Fishing Korea & Tennessee

That’s what they say about the month of March but so far, that certainly hasn’t been true and even though our good friends at KMA were predicting this morning to be partly sunny with no wind, I wasn’t too shocked to wake up at 4:30 to see it raining .  I almost called it a day right then and there but I did make a resolution that this year, I wasn’t going to wait for nice weather weekend after weekend (I lost out on a lot of Saturdays last year that way) so I thought, “what the heck, a little rain won’t hurt.”

I headed for the same area on the river where I’ve been going during my lunch breaks and I got lucky; there was no one else at the spot when I arrived.  It was drizzling and pretty chilly, but I did manage to catch a few bass (that spot never fails me )  Most of them were small, these two were the biggest out of that area.

Around 9:30, other fishermen started showing up and although none of them stayed very long due to the fact that it was cold and they weren’t catching any fish, it was getting too crowded for my anti-social self so I packed up my stuff and headed for another area – and I’m glad I did.

I caught several fish within the first 30 minutes and had I stayed, I probably could have caught more but when I first got there, the wind was hitting me from the right side so I could fish by turning my back to it but after about 45 minutes, the wind changed directions and was coming straight at me from across the river – and on top of that, it started raining again - and that was my cue to head home for a hot cup of coffee and my cheese danish .  I didn’t have anything remotely close to the kind of day that Rob had yesterday but I caught more than I thought I would, given the crappy weather conditions.  Oh, and all bass were caught on 4 and 5 inch black Senkos, fished weightless.

I took the day off yesterday and had a great day out on the water.  In fact, it was the best day I’ve had fishing in many years.  What surprised me the most though was not the quantity of fish caught (well over 20), but the quality.  I’ve been fishing the Pyongtaek River for a good five years now and can’t remember another time where I caught so many nice sized, healthy bass in one day.  And sorry, once again I didn’t have a scale or tape measure with me so I don’t know what they weighed or measured.  I have a good idea, but since ideas aren’t official I’ll keep them to myself. lol       

As you can see from the first pic, I started early.  I left my house at 0520 and had the boat assembled and was on the water fishing by 0630.  Even though the air temperature was in the low 30′s, the water temperature was in the 50′s.  I know there are a lot of different theories out there about the best time of day to fish, but I say it’s hard to beat the break of dawn on any day, and yesterday did nothing but ingrain that in my mind even more.  By the time 0730 had rolled around, I had caught several nice sized bass, including the biggest of the day. 

I caught everything on 5″ black Senkos with blue flake, both wacky rigged and weedless.  And truthfully, I didn’t notice that one rig produced any more fish than the other.  I’d say they were about even for the day.       

All in all a great day, and for that I am truly thankful. 

I couldn’t resist one more last chance (it’ll be almost 5 weeks until I can catch another Bass, so my wife understood )

I went to a secret 1 acre pond that only a handfull of people know about and caught 13 bass. Even though not many people know about this place, there is already empty lure packets and old waste line just lying around the place, really pi$$es me off that a really pretty place in the country side is starting to look like all the other lakes and rivers and Bass fishermen are to blame

(Sorry about the rant, just had to get it of my chest )

There’s no monsters in this lake, but what it lacks in quality it certainly makes up for in quantity. It’s located high in the mountains, so the water was a bit cooler than other lakes, but it was fun. Here’s a few of the better ones I caught.

I’m leaving Korea again on Sunday 30th back to Nigeria (gotta work to make money to buy more fishing tackle  :lol:  )

The small lake in JinJu was a bit strange today (25th), the water seemed cloudy in 3/4 of the lake and the fish were only biting in the clearer 1/4 of the lake. While I was fishing, 2 guys in an inflatable boat came and started taking water samples….and there was a few dead bass (which is not normally a rear sight) and a dead turtle.

I still managed to catch 6 bass and 1 slimy guy….my first Korean Catfish !! Here’s a few photos.

Went to the Pyongtaek river and got skunked, but between my Brother in Law Gene (Tall guy with the big ass grin), and Jimbo (the man with the purple sweat shirt), they caught a total of about 10 bass, all their first for 08. I’m still waiting on mine. None were monsters but at least they caught some.  My Borther in Law caught two with my son’s Zebco 33 combo and a rooster tail with only one hook while the rest were caught on small spinner baits and small plastic worms (4″ dark Senkos and 4″ green paddle worms).  Note the beautiful background on one of the pictures (nice trash and old matresses left by our friendly lazy slobs).  Also note we tried to keep our spot secret by taking a picture of one of the bass on an unknown gravel ground just like Nomad does since we couldn’t find a worthy rock      

I took my boat to a new lake on Friday morning after I heard from a few locals that there is Bass in it…..well maybe there is or maybe there isn’t, but I skunked. So at 2:00pm I took the boat to another lake.

I caught 8 Bass in little over 3 hours and missed at least another 10 bites    Here’s a few of them

John and I headed out to the river again at lunchtime, this time to a different spot.  I usually don’t come to this particular area that much anymore because it’s almost always crowded and today was no exception as there were at least six or more Koreans already out there, fishing for bass and as we were fishing, a guy pulled up towing a nice shiny new bass boat.  Which, unfortunately for him, he couldn’t launch because someone has put up a fence, blocking the boat ramp – which by the way, is a public boat ramp and I’m guessing one of the local farmers or netters *thinks* he has the rights to that land.

