Fishing Korea & Tennessee

The 3 or 4 of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that since 2008,  I’ve been getting up early almost every morning during the week from late March until November to go Early Morning Bass (EMB™) fishing before work and that I’ve pretty much fished the same spot/area and for the most part, I’ve done pretty good there.  I’ve had mornings where I caught 10+ bass in in hour or so, I’ve caught several bass 50cm or more, and unless it was windy or the current was running strong, I’ve always been able to catch fish.  Now granted, this year I’ve only gone out 5 times (counting this morning) due to the weather and my inherent laziness so I can’t say what, if anything has changed around that spot but except for the first day I went out, it hasn’t been all that great.  Last night, when I checked the weather for this morning, I saw that it should be what I call a perfect storm; no wind, warm temps and best of all, a front rolling through (which has always been the best time for me).  I was stoked to get out there this morning and arrived around 5:15.  When I didn’t get a bite within the first 5 minutes, I already knew it was going to be a long morning and I wasn’t wrong.  I fished everything this morning; Senkos, Zoom 10.5” ‘Ol Monster worms, rattle traps and spinnerbaits and it wasn’t until around 6:30 or so that I finally caught a small dink, and just when I was about to give it up all together and head on in to work, I caught this one on a 4” Senko (black with blue flakes).

All I can say is wow wow wow.  I would have bet someone $100 that I would clean up this morning, especially with that front rolling through and I’m glad I didn’t or I’d be $100 poorer .  Maybe that’s a sign that I can sleep in this year instead of getting up at 3-something every morning, eh?

When you’re on your way to set up and put the boat in by yourself, and have your mind all set on throwing crankbaits till your arm hurts, the last thing you want to see at 5:15 in the morning is this:

Just 2 weeks ago or so, one could drive straight ahead to the water, but as you can see, that’s not the case anymore.  Why someone dug that hole in the road, I have no idea but there it is.  Good thing I have a 4-wheel drive which allowed me to go off to the side and around the pit.

It looked like it was going to be a pretty nice day out but once I started going out into the river, I saw that it (the river) looked like someone had flushed a huge toilet into it.  Lots of nasty gunk floating at the top and the water was the color of chocolate milk.  On the way to the river, I had made up my mind that all I was going to throw today was a jig, a spinnerbait and crankbaits/rattle traps and that’s what I stuck with all morning.

I caught 5 or 6 dinks like the one on the left and then after about an hour of throwing that rattle trap into  and through weed beds, I caught the one on the right, which was the only decent bass I caught all morning.  I wish I could have stayed out there a bit longer but I had something to take care of today (plus it was getting boring without Ty there to rag on me every 2 minutes, LOL) so I was back on dry land by 11…which still gave me a good 5 hours of fishing today.

Knowing that today was a holiday, we both feared the worst but hoped for the best – we got the worst, and then some .  When Ty and I arrived at our usual spot, there was already a shortage of parking with the amount of vehicles there.  There was even a bus parked off to the side with a big group of carp fishermen cooking food outside, and everywhere we looked, we saw inflatable carp boats, either already in the water or on shore, being prepped.  Smarter people would have hauled ass and put in somewhere else but we decided to go for it anyway since we were there and we hoped we could get at some of the good spots.  That was not to be.  Once we launched and it got light enough to see, we saw that quite a few carp fishermen were already fishing (some were sleeping in their boats) and they literally had every inch of the first stretch we love to fish covered so we ended up going around all of them and ended up fishing the few areas that were available, which today, wasn’t much.  LOL, we counted over 30 carp boats just in the first stretch and on around the corner and that’s usually the best area to fish due to the reeds in and under the water.  We also couldn’t fish any of the shore later on because it too, had cars lined up bumper to bumper with both carp and bass fishermen taking up almost every available spot, not to mention the remaining carp boats which were everywhere today (there were over 50 carp boats out there today, which is amazing).  We ended up catching around 12 fish and once again, here are the few that were worthy of a pic:

The water is still pretty stained from the rains last weekend; what a difference.  Last week we had such good visibility and this week we’re back to the river I’ve come to know and love.  Today’s fish were caught on Ikas, spinnerbaits, wacky-rigged Senkos and also on drop shot rigs.  I threw some Zoom Flukes for a while but that didn’t last long.  LOL  Tomorrow, weather permitting, I’m heading off to the area I fished with my daughter a few weeks ago and hopefully, I’ll have that part of the river all to myself.  I plan on throwing some different lures and spending an hour or so on each – crank baits (which I never seem to have much luck with here in Korea), rattle traps, spinnerbaits, jigs and the rest of the time I’ll throw Senkos and drop shot rigs.

