Fishing Korea

This morning was one of those days where the planets lined up perfectly, the gods were smiling down on me, and best of all, the bass were biting.  But first, let’s have a couple of sunrise pics, which have been lacking on this site lately:

I got out to the river around 4:30 and had 3 bites (and 3 fish) in the first 5 casts.  That kind of day.  I’m not sure what turned the fish on all of a sudden, but hey, who am I to complain?  Granted, a lot of them were dinks, but I also caught some nice ones today.

I didn’t weigh or measure the fish in the second pic because it was gut-hooked and bleeding pretty good and I wanted to get it back in the water as fast as possible but that was a nice fish, nice and fat.  I lost another one like it or bigger, that one took me into the rocks and broke/cut my line.  All fish were caught on black, 4-inch Senkos.  I wasted a lot of time also threw rattle traps and crankbaits for about 45 minutes with no takers which goes to show you; if it’s Senkos they want, then give ‘em Senkos .

This morning was interesting, to say the least.  I learned a few things; like that once I got the magnetic brakes and tension knob set up just right, I can cast my new baitcaster just fine with light lures, I’m getting a good 30 yards or more now, which is fine.  Another thing I learned was to look behind me when I cast any baitcaster; this morning while attempting to make a long cast with a rattle trap, I hooked into my Senko rod, which was right behind me.  The result:  A rattle trap stuck in my jacket sleeve, and the absolute worst backlash I’ve ever seen on a reel .  And yes, boys and girls, this trick works great!!!  I thought for sure I was going to have to cut off my new Spiderwire Fluoro line, but by using the technique in that video, I had the mess cleared up in less than 5 minutes.

Here are some pics from this morning:

Oh, and another thing I learned this morning is that even though a crankbait/rattle trap has 2 sharp treble hooks, bass can and will still jump and throw the lure.  How, I have no idea because when one of those hooks gets caught on my tackle bag or the carpeting in my trunk, it takes forever to get loose.

What a beautiful day it is today – hope you guys got out there this morning while the getting was good.  No wind at all, the water in the river is clean, and the fish were biting.  You can’t ask for much more than that.

I started out in my favorite spot nice and early but the only thing biting there were dinks and after having a few Senkos torn up by them, I headed out for greener pastures.  I had planned on parking and then taking a nice long walk, stopping every few feet to fish the weeds but as you can see, the carp fishermen beat me to it and they were out in force today (I thought maybe it was a Korean holiday as well).  So I changed my plans and headed to another area where I could also practice with my new baitcaster reel that I recently bought just for lighter lures.

Continue reading ‘Memorial Day (Already!)’ »

I took a couple of days vacation in conjunction with the 3-day weekend so yesterday morning I drove out to the river, even though it was raining hard and the wind was blowing strong. Once I got out there, I found that fishing was almost impossible due to the wind. I only caught one dink near the rocks and then I decided to drive to Idong lake to see if I could find a corner away from the wind. The water in Idong is very low, and I was able to walk easily along the shore. I caught 3 bass, one around 2 pounds, while casting towards some clumps of grass out in the water. Unfortunately it was raining too hard for me to take out the camera, so no pictures from yesterday.
Continue reading ‘Let it Rain’ »

I started out at my favorite spot this morning, and let me tell you, it was so foggy out there that I could barely see 2 feet in front of me.  The water is finally starting to clear up a little, which is good, but I *think* the bass are on the beds now because the bite has definitely slowed down in the last week or so – although I’m still not seeing any red tails.

Here are a couple of sunrise pics, taken from my fallback spot…the fog was starting to lift by then but it was still a bit hazy out.
Continue reading ‘Hump Day’ »

That’s what the river is like after the rains this weekend.  Rob warned me yesterday that the water is really muddy but one thing I did learn last year was that if I want to go fishing, I just go, unless it’s too windy or we have a torrential downpour.

That should give you an idea of what the water is like out there right now – I think the only time I’ve seen it worse was after the monsoon rains.

