Fishing Korea

I apologize for the light posting lately but it’s been a bit hard for me to get out of bed in the mornings for the last few weeks; partly because I have this cold that’s been like a pit bull, hanging in there and refusing to let go, and also partly because it’s summer and I know that the fish won’t be biting like they were not too long ago.  Excuses aside, I went out this morning and threw a spinnerbait for a while and just managed to avoid a skunk by catching one, and only one.

That has got to be the crappiest release pic I’ve taken to date…can you even tell that’s a fish?  The water is still pretty clear but the green algae is starting to grow and if this summer is like the last few, then the entire river will be a nice shade of green in about a month, if not sooner.  That’ll be spinnerbait and chatterbait time

Ty and I took the SS Netcutter out today despite KMA’s forecast for rain and strong winds.  It’s a good thing we didn’t trust KMA because there was only a bit of wind and no rain at all.

The heady days of spring are behind us and now that summer is here, fishing is a whole new ball game.  I love spring fishing but at times, it is a lot like shooting fish in a barrel.  For the most part, you basically tie something on your line and go catch fish and if you’re having a hard time catching bass in spring, then you may as well hang it up .  Now summer is completely different and although we don’t catch the quantity we catch in spring, the fishing is just as much fun, if not more so because you have to figure out where the bass are, what they want, and how they want it.  Without proper electronics, finding them is the hard part.  We did find a few and ended up catching 12 today, the only ones that were pic-worthy were the three above.  We tried everything, everywhere – crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, jigs and of course, wacky and Texas-rigged Senkos.  Even though someone didn’t bring the sandwiches, which adversely affected my ability to fish (just kidding, Ty ), it was another great day out on the water. and I hope we get a few more in before it gets too miserable out there.

I batted 500 this morning, which I was still happy with, considering how bleak it’s been the last few weeks and that we’re into the post-spawn and summer..

Today was combination day; I threw spinnerbaits, a jig and also a Karu Lures Vibrashock.  The morning started out quiet without a bite for the first hour so I was getting resigned for another skunk and standing there day dreaming while throwing a spinnerbait (white/red, of course) when a bass nailed the lure.  I was so surprised to have a fish on that I didn’t set the hook, didn’t lower the rod tip to keep the fish from jumping – so that’s exactly what it did, and threw the lure.  That got the juices flowing again and after 10 minutes or so, I caught the above.  Sorry for the crappy release pic but it’s been a while and I’m out of practice .

First, a few sunrise pics:

I decided to try something completely different this week, which was to leave the Senkos in the bag.  “Why the heck would you want to do that?” you ask.  Very good question, and one I asked myself all week .  But I proclaimed this week as “jig week” and jigs it was, for better or worse.  The week in review:

Tuesday, I tried a different spot than the one I usually fish in the morning.  This spot has rocks along the shore, but not so much in the water as my regular spot and since I was worried about getting snagged on every cast, I started jig week here and in about 1 1/2 hours worth of fishing, caught this one, the biggest of the week.

Wednesday was a Korean holiday so wisely, I stayed in bed to avoid the crowds; a wise decision indeed but I went back to my regular spot on Thursday.  A while ago I read an article on jig fishing which stated that although you’ll get much fewer bites on a jig than other lures, the size of the fish you catch makes up for the lack of bites.  Well, neither one of these two fellows have obviously ever read that or any other article on jig fishing.  When the dink on the right hit, I set the hook so hard that I completely pulled that fish out of the water and flipped him behind me on the shore – I bet that’s the last jig that bass ever hits.