Ty and I rolled out at 4:15 again this morning and arrived at Asan Bay at 4:45 to finally see calm waters and no/little wind and almost as good, no gathering of carp muttons trying to put their boats in at the same time we were setting up.  We set up as fast as possible and had the SS Netcutter (who lived up to her name today ) in the water and ready to fish shortly after 5.  As a matter of fact, Ty caught his first fish while it was still dark enough for me to use the flash when I took the pic. What a day! We caught around 35-40 fish today (and missed/lost at least 15), but many of the fish we caught were dinks so below are some of the (more respectable) fish we took pics of:

After we were out there for about an hour or so, the wind started picking up, some dark clouds rolled in and it got pretty darned cold out on that water and then, to add insult to injury, it started raining on us as well.  At one point, Ty asked me, “what is it going to do to us next, snow?” LOL Fortunately, the rain didn’t last too long.

The river down there is the clearest I’ve seen it since I started fishing it back in 2003.  We could see the fish we caught fighting and swimming around 4-5 feet down/out or more which was pretty cool.  Every fish we caught again today was caught in the reeds which are growing pretty quick.  We caught fish on Ikas (ok, Ty caught fish on Ikas), wacky-rigged 4-inch Senkos, a black/yellow spinnerbait with one silver Colorado blade and at the end, when we thought they had turned off on us, also on drop shot rigs using black and also green Zoom Trick worms. We also threw jigs, rattle traps and other spinnerbaits with no luck at all.  The bass are up in the reeds, in 1-5 feet of water and yeah, in a couple of spots, we were catching fish in water so shallow I had to raise the trolling motor shaft up some so it wouldn’t hit bottom while we were slowly cruising along.  All it took was a patch of reeds and we were pretty much guaranteed at least one fish out of that spot.  I love that area this time of year!  I hope we get at least one more chance to get back down there before the bass move out.  Another great day out on the water and from now on, I’ll be sure to give drop shot rigs a try, especially when the fish won’t hit anything else.  We were in one area at the end and had saturated it with Ikas, Senkos and spinnerbaits with no bites but as soon as we switched to drop shots, we started catching fish.  Lesson well learned.

The weather has been pretty bad lately, with the rains, the cold and worst of all, the strong winds we’ve been having every day.  I’ve only gone out for EMB 3 or 4 times this entire month, which is unheard of for  me, someone who in the last 3 years had been out almost every morning before work from late March until November.  And no, I didn’t go EMB this morning, but Ty and I did take the SS Netcutter out on the river for a great day of fishing.  We wanted to fish down near Asan Bay but when we got there at 5, just like the last time, a freezing, hard wind was blowing off the bay so we promptly headed back up river to the ramp where we usually launch, only to find that due to construction on the levee, the levee is closed off and no one can get down to the ramp to launch their boats.  If you’re counting, or you have a boat on a trailer, that takes out both the ramps to launch from until construction is finished.  That also means no more EMB for me until the levee opens back up .  Anyway, once we saw that our back-up ramp was closed, we drove on down the road to another spot where there used to be a small ramp which is now blocked with dirt so that no one with a trailed can launch their boats – but there was just enough room for us to inflate the boat, carry it down to the water and then load it up.  We finally got on the water around 6 or so, and the wind in that part of the river was pretty light, especially on the side of the river we were fishing, which was shielded by the bluffs.  The sunshine that KMA had forecast was nowhere to be seen, and there were still dark clouds rolling through with the occasional light shower but we were determined to get some fishing in today.

Ty struck first with a blue/pearl-colored Fat Ika, and I followed suit shortly after with a wacky-rigged, black 4-inch Senko.

