Fishing Korea

The title pretty much sums up my day this past Saturday, but at least I got out on the water, something I haven’t been able to do much of this year unfortunately.  I got out there very early and was fishing by 5 AM, with the moon still high in the sky.  I thought that was pretty early, but Nomad and Ty were already out there and had probably caught a few by then too.  Animals!!  LOL 

I caught a whole bunch of small ones, but a couple of nice ones as well, all pretty much on a black/blue chatterbait with a blue craw trailer.  I caught a few on Senkos as well, but the main bait of the day was the ch-ch-ch-chatterbait. 

I also spent a lot of time in this area, which looked really bassy to me, but not even a hint of a bite.  In all I fished for about 11 hours, drank at least five bottles of water, and was dead to the world after I got back home around 5 PM.  I’d like to do it again this Saturday but it’s supposed to rain, plus these temperatures have just been brutal this week. 

Had a great day out on the water with Steve this past Saturday.  We didn’t catch a cubic butt-load of fish as Nomad and Ty did the day before, but a respectable 15 or so, and Steve managed to land a couple of really nice ones in the 3.5 pound range, one of which is pictured below.  I had a great time Steve, and hope to do it again sometime soon!! 

YT Fishing and KSA also sponsored a tournament on Sunday that drew a crowd to the PBA area unlike one I have never seen before.  I didn’t fish that day, but saw several nice 4+ pound fish brought in to the weigh-in station, and for anybody heading out this weekend, spinnerbaits were apparently the lure of choice for the big ones. 

I also had the pleasure of meeting Mike and his buddy for the first time out there on Saturday.  It was a pleasure to meet the both of you, and I hope to see you out on the water again sometime soon.   

Well the weekend that I had been planning for months finally came and we made the annual trek to Busan for the amberjack run. This year we bumped up the number from 5 to 8 people. The boat seemed to be large enough for 8 but we only fished 7 rods (me and Rene shared). They said we were a bit early this year, but that didn’t stop us. We still had a blast. We didn’t get the mother load like TexMex had in years past but we got a fine mess of fish. 27 amberjack, 2 mackerel, and one nice red snapper. We had two greater amberjacks hooked but they were both lost. The first spit the Korean style hook, the second broke the 20lb main line. It’s funny that the 15lb leader stood up but the main line busted and I just bought that spool less than a year ago. Oh well. I hope you enjoy the pics. I even got a nice sunrise one.

Went and stayed at a pension house this weekend with 2 other families on Modo (one of the islands north of Inchon Airport). One of the wife’s friends knew a guy with a boat there and he gave us a free trip out for some hand line fishing for sea bass. There were 3 of us guys with 4 kids so we weren’t there for some serious fishing. Just handlining for whatever would bite. We ended up with a descent mess. Sashimied up a few for a midday snack. the rest went on the grill or in the soup pot. Still it was pretty fun overall.

Leaving out tomorrow to Okinawa for a week. Hoping to get in an offshore trip for some "big uns"

I was finally able to get out and do a little bass fishing, but it took coming to the states to do it.   

This past weekend my brother-in-law took me out on Lake Barkley in Kentucky for a little summertime post-spawn drop fishing.  It started out kind of slow on Saturday morning with my brother-in-law catching a nice catfish on a jig, and both of us catching a few dinks.  So, after an hour or two of that we decided to hit another area, one that to me looked like the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but in reality was a nice little drop that had a slight bend in it, which thankfully for us proved to be one of the best spots on the lake (for bass fishing) that particular day.  For an hour and a half we hauled in largemouth after largemouth, on nearly every single cast, with at least ten of them being 4 pounds or better.  It was truly a phenomenal day, and one that I will remember for years to come. 

Oh, and by the way, I bought a new camera too. 

Here are a few pics:

Wait a minute, that’s not a bass! 

