As I suspected, the bass are heading to or are already in deeper water as the heat of summer is upon us. Fish, like people, get pretty lethargic when it’s hot - they don’t want to move unless absolutely necessary so you have to find them and pretty much drop the bait right in front of their noses. Big difference from just a few weeks ago when they were still active and biting really good. Most of the fish we got were caught very early and by 9 or so, the action had died down so we came home early.
Archive for June, 2005
Today was one of those days - well for me, anyway. I had something to take care of earlier in the day, so I couldn’t head out to the water with Khalil at 8:30. Which was too bad, because by the time I got out to the lake he was fishing at today, all that was biting were the smaller bass. I caught 5 of them, but not a one was over 8 inches.
But Khalil had a great day; he caught some of the biggest bluegill (on live earthworms) I’ve seen to date and a couple of nice bass (on you guessed it, 5 inch Senkos) to complement his weekend fish fry.
Yeah, more fishblogging!
Today was one of the best days we’ve ever had fishing. We headed out to one of our favorite lakes at 8:30 and I was worried we were getting out too late because the sun had already broken through the clouds. But, once again I was wrong because the bass were biting when we got there, they were still biting when we left, and they were biting so good that I’m positive that if we were still out on the lake right now, we’d be catching fish. I never thought I’d say this, but I got tired of catching bass, that’s how frequent the bites were.
And all the fish we caught today were decent size with a couple of real nice ones thrown in there. And for those keeping tabs, every bass was caught on a 5 inch Senko - nothing else worked. One difference though; this time I started using number 3 Gaimatsu hooks rather then the number 2’s I’d been using (For the non-fishermen, the higher the number, the bigger the hook) and I had a better time keeping bass on the hook once they took the bait, unlike last time we went out. I did have one break my line but that was my fault. A bass took my worm and started running for deep water and I set the hook a little too hard - force met force and my line snapped right at the knot. I should have just let the fish take it because at the speed it was taking off, it would have hooked itself.
Here’s Khalil with 2 nice bass. Someone will be having a nice fish dinner this weekend.
And here’s me, rather sunburned with the biggest one I caught today. Man, I took some of my daughter’s SPF 50 sunblock and rubbed it on every couple of hours but it didn’t help me a lot as I still got fried. I guess it would have been worse without the lotion and the trusty cap to protect my shiny dome though.
I don’t know how much longer this great fishing is going to last but I hope we have at least a couple of more weeks. Once the day time temps get in the 90’s there’s no way I’ll be out all day like this.
Another good day fishing here in Korea!
I know, I know, you’re getting bored of the fishing reports, right? Too bad, because this is my blog - fishing is what I love to do, and fishblogging is the order of the day, amongst other things 
Yesterday afternoon after work, we sped off* to a couple of local fishing holes to see if the bass were still biting - and I’m happy to say that yes, they were. Our favorite lake is still being drained to irrigate the rice fields so the water level is down even further - as a matter of fact it’s dropped another few feet since last Sunday and our cove is just about gone so we just walked the shoreline.
Here’s Ty showing off a nice one he caught - I swear, if he keeps reeling them in like that, I may forget to tell him when we’re going fishing…
Yesterday was a strange day though, because I lost 7 bass and Jim lost 5. I lost 1 fish right at the bank, and had 3 jump and throw the worm, and the other 3 somehow got off after I set the hook. It may have something to do with the fact that I still had the same hook on there from last weekend, but I tested it prior to starting and it still felt plenty sharp to me. On top of that, I must have wasted around an hour trying other lures like spinner baits, baby brush hogs, crank baits, and various types and colors of plastic worms with negative results. This is something I can’t understand - in Florida I caught bass on the same lures I’m trying here, but here, I can’t seem to catch a bass on anything but a plastic worm. Whatever works, right?
Right as it was getting dark, we stopped at a local stream we’ve seen driving back and forth but have never fished before - a friend of ours insisted though that there were bass and some shad-like fish to be caught so we stopped there real quick before heading home. And lo and behold, even though it was almost too dark to see, our friend Shawn put on a jerk bait and on the 2nd cast reeled in a nice bass. So that stream is definitely being added to our list of spots to go and the great thing is that it’s so close to where we live (as are all the places we fish). It always cracks me up to read about folks driving for 4 hours or more to get to a lake, when some of the greatest fishing is right in their own backyard.
We ended up with 10 bass caught plus some nice bluegill which was pretty good, considering the number of fish we lost and the limited time we had on the water.