Today, I was back at it bright and early and threw that jig for over two hours and this fish was my only reward, and I caught it pretty early.  Nothing at all after that, I’m sad to say.  I walked what felt like a mile, back and forth, covering every inch of that area but I couldn’t get another bite to save my life.  But hey, I’m not really complaining, I caught more bass on jigs these three days than I have in my entire life.  LOL

Now.  For those of you that like fishing jigs, my hat is off to you.  You’re better men than me.  It was killing me to think that my trusty Senkos were within reach and that I could possibly catch more fish if I just put that jig down but I was stubborn and determined to use nothing but a jig this week (it wouldn’t be “jig week” if I used something else, would it?).  The really great news is that I didn’t lose a single jig and I think that’s because I was using these new Zero Gravity jigs which have a very slow sink rate but are also pretty light which makes them a bit harder to cast any distance.  I don’t know, maybe I was fishing the jig wrong; I was basically casting it out and hopping it back, raising the rod tip then letting the jig sink, and sometimes giving small jerks while slowly reeling in.  If anyone can give me any tips, I’d appreciate it.  I was told that it’s more productive to flip and pitch vs. casting out and reeling in like I was.  Next time I go out in the boat, I’ll try that.  In a way, it was pretty interesting, trying to figure out how to make the bass bite on a lure I was really unfamiliar with (and still am, to be honest), and it was also a bit frustrating when I didn’t get any results.  Senkos have spoiled me!  So that was pretty much it for jig week… maybe next week will be “spinnerbait week”?

Yesterday morning, the river was super high, there was a strong current, the water was muddy and I also had a strong wind in my face (quadruple whammy) – in other words, the fishing was rough.  I only caught a couple, not a one over a pound, hence no pics from yesterday.  Despite it being a Korean holiday, I tried my luck again this morning and it was the complete opposite of yesterday; the water had dropped about 1 1/2 feet – 2 feet, there was no current, no wind and the water had cleared up a bit so I thought it was going to be a great morning, especially since I caught 3 fish in the first 20 minutes.  But once it got light, I couldn’t get a bite to save my life no matter what I threw.  Go figure.

The above is the biggest of the 3 I did catch (on a 5-inch Senko, black with blue flakes) and as you can see, it was still dark out.  And Steve, you were right (You jinxed me, buddy! )…that area was packed with carp fishermen and they did camp out overnight, in style, I might add.  They had a huge tent set up out there, big enough for 10 people, plus a couple of smaller tents.  I thought that maybe there was going to be some kind of tournament out there this morning, the tent was so big.  But fortunately all the carp muttons were all crammed into one area so I did have some room to fish.

If you live in Korea, then you know that it rained cats and dogs yesterday and last night, and I figured that all that rain turned the river to the color of chocolate milk – and yes, the water was pretty nasty out there this morning.  I had a theory, and as long-time readers of this blog know, most of the time my theories don’t pan out too well   – but for once my idea was spot on.  And that was to use a spinnerbait out there; not any spinnerbait, but one with a colorado blade in front of a willow blade for the additional noise/vibration.  In red/white, of course

As you can see, the morning turned out a lot better than I thought it would, considering how muddy the water was.  And to think I almost stayed in bed!

I went to a different area this morning, the same area I did so well in for a couple of weeks last spring, and where I caught my first 50cm bass – hoping that the fish were in there or hadn’t moved out to deeper water yet.  I started out with 5 and 4-inch Senkos and got dinked…I think I caught 7 or 8 dinks in a row and they were tearing my Senkos to shreds so I decided to switch to a spinnerbait to see if there were any bigger bass in the area.

The bass in the first pic was the biggest of the ones I caught on Senkos, the other two, as you can see, were caught on my trusty red/white spinnerbait, which I fished parallel to the rocks.  This weird spring weather we’ve had has really thrown me for a loop because I’ve gotten used to the bass being in certain areas at certain times but this year, it’s anybody’s guess.

Or, spinnerbait day because that’s all I threw today unless you want to count the 15 minutes I wasted tried a buzzbait.

I thought I’d stick with spinnerbaits because the water is really murky; not sure why…maybe it’s all the green algae that’s growing like mad.  I don’t remember the algae growing like this so early before…it usually doesn’t start appearing until later on in the summer when the water gets warmer.  It sure has been an odd spring so far.

How many people can you fit into a small inflatable?  Four, that’s how many.  I have no idea how these guys are going to fish since they barely had room to sit in that boat.