I got up bright and early this morning and hit the road by 5:15 on my way to Idong reservoir, which is usually only a 15 minute drive. The fog was so thick today that it took me almost 30 minute to get there but the upside of it being so foggy was that I was the only one on that part of the lake. The water level is still pretty high so to get around the rocks and cliffs to the area I like to fish, one has to climb up and over what we call “the hill of death” because it’s so steep - you’ll definitely know what shape you’re in by the time you get to the top, especially if you’re lugging fishing gear. Since I’m sitting here typing, my heart didn’t explode – at least not from the hill but after I got to the top and started making my way down, a f*cking pheasant flew up right in front of me and just about finished off what the hill had started.
Like I said, it was quite foggy early on, and I was hoping the fog and light wind would make for some great fishing (As always, click to see full-size pics).
I was pretty happy when I caught the above bass on my very first cast but unfortunately it was a tough morning after that. I tried various sizes and colors of spinner baits and I also tried crank baits, jigs, rooster tails and Senkos but the fish just weren’t cooperating.
I definitely had to work for the fish I caught today. I ended up catching a total of five bass, and the last four were caught on Senkos and were all about the size of the one in the above picture – nothing to brag about (If you want to see fish worth writing home about, check out this pic of some bass caught in last week’s tournament down at Andong). I’m not sure what’s happened to this lake…last year around this time, I could walk the shore with my ultralight rod with a white rooster tail and catch big bluegill till my arms got tired from the casting but so far this year, not a single one. I haven’t even seen any bluegill along the shore, and the cove where they usually come to spawn is empty. Last summer, the lake was covered with some kind of green powder (not algae) and after that cleared up, the fishing was terrible so I’m wondering if someone dumped something into one of the lake’s feeder streams which killed off some of the fish population? I hope not but from all indications so far, Idong reservoir is not the same lake it’s been in the past.
Too bad you don’t have a picture of the look on your face when the pheasant flew up!
Why do they always wait till you’re right on top of them before they take off? This morning it was still a bit dark, and with that heavy fog it was kinda spooky in the woods…the last thing I needed was that bird taking off less than two feet from me. One more step and I would have stepped right on it, it was that close to me.
Nomad,
One night back in Illinois several of us were following the blood trail of a deer that my cousin shot earlier that evening during bow season. It was dark and we were using flashlights. As we entered a clearing, the pheasants started flying up just a few feet in front of our faces. My brother yells out, “Grab one!” I shine the light down at the ground and there is a nice fat hen sitting in the grass about 8 inches in front of my boot. I proceded to lift my foot and set it down on top of her pinning her to the ground. My brother came over and finished her off and we had fresh pheasant that night. I am still the only one in my family credited with a pheasant kill using their feet.
BTW I went out again this morning with my daughter. Tried pyongtaek lake with no luck. Was using senkos and live nightcrawlers I caught earlier in the week. Dropped the kid off at base for a birthday party and went out to Idong this afternoon. No luck on the south side. Then I went to check out that little lake north of Idong that you marked on the map. There were 2 other Americans out there catching some nice fat bluegill. I scored on a couple of small bass, but hammered about a dozen fat bluegill in almost no time using the nightcrawlers.
Dave
Dave,
Glad to hear you finally had some luck! The bill is in the mail
LOL guys! Your stories remind me of the time I was coming out of the woods after dark (had been bow hunting) and disturbed a group of roosting turkeys! I thought a Chinook helicopter was crashing down on me. It literally scared the you know what out of me.
Hunter Dave, I could use your skills out by my house. There are tons of pheasants out here.
Rob,
Why don’t you just knock those pheasants out with one of your chatterbaits?
lol Nomad. I’ve thought about doing the following but I don’t want to end up in Korean jail!!
Stovepipe Bird Trap. The stovepipe game bird trap is so simple, it makes me laugh every time I think about it. The principle behind it is that birds can’t back up. Have you ever seen a bird walk backwards? Neither have I!
A friend told me about it when I was in high school. There was a farm inside the village limits loaded with pheasants! I used to train my dogs there. The pheasants were just too tempting for me, so I had to try it. So, I made a trap, baited it with corn, and the next day, sure enough, there were fresh pheasant tracks going right into the pipe!
Man! This is great, I thought! I lifted the pipe, expecting the weight of a bird, only to be disappointed upon finding it empty. Mice must have stolen the bait, I thought. After two more days of tracks going into the pipe and no pheasants, I figured it out. I was using an 8-inch pipe, and the birds could turn around. I went back to the junkyard, found some 6-inch pipe, and the next day, the pheasant was waiting!
