Fishing Korea

I couldn’t stand it anymore, especially when I saw it wasn’t going to be that cold this morning; I had to get at least one more shot in at some EMB™ fishing before the year ends.

These two were it for the morning, both caught on black, 5-inch Senkos – no takers on spinnerbaits.  Imagine that; KMA had no rain in the forecast but lo and behold, it started raining on the way to the river and it rained on and off the entire time I was out there.  I feel like I’m coming down with something so I’m sure being out in the cold and rain didn’t help much but hey, a man has to fish.  Or so I tell my wife.  Wilsong, that dink’s for you!

I’ve said it before, I’m saying it now and I’m fairly certain I’ll say it again; I cannot figure these fish out.  For the last week, they’ve been ignoring my Senkos for the most part, and have wanted nothing but spinnerbaits.  This morning, I couldn’t get a bite on a spinnerbait to save my life.

Go figure, I caught five bass, all on 5-inch Senkos – the above were the only ones worth taking a pic of though, the rest were true dinks.  The one in the 2nd pic grabbed my worm and immediately went between some rocks.  I couldn’t reel it in, but could feel the fish tugging.  I thought it was a decent fish, so I sat there for 20 minutes, waiting for the fish to swim out of the rocks, which it finally did, right before my hands froze solid.  I’m glad I had braid because those rocks would have cut mono or fluoro for sure.  Blah, I checked the weather and it’s supposed to go down to freezing or colder next week, so my my Early Morning Bass trips are numbered .

I’m starting to think I was right for once, and the bass are in their fall feeding mode right now because this morning was more of the same as the previous few days.

Dinks on Senkos while it was dark, and when it started getting light, they started hitting spinnerbaits, again.  It was nice out today so I took a pic of every fish I landed (I also had one jump and throw the lure, plus I missed a couple earlier on Senkos).  I sure hope this lasts just a few days longer.

For more than one reason.  Once again, I got out to the river a little after 5, and saw that there were two vehicles parked near the area I like to fish, which is never good news.  And sure enough, there was also a tent set up, along with at least 10 carp fishing poles spread out.  I did manage to get down to my point though, and started fishing 5-inch Senkos, black with blue flakes.  On my 4th or 5th cast, this hog grabbed the worm and took off in the other direction…no tap-tap, just an immediate bend to the rod.  This is definitely the biggest bass I’ve caught in quite a while and it made my day.  After that, I caught a few dinks and that was pretty much it for the morning.  I threw a spinnerbait for a while, but with all the carp rods spread out near me, and a pretty good breeze that sprang up, it was hard to throw anything but Senkos without tangling up in the other fishermen’s lines.  A perfect ending to what was already a good week.

This morning was a repeat of yesterday; I got out there to the river around 5:10 and while it was dark, I only had one bite on a Senko, which I missed.  A little after 6, I switched to a white/red chatterbait for a while with no luck and around 6:20, as it got light, I switched to my trusty white/red spinnerbait and once again and that’s when the action started.

Unfortunately, it was so darned cold out there this morning that I was going back to the car like every 10 minutes to warm my hands up and I also decided not to take any pics of the smaller bass I caught (only 3 of them).  Yep, I’m a wuss when it comes to cold so I only took a pic of the biggest one. With 5 minutes left, I switched to the baitcaster I use for 4-inch Senkos and caught the one in the 2nd pic.

This morning sure was interesting, to say the least.  I just couldn’t stand it anymore and set the alarm for 4 so I could at least get one more morning in there – and I’m glad I did.  I got out there to the river around 5:20 or so, and started out with Senkos.  I had one decent bite which I lost, and then a while later, caught one dink.  That was it for Senkos.  As soon as it got light, which was around 6:20 or so, I switched to a white/red spinnerbait and that’s when the fun really started.

In a 30-minute span, I caught 4 bass on a spinnerbait, and lost two when they jumped and threw the lure on me.  Granted, most of them were dinks (except for the one in the 2nd to last pic) but man oh man, I sure had a blast out there for 30 minutes.  I’ve rarely seen the bass THAT aggressive.  And Steve, if you look close, the last three I caught were caught using the spinnerbaits you made for me.  Today was definitely one of those mornings where I did NOT want to head in to work .

I headed out this morning for the first time in about a week just to see how the bass are biting in my favorite area.  I think my Early Morning Bass (EMB™) days are about over till next spring due to the cold weather early in the morning, plus the fact that it’s getting light out later and later each day.

