Fishing Korea & Tennessee

Friday morning, I headed out to the Pyeongtaek river around 9:30, hoping to get a little action.  I started out at one of my favorite spots, thinking that since it was the middle of the week, and winter to boot, I’d have it all to myself.  That was not to be, however, as there were six vehicles already parked there and each belonged to my arch-nemesis, the carp fishermen, who were taking up the entire shoreline with their spread of poles.    I found a little area to fish but after 15 minutes, two more cars showed up with more carp fishermen so I moved on down the road.

As you can see, it was a really nice day out and I saw three bass boats out there – these guys were fishing the island right across from the 2nd rest stop.  I hope they had better luck than I did because I must have walked a good 300-400 yards of shoreline, trying everything in my tackle bag, without a single bite to show for it.  I honestly didn’t mind though because yesterday was more about getting some fresh air, some peace and quiet and a little time on the water before winter really sets in.

I have a confession to make.  This may not come as a surprise to some of you who know me: I have a disease…an addiction worse than a bad meth or crack habit and it’s called bass fishing – no matter how many times I tell myself that I’m finish getting up at 0400 until next spring, I just can’t seem to stick to my own word.  But please, no interventions for me because trust me, this is one addiction I can live with

Yep, despite the fact that it’s  almost mid November, I was out at the river again early this morning, chucking Senkos into the darkness.

And Senkos is what the bass wanted but here’s the thing.  I had six bites but missed four of them at hook set and I couldn’t figure out what was going on until it hit me on the way to work – I was using a different rod which had 8-pound Trilene on it, and for the past few months I had been using 30-pound braid, which requires a lot lighter hook set or else you’ll rip the hook out of the fish’s mouth.  LOL, so now I have to train myself to set the hook solid again but it looks like I’ll have plenty of time to do just that because the way I’m going, I guess I’ll be at it until the river ices over

Rob recently traded in his Porta-Boat for a nice Javelin bass boat and today, we took it out on the Pyeongtaek river for some fishing as well as to give it a good trial run.  This is also the first time I’ve ever fished out of a real bass boat and I must say, it was sweet.  I didn’t get any pics of the entire boat this time, but here are a couple of us coming and going:

That boat moves right along – all I needed were some water skis and I would have been set! 

The carp fishermen were also out enjoying the beautiful fall weather; these guys even have a shack built by the shore.

We caught somewhere between 15 and 20 fish today, and I believe (Rob, correct me if I’m wrong) every single one we caught was caught on a wacky-rigged Senko.  Early on, I was trying mainly spinner baits and crank baits, and later on both Rob and I tried chatter baits, spinner baits and shaky-head rigs but not a single bite on those.  My day didn’t start out too good; I had caught one dink by noon but then I decided to try something.  I was fishing my wacky rig on braid, and Rob was using fluorocarbon (and he was catching fish) so as a test, I put the wacky rig onto my other rod which has mono, and lo and behold, I also started catching fish.  So, in daylight and clearer water, it *seems* the bass can see the braid pretty easily and do shy away from it if you’re using it for slower presentations like worms (that’s my theory anyway, feel free to chime in).  Here are a couple of the pics from today:

We saw lots of fish on the fish finder and if they were bass, they were in schools and suspended and not interested in anything we threw at them.  I think almost every fish we caught today was caught near shore, either against the reeds/weeds or close to rocks, in shallow water and we caught the majority of fish after noon.

Although it was a bit chilly early on (and I forgot the sandwiches I had made for us at home – hence the title of this post), it ended up turning into a really beautiful day; no wind at all, pleasant temperatures, and some great fishing – in a real bass boat

Or, I end up with frostbite .  I know it’s been a while since I was able to get some sunrise pics, so without further ado, here are a couple from this morning:

May as well throw in a couple of rice field pictures while I’m at it:

And yes, call me insane, but I was out at the river at 5:45 once again, frost on the ground and all.  Yes, my friends, it was cold and I had to go back to the car every 20 minutes to warm my hands back to the point where I could feel again.  The bass don’t seem to mind the cold that much, although the action didn’t pick up until around 6:30, once it started getting light.  I caught two dinks, and this one here, on black, 5-inch Senkos.  I did try a spinner bait for a while, with no takers.

First the good news:  I headed out this morning to the river and got in 45 minutes of fishing, didn’t donate a single spinner bait to the river  – and managed to catch five bass in that time.  “That’s great!” you say.  Well, yeah, except every single one of them was a dink, and by dink I mean, well, let me show you:

I have no idea what this bass was thinking, going after my 1/2 ounce spinner bait but go after it it did.  The other fish (and I use the term loosely) were all caught on Senkos. 

I also saw that yet another pile of garbage had grown over the weekend, 10 feet from the pile I talked about in this comment.  Now it’s time for a cup of hot green tea to help me thaw out.