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Fridays Rock

Published by Nomad on June 12, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 4 Comments

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! smile_teeth 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 smile_regular 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!

Rainy Tuesday

Published by Nomad on June 9, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 9 Comments

Last night, I saw that KMA was calling for rain today so I didn’t know if I should go out this morning but I decided to set the alarm and check the weather when I got up. When I woke up at 3, I started the coffee and looked outside; no rain. But after I started drinking my coffee, I turned on the computer and checked KMA’s radar, which showed rain heading our way very soon. What to do? Well, I already had caffeine in me and was awake, so I got ready and drove out to Daenkori – and I’m glad I did.

It was raining very lightly when I got there, but there was almost no wind and best of all, the bass were biting. I caught lots of dinks again, but this one here made my morning: 48 centimeters, 2 pounds, 15 ounces. I love Big Mommas smile_teeth

This was the only other one that was picture-worthy today but you know what? Today was one of those outings where I felt like I had lost my mojo, or left it at home. I missed way too many fish this morning, and lost a few too, a couple of which felt like they were decent fish. A couple just came off while I was bringing them in, the hook came untied on one smile_tongue , and I also had a few where they took the Senko, started running with it but when I set the hook, they were gone. At one point, I started wondering if I was going to slip and fall in the river next (been there, done that smile_regular )…but I can’t and won’t complain since I had an otherwise great morning out there and the heavy rain held off.

It’s Monday Again

Published by Nomad on June 8, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 19 Comments

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.

Dink day!!

Published by Steve on June 5, 2009 in Fishing. 6 Comments

I got out yesterday for the first time since being back home from Angola. I have been busy building a new fish tank for my pet Bass (but that’s another story for another time).

I was at the lake at 5:30am, I was wanting to be there before first light, but I slept in The morning was the best part of the day with several dinks falling for the neko rig and a wacky rigged 5” watermelon/red Alluring senko.

The lake has a nice covering of weeds coming and I could see and hear tons of frogs, so I threw a frog for a while. I had several blow ups (which was very exciting) but only managed to land one of them.

Then I went to another lake just to check it out. I caught a few more dinks here also, and lost one decent bass on a homemade spinnerbait. Here’s a dink that took a liking to my spinnerbait

Overall I had a great day, hot, but great. The water levels in all waters are much higher than they were last month, but they are going back down again with the rice farmers

Oh, and here’s a photo of my new fish tank in progress…

Another “The One That Got Away” Story

Published by Nomad on June 5, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 16 Comments

I went fishing yesterday and this morning; yesterday I headed out to Yum Chi lake near Dunpo, after Rob had told me he did pretty well there last Saturday. Upon my arrival, I discovered that the lake was way down, and a lot of green algae/pollen was floating in the water.

The above bass was the biggest caught, the rest were dinks. Once the sun came up, the bite stopped so I headed out to the river and tried a few spots without a single bite to show for my efforts.
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Another Manic Monday

Published by Nomad on June 1, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 6 Comments

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.

Idong, Again

Published by Nomad on May 29, 2009 in Destinations, Fishing and Pictures. 10 Comments

Although I know better, I keep going back to this lake for some reason; maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, LOL. I was off work today, so this morning I drove out to Idong to see if I could change my luck – I know there are still some decent fish in that lake. I got there early enough to get set up and watch another nice sunrise:

Idong is such a scenic lake, and relatively clean so it’s always a pleasure to fish here. I do catch a lot more and bigger bass in the river, but that river is a cesspool; the water is dirty, the shores are littered with garbage (and that’s not counting all the garbage floating in the water) and it even smells bad at times so even though I don’t catch the same quality/quantity fish out of Idong (anymore), I do love coming out here just for the scenery. Oh, and unlike the river, Idong isn’t shoulder to shoulder with carp fishermen either smile_wink

I did a double take when I saw the above boat; that’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that in this lake and have no idea what it’s doing tied off to the cliffs.

Oh you want to hear about the fishing, right? I caught well over 20 bass today, but aside from two of them, they were all dinks smile_tongue (and the 2nd biggest wasn’t far removed from dink-hood).

The bass in the 3rd pic is one of the ones I caught (on a small chatterbait) while trying for bluegill. I must have walked a good 1/2 mile or more using a rooster tail, mepps spinner and small chatterbait, just trying to catch one single bluegill but it was not to be. Rob was out there with me about 2 years ago when I walked the shore with a white rooster tail and caught over 60 slab-sized bluegill…no idea what happened since then. The last two pics are about the average size fish I caught today.

The water in Idong is low, but not low enough for me to walk on shore around the cliffs you see in the picture of that big boat above; so instead, I had to walk what we call “the hill of death” – you can’t really tell from this pic, but it’s pretty high and steep as well and if you go up with your fishing gear, you’ll know how healthy your heart is once you get to the top.

Here are a couple of pics (and a panorama) of the cove in it’s present state; as you can see the water has dropped quite a bit since the last time I was out there. This morning I tried spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, a jig (which got snagged and is now gone smile_baringteeth ), Senkos and Neko rigs (for bass, that is). The only thing I caught bass on (not counting the small chatterbait) were Senkos and Neko rigs (thanks, Steve), which I started using once the Senko bite started slowing down. Will I fish Idong again? Yeah I will and I know it, despite the drop in the bass and bluegill populations. It’s a beautiful (and clean!) lake, it’s only 15 minutes from my house and these days, very few, if any people are coming to the spots that I like to fish. Peace and quiet, a nice sunrise and if I’m lucky, a few fish to boot. Can’t ask for much more than that.