Could it be?  Some sunshine at last to warm things up?  We stayed on the one side of the river, hugging the bank to stay out of the wind that was slowly picking up as the day went on and continued to catch fish pretty much all along the way, on Ikas, Senkos and Spinnerbaits.  Ty was really tearing them up on those blue pearl-colored 4” Fat Ikas today.  LOL, for a while, I was feeling like I was his personal fishing guide and photographer .  Here are some of the fish we caught today…

Despite the weather and our scramble to find a place to launch the boat, it ended up being a really decent day out there.  We’re both off again tomorrow and hoping that the wind is calm enough so we can get out on Asan Bay before the bass move out of that area, if they haven’t already.  Oh, and the water temps were 52 in the morning and 60 shortly after noon.

Today was a strange day.  Ty and I had intended to fish the area we like so much this time of year, but if you recall, last Saturday we got chased off the water within an hour due to the high winds.  KMA was calling for light winds today, so we headed out there bright and early only to get there and have a cold, stiff wind blowing right in our faces.  Also, there were already plenty of carp fishermen out in their boats (we could see their lights) and the ramp was blocked with vehicles and inflated carp boats.  So, rather than fight with the carp guys and the wind combined, we turned around and drove up near Camp Humphreys and put in there.  Neither of us really likes fishing that part of the river, especially on a weekend when you have to contend with all of the other boats out there but we both thought it would be better than fighting the wind down near Asan Bay.

There was no wind at all on this part of the river, and the day started out pretty nice.  We headed to the area Rob and I have been telling Kevin to fish in Sunday’s tournament, and immediately started catching bass out of the reeds in very shallow water.

A lot of them were small dinks but the above were two of the nicer ones we caught out of that area – on wacky-rigged, black, 4-inch Senkos.  After that we moved up and fished around the island near the 2nd rest stop.

I went through a dry spell but Ty was doing pretty good with Fat Ikas.  After we moved around the end of the island, I put on a red rattle trap to fish the weed beds that are under the water.

On my 2nd cast, I thought I had hooked into a monster bass which was giving my drag a run for its money but as you can see, I had foul-hooked a carp .  LOL, that was a heck of a fight but I bet I couldn’t duplicate that if I tried for the next year.

After that we slowly made our way back to where we started from, catching a few here and there, intending on trying some more weed beds further down river but by the time we got back to near the ramp, the wind picked up and neither one of us wanted to deal with it so by noon, we called it a day and headed on home.  Another good day out on the water; I think every single fish we caught was in pretty shallow water, among the reeds.  Well, except for that carp .

Well, I finally made it back out to the river this morning before work, hoping I could get some decent fishing in.  I got out there around 5:45, which would have given me a good hour to fish.  10 minutes after I got out there, 2 other bass fishermen showed up and within 15 minutes of them, another 6 or 7 cars drove up, all with bass fishermen.  That’s a first, usually I have that spot all to myself – my guess is these guys are pre-fishing the river for the tournament this weekend.  Anyway, they were all pretty far away from me until…

I caught the above fish and before I could say “WTF!” I had about 4 or 5 guys fishing within 5 yards of me.  At that point I packed up my stuff and headed off to work, and not in the best of moods .

John and I headed out to the river at lunch time; John caught one on a lipless crankbait and another one on (I think) a Senko, and I caught one on a spinnerbait.

Unfortunately that wind was blowing something fierce which made the fishing hard but hey, as John said, “it beats sitting at the office during lunch, playing solitaire.”

Ty and I had the boat put together and on the water by 6, and it looked like it was going to be a great day, except for the carp fishing club that was having an outing today; there were tons of vehicles and the carp fishermen were putting their boats together to head out in the same area we were going to fish.  It wasn’t too cold and there was no wind when we started out and better yet, we immediately started catching bass, although they were dinks in the first spot, as you can see below.

Then we moved a little down the shore and caught one that was a little bit bigger.

