I have seen this pond from the highway every time I go fishing, but I have never been to it. Last Saturday while I was on my way home from fishing I thought “what the heck” and stopped by this pond. It is a tiny little pond and I didn’t really think there could be any bass in it, so I parked the car and had a walk around. There was nobody fishing, but as I walked around the banks, I noticed one or two empty plastic worm and hook packets laying around along with some carp fisherman trash.
So Thursday, I went back to the pond to spend the day. My plan was to fish with several different techniques (one hour per each technique) that I don’t use regularly to try and learn new or better ways to catch bass.
Anyway, long story short, I was fishing a lipless crank slowly along the pond bottom when this nice 16 inch bass grabbed it and gave me a very nice fight. My first bass from this new pond!
Nice fish Steve. Guess you’ll be going back there.
Thanks Mike, if the temps are right, I’ll be there again next week
Nice going Steve. Sometimes you just have to take a chance, stop and check an area out. You just never know, and you proved that point once again…
Thanks Rob.
Normally I hate the fact that Korean fishermen (both Carp and Bass) leave their trash laying around the banks making these places look terrible, but when you are checkin’ out a new water where there may or may not be any bass, I’m always happy to see empty worm packets
LOL Steve. That reminds me of the time a few of us guys from here drove an hour and a half to a lake that none of us had ever fished before. Gary had driven by it on his way down south for work one day, and thought it looked good, so we decided to give it a try one Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t long after we arrived, and before any of us had even wet a line, that we saw signs of bass in the lake – empty worm packs on the ground, and broken lines with bass lures still on them hanging in the nearby trees and power lines!!! LOL
Nice bass Steve. You just seem to have the magic touch, no matter where you go. You, Rob and Nomad are the three Korean fishing honchos. So Rob did you all catch anything in that pond?
Good going, Steve! And no ice!!!
Please provide directions. I live by Camp Hump.
Nomad – There was no ice, but with these night time temps in the 20′s we are having, the ice will be coming back. Hopefully I can make it out again next week as I have just got a few mods made to my inflatable boat and now I need to try them out
Maurice – Unfortunately, I live way down South from you, about 5 hours South. I’m sure Nomad and Rob can point you in the right direction though.
Steve
That’s what I’m needing a line wet and not freezing me or the line. Good looking winter fish.
Nomad
Guessing the water down your way is frozen up pretty good, eh?
Maurice
If nothing else pull out a map and pick a body of water around the Hump and start plunking likely spots. Worst you can get is skunked and I am the master of that. Theres the river and 3-4 ponds east of you that are candidates that I know about.
Of course, you’d likely be bouncing your lures off ice right now, unless Nomad answers my questions different than I think he will.
I just came back from Japan where it only hit freezing once in the weeks I was there. Unfortunately, had no chance to fish.
Wilsong,
Yep, the river, for the most part, has been frozen solid for the last month or so – at least in the areas I like to fish.
Steve,
Do you have any idea how those bass got into that small pond? Is it somehow attached to a small tributary or something or do you think they were deliberately stocked in there?
Dave
I have no idea if it’s true or not, but have often heard that fish eggs can be carried by birds, such as ducks, inadvertently, from one lake to another. Anybody else ever hear of this?
Tex, yes we caught a few fish, but for some reason never went back there.
Maurice, there are so many lakes with bass in them over here that it would be hard “not” to find one. If you’re interested in specifics, leave your email address here and I’ll send you a map with some suggestions.
HunterDave – There are 2 feeder streams coming into this pond, but as far as I know these streams just come from the surrounding mountains. I can only assume the pond was stocked, but by who or what?? I have no idea.
Rob – I too have heard many times about fish eggs been transfered from water to water by ducks and other birds. There is a bigger lake not far from this pond that has a lot of bass and ducks.
Rob,that will be great. My email is: maurice.yoshikawa@gmail.com
Sent you an email Maurice…
Hi
I am down in gumi near daegu. we have a lot of rivers around us. Is there anywhere in particular you can recommend to me ?
Martine – there are some great lakes and ponds in the Daegu area for Bass fishing, butI don’t live there, so I can’t really give you an exact answer. I’m sure there will be bass in the rivers, so just throw some lures out there and see what you can find. Good luck.
I’m not familiar with that area either Martine, but would guess that there are bass in those rivers, just get out there and give it a shot…
Cheers thanks. I will give it a go and let you know how it goes. I am new to fly fishing so I am not really confident at it. I tend to stick with sea fishing.
Martine, if you are willing to try fly fishing you could catch several smaller species like bluegill and small bass, great fun on a fly rod. Now maybe a little early in the year for fly fishing. Try fishing with lures at this time of year.
I have some low quality maps showing some bass lakes and ponds in the Daegu area. If you are interested, leave your email address here and I’ll send them to you.
Martine
Several guys in the Daegu area have fished the river going by Daegu for years. Am told the river running east of Daegu has some manmade structure and/or riffles that are great for bass. Would imagine equal fishing east and south of Daegu is the same. There were also guys I havel talked to fishing out of Kayaks on the Naktong river near Daegu.
Just south of Waegwan on the old highway 4 where it intersects with MSR 1 going to Daegu, there is a road headed south with a neat little pond with bluegill and bass in it.
Also I have seen people fly fishing north and west of Gumi off of Highway 45. Probably they were after chubs and keuri (two korean fish species) but……
Lastly, it is very likely the portion of the Naktong river running through Gumi has bass in it in the places where it has some depth to it.
