Fishing Korea

Yesterday, I had the privilege of accompanying John and Gochu, the wiener dog, in their boat out on the Anseong River for a morning of fishing.  The bass, for the most part, had lockjaw, but we did manage to catch either 12 or 13, with most of them in the 1-pound and under range.  Most of our catches came on wacky-rigged worms; I was using Senkos and I believe John was using cut-tails.  We did try just about everything else in our arsenal; spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, topwater lures, crankbaits and jigs.

The above fish made my day and as you can see, it was caught on a white/red spinerbait and in a spot I would have never thought would hold fish (which once again goes to show how much I know).  There were a lot of baitfish on the surface in the area I caught that fish, and we stuck around and tried for more but that was the only one caught there.  Heh, check out Gochu in the second pic; he’s making sure that bass won’t be giving us any more trouble.  We had a slight technical malfunction with the scale so we never found out how much it weighed and on top of that, the fish fell off the scale and was flopping around in the boat so I didn’t want to waste any time measuring it either – back into the river it went for another day.  In hindsight, I’m not sure why we didn’t take more pics…but we were pretty intent on the fishing and also checking out John’s new fish finder which is a pretty neat unit.  I also spent time watching John pitch jigs – he’s obviously had a lot of practice and was able to put that jig exactly where he wanted it every time, with almost no splash at all, which was pretty amazing.

Another tough morning out there; I thought I was going to get skunked but 10 minutes before it was time to go wash the coating of insects and mud off my car, I caught this fish on a 4-inch Senko:

I also managed to lose not one, but two spinnerbaits in the rocks with absolutely nothing to show for it.  Blah.

I had every intention of sleeping in this morning because KMA was calling for a lot of rain all night/day but wouldn’t you know it; I woke up around 3 and couldn’t fall back asleep so after a peek out the window (no rain) I started the coffee and got ready to head on out.

As soon as I got close to the river, it started pouring down buckets but I figured what the heck, as long as there was no lightning or strong winds, I may as well give it a shot since I was already there.

The above were the only two I caught this morning, one on a black, 5-inch Senko, the other on 4-inch Senko, black with blue flakes.  I also tried spinnerbaits and chatterbaits since the water is stained and has that green crud/algae which seems to start up every summer around this time, but no takers on those lures today.

Man it was tough out there this morning.  I had one bite on a 5-inch motor oil with red flakes colored Senko while it was still dark, but when I set the hook, my 30-pound braid broke/cut.  30-pound braid, and I just tied a new hook on last night so there were no cuts or nicks in the line.  I have no idea how that happened, but sure enough, the line gave way at hook set.  The only thing I can think is that it was a snakehead…

As soon as it started getting light, I started throwing spinnerbaits and Karu Lures Vibraspins and you can see the result over on the left.  That was the only fish I caught this morning, once the sun rose and I figured that was it for the morning, I headed on base to wash my car, which had about 2 pounds of bugs on the front of it from driving along river road.

This year hasn’t been good for spectacular sunrises.  At the beginning, there were a lot of clouds and fog, and lately, there have been hardly any clouds at all, which leaves us with pretty much of the same old, same old.  But hey, I do what I can with what I’m given.  I know this will shock you, but I didn’t throw a single 4-inch Senko today.  Ok, scratch that, towards the very end, I did throw one so I could practice with my new setup (Daiwa Sol with 8-pound line on a medium-light G-Loomis rod).  Aside from that, no 4-inch Senkos were used at all.

But, when I first got out there and it was still dark, I did throw a 7-inch Senko and this is the result.  And brother, I’ve had bass hit my lure hard before, but this fish frigging nailed that big Senko and about ripped the rod right out of my hands.  I have no idea what the bass thought that Senko was, but he hit it with a vengeance and on the rod I was using, I have 30-pound braid so there’s no stretch at all, and let me tell you, that’s just what I needed to wake me all the way up.  Sorry for the bad pic, but it was still so dark that I couldn’t even see anything through the eyepiece of the camera.  Another decent fish and the first I’ve ever caught on a 7-inch Senko.