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*My friend Jim likes to get where he’s going and sitting in the front passenger seat of his SUV is quite the experience. If I ever stop blogging, it’ll be because we’re located in some ditch on the side of a rice paddy road, mangled beyond all recognition.
Breaking tradition mainly because Saturday was such a good day and knowing that our bass fishing days are numbered with the heat of summer quickly approaching, we went back out Sunday afternoon to see what we could do. To our delight, the road to our cove was no longer blocked off to vehicle traffic and we drove right down to the water. I have no idea how the word got out so quickly that the road was clear again, but a lot of other people were there ahead of us, already enjoying the beautiful weather.
You can see a group of people having a picnic on the other side of what’s left of the cove. The water is so shallow now that you could wade across most of it but there are still some good holes that are attracting the bass, as we found out shortly.
There’s my neighbor and often fishing partner Khalil, out with his family, having a combination barbecue/fishing trip. I’m not sure what they were cooking (I’m guessing chicken) but the odor drifting across the cove reminded me that I hadn’t eaten yet the whole day. Even though I called Khalil on his cell phone and mentioned several times how good whatever he was cooking smelled, he never did offer to share. I’ll have to remember that for future reference 
One of the two boats that takes people water skiing. This was a bad shot on my part, as I’d intended to get both the boat AND the skier behind it.
There, that’s better. Boat and skier, in one shot. “But where are the fish?” you’re asking yourself. Patience, my young grasshopper, patience!
Yeah, baby! Here’s yours truly holding up two of the four I caught today. The bass on the left is one of the larger ones I’ve caught all year.
And here’s Ty with two of his trophies.
I’m glad we went out because usually I wouldn’t think the fishing would be any good in the early afternoon on a hot, sunny day but that just shows you how little I know about bass fishing because they were biting at 3:30 when we got to the water. As a matter of fact, we caught all but one of the 9 keeper sized bass before 6, all on 5 inch black Senkos again. Just to test a theory I had, I was also fishing with different color and type plastic worms which had worked well for me last year but aside from a few bites which I missed (I think they were large bluegill hitting the tail of the worm), I didn’t land a single bass on any of them.
One thing that part cracks me up, part annoys me is how other people who are out fishing react to fish being caught. This has happened to us several times now and happened again yesterday - one of us catches a bass, and a group of people come over and start throwing their lures into the same area we’re fishing. Since this is only asking for tangled lines, we move away from them (usually to the area they just left) and then when one of us catches another fish in the area they just vacated, they rush back over there and start the process again. I guess it never enters their mind that maybe the reason they’re not catching fish is due to something they’re doing or not doing, not because there aren’t any fish in the water in front of them.
All in all, a great way to end what was an excellent weekend all the way around.
But then as I’ve said before, any day spent fishing is a good day, right?
This morning we headed back out to Songjeon lake at 4:30 and fished for bass for a few hours. We didn’t walk along the shoreline to our favorite cove like we did the other week because my knee is still bothering me quite a bit and I didn’t feel like making my way past about a quarter mile of rocks like the ones in the pic below.
That stretch there is actually the easiest of the bunch, there are some areas that are higher and steeper than that and when you’re carrying a couple of rods plus your gear, it gets tricky - plus some areas were still wet and slippery from the recent rains. Add a bad knee into the equation and you can see why I decided to pass on the walk this time around. As you can see from this pic and some of the others I’ve posted, this lake is very scenic. Up until last year, there was only a small, one lane road that went around one side of the lake, and another, 2 lane road that ran along another side. Now the one lane road has been widened into two lanes and there’s all kinds of new construction going on. With the addition of the new highway 45 running close to the lake, plus all the other nearby roads being widened, it’s only a matter of time before this beautiful lake is nothing but a local garbage dump.
Now to the actual fishing: Today was another good day until the sun broke through the clouds and morning mist, then the bass stopped biting. Once again, black 5 inch Senkos fished close to the bank were the lure of the day. Between 3 people, we caught 10 decent sized ones and a couple of small ones.
Today was Jim’s day to show off. Since he caught the biggest bass, we let him hold up a couple for the obligatory fishing photo. As I type this, those bass are probably already on their way to the hot oil or to a dinner plate. Unfortunately, we probably only have a couple more weeks left of this kind of fishing because once it gets too hot, the bass move offshore into the deeper water and don’t really become active again until cooler weather in the fall sets in.
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