My childhood was spent by the Bulao River, where I have many memories and a lot of happiness! In the evening of spring, we can trace the footprints of turtles under the willow trees by the river. In the hot summer, we can be seen swimming on the clear river, and we are even more happy to catch fish in the channels on the bank.
In the 1970s, there was material scarcity. Beef and mutton were rare to eat once a year, but fish could be caught and eaten as much as you wanted. This is the reason why I am very happy to see fish: in a sense, fish nourished me and accompanied me through the poor years when I was growing up.
As the saying goes, where there is water, there are fish. About ten meters east of my house, there is a water channel three miles long from south to north, crossing the entire village and fields. The upstream source is the electric irrigation station on the river south of the village, and the downstream end is at the 310 National Highway. Every spring and summer are the days when electric irrigation stations turn on pumps to irrigate farmland. At that time, the rural system was people's communes, and farmland water was managed by the brigade. The water pumped by the brigade's electric irrigation station was transported to the farmland of each production team through canals. As soon as the brigade's electric irrigation station was opened, water spurted out from the thick iron pipes, and the rushing water flowed along the canals to the farmland of each team!
In the spring of March, the flowers are blooming and the water is gurgling. The fish that have been in the Bulao River all winter begin to move around. The four large pumps of the brigade's electric irrigation station are turned on to bring a continuous flow of living water to the Bulao River. Attracted, the big fish and small fish also burrowed into the pump nest like a market, and passed through the pump mouth and jumped straight into the water channel on the shore! So the canal became a world of fish and a paradise for us to catch fish. You may not believe it, but we children, when we get up early in the spring and walk along the canals, we can encounter fish with bare hands. Many naughty fish use the water force to jump out and swim in the canals. He was jumping up and down and was caught by us children who were guarding the bank of the canal! When we brought the fish home, my mother put the fish into a pot and cooked it into soup, mixed it with some gnocchi, and it became a delicious meal. It was not too late for us to go to school with our schoolbags on our backs!
However, what I look forward to most is when the electric irrigation station stops pumping. At that time, there are many wild fish pumped up from the Old River through the water pump, some big and some small. There are countless types of crucian carp, carp, snakeheaded fish, catfish... as well as river shrimp, loach and so on. As soon as the water pump stopped, the water in the canal slowly became shallower, and nests of wild fish rushing forward in groups were clearly visible.
The water in the canal is still waist-deep. We, the children in the village, are the most active. We have already rolled up our sleeves and are waiting at the weir like barefoot immortals. When the water is still half a meter deep , we started to go down the canal to catch fish in a hurry, because the children had already muddied the water when they went down into the canal. In order not to be our captives, the big fish and the small fish jumped and scurried around as if facing a formidable enemy. You can imagine how lively the scene of catching fish is. Once, Xiao Mao Si shouted excitedly in the muddy water: "I'll kill a big one"! I saw him holding the gills of the fish in the water with his hands and pulling it out at once. It was a big snakehead fish weighing more than three kilograms. And I could only catch some small fish and shrimps as big as my fingers. If I caught such a big snakehead fish What a sumptuous dinner my mother would cook when I brought it home, which made me envious for a long time.
Since then, I have come home from school, put down my schoolbag and ran to the canal. This happened once. It was in the third grade of elementary school. When I was eleven years old, when I was walking along the canal, When I walked out of the village, I heard a thumping sound in the distance. I thought someone's little piglet had fallen into the canal and was taking a bath. But when I walked in, I was shocked. It turned out to be several large carp weighing two to three kilograms, desperately escaping along the canal water towards the rice field ditch with only a few meters of water depth outside the gate! Soon enough, I didn't even bother to take off my shoes and jumped off the canal. I rode on the back of a big carp. I grabbed the big carp's gills with both hands and hugged it hard. stand up. I shouted loudly to the village, "Come and catch the big carp, there are several here!" Some smart-minded children had already known what was going on, and they came out of the village and ran towards me. When they came to me excitedly, several other big carps quickly crossed the gate and escaped safely to the deep rice field ditch, as if they had heard the wind. They had no choice but to watch the fish and sigh, really stamping their feet in anxiety, and then Look at me with envious eyes as I hold the big carp in my arms and run home excitedly.
Catching fish in the ditch as a child was such a feeling of joy, satisfaction and happiness! Especially when I take the caught fish home and watch my mother remove the scales and open the belly of the fish, wash it and put it in the pot, add some shredded radish and it becomes a delicacy on the table, I feel happier than anything else. !