After that, I went to spinnerbaits and I’m learning something….spinnerbaits are all about patience, patience and more patience.  In the past, if I didn’t get a hit in the first few casts, I’d go right back to my trusty Senkos but lately, I’ve been sticking with the spinnerbaits (on the days I decide it’s spinnerbaits or nothing) and I do end up catching fish.  I don’t get the quantity I get with Senkos, but the quality is there, and that’s a good tradeoff considering how much I enjoy catching a bass on a spinnerbait.

The above two pics are of the same fish, and that one was caught on a black, 4-inch Senko, which I put on my new rig to practice casting and yeah, it was nice to catch a fish with it (no, the rod/reel in the pic aren’t the new rig, just in case you’re wondering).

Here’s one more I caught on the spinnerbait, which as you can see, is my favorite color for out there, white skirt with red, and with silver willow blades – this one was 3/8 oz, usually I throw 1/2 oz. but I decided to try a 3/8 to see if I could keep from getting hung up so much.  Today, I was just slow rolling the lure as slow as I could, bumping it into the rocks and fortunately, I didn’t donate any to the river, which may be a first

Life is funny sometimes.  Just yesterday, I found this quote over at the Ultimate Bass forums and sent it to Rob:

The wonderful thing about fishing is that whether it is your first trip or one of your last, you ALWAYS have the opportunity to catch a fish of a lifetime.  I love this sport.  You don’t have to be the fastest, strongest, meanest, etc.  You just need to love to fish!

That quote really hit home with me because that’s exactly the way I feel about fishing.  I’ve gone out at least 100 times in the last year or so, and still, every morning feels like my first time out and I can’t wait to hit the water because every day is different and you just never know what’s in store.

This morning was no exception, and it started out with a beautiful sunrise.  The water was still just a bit stained from the heavy rain the other night, so I made up my mind that today was going to be a spinnerbait kind of day.  Now I’m going to be honest up front here, and admit that from past experience, I didn’t expect to catch a lot of fish, if any, but I was determined to throw that white/red spinnerbait till my arms hurt.

No one was more surprised, pleasantly so, to catch this bass than me but it was the way I caught it that really made it special.  I had been throwing the spinnerbait for a while, trying different speeds and retrieves and had just started waking the lure, where I was burning it back at a pretty good speed and keeping it just far enough below the surface so I could see the wake it was making.  This bass came up either from below or behind and literally jumped up and out of the water as it was inhaling the lure – and to my delight, it still had the lure in it’s mouth when it landed.  I’ve never caught anything with a topwater lure and I imagine this is about as close as you can get and it was pretty damned exciting to have that fish explode out of the water like that, especially since it was the last thing I expected.

After all that excitement, I had to take a Senko break and caught the above.  Now, remember that quote from earlier on?  After I caught that one on the Senko, I went back to my spinnerbait, just slow rolling it close to shore, passing the time until it was time to go to work…

Yeah baby!   My second 50 centimeter bass of the year (actually 50 1/2cm).  Sorry, I tried to take a picture of the fish laying on the tape measure but this little girl was shy about having her picture taken and kept flopping around like a…well, like a fish out of water so I had to settle for the weight pic.  I believe this is the biggest bass I’ve ever caught, both length and weight-wise.  2009 is shaping up to be another stellar year!

I think I’m seeing a pattern lately; dinks with more dinks, with the occasional decent bass thrown into the mix.  This morning was no different.

Another pattern I’m seeing is that most of the decent bass I’m catching this year are being caught in very shallow water, close to shore, and early in the morning.  Last year, I caught most of my fish further out, in deeper water – but also very early in the morning.  This guy was in less than a foot of water, right against the shore, just waiting for me to drag my Senko by him.

Another Monday, and another beautiful day.  This morning was really nice, with cool temps and low humidity…it felt good out there and I wish I could have stayed longer.

I threw just about everything in my tackle bag this morning but the only thing the bass would touch were Senkos (go figure). 

All the bass I caught were dinks except for the above two, and both were caught on 4-inch Senkos, black with blue flakes.  The water is still pretty clean, but as warm as it is, I expect the green scum/algae to start growing again pretty soon.