Find you a piece of likely water, and start chunking away. At the worst you can tie me for getting skunked. If you see fishing trash around, it is very likely you can do some catching too.
hey guys… im new to the site and was just hoping for some advice.. ive just come over from sydney australia and ill be living in daejeon for quite a while and was wondering if anyone could help me with infomation about fishing the area.. im willing to fish for anything as im pretty depsperate for a fish right about now.. im pretty new to fresh water fishing but have done some bass and trout fishing in aus.. australian bass dont grow to the size of these largemouth bass i see in the pictures so not sure what kind of gear i would need..
i have brought over some of my own gear.. i have a daiwa certate 2500r custom spooled with 12lb braid, shimano stella 3000 spooled with braid and 1000 spooled with 4lb, ive got a daiwa 7ft 2-4kg rod.. would that be enough to fish for bass? also has anyone done any saltwater fishing here and whats it like? also any decent tackle shops here? im a tackle junkie lol
Hey Tri, glad to see you join up here.
The tackle you have with you will be OK so long as you are fishing in places with little to no snaggy structure or cover. For bass fishing, I like to use a minimun of 6lb line, but I know of several people using 4lb line.
As for tackle stores, there may be several stores in your area that you can find what you need. If you can get some help from a Korean friend, there are tons of online stores.
In March 12th ~ 14th, there is the yearly fishing expo in Seoul. If you can make it there, that will have plenty of tackle to satisfy your needs
For fishing, March will be a better month for finding bass. Just go to the local lakes, ponds and rivers during any Saturday and Sunday, and if there are bass there, there will be people there fishing. Just look around the banks for evidence of bass fishing, like empty packets of plastic worms, lures and hooks.
thanks for your help again steve
just wondering the river that runs through daejeon is really shallow and is like ankle deep most of the time and maby knee deep if your lucky in the deeper sections… they are fixing up the river bank and all the sediment and crap is every where.. would the river still hold fish?
Tri
Have seen fishing shows on FTV that fish the western part of the river it runs into, Geumchon gang I think. Particularly where there are irrigation ditches radiating from it. So it is possible. Other parts of the bigger river hold Korean species that bite well on small grubs, spinners or spoons. So definitely opportunity to fish.
Follow Steve’s guidance otherwise, as this discussion on a new pond indicated.
Ocean fishing is harder to come by. If you want to charter a boat you need a Korean speaker to help you out. Mackerel, japanese sea bass, amberjack, flounder, rockfish and beltfish are the common catches in season. In places where you can follow tide out among rocks you can fish the tide for flounder and rockfish in the right seasons. Saw an eel caught that way also. Some islands are accessible for this as well as some areas off the Taean peninsula. Others surely are around that I don’t know about.
Steve
This summer I have got to try come down around your area and try for the sea bass.
thanks for the help mate.. do you know if i can watch any of these fishing shows on the internet? a mate is organising a boat at the end of this month to do some ocean fishing so hope it’ll be good.. =)
if you do decide to come this way for a fish and want some company give me a heads up.. it would be good to meet new people interested in the sport…
Tri
Not a problem. Possibly don’t know for sure but FTV is definitely available in most cable systems. It is all in KOrean but reading road signs and listening closely to locations tell somethings about where they are.
One correction the river name is the Geumgang not Geumcheongang. That is like saying Geum creek river I think.
Any other time I’d ask about a place on the boat but am tied up with work from next week until mid March.
Good luck.
Tri,
You can watch the FTV shows on the internet, but you will need to pay a fee every 6 or 12 months, but you can watch any of the shows at any time, but you will definately need some Korean help with the log in and navigating the site. Link below.
http://www.kfish.co.kr/
For freshwater fishing, all I can suggest is to look on Google Earth and find a pond, lake or river and give it a go.
Wilsong,
If you head down this way for some sea bass, I’ll look into a charter boat to take us and I’ll come with you. It’s funny how that I live a stone’s throw from the sea, but I never even tried to fish it.
Thanks fellas,
You guys have been a great help.. I’ll let you all know how I do 1st chance I get to go for a fish.. In Aus I live right next to the ocean and normally fish for saltwater species like kingfish, trevally(i think you guys call them jack crevals?) and smaller tuna so this type of fishing is pretty different to what I normally do.. What is the average size of the bass you get in Korea and what is considered to be a good fish?
Tri,
A good sized bass is any bass that I can catch and land
A decent bass here is around 40cm/16 inch and a “good” bass would be anything over 50cm/20 inch.
I need to go fishing badly. The weather forecast shows good conditions next week, so it looks like I will be out there then
Methinks I need to check my own blog a little more
Thanks for helping tri out there, Steve and Wilsong!
No problems Nomad, just so long as Tri posts his fish photos here after he’s caught a few
I sure liked your answer:
Amen, brother, amen!
LOL, it won’t be long now Nomad, and we’ll all be catching bass again.
If i can catch a few………. LOL
Lol Tri, I’m sure you can
and we’ll be here waiting to see them.
I was curious if the gear being sold at the Seoul Fishing Expo is going to be over priced (given past experiences)? I was going to order a couple rods online from Cabelas, but wanted to ask before. Is there a certain Korean bran of rod that is just as good as a St Croix or something like that? I am sure you get my drift.
Thanks!!