I did manage to catch a few but for the most part, they were dinks and all they would bite were Senkos, both 5 and 4-inch.  I also tried spinnerbaits and chatterbaits for a little while but no takers this morning.  I may try some shallower areas if we get a warm morning but I think it’s time to start heading out later in the day again.

I received this from Ty to post on the blog:

We went out to the river near Asan Bay on Monday and I caught 8 and Jim caught none. So we went
back yesterday and took Owen. Owen caught the small one on the stringer in the first pic and I caught the 3 big ones. Jim caught 2 on his stringer. Jim missed 2 or three as well as me and one broke his line. Enjoy the pics and post on your blog if you don’t mind. We all were wearing chest waders. Owen had some at his work and Jim had his own pair.

Yesterday, Rob and I took his boat out on the Pyeongtaek river for what would turn out to be a much shorter trip than we both expected.  We started around 6 and the fog was so thick you could cut it with a knife, so slow going it was.  On top of that, the water was very stained, with lots of that green dust/algae floating in it which made for almost zero visibility.  We were throwing everything in our tackle boxes, to include spinnerbaits, crankbaits, chatterbaits, jigs and of course Senkos, both regular and wacky-rigged.  The only thing the bass would hit were the wacky-rigged Senkos.  Here are a few pics of the biggest ones; most of the fish we caught were dinks.

Once the fog started lifting around noon, a strong wind started up which made fishing just about impossible and after a few hours, we decided to pack it in and head home.  I had a blast despite the conditions and even though I failed in my endeavor to catch a bass on a jig, that’ll be my goal for the next trip out.  One note though, I have 65-pound braid on my jig rod, and that has to come off because it’s way too stiff for pitching and flipping.  I felt 30-pound braid may be too thin…any suggestions for a good line for jigging around tress, nets and weeds?

How my week has been going:

Dinks to the left of me.  Dinks to the right of me.  No matter what I throw; Senkos, Vibrashocks or spinnerbaits, it’s been dinks, dinks dinks.  Which is still better than getting skunked, I must say.

Ty sent me some pictures of a recent outing that he and Jim had along the Pyeongtaek river:

According to Ty, all bass were caught on Senkos (green, if I remember right).  They also tried other lures such a crankbaits and spinnerbaits, with no luck.  Call me psychic, but something tells me there’s a fish fry in their immediate future.  Nice bass, fellas!

It amazes me to no end that after all these years of fishing for bass, how little I actually know about these fish.  This morning when I got to the river, I shone my flashlight into the water and saw that it was quite stained so I thought, “there’s no way the bass are going to be able to see a Senko, today is a perfect day for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits.”  Ha!  Wrong answer, thank you for playing!

Not a single hit on spinnerbaits or chatterbaits, but I did catch five on Senkos – the above two were the biggest of the bunch.  I really wanted to measure/weigh the one on the right because that was a decent fish but it was gut-hooked and it took me a while to remove the hook so I wanted to get the fish back into the water as quick as possible.  So the moral of this story is; if you want to know anything about bass fishing or bass behavior, don’t ask me – instead, get a subscription to Bass Master magazine.

But it sure felt like it!  The bass were present and accounted for, and definitely in the mood this morning.  I’m not even going to attempt to come up with any theories or speculations why the fishing has been so good this week because to be honest, I have no idea and every time I think I have a clue as to why these fish do anything, I’m usually wrong.  I’m just happy to be a part of it all.  I’m not even sure how many I caught this morning; but it was at least ten, most of them dinks.

The above fish were the biggest caught on Senkos; 4 and 5-inch, black and black with blue flakes which have been my most productive colors to date.  I was happy with those fish; quite ecstatic, actually, but it didn’t stop there.

And the best part is that I remembered Tuesday’s lesson and didn’t try to pick the fish up with the line.  I also need to tighten the drag down a wee bit on my baitcaster because this guy was taking out line pretty good when he went to make his runs and it took me a while to reel him in.  And you’ll notice that he hit a white/red spinnerbait.  All in all, a pretty good morning.

It was quite foggy near the river this morning, and a little chilly as well but the bass didn’t mind the weather.  Well, the dinks didn’t mind, I should say, as they were out in force.  I caught seven, with this being the biggest of the bunch, all on 4 and 5-inch Senkos, black and black with blue flakes.  I spent about an hour throwing a white/red Vibrashock, determined to catch a fish on it but that ended up being a waste of time.  I hope the trend continues, because the bass have been a lot more active the last few days.