Well the best made plans always have a way of going sour if you know what I mean. I had been planning for weeks to camp at Idong and fish at night with the catfish rods baited with live bluegill. We went to Idong Wednesday and it was WAY down. The water was dirty, smelly and just horrible. I have never seen it like that. Neither me nor my daughter wanted to stay and I don’t think I could have caught a bluegill if I tried. We went home and I quickly changed gears for a beach trip. We went back to Taean National Seashore and camped at Mongsanpo beach campground. It was pretty fun. While there I got a few sunset pix. I also checked out the harbor for some possible deep sea fishing info. The comercial boats were coming in loaded with some big fish. Got a few promising phone numbers. We’ll see if that pans out. We woke up the next morning and headed back up to Gungpyeong. I had noticed on Google that the harbor there was about done. I hadn’t fished there in over a year and a half. When I arrived, things had changed quite a bit. There is now a HUGE fish market there. Plus they constructed an American style fishing pier there. A very nice large Y-head pier jutting out from the harbor wall and it was free. I couldn’t pass it up, so we fished for a few hours. It reminded me of fishing on the Gulf Coast. I haven’t seen anything like this before in Korea. We had a few bites on cut squid, but no one was really catching anything except for small bait stealers. We then went and fished the rocks on the other side of the seawall where we had done well before and began to slay the small flatheads. My daughter caught about 2 dozen in an hour (3-6 inches). It got me thinking that maybe we shoud go there in the afternoon and load up on some small flatheads for bait and take them to the new pier for a night trip. The new pier was a pleasant surprise. At only 55 min from the house, I can see me using that a few times. I bet it gets CROWDED on the weekends though. Anyway the fishing wasn’t so great, but I got even more phone numbers in Gungpyeong as well. Soon I will find a decent offshore charter close by without having to drive all the way to Busan.

Dave

• Date: June 21st, 2009
• Entry Fee: 50,000 Won
• Deadline for Entry: Must be paid in full by June 10th, 2009 or you will lose your slot
• KSA has allotted 20 slots for us Waegooks, so if you’re interested contact KSA Pro Pete Hart ASAP at petehart8@yahoo.com
  • Pete will need your name, SSN and DOB for identity theft insurance purposes 

That’s the skinny.  Pete can fill you in on the specifics.

Just sending you a post for a spectacular trout fishing trip we had this weekend at Eleven Mile Reservoir and the South Platte River just below the lake. We left very early for about a one hour trip from Colorado Springs to the lake and river. It was a beautiful drive where we got to see a herd of elk, antelope, and mule deer. We also got to see a red fox and some coyotes. I can say that this place is very beautiful, well kept and clean. When we got to the lake, we found a small cove where we threw spoons, spinners and finally fly fished. Between me and my partner we caught about eighty 12-14 inch trout before we got tired and went to the South Platte River to go after some bigger trout. We managed to catch some bigger trout (Rainbows, Cutbows, and Browns) and kept the ones on the picture for a fish BBQ. All in all this was the best trout fishing trip I have ever been on and am looking forward to catching a trout this year that will go over 5 pounds. I just have to be patient and eventually she will end up at the end of my line, I hope. Tight lines to you all and keep catching them nice bass in Korea before they become extinct.

From Hunter Dave:

Between being very busy this winter and all the exercises lately, the rug rat and I hadn’t had any opportunities to fish yet this year. With spring break coming, we decided to book a family vacation in Guam at the Pacific Islands Club resort. I sneakily used this opportunity to book an offshore fishing trip from the marina on the Guam Naval Base. After complying with the family stuff like parasailing, snorkeling, sailing, windsurfing, jet skiing, diving, etc, my turn came around. Unfortunately the wife and daughter weren’t feeling too good the morning of the trip, so I had to go it alone. Probably was a good thing since it was a little rough with 4-6 foot seas by the time we were heading back in. We went out in the 23 ft center console and started trolling for Wahoo right outside Apron harbor to no avail. We then went further past the drop off and started trolling for Mahi-mahi and yellow fin under working birds. That pattern quickly paid off as we hooked into our first double of the morning. We did so well and there was no way I could use all the meat that I shortened our trip from six to four hours. We had 12 hookups and was able to boat 8 nice Mahi-mahi over about a two and a half hour span. I definitely filled that fishing void for a little while and had some outstanding sashimi to boot. We ate like kings that night. I have to say that the snorkeling over there was fantastic. Almost makes me want to get stationed there. We were all a little sad to come back to Korea.

I have a feeling that the weather is going to break any day now though!    At least I had the river to myself today, which trust me, is a rare occurrence no matter what the weather may be.

My dog Amy didn’t seem to mind the white stuff. 

Alan and I have always wondered if there were catfish in the Pyongtaek River, and now we know.  When I went out early Tuesday morning this is the last thing I expected to catch, especially on a shaky-head worm.  Anyone ever seen, or caught one of these things?  I think the Koreans call them Mae-gi.