Of course, I had to try it on the grouse, and found that a 4-inch pipe works for them. My guess for quail would be the 2- or 3-inch pipe. Just don’t do what a friend of mind did. He made one out of a real short pipe, about 10 inches long, and the big rooster pheasants tail was sticking out the end! He was in some park, and as he was walking out to his car, the police saw the pheasant tail, and he got busted. Some people have no sense of humor! The bad thing was, now the cops knew what the trap was, so the rest of us had to quit for a while.
Materials needed:
(1) 6-inch diameter, 24-inch long stove pipe
piece of chicken wire, about 12-inches square
some duct tape
That’s it. You take the chicken wire, form it around one end of the pipe, and duct tape the overlay nice and tight around the pipe. Place a trail of corn going into the pipe, and a pile or cob in the back. This has to be the easiest trap to make, and man does it work! Be careful when you pull the pheasants out. They are a feisty bird, and you had better have a good hold on them. Otherwise, they will fly off.
A friend of mine did this in the garage, lost the bird, got the dog, and he said that after 15 minutes of him trying to knock the bird down so the dog could grab it, the garage was a wreck! The dog ripped the bird up, and his wife was a little mad. Women!!!
Go for it Rob!
An Airman on Osan told me about it. He didn’t keep the birds though, only used them to train his lab.
Rob,
6″ PVC should work just as good as stovepipe.
Lots of PVC dealers around.
I understand the chicken wire on the other end to make them think that there is an exit out that way.
Do you live in the country? I was going to order me a new compound bow for Christmas and start practicing with it here next Spring at one of the archery ranges near here.
Maybe I could find a place to pick off a few birds quietly.
Yes, the Mrs. and I live about five miles outside of town. Is there an archery range on base? I have my compound bow with me too but would be afraid to use it since I haven’t shot it in over five years. Once the garden is done I might setup a place to shoot it out here. If I do you’re more than welcome to come out, and if a pheasant just happens to get in the way of our target practice, well so be it!
Rob,
There’s not a range on base, but there is supposed to be several in the area. Koreans view traditional archery as a sort of martial art. It is even quite different from olympic archery using hand made bows and arrows shot at large targets at ungodly distances. I am just planning on finding one that I can join and set me up a McKenzie deer target out on the range. I just don’t want to be over here for 3 years without doing any shooting at all. With my old compound in storage, gives me an excuse to buy a new one.
Hunter, the small lake you fished at today also has Korean catfish in it. They’re called Maegi. Drop some of those night crawlers down to the bottom of the lake and you’ll probably catch some. I’ve never eaten any but have heard that they’re pretty good. That lake has always been good for bluegill, and there used to be some decent bass in it too but I haven’t seen or heard of anyone catching anything big out of there for at least a couple of years.
You can trap turkeys in a similar fashion. Best to use a natural gully or some sort of trench and cover an area with chicken wire with the end either wired or blocked by logs, tree limbs etc.. Drop a seed trail leading into the covered area. Once inside and when the food is gone they will always look up in attempting to get out and not return the way they came in.
Not sure how legal this is – probably about as much as hutting rabbits with a shot gun while sittng on the front fender of a car being driven down a dirt road at night.
Rob,
Tried to get a hold of you on your e-mail as I went down to your part of the woods to fish yesterday. I did meet a Korean friend of one of my partners who took us to several spots on the river but we only caught several small ones. We then finished it up at Pyongtaek lake were I threw everything but the kitchen sink and finally caught a nice 3 lb bass on a 3″ ribbed tail black worm. We did meet another Korean man out at Pyontaek lake who pulled one and only one that went close to 4lbs. Fishing was hard, weather was hot and the traffic their and back to Seoul was a royal pain in the butt, but still worth the fishing time. Any word on any upcoming international tournaments. I’ve been TDY in the states for the last month and a half so havn’t heard any news on the tournaments. The river is full of large carp spawning up against the banks. I thought at first they were bass chasing baitfish but quickly got dissapointed when I noticed they were carp. Maybe we’ll see you out there soon.
I know exactly how you feel. Yesterday was tough all over, it seems. Is the river/Pyeongtaek lake still real stained or is it clearing a up a bit?
TexMex, sorry I missed you. Hopefully we can hook up the next time you’re down this way. The International at Andong is in June this year.
Rob,
I’ll definitely have to get into the Andong tournament. Do you know who is the representative that we have to pay? In the past it was Walt Cannon.
Nomad,
The water looked nasty in both the river and the lake with plenty of trash (real garbage) for the fish to hide in. The lake had a grudge type stain especially near the edge where all the crap gathers. It also appeared like muddy water from the edge to about 10 feet out in the small islands. Don’t know what the hell that was about as it hasn’t rained in a while. I am telling you I tried every type of plastic I had to include some crap I forgot I had in my tackle box that is from the seventies. It was frustrating not to mention the fact that my butt was a little hung over from the night before. Finally got a kitchen pass as the wife was gone for three days at “Tres Dias”. I paid the price for my pre-day fishing activity. I guess I never learn.