John caught the above bass on a rattle trap, close to shore and it was the biggest one caught today.  He then moved on down a ways and caught three more, all on rattle traps, I believe.

I caught all mine on 4 and 5 inch Senkos again, black and watermelon with black specks.  The bass are definitely becoming aggressive because they wanted a faster presentation and were nailing the worm right after I gave it a good jerk and then let it sink back down.  Between us, we caught 10 bass and missed a few, all in about 45 minutes of fishing.  Today was one of those days I wish we could have stayed a few hours because I have a feeling that with the way they were biting, we would have cleaned up.  I can tell you one thing; after today, I said the heck with the gym on Friday, we’re heading back out

Was the weather beautiful today, or what?  So beautiful, in fact, that my boss and I headed out to the river during our lunch break. 

I tried Senkos and chatterbaits  – and got skunked today but John caught a nice bass on a crank bait, as you can see in the pic above.  If the weather is decent we’ll be back out there on Thursday (Monday, Wednesday and Friday are gym days for me – abs at 48 and all that) so stay tuned.

I was fishing with my Bass Club on Sunday in our monthly tournamant so I wanted to get to the lake on the Saturday and find where the fish were hiding. This lake (JangCheok Ji, one hour South of Daegu) is one of my favorite lakes especially at this time of year before all the water plants take over in the summer (then it’s frog time). The weather on Saturday was great, no wind and warm. I got 19 bass including a few at 40cm, one at 42cm and another at 43cm.

I arranged to meet a Korean buddy of mine that I haven’t seen for around a year. Here’s a few photos from Saturday.

On Sunday (tournament day) the weather was not as good. The wind was strong and these Portabotes aren’t that good in the wind, good job I had my 6kg anchor. There was around 15~20 boats today (all inflatables) and dispite the wind, the fishing was great. During the tournament I caught 12 bass with the biggest being 40 cm…..good enough for joint 2nd place on the day. The winning fish was 44cm. My co-angler for the day only managed one bass.

Here’s the Bass that got me joint 2nd place.

During the whole of Sunday I caught 26 bass and 45 for the weekend. Here’s the boat back on the trailer at the “so-called” ramp at the end of a “Great Weekend”

I agree with Nomad.  It’s definitely picking up out there.  My wife and I went to the river early yesterday morning and were able to land seven before the gale force winds that Nomad mentioned below drove us away.  Leave it to Mother Nature to ruin an otherwise perfect day!    I don’t have a scale (that works anyway), and didn’t have anything to measure the fish with either, but here are a few pics nonetheless:

Then, I was over in the Anjung-ri area this morning running errands when I noticed (quite surprisingly, since it was Sunday) that nobody was fishing in one of mine and Nomad’s favorite spots, so I couldn’t resist the urge to wet a line for a little bit.  I only fished for about an hour, had a couple of bites, and caught this one.  Again, I didn’t have a scale, but did have a tape measure in the truck this time and it measured pretty close to 17″.  All in all it was a pretty good weekend, and I hope the trend continues for a while.  

I headed out to the river this morning, hoping that the front that passed through the other day hadn’t put a damper on the bass fishing.  I left the house a little early since it was such a nice day, and this worked out great in the end ( I’ll explain why in a bit). 

The spot I went to usually doesn’t get much, if any pressure from the locals but it is popular with a few people I know and two of them, Jim and Ty, were already there when I arrived. (as always, click on the pics to see the full-sized images)

That’s Ty with two of the bass they caught this morning.  I weighed the fish on the left – it came in at 3 pounds, 3 ounces, according to my Rapala digital scale.  Nice bass, eh?  Unfortunately, Jim and Ty had some other stuff to take care of so they left around 10, and I had the spot all to myself

I tried chatterbaits, crankbaits, and different sizes and colors of Senkos but the only thing the bass were interested in were 4″ black Senkos, fished slowly through the weeds.  It’s a good thing I got there when I did because around noon, the wind started blowing something fierce and the bite stopped like someone had turned off a switch.

I stuck around a little while, hoping the wind would die down but after about an hour, I heard a big cup of coffee and a cheese danish calling my name so I packed in in for the day.  As I stated in a previous post, the fishing is slowly picking up and in a week or two, things should be hopping everywhere.

One of the many things I love about my new job is that I’m less than a 10-minute drive from some great fishing spots, which means I can hop over to the river during lunchtime and get in 30 – 45 minutes of fishing  – and that’s exactly what I did today.

As you can see, I finally caught my first bass of the year .   This one was caught on a black, 4-inch Senko fished near shore, right along the rocks.  The water is still pretty cold though and the bass aren’t overly aggressive yet but things are definitely improving, day by day.

I got out and fished today, my first time since Jan 22nd and it felt great, the sun was shining, no wind and very warm….it seemed the perfect fishing weather, but I was wrong. It was a tough day, but I managed to catch 3 decent bass (12 ~ 14 iches).

While I was fishing, there must of been a fire somewhere and it must of been serious because I heard a bunch of fire engines race by and then 10 minutes later this showed up and started taking water from the lake right near where I was standing….it was so close that I was getting wet from the spray.