In addition to the catfish, I caught several small bass…

…and then finished up the day catching this little pig on a 4″ chigger craw in the early afternoon.  About thirty minutes before, something nailed my Senko and nearly pulled the rod out of my hands, so I had a feeling that there was a decent fish in the area.  I stuck with it and finally got her to bite, but only after changing baits and then very slowly working it through the tall weeds.

I received the following entry and pics from Tex Mex in Colorado:

Went out to a mountain lake with mine and my friends family.   The kids had a blast as we again caught our limit. Being that we are each allowed four trout a piece, we were able to keep twenty of them.  Everyone caught fish on a variety of baits to include powerbait, spoons, flies and small spinners. Next day we had ourselves a BBQ and tore up the fish along with some cold beer. Nothing goes better than BBQ fish,beer, and friends. As you can see, Bigfoot must have been spotted out here as they have Bigfoot crossing signs up in the mountains. It is truly beautiful out here and it’s an experience the kids will always cherish. Good luck with the fishing in Korea.       

Busan Offshore Amberjack Report

After what seemed like an eternity since the last time I was able to wet a line (my broken foot and my daughter’s broken wrist) we finally made our way to Busan for the amberjack migration. I have been planning this trip for an entire year since TexMex made his post last October. A group of 5 of us hooked up with the guide that Tex recommended. The guide wanted us to be there at 0245 for an 0330 departure. The captain made our way over to the harbormaster’s office and we were cleared to leave the port at 0400 sharp. Weather was perfect and seas were fairly smooth. However we all made use of the seasickness patch behind the ear just in case. We arrive at the spot at about 0440. They fire up the lights and start chumming. Within a few minutes we were under siege by huge schools of 8-12 inch jack mackerel. We could see that there were a few larger fish underneath, but we couldn’t get our bait down past the mackerel before they would pick it clean or hook themselves. This went on for about an hour and a half until it got light out. We only managed two amberjack during this time but landed about 40 mackerel. If we were specifically targeting them we could have easily caught hundreds if not thousands of them but we were doing our best to avoid them. They disappeared as it got light and the fishing kind of slowed down. After a while the captain gets word that the fish are biting well a couple hundred yards away (there were about 20 boats in the general vicinity) so we move a little ways and the fishing really picked up. We landed some more amberjack, a few more mackerel, and a few odd green colored fish that the captain said didn’t taste very good. They were still fun to catch because they would readily go airborne. All in all we had a good time. We didn’t get the numbers compared to some of the other boats, but it was a good trip. Me and my daughter Rene were the only experienced anglers on the trip though. Total tally was 20 amberjack and about 50 mackerel. I want to give a special thanks to Tex for setting us up with the guide. I have also included the obligatory sunrise picture. 

Sorry for the delay in posting this Tex.

Went to pick up my car shipped from Korea in LA, so decided to do some more deep sea fishing with my friend Tony Rodriguez, who used to work in Korea and fished several of the Andong tournaments with me. Over all it was a great trip as there were only four customers (Tony, my son another man and I) in the entire boat along with the four man crew. We caught all kinds of sand bass, sculpin, and some small grouper.  I am holding some of the grouper that were caught at a very deep depth.  I caught these two at the same time on live sardines and let me tell you, it wore me out trying to bring them in from the deep water.  As you can see their eyes are bulging from being brought in from the deep water. The other one that Tony is holding is a nice and good eating whitefish. Notice how he holds the fish way out to try and make it look big   After the trip we took all the fish home and prepared them in a beer batter.Let me tell you, beer batter fish and beer go very well together. Hope you all keep catching em.

My wife and I went to Gosam and rented a boat yesterday.  It was a beautiful day, but once again the fishing was extremely tough going.  All of the ones we caught were very small, and were caught out in deeper water, 33′ to be exact.  Once I realized that they were holding deep I put on a shaky head rig, and although I got numerous bites I couldn’t set the hook on one to save my life.  Either the fish were really small, or I was doing something wrong.  Any pointers?  Yesterday was the first time I tried a shaky head rig so I really have no clue. 

Gosam is actually a very beautiful lake, but I’ve never had much luck fishing out there. 

That right there says it all, doesn’t it?  LOL