But.
Continue reading ‘Nasty’ »

At least once a year, my friend James Card likes to pop in and comment on the fact that I rely on Senkos too much, and he did so again just the other day.  To quote: “Nomad–you really have to give up this senko addiction. Bass can be caught on other things.” And just like the last time he threw it out there, I once again took the bait like a pre-spawn bass pouncing on an unsuspecting shad.  Yep, as much as this may shock you, I left the house this morning with…NO SENKOS .  Or any other soft baits.  I had originally planned on throwing spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, crankbaits/rattle traps and jigs, but nixed the jig idea after donating not one, but two spinnerbaits to the river* and reeling in a gob of algae/moss with almost every cast.
Continue reading ‘Let’s Blame James’ »

I started out at my favorite spot this morning but unfortunately, there was already a carp fisherman camped out there, complete with at least 10 spinning rods spread out by the point I like to fish. 

I couldn’t cast without crossing his lines so I had to cast really close to shore but still managed to catch two there.  After a little while, I packed up and headed to another spot.
Continue reading ‘Rattle Traps’ »

KMA said it was going to rain today but I still headed out, hoping that the rain would hold off till later, and fortunately, it did.  I started out at my favorite spot near Daenkori and caught 2 fish there, both on Senkos.

I didn’t measure the bass on the right, but I did weigh it…my scale kept fluctuating between 2.15 and 3.0 pounds and I think I’ll give myself that one and round up to 3.0

I spent a lot of time this morning throwing rattle traps, VibraShocks and spinnerbaits, and only caught the above on a VibraShock.  I ended up with 8 fish caught (7 on Senkos), but the majority were dinks.

Today was one of those days where nothing could go wrong.  The weather was great (up until around 9:30 when it started getting pretty darn hot out there), there was no wind, and with the full moon this weekend, the bass were tearing it up out there.  I started out at the same spot where I did 90% of my EMB™ fishing last year to see if anything had improved over the last month or so and much to my surprise and joy, I caught 7 bass in less than an hour.  Here are a few pics:

Around 6, I moved to the same spot where I had caught my 50cm bass earlier this week and the bass were tearing it up there too.  On my very first cast, I caught another Big Momma  

This one I remembered to weigh; 3 pounds, 11 ounces.  Yeah baby!  I then started throwing VibraShocks, spinnerbaits and crankbaits; I caught one dink on a crankbait and that was it so I switched back to Senkos and continued to catch bass.

The worm that fish hit is a Senko knockoff from Alluring Baits.  I caught 2 or 3 using those but the bass would only hit that watermelon with black flakes.  With the real Senkos, they hit black, black with blue flakes and the mystery sparkle black as well.  I ended up with a total of 18 bass this morning, which is a record for me, as far as I know.  Now granted, the majority of them were dinks but to catch that many fish plus a Big Momma made today one of the best days I’ve ever had fishing.  Rob is on his way down to Andong and if the bass down there bite even half as good as they did in the river this morning (heck, this entire week), Rob should be bringing back one hell of a report.

One final note:  I put a light crankbait ( a 2″ Rapala Shadrap) on one of my baitcasters this morning and it turned into a disaster.  Every time I tried to cast overhand, the lure went almost straight down instead of in a nice arc and I got a backlash.  Even when casting sidehanded/sideways, the lure wouldn’t go very far (maybe 10-15 feet?).  I don’t know, maybe that lure is too light?  I’ve heard about people using baitcasters for worms so that can’t be it….anyone have any tips?

This morning I had made up my mind that I was only going to use Senkos for a very short time, and spend the rest of the time throwing Karu Lures VibraShocks and spinnerbaits, no matter what.  I also hit a couple different areas – I ended up catching 12 fish, and here are a few pics of the nicest ones:

As you can see, I caught bass on white VibraShocks, bluegill-colored VibraShocks and of course, Senkos.  Not a single bite on spinnerbaits this morning and I tried several colors.  I also got brave and started throwing a crankbait with my baitcaster reel and so far, so good…I can get pretty good distance and I haven’t had a backlash yet (knock on wood).