Senko Power

Published by Nomad on May 27, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 12 Comments

This morning was one of those days where the planets lined up perfectly, the gods were smiling down on me, and best of all, the bass were biting. But first, let’s have a couple of sunrise pics, which have been lacking on this site lately:

I got out to the river around 4:30 and had 3 bites (and 3 fish) in the first 5 casts. That kind of day. I’m not sure what turned the fish on all of a sudden, but hey, who am I to complain? Granted, a lot of them were dinks, but I also caught some nice ones today.

I didn’t weigh or measure the fish in the second pic because it was gut-hooked and bleeding pretty good and I wanted to get it back in the water as fast as possible but that was a nice fish, nice and fat. I lost another one like it or bigger, that one took me into the rocks and broke/cut my line. All fish were caught on black, 4-inch Senkos. I ~~wasted a lot of time~~ also threw rattle traps and crankbaits for about 45 minutes with no takers which goes to show you; if it’s Senkos they want, then give ‘em Senkos smile_regular .

The Things We Learn

Published by Nomad on May 26, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 5 Comments

This morning was interesting, to say the least. I learned a few things; like that once I got the magnetic brakes and tension knob set up just right, I can cast my new baitcaster just fine with light lures, I’m getting a good 30 yards or more now, which is fine. Another thing I learned was to look behind me when I cast any baitcaster; this morning while attempting to make a long cast with a rattle trap, I hooked into my Senko rod, which was right behind me. The result: A rattle trap stuck in my jacket sleeve, and the absolute worst backlash I’ve ever seen on a reel smile_tongue . And yes, boys and girls, this trick works great!!! I thought for sure I was going to have to cut off my new Spiderwire Fluoro line, but by using the technique in that video, I had the mess cleared up in less than 5 minutes.

Here are some pics from this morning:

Oh, and another thing I learned this morning is that even though a crankbait/rattle trap has 2 sharp treble hooks, bass can and will still jump and throw the lure. How, I have no idea because when one of those hooks gets caught on my tackle bag or the carpeting in my trunk, it takes forever to get loose.

Memorial Day (Already!)

Published by Nomad on May 25, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 18 Comments

What a beautiful day it is today – hope you guys got out there this morning while the getting was good. No wind at all, the water in the river is clean, and the fish were biting. You can’t ask for much more than that.

I started out in my favorite spot nice and early but the only thing biting there were dinks and after having a few Senkos torn up by them, I headed out for greener pastures. I had planned on parking and then taking a nice long walk, stopping every few feet to fish the weeds but as you can see, the carp fishermen beat me to it and they were out in force today (I thought maybe it was a Korean holiday as well). So I changed my plans and headed to another area where I could also practice with my new baitcaster reel that I recently bought just for lighter lures.

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Ty Does Kunsan

Published by Nomad on May 22, 2009 in Destinations, Fishing and Pictures. 13 Comments

I’m posting this for Ty, who had a couple of really good days down at Kunsan (I edited this post and added some more pics…apparently the other emails Ty sent me earlier didn’t make it through so he brought them over on a thumb drive):
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I started fishing around 4:40 in the afternoon on the 19th at this Kunsan lake and fished till about 6:45. You wouldn’t believe this lake, I caught 13 that evening and missed about 5. I was itching the next day to get back out there but had a lot of work to do as I only get to visit Kunsan once a month TDY. (Yeah that sucks-not anymore now that I know where to fish) So later that evening on the 20th the itch was gone because I was out there again about 4:45 and fished till 7 and it was the best – I caught 15 and missed 10. The one bass I caught had a hook sticking out of his gill, maybe that was the big one I missed the night before – yeah that one jumped twice and laughed at me and then got into some weeds and then said “bye” to me. Hey this was yet the best fishing I’ve done in about 3 years. Enjoy the pics!
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Let it Rain

Published by Nomad on May 22, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 6 Comments

I took a couple of days vacation in conjunction with the 3-day weekend so yesterday morning I drove out to the river, even though it was raining hard and the wind was blowing strong. Once I got out there, I found that fishing was almost impossible due to the wind. I only caught one dink near the rocks and then I decided to drive to Idong lake to see if I could find a corner away from the wind. The water in Idong is very low, and I was able to walk easily along the shore. I caught 3 bass, one around 2 pounds, while casting towards some clumps of grass out in the water. Unfortunately it was raining too hard for me to take out the camera, so no pictures from yesterday.
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Hump Day

Published by Nomad on May 20, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 16 Comments

I started out at my favorite spot this morning, and let me tell you, it was so foggy out there that I could barely see 2 feet in front of me. The water is finally starting to clear up a little, which is good, but I *think* the bass are on the beds now because the bite has definitely slowed down in the last week or so – although I’m still not seeing any red tails.

Here are a couple of sunrise pics, taken from my fallback spot…the fog was starting to lift by then but it was still a bit hazy out.
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Nasty

Published by Nomad on May 18, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 8 Comments

That’s what the river is like after the rains this weekend. Rob warned me yesterday that the water is really muddy but one thing I did learn last year was that if I want to go fishing, I just go, unless it’s too windy or we have a torrential downpour.

That should give you an idea of what the water is like out there right now – I think the only time I’ve seen it worse was after the monsoon rains.

But.
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Let’s Blame James

Published by Nomad on May 14, 2009 in Fishing and Pictures. 10 Comments

At least once a year, my friend James Card likes to pop in and comment on the fact that I rely on Senkos too much, and he did so again just the other day. To quote: “Nomad–you really have to give up this senko addiction. Bass can be caught on other things.” And just like the last time he threw it out there, I once again took the bait like a pre-spawn bass pouncing on an unsuspecting shad. Yep, as much as this may shock you, I left the house this morning with…NO SENKOS smile_whatchutalkingabout . Or any other soft baits. I had originally planned on throwing spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, crankbaits/rattle traps and jigs, but nixed the jig idea after donating not one, but two spinnerbaits to the river* and reeling in a gob of algae/moss with almost every cast.
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