Things were heating up, or so we thought…we had already caught 7 bass in an hour but shortly after 7, the wind started picking up and by 7:20 we had gale-force winds coming off Asan Bay.  The carp fishermen started heading back to shore but we tried to wait to see if it would blow over but no, the wind kept getting worse to the point where the anchor wouldn’t hold and that wind was cold to boot so we headed back to the ramp and packed up.  The weird thing was, when we got to the bridge near Camp Humphreys, which is only a few miles from where we were fishing, that part of the river was like glass, not a ripple.  A little over an hour…that has to be the shortest time we’ve ever spent out in the boat.

Ty and I took the SS Netcutter out for the first trip of 2011 and we headed right for the same areas that we fished last spring, hoping to duplicate some of the good luck we had there.

We got the boat in the water at around 6:30.  The day started out rather chilly but we both had those little hand warmer packets which are life savers once your hands get cold.  As you can see, there was no wind yet at that time and we were both itching to catch some fish.  We did catch fish, but I think we’re still a week or two away from the time when the larger bass start moving into this area.  Most of the bass we caught today were smaller, and besides the one I caught on a jig, all bass were caught on 4 & 5 inch Senkos.  And besides one or two, all were caught using the color black.  The fish wanted nothing to do with anything else we threw today (like Zoom worms, both 10.5” and 7”, various sizes and colors of Ikas, double tail grubs, and jigs).  We also lost at least 10 fish because the bass were just grabbing and holding on to the tail of the Senkos and then letting go once we were reeling them in.  The bass are also still really lethargic and most of the fish we caught, we felt as a sudden weight on the line vs. a tap-tap or hard strike.  Water temps ranged from 42 early morning to 51 after noon.  Here are some of the pics from today:

A bit after noon, that wind started kicking in and the fishing got rough.  We tried to find some areas to fish but the wind kept picking up so by 2, we decided to pack it in and head back home.  All in all, it was another great day out on the water (is there any other kind? )  My boss got me hook, line and sinker with an April Fool prank by calling me and telling me I had to report in to work to help resolve some crucial issues they were having.  I was getting bummed out but was ready to head in when he finally let on it was a prank.  I still can’t believe I fell for it but he sounded so serious on the phone  LOL  Good one John, and I owe you!  Gullible is my middle name.  Anyway, I believe that we’re a week or two away from the bigger bass migrating up in to the area we were fishing – if it continues to warm up, that is.  If everything goes well, we’ll be back out there, waiting for them.  And Ty, thanks for that hot coffee which really hit the spot early this morning!

I got this from Ty yesterday:

Hey Nomad, my Korean friend showed me this spot today and I decided to try my luck at lunch time and it turned out pretty good for one hour of fishing. I caught two and missed one.

Rob and I found out the answer to that question this morning.  We launched the boat a little after 6:30 and brother, let me tell you; it was cold.  28 degrees, to be exact.  The entire boat was covered with a thick layer of frost and I was glad I had some thick towels to put on the seat.  Starting water temps were around 38 degrees, and by the time we quit at 2, the water was up to (I think) 41.

We made our run up river and by the time we arrived at the first spot, we both felt like human popsicles.  As soon as that sun cleared the horizon (and what a welcome sight it was!) and started warming things up a bit, we started thawing out.  As you can see, the wind hadn’t started up yet and it was actually pretty calm out there.

A lone carp fisherman was braving the early morning cold.  Rob and I fished almost that entire stretch of rip rap, hoping that the bass would be in or around those rocks but no dice so we put on our hoods and made a run down river to see if things were better there.

No, they weren’t but as we approached some weeds, we saw this big momma floating on her side, still moving.  Rob netted her and she weighed in at 4 pounds, 3 ounces.  While we were weighing the fish, it had lots of energy because it tried to shake itself loose a few times so we tried to revive it by moving it through the water but I don’t think that bass made it because as we were leaving, it was still floating on its side.  Around that time, the wind really started picking up as well so we headed back up river to try to find a somewhat sheltered spot.

Above is the only fish caught today (by Rob), on a wacky-rigged Senko.  I was throwing jigs and the 10.5” Old Monster worms but I didn’t have a single bite.  It may still be too early for this area, because as I said, the water temps are still in the upper 30’s and lower 40’s but hopefully, we’ll get some warm weather here soon and things should get better within the next 3 weeks or so.