Fishing Korea & Tennessee

The wife and I are going to Bali next week for a holiday and from now until then I have lots of things to do, so yesterday (Wednesday) was my last chance to fish for a while. So, I wanted it to be a full day and a good day. I dragged my boat West 3+ hours to JangSung Dam.

This time, my motor (and new 6 gal fuel tank) was working perfectly so I got to get to better parts of the lake. The funny thing is, the best spots were right opposite the boat ramp 

Here’s a few lake pics….

A few fish pics….

…..and now for the greedy dinks!!

I had previously stated that since the onset of cold weather was upon us, my EMB™ days were over till next spring.  But when I checked the weather yesterday, they were calling for only (only, LOL) a low of 45 last night so I started thinking about giving it another try.  The alarm went off at 0400 this morning and the first thing I did was shut it off and then I rolled back over and went back to sleep – but I still woke up early enough to get about 40 minutes of fishing in, and I’m glad I made the drive:

Caught this one on a black, 5-inch Senko, real close to shore.  The river is really muddy, so I tried a spinner bait for a while but no takers.  It’s supposed to go down to the low 30′s tonight, so I’m really glad I made it out there this morning.

Went out yesterday looking for some lakes to launch my boat and have a few casts while I was there. Unfortunately, all the lake levels are way too low for my boat, but I did manage a few fish.

From the first lake….all on a gold and white spinnerbait fished right along the bottom.

I then moved to another lake, my favorite springtime lake. Again, water to low to get my boat in. I fished for a while without any bites. The water is still full of water plants, but they are dying off and now are just below the surface, so I thought the only lure I could fish would be a buzzbait…..best decision of the day. I caught 1 or 2 just before sundown, but the minute the sun went behind the mountains the fish came to life. I caught 7 on the buzzbait in 45 minutes and none of them were small. Most were 35cm to 40cm (14″ to 16″) and the biggest one going 44cm and 2lb 13oz.

Ty went out Sunday afternoon, despite the bad weather and managed to catch this nice bass which came in at 46cm, weighing right at three pounds.  This one was also caught on a spinner bait.

Nice bass, Ty – congrats!

Today, both Jim and Ty went out there and here are the pics:

Doesn’t Jim look happy?

This morning, Ty and I headed out bright and early to the river where we were supposed to meet some of the fishermen from Anglerstown.  We caught a couple of bass early on, Ty on a black spinner bait, and I on a black/blue chatter bait.

The bass stopped biting once the wind started kicking up but that’s ok; it was a beautiful morning out there, I got to catch up with Ty, and also ran into one of my friends that I met through Anglerstown.  And on top of that, Ty and I did quite a bit of exploring this morning and found some spots that should be perfect come next spring

My friend Ty went out for an hour this morning and tried an area of the river that very few bass fishermen ever fish – and here are a couple of pictures from his outing:

Nice going, Ty!  And I notice there’s not a Senko in any of these pictures

I fished with my bass club at JangSung Dam on Sunday. It was the first time I have ever fished that lake and the first time I have my boat in the water since March. I had added a new livewell system to my boat so I was hoping it wouldn’t sink  :lol:

It was a tough day. First off, it was damn cold, then my Suzuki motor wouldn’t start and I noticed a lot of fuel leaking everytime I tried to start her up, so I gave up and just used my trolling motor. Then things seemed to pick up….I caught a nice 15 inch bass almost straight away, but that was it for a while. The water level was wayyyyy down but the water was still upto 30 foot deep. (This lake is like a smaller version of Andong). Long story short…..I caught a few fish, mostly dinks. Some of the guys from my club caught some very bass. Once the water levels come back up, this lake will be an awesome place to fish, and it may be as good as Andong.

Here is the smallest fish of the day……I won a prize for this

The good news about the low water levels is, someone has built an awesome boat ramp, the best I’ve ever seen in Korea.

And finally, a couple of shots of my little ex-foldy boat

My original plan was to stop the EMB™ fishing until next spring due to the colder weather in the mornings but like a lot of my plans, this one also went by the wayside and I headed on out to Idong lake this morning to catch me one more EMB™ bass or two.  This plan, unfortunately, also fell by the wayside.  For some reason (fall turnover?), the water in Idong is pretty murky – at least in the area where I was fishing so I opted to go with a spinner bait.

Shortly after it got light, I felt a fish hit and I set the hook and started reeling in.  I could feel a weight on the line, but there was absolutely no fight whatsoever.  “Dink?  Weeds?  WTF!”, I thought to myself.  Even a dink will put up some kind of fight so I thought for sure I had missed the bass and was reeling in some weeds.

Well, it wasn’t weeds, and it wasn’t a bass, either.  I’m not even 100% sure what kind of fish this is – a freshwater tarpon?  If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me…and does anyone know how common they are over here, and how big they can get?

Me, my wife and our daughter went to Jinju on Saturday to attend the festival that was going on on the river (Nam Gang). We met up with another family that are originally from Jinju but now live in Ulsan. Here some shots of the River on Saturday night.

After the river festival, we all headed back to near our friends Mother’s home and proceeded to drink excessive amounts of alcohol and we all ended up sleeping at his Mother’s home and drinking a little more 

(OK, I’ll get to the point!!!!)

It turns out that our friends Mother lives right beside my favorite lake, so whilst my wife recovered from her hangover, I went to the lake and had a few casts. Well, the fishing was slow to say the least, I only had one bite, and here is the result…..

A nice fat, healthy 54cm lunker at last. Unfortunately in my excitement, I completely forgot to weigh her but have calculated from one the online bass weight convertors that she was around 5lb 10oz.

Since today is a Korean holiday, I knew that my regular spots would be crowded with carp fishermen so I went back to that big rocky area where I got skunked twice in a row earlier this spring.  However, Rob and I did really well in that area right around the same time last year so I thought I’d give it a shot. 

The bass wouldn’t touch anything while it was still dark but got active after it got light.  I caught 4 dinks plus the one above (on 5-inch, black Senkos) and wish I could have stayed out longer since the action was picking up but it was time to head on to work.  For those of you heading out this weekend, good luck

The fishing is tough out there right now and I don’t know why.  Could it be the cooler weather?  The high pressure system?  The unusually clear water?  Do they get active a little later in the day this time of year?  Heh, I don’t have the slightest idea.  I did, however, manage to catch one on a 4-inch Senko and another one on a Karu Lures Vibraspin (which is a combination spinner bait/chatter bait), and that was all for this morning.