Seeing how nice it’s been this week and knowing that pretty soon it’ll be too cold to fish, I took yesterday and today off and went fishing out on the river. Following are some random thoughts and some of the pics I took.
If you remember, last Saturday Rob and I did pretty good on the river and caught some nice-sized bass. Well, that didn’t last long at all. Yesterday, all I was catching were fish like the one above, but I caught 10, which isn’t bad for a day’s fishing. The water level dropped two or three feet from last Saturday and I’m thinking that the bigger fish have moved on to deeper water. Yesterday, I threw everything except the kitchen sink; I tried spinner baits, crank baits, chatterbaits, rattle traps, plastic crayfish, baby brush hogs and various sizes and colors of plastic worms. The only thing the bass would hit though were four and five-inch Senkos, either black or watermelon.
This morning, I fished two spots; I started out in the same spot as yesterday and had a duplicate day. There were plenty of fish, but none of them were very big. One thing that was really nice: This morning, there was no wind at all and the river was like a sheet of glass the entire time I was out there:
Like I said, the fish weren’t anything to brag about, but they kept me busy.
After a couple of hours, I moved on down to another part of the river, hoping that maybe the bigger bass had moved there since the water is pretty deep and there are plenty of big rocks along the shore and in the water.
The two ponds on either side of the path are used to grow snakeheads (galmuchi?), I think. At this spot on the river, I caught a lot of bass, but they were all really small.
Speaking of snakes; I don’t know what it is but this is the second time this year that I’ve seen a snake while fishing. This guy came swimming across the river, headed right towards me. I tried to get a closer shot but when it saw me, it hauled ass under those tires and I wasn’t about to go poking around, looking for it.
And last but not least, some pics of the rice fields near the river. I love this time of year; when I see the rice being harvested, I know that summer and its heat and humidity are officially over.
How long before these rice fields are covered with apartment buildings, E-marts, concrete roads and 7-11′s? I hope it’s long after I leave…
Nomad, can you catch those snakeheads or is that some sort of pay area?
Dave
Dave,
Those two ponds are very small, and there are nets over them to prevent anyone from fishing there. I believe someone is growing those fish to sell. Rob can probably answer that better than me.
You definitely can’t fish them. They’re either breeding ponds for the two pay ponds down the road, or the guy who operates them sells the fish directly to the market.
Rob,
Are there pay ponds where you can fish for snakeheads? Or, do you know of any real shallow, weedy ponds where I could try for them? I bet catching them is a blast.
I believe they are Nomad. Next time we’re out there we can drive down to where they’re at and ask Adoshi.
THat would be a blast. They are supposed to get pretty good size and are very aggressive. Would probable need some tough line or a wire leader with their sharp teeth.
Dave
Dave,
On FTV, I was watching them catch snakeheads using some kind of a pink/orange top water lure that looked like a mouse or rat. Not sure what it was, but those snakeheads came out of the weeds and nailed that thing. They were fishing some real shallow and weedy ponds though.
I caught one on a spinnerbait…..9lbs.
How big do those things get?
A site I saw on the net said 1 to three feet depending on subspecies and reaches sexual maturity at 3 years.
You guys should hook up with Gar. I believe he knows Korean FTV’s Holy Fisherman (Mr. Shin), a snakehead expert.
Here’s a 43 minute video of Korean FTV’s Oh Brothers doing some snakehead fishing: The Oh Brothers Take On Gamulchi
Here’s another nice instructional video on Gamulchi fishing in Korea.
And by the way, here’s a pic of Steve and one that he caught down south last summer.
Dave,
here ya go…from our very own James Card comes this article over at Bass Pro on fishing for snakeheads in Korea.
And this is the species we’re dealing with over here.
Nomad,
Those ponds you show on the picture are where I had seen several birds stuck to the nets. One of the Taegu boys took us there about five months ago and we caught several bass there. That place did not compare to a place in Pusan though, where I know I must have seen about 30-50 cranes dead or stuck to the net. Not a good sight to see. As for them snakeheads, I’ve caught a few in Korea, by accident, and can tell you they are a very mean and nasty fish. My Korean friend told me was considered good luck to catch one of those.