adults in his field. Casting a net depends on vision and skill. A keen fisherman can see the subtle changes in the bottom of the water at a glance, but the accurate casting of the net can be large or small, testing your eyesight and skills.

The net made of nylon silk should be covered with pig blood sauce once a year, that is, the whole net should be soaked in pig blood, so that the pig blood can slowly soak the silk thread. It is said that the purpose of this is to make the network cable more rigid, or is there any other reason (? )。

The expanded net is round, and there is a thick line around the bottom. A tin ingot (called the foot of the net in my hometown) is wrapped around the thick thread not far away, in order to increase the weight of the net when it sinks and prevent the fish in the net from escaping in time.

Because the net feet will inevitably fall off in the process of repeated scattering, they need to be replenished in time.

When I was a child, I saw my uncle weaving a net at home many times.

Buy strips of tin ingots and burn them with charcoal. . . ) heating and melting, there is a simple mold for making net feet, and molten tin water is poured into it, and soon a net foot is solidified and formed.

When casting a net, you meet branches, stones and the like in the water. Sometimes the net is torn, and the broken net needs to be repaired in time.

There is a sharp flat tool with a hole in the middle called "net shuttle", which is specially used to repair fishing nets. It is made of bamboo. People who cast nets all the year round will use them. Just like sewing clothes, my uncle's hands are particularly dexterous at this time.

My family also has a net left by my father, but I can't lay a round net, so I plan to have time to study hard.

The teenagers in those days seemed to be coming towards me with mirth.

I also want to raise a glass to the teenagers and relive the past. It's an honor!

It's just that my second brother lived in Jiangnan for many years, and we haven't seen each other for a long time.