Fishing Korea & Tennessee

If you live in Korea, then you know that it rained cats and dogs yesterday and last night, and I figured that all that rain turned the river to the color of chocolate milk – and yes, the water was pretty nasty out there this morning.  I had a theory, and as long-time readers of this blog know, most of the time my theories don’t pan out too well   – but for once my idea was spot on.  And that was to use a spinnerbait out there; not any spinnerbait, but one with a colorado blade in front of a willow blade for the additional noise/vibration.  In red/white, of course

As you can see, the morning turned out a lot better than I thought it would, considering how muddy the water was.  And to think I almost stayed in bed!

I went to a different area this morning, the same area I did so well in for a couple of weeks last spring, and where I caught my first 50cm bass – hoping that the fish were in there or hadn’t moved out to deeper water yet.  I started out with 5 and 4-inch Senkos and got dinked…I think I caught 7 or 8 dinks in a row and they were tearing my Senkos to shreds so I decided to switch to a spinnerbait to see if there were any bigger bass in the area.

The bass in the first pic was the biggest of the ones I caught on Senkos, the other two, as you can see, were caught on my trusty red/white spinnerbait, which I fished parallel to the rocks.  This weird spring weather we’ve had has really thrown me for a loop because I’ve gotten used to the bass being in certain areas at certain times but this year, it’s anybody’s guess.

Or, spinnerbait day because that’s all I threw today unless you want to count the 15 minutes I wasted tried a buzzbait.

I thought I’d stick with spinnerbaits because the water is really murky; not sure why…maybe it’s all the green algae that’s growing like mad.  I don’t remember the algae growing like this so early before…it usually doesn’t start appearing until later on in the summer when the water gets warmer.  It sure has been an odd spring so far.

How many people can you fit into a small inflatable?  Four, that’s how many.  I have no idea how these guys are going to fish since they barely had room to sit in that boat.

Ty is definitely on a roll.  He and a couple of other guys went back to the same area where Ty has been slaying them the last few weeks (Notice the weeds/reeds in the water in that first pic?):

From Ty:  “Nomad, I went out for the afternoon to Asan Bay with Owen and Carl. Owen caught two and Carl caught one but I caught 13 which I only took pictures of 12 because one was a dink. I was using 5" Senkos, black with purple flakes. I was killing them out there and Owen and Carl could only watch the action I had going on! I broke my line twice and I only took one picture with Owen and none of Carl. All the fish in the pics were caught by me except that first one of Owen.”

That’s the color spinnerbait I WISH I would have had today, because for whatever reason, that’s what the bass wanted.  Oh, and with a single Colorado blade at that.  Once again, Ty and I took out the SS Netcutter and I have to admit, I was kind or worried due to the massive cold/rain front that moved through yesterday and the fact that KMA was calling for high winds for most of the day today.  When we got to the launch area, the wind was indeed kicking pretty good and it was also quite chilly out.  We got the boat set up and launched in record time, and we were on the water before the sun came up.  Here’s what followed:

Continue reading ‘Yellow and White’ »

Ty braved the rains and gale-force winds yesterday:

He said it was impossible to fish a Senko with the way the winds were blowing, but he did manage to catch these 4 on spinnerbaits.

Even more pics from Ty, who went out again this morning to the same spot he’s been hitting the last few weeks:

This morning started out really great; I caught 5 dinks and a decent sized bass on black, 5-inch Senkos so I thought it was going to be one of “those” days.

Then, they opened up the gates down at the sea wall and the water started going out  – and the bite stopped cold, just like that.  Since the water was still pretty murky from yesterday’s winds, I tried a spinnerbait for the rest of the time I was out there and managed to catch one. Although I thought I was going to do a lot better than I did, I can’t really complain considering I ended up with 7 fish for the morning.

From Ty:

“I was called to work at 0500 this morning so I used that comp time for today’s lunch time. It was so windy I didn’t bother tossing out a senko so I tried the old spinner bait action. Well I started with the red and white but no takers. I changed to yellow and the first cast I hooked a dinkous that I didn’t even bother taking out my camera for. The next one was pretty good, worthy of a picture and these three adoshis came over to me and i hooked into the big one in the pic. The were surprised and the started using spinners and they actually got on the phone and called someone else and told them spinner bait. After a few more cast I just packed up and left after that.”

The good news first, right?  The good news is that the rain and cold seem to have finally passed us by (knock on wood) but the wind was unfortunately still with us this morning – but since it was pretty nice out, I headed to the river to try my luck.

As you can see, I caught 3 with my trusty red/white spinnerbait, and the one in the last pic was caught on a black, 4-inch Senko.  I also caught 3 dinks on Senkos so despite the gale-force winds, it was a pretty good morning.  Well, except for one thing (this is the bad news part).  Remember last weekend when Steve fished the KSA tournament up here?  Well, it looks like “someone” didn’t like all the people/boats around the ramp area because this is what it looks like now:

The last few times, “someone” had the boat ramps filled in so that the bass boats couldn’t launch there anymore; this time, as you can see, they simply had a ditch and some mounds of dirt put in right at the entrance so that no one can even drive down to the parking area anymore.  Nice

That’s what Ty and I did today; we kicked ass, took names and had one of the best days fishing either one of us has ever had.  We decided to head out at 5 so we could get on the water at first light but the day started out cold, wet, and windy; last night’s rain front was still with us and things looked mighty bleak for the home team.  But the bass sure didn’t mind one bit and after an hour or so, the rain passed and the wind died down (for a while, anyway) and we were catching bass like mad.  We started out just like last week and missed our first 4 or 5 and ended up missing at least 15 total over the course of the day.

I have no idea what was going on today but we’ve never seen so many carp fishermen out there.  They were out in force and were everywhere; that area in the pic above is usually empty but as you can see, it was packed today, despite the weather.  Yes Rob, that’s the blue barge area…unbelievable, isn’t it? There were so many carp muttons out there that we couldn’t fish any of that area at all.

Ok, let’s get to the good stuff.  Bass.  We didn’t take any pics of the small dinks, of which we caught at least 10 today, so if you’re counting, add that to the below total for the day.

Continue reading ‘Kicking Ass and Taking Names’ »

He’s getting out there more than me, and that’s unheard of!  He sent me two sets of pics; these are from 19 April:

And the below are from today:

He also gave me some bad news; the carp fishermen are now using live worms on some of their long carp poles, in order to catch bass and after they catch the bass, they throw them up on shore to die.  He said he saw quite a few dead bass laying on shore…

Could the action be picking up out there?

I had to include that third pic, because it’s the first bass I’ve caught on spinnerbait this year and trust me, it hasn’t been because of a lack of trying.  Not sure what that little guy thought he was going after, considering the lure is almost bigger than the fish is.