I forgot to ask you guys on something I saw yesterday and had seen before while fishing that made me sick. We went to the river next to an area where there was a stock pond that breeds snakeheads for sale. Anyways, the pond had a net over it to keep people from fishing on it but had also trapped several Cranes (Korean National bird)by their feet and were pretty much doomed to to die a slow death. I saw this about three years ago at another place in Pyongtaek that hade about seven stock ponds also with the same netting. There must have been at least 50-70 dead cranes stuck on the netting and it was evident the owner didn’t give a crap. There were sone struggling to release themselves but were doomed as they were severely tangled in the nets. I couldn’t do anything as they were mostly stuck deep over the water. There has to be better way for these owners to protect their ponds because they are killing a lot of birds. Pretty sad thing. They could at least go out everyday in a small boat and release them.
TexMex, I’ll send you an email on who to contact, but Walt would probably be fine. There are a couple of others also.
Some parts of that river / lake are nasty as hell. Gar fishes a place that he calls “shit creek” because of the raw sewage running into it. LOL
A couple of scarecrows on the bank would probably keep the cranes out of the nets. I think I know exactly where you were at by the way.
Tex Mex,
I hope your wife enjoyed Tres Dias…my wife went up there Thursday as part of the welcoming comittee…she and a few other ladies go up every Tres Dias to help out in some way or other.
The river: Rob says it was just as nasty last year, but I could swear the area near the power pylons and up wasn’t as bad as it is now. The broader part of the river where it opens up into Pyeongtaek lake was stained last year, but this year it seems especially dirty/muddy. They’re doing some major dredging upstream, near the power pylons, which may be part of the problem.
Tex Mex, I think those are not cranes that you seen. More likely they are egrets (white colored body) or grey herons (large than egrets with a blueish-grey body). The three species of cranes that migrate through Korea are long gone. I would take lots of photographs. Might as well document such a sad sight. Send them to Nomad to post here, or even send one to the papers.
Nomad, the green powder that you seen on the lake is pollen from the pine trees. I’m sure on the effect it has on fishing. In my experience, when that scums the water, the fishing tends to be off. Can’t explain why.
The pheasants are great stuff. This winter my spaniel and I flushed hundreds of them.
HunterDave– you’re Koreans treat archery as more of a martial art than tool for hunting. If I were you, I’d simply find an out of the way spot with a backstop/hill and practice there. I used to do that when I had my bow here–I left a target out in the woods where nobody would likely ever go.
As for the mentioning of garbage in the rivers, it is so true. You have to fish the Nakdong around filthy old Miryang: the trash is ankle deep as far as you can walk the shoreline.
In the last few years I’ve concentrated on flyfishing for trout up in the mountains and its much better on the soul to be on a clearwater creek than down in the brown water cesspool rivers fishing bass (but I still chase lots of bass–hard habit to shake).
There was an Osan outdoor rec fishing trip down to Buan on this day, as well. Fishing was way off down there, too. We were getting bites from rock fish and greenling all day, but the bites were a alot less frequent. I caught one rock fish(a bit on the small side) all day. Usually, I reel in at least 8 good size fish in just a couple of hours. The fog never really went away there either. It just transformed to a lovely translucent haze later in the day.
Scott,
Around the Oct-Nov time frame the amberjacks come into the Pusan area and that is the time to hit the salt water. They are definitely the strongest fish I have ever caught in Korea. There are many boats in Pusan that go after the fish and will take you out on about a 1 1/2 boat ride to get to the fish which run in schools. I missed them last year as I was deployed but the year before we went out twice and each time we (5 people a boat) averaged about 100-125 amberjacks weighing between 7-10 pounds. When you hook one it feels like you have a 40-50 pound fish on as they run and will peel all the line fron your reel if you let them. They are pretty much mini tuna (torpedoes).
Amberjack? Here? My neighbor at Eglin AFB used to bring me amberjack fillets which we BBQd and that, let me tell you, was some good eating
Nomad,
You bet they’re good eating especially on a grill as you stated. Yes, they are amberjacks. I’ve seen them being sold in many of the Korean fish markets also. I was skeptical at first like you about them being in the Korean waters but went out with a Korean friend and learned there is actually big fish that can be caught in Korea. I had been on many of the saltwater boat trips before and all we caught were fish big enough to be bait for a ten pound bass. If you guys are interested when the season starts I will make the call and hook up the trips. It cost about $100.00-S125.00 a person. They use a wierd rig with a float that sinks super slowly and keeps the bait where the fish are at. Last year Tony Rodriguez went and told me they actually showed up earlier than before.