Fishing Korea & Tennessee

  To start things out, I caught my first-ever bass on a shaky head rig this morning – to be fair, I hadn’t fished shaky head rigs all that much in the past but on the occasions I tried them, I had no luck at all.  But this morning, I thought that since I’ve been on a mission to, ahem, expand my angling horizons beyond the Senko, I’d tie on one of these to see what would happen.

I also tried a chartreuse spinner bait (I’m all out of the white/red) for about 30 minutes without any luck but for whatever reason, the fish were liking my Senkos today.

I caught the above on my second cast and although I usually bag and tag them as fast as possible so they can get back in the water, I had to weigh this one – 2 pounds, 11 ounces (I thought it was at least 3 pounds…not even close).

That fish in the last pic would not stop flopping around…I was trying to get a shot with him hanging there with the Senko and hook showing and out of 5 attempts at a picture, that was the best one.  LOL.  Once again, a good start to the week

We wanted cooler temperatures, well, we got them and how.  When I got to the river this morning, the wind was blowing hard, it was raining and, it was cold enough for me to need a windbreaker.  The cold front has definitely affected the fish, because I didn’t have one single bite on a Senko out there.  Not even a dink!

So I put on the last white/red spinner bait I have, and ended up catching three total.  Two of them were a pound or less (may have even been the same fish), and just as the rain really started coming down and I thought about going to work a little early, this bass nailed the lure and made my morning.

I almost slept in this morning because I figured that after those hard rains we had on Saturday, the river would be high and stained – and I was correct on both counts.  The water level is so high that I couldn’t get down to the spots I usually fish, and the water was the color of chocolate milk.  On top of that, there was a brisk breeze blowing in my face.  However, the bass didn’t seem to mind the conditions too much.

The fish on the left was caught on a 5-inch Senko, black with blue flakes, and the one on the right was caught on a white/red spinner bait.  I also caught two dinks, and had one bass on a spinner bait that jumped and threw the lure about 2 feet from shore, just as I was about to reach down to grab it.  Unfortunately, it’s supposed to rain again today, tonight and on Thursday which will put a damper on my fishing activities but the good news is that these fronts will bring some nice cool weather, which I’m sure we’re all looking forward to.

Friday; the last day of the work week (for most of us) and the beginning of the weekend.  And, it’s a good day to catch fish, I always say .  But before we get to that, there was no fog out there for once and I actually saw a sunrise:

But way before all that started happening, I was out there in the dark, chucking Senkos and spinner baits.  I ended up catching 8 bass out there this morning which I must admit, made my day (even though 5 of them were dinks).

On my very first cast with a black, 5-inch Senko, I caught this fish but unlike a lot of the hits I got in the dark the last few weeks, this one nailed it hard and also put on one heck of a good fight.  A while later, I switched to a spinner bait.

The above was the only one I did manage to catch on a spinner bait and once again he was hooked really good so despite all his aerial acrobatics, he stayed on till the end to pose for this shot.

I caught this one on a black 4-inch Senko about 10 minutes before it was time to pack it in and head to work.  Today was definitely one of the better days I’ve had in quite the while and it’s days like today why I keep getting up early .

My upstairs neighbor, Mike, went out in his boat yesterday and did really well – I’m posting this for him:

I made it out to the river today for the last day of my time off.  I went out late (around 2 p.m.) and stayed until almost 7 p.m.  The water is still full of that green stuff but it didn’t seem to affect the fishing much.  The day was much better than I expected in the mid day heat.  The fish were really hitting deep crank baits very aggressively.  I caught nine on crank baits and one more on a drop shot rig.  The water was 84-85 degrees which is about 4 degrees higher than it was last Thursday, so I was really surprised at how active the fish were.  Most of the fish I caught were in the 1 1/2 – 2 pound range but one went around three pounds.

I didn’t want to spend the entire three-day weekend without going fishing, so I headed out to the river bright and early this morning to get a few hours in.  I also wanted to test a theory I had which was that in the dark, and with the water being stained from that green algae, a white spinner bait should work.  I’ve always read that at night, you should use dark lures because the bass see the silhouette better against the surface light.  That may be true, but I figured that since visibility is down due to that green algae, a white lure with silver or gold blades should work just as well.

It might have been a fluke and pure luck, but on the third cast with a white spinner bait (ok ok, for you purists, I know it’s white with red, LOL), I caught this fish, about 20 feet out. 

And, I also caught one on a 5-inch Senko, black, fished very slow with the occasional twitch.  I also missed a couple, which is par for the course.  Just like the last two weeks, the bites were before or right at first light; once it got light, the action stopped.  I got two hours in, which was perfect for me and by 7, plenty of other fishermen started showing up so it was time for me to leave anyway.  I always say; if I can see another fisherman, then it’s too crowded for me

It seems that my bass catching skills are lacking those of you guys up North. I fished for 6 hours yesterday with only one 12 inch bass to show for it.

I lost and missed a few bass (that felt much bigger) due to my lack of concentration   The worst part is, this was my last chance to catch a few before heading back to Nigeria on Sunday. Man time flies

Well this morning was an adventure.  First, check out how bad the algae is getting in the river:

And that stuff isn’t only floating on the surface; it’s permeated the water all the way to the bottom and there’s zero visibility now.  I tried chatterbaits and spinnerbaits this morning but man oh man, now I remember why I never used lures from shore out there – I lost three chatterbaits and two spinnerbaits, all to getting hung up in the rocks

I did catch a few fish and this was the biggest of the bunch.  I hope they open the gates down by the seawall soon so this green crap floats over to China and the river clears up.

In a comment on yesterday’s post, James pretty much told me to stop being so one-dimensional with my Senkos.  That comment, plus after seeing how thick that green algae was in the river yesterday convinced me to take some Chatterbaits with me this morning.  But of course, I started out with Senkos while it was still too dark to see much of anything (plus it was real foggy out there again).

I caught five on Senkos, with the above being the biggest one – the rest were dinks.  Once it was light enough to see what I was doing, I changed to a black/blue Chatterbait with a black trailer.

I caught this guy on my third or fourth cast and let me tell you, I was as shocked and surprised as the fish must have been .  Unfortunately, that lure got donated to the river a few casts later so I switched to a chartreuse Chatterbait.

I caught these two fish back to back.  I had one more bass take the lure but he jumped and threw it while he was still way out there.

Why, there must be a holiday coming up…and what a better way to spend Chuseok than to go fishing, eh?  It was definitely a good morning, once again and yes, if I can wake up, I’ll be back out there again tomorrow, with more Chatterbaits and maybe even some spinnerbaits (and of course, plenty of Senkos ).

That’s the color of the river, again.  Just last Thursday, the water was clearing up really nice but since this weekend, that green algae has made a comeback, and it’s not just on the surface, so it has turned the river into pea soup once more.

It was also pretty foggy out there again this morning, but that didn’t stop these guys from putting in that nice bass boat….did they offer me a ride?  Nope. 

I’m not even sure if they made it or not because once they started their motor, there was some kind of constant beeping, like an alarm and they kept cutting and restarting the engines and pretty much stayed close to the boat ramp, at least during the time I was there.

Above are two of the five I caught today; the fishing was tough out there and I had to work for every bite – I’m not sure if it’s that green algae that’s keeping the fish out or if the water hasn’t cooled down enough yet.  But I keep going back out there because I want to be there, with Senkos in hand, when they do start cruising the shallows again