Fishing Korea & Tennessee

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. 

And some aren’t.  I had the bright idea that this weekend, we would change it up again and try the area where Ty and I did so good earlier this spring but things didn’t quite go as planned.  But, the day started out pretty awesome with this sunrise, of which you’re about to get a few pics:

We both sat there and watched the colors slowly bring the sky to life for as long as it lasted and I was busy taking these pics.  It was a bit chilly out and as soon as the sun started coming up, a pretty good wind started up (you can see how calm it was when the sun first started rising but in the last pic, you can see how choppy the water got).

After we were done watching that gorgeous sunrise, we proceeded to fish and I landed a decent one on the ‘Ol Monster worm almost right away, which had us hoping we were in for some good action.  But after that, the wind continued to pick up and the fishing was pretty rough.  We fished with jigs today about 90% of the time we were out there, pitching them into vegetation in shallow water (by staying closer to shore, we were also somewhat protected from the wind).  Ty caught one or two on the Big Ika, and I did catch one on a 4” Senko a bit later on but for the most part, 1/4 oz. Bitsy Bugs it was, with watermelon-colored Tiny Paca Craws as trailers.  Then in the early afternoon, the wind started dying down and we thought, “great, now we can really start doing some serious fishing” but then the rain started…and only one of us had a rain jacked and I’m not saying who except it was Ty that was getting wet .  We talked it over and decided to head on home; if the fish had been biting better, we would have stayed in a heartbeat but with us mostly catching dinks, we chose to make a run for shore so we could pack it in and try again another day.  All in all, another good day out on the water; an awesome sunrise to start the day, and then even though a lot of them were dinks, we had a blast with the jigs again, which we can’t seem to put down now, even when the odds are we’d catch more and maybe bigger fish with other lures.  Jigs are most definitely very, very addictive.