CHAPTER 867: CHAPTER 358: CAPTURING SALMON_3

"Oh no!"

A salmon darted up the waterfall, bumped against Yue’er’s leg clad in water boots, and fell back down again, startling her and prompting an "Oh no" from her.

"What a sin, not sure if that salmon can swim up again."

"Who knows."

There were quite a few salmon down below, occasionally attempting to leap up the waterfall. If they successfully made it past without being intercepted by other hunters, they would continue forward.

Those that failed to make it up the waterfall would fall back, rest a while and try again, or deem it impossible to continue, laying their roe in the waters below and then waiting at the edge for death.

There could be so many waterfalls ahead waiting for the salmon, yet they continued headlong forward.

After realizing they couldn’t catch the salmon with bare hands as they rushed up, they had to cup their hands together and fashion them into a net-like shape.

When a salmon once again broke through the water surface, attempting to cross their blockade, Lin Yang seized the opportunity and captured the salmon with a net scoop.

The salmon captured was a bulging female, evidently her belly was packed with roe.

But after catching the salmon, Lin Yang was at a loss, unsure where to start.

"Try squeezing to see if you can extract them."

He considered and spoke.

He had no experience in roe extraction, nor had he read related materials.

But it wasn’t hard to guess the methods for extracting roe: either gutting the fish and removing the roe directly, or keeping the fish intact while finding a way to retrieve the roe.

This method, as imagined by Lin Yang, would either involve direct squeezing or using some special tools to scoop the roe out from the fish’s oviposition vent.

Both methods had their pros and cons. Gutting the fish was straightforward and quick, saving time, but the downside was that a gutted fish was destined for death.

Conversely, not gutting the fish had the advantage of preserving the fish’s life, though the process was likely cumbersome and time-consuming.

Lin Yang estimated that with sturgeon roe, they shouldn’t be extracted by gutting, considering the high price of sturgeon roe, the value of the sturgeon that produces them is also considerable.

Directly killing a sturgeon to extract roe all at once versus preserving the sturgeon to extract the roe — as a businessman, one ought to weigh the pros and cons.

As for salmon, perhaps gutting was more probable, given their abundance; it wasn’t worth the extra time to slowly extract the roe.

Lin Yang contemplated not gutting the salmon and instead first trying to squeeze its belly to see if he could extract the roe; if unsuccessful, he’d find another way.

They were just trying for a taste. With the size of this salmon, they didn’t need to extract all of its roe to be satisfied.

If lucky, after removing some roe, it might still return to the river and continue toward the spawning grounds.

While speaking, he had already brought out a bowl-like object.

The salmon at this time, perhaps nearing its production phase, was particularly irritable and powerful, attempting to control it physically might invite minor injuries.

It was likely also aware of the looming threat to the roe in its belly, persistently trying to resist.

Yet under Lin Yang’s large hand’s restraint, it couldn’t move an inch.

"Just squeeze its belly directly?"

"Yes, be mindful of the force, don’t squeeze anything else out."

After taking a deep breath, Lin Yang began carefully applying force to squeeze the salmon’s belly.

As his force increased, the salmon’s oviposition vent was visibly filled with translucent orange-red roe, though they weren’t expelled.

"Why won’t they come out?"

Lin Yang kept feeling that if he continued exerting force, the salmon might show signs of bursting.

"Got it."

Briefly stumped, he suddenly found a solution, casually grabbing a needle-like stick nearby, and stabbed it towards the salmon’s oviposition vent.

With a single poke, the roe inside the salmon’s belly gushed forth like flowing sand.

"That should be enough, just for a taste, this should suffice."

Worried about harming the salmon, Lin Yang applied gentle pressure, resulting in the roe slowly flowing out.

By now, his small basin was estimated to hold about the amount of a bowl.

"Yes, that’s enough, let it go, there’s enough for us to taste."

Calculating the amount of roe in the basin, Lin Yang found it sufficient for the three of them to enjoy some bites, so he released the salmon.