In a comment on yesterday’s post, James pretty much told me to stop being so one-dimensional with my Senkos. That comment, plus after seeing how thick that green algae was in the river yesterday convinced me to take some Chatterbaits with me this morning. But of course, I started out with Senkos while it was still too dark to see much of anything (plus it was real foggy out there again).
I caught five on Senkos, with the above being the biggest one - the rest were dinks. Once it was light enough to see what I was doing, I changed to a black/blue Chatterbait with a black trailer.
I caught this guy on my third or fourth cast and let me tell you, I was as shocked and surprised as the fish must have been 
. Unfortunately, that lure got donated to the river a few casts later so I switched to a chartreuse Chatterbait.
I caught these two fish back to back. I had one more bass take the lure but he jumped and threw it while he was still way out there.
Why, there must be a holiday coming up…and what a better way to spend Chuseok than to go fishing, eh? It was definitely a good morning, once again and yes, if I can wake up, I’ll be back out there again tomorrow, with more Chatterbaits and maybe even some spinnerbaits (and of course, plenty of Senkos 
).
That’s the color of the river, again. Just last Thursday, the water was clearing up really nice but since this weekend, that green algae has made a comeback, and it’s not just on the surface, so it has turned the river into pea soup once more.
It was also pretty foggy out there again this morning, but that didn’t stop these guys from putting in that nice bass boat….did they offer me a ride? Nope.
I’m not even sure if they made it or not because once they started their motor, there was some kind of constant beeping, like an alarm and they kept cutting and restarting the engines and pretty much stayed close to the boat ramp, at least during the time I was there.
Above are two of the five I caught today; the fishing was tough out there and I had to work for every bite - I’m not sure if it’s that green algae that’s keeping the fish out or if the water hasn’t cooled down enough yet. But I keep going back out there because I want to be there, with Senkos in hand, when they do start cruising the shallows again
Well, this sure was a good way to start the week 
I caught this one on a (drum roll, please…) 5-inch Senko, black with blue flakes, right before first light and it was a weird bite…I felt only the slightest “tic” on the line and after having fished in the dark for a while now and having gotten used to fishing by feel, I immediately stopped and stood there, still, waiting. And sure enough, after about a minute or two, I felt the slightest tug on the rod tip so I set the hook and the rest is history. I caught two others this morning, but they were small. By 6, a heavy fog moved in and once it got light, the bite totally stopped.
Rob and I took his boat out on the Pyeongtaek river today - we had an early start and were in the water by 5 and fished till around 3 in the afternoon.
Our friend John and his faithful fishing buddy, Gochu the wiener dog, were also out there today.
As you can see, it was a beautiful day out there, albeit just a tad on the hot side. For most of the day, the river was like glass.
The carp fishermen and a few bass fishermen were also out in force, enjoying the nice weather. There were lots of other boats on the water today as well, ranging from inflatables to really nice bass boats with big outboards.
The fishing was tough out there; one of the hardest days we’ve had yet. For whatever reason, the bass were not cooperating at all. I think we caught 12 bass between us, and the two above were the biggest ones. The fish in the pic to the left; I had cast out with a 4-inch Senko and my line had come off the reel in a birds nest so I decided to cut the mess off and retie but I wanted my hook and worm back. I cut the line, and started pulling the worm in by hand when I felt a weight on there. I thought I was pulling in a branch or some weeds so imagine my surprise to see this bass on the end, with my Senko in its gullet. And on a day like today, I’ll count that as a catch
The good news is that the water temperature is back down to the low to mid 70’s so in a few weeks, things should start picking up. I had a blast today. After all those "early morning bass" episodes consisting of 1 1/2 hours worth of fishing before work, it was great to get a full day in at last, and in a boat, no less! Thanks, Rob, and have your wife put some aloe on that sunburn
As some of you may know, my Mother and Step-father as been visiting us in Korea (they only wanted to see our daughter, not me :lol: ). Since I was picking them up and dropping them off at Busan airport I decided to take a couple of my rods with me and test some of my new baits at a small pond not too far away from the airport.
I fished 2 times, late afternoon and early night-time and caught a good number of Bass, but mostly dinks. The good news is I have found a senko copy that has the same action and sink rate as the original GY Senko but is much stronger and durable than the Senko. Here’s a link;
http://www.alluringbaits.com/home.php?cat=21
Now for a few fish pictures….
I was fishing And what a morning - you know what’s next:
The bass are definitely becoming more active, at least early in the day. I had a pretty good time out there this morning…no monsters, but the bite was pretty steady. Here are a couple of pics - all fish were about the same size, give or take a few ounces and all were caught on 5-inch Senkos, black and black with blue flakes, fished nice and slow.
And here are a couple for the bird watchers, with a complimentary close-up:
Take a good, long and hard look at that net there because the next time I take a pic of that area, it’ll probably be gone. That net wasn’t there yesterday, nor ever before. Like there aren’t already enough nets in the river, some guy had to put this one right on a point, and near one of the new breeding channels for carp. I used to stand right in the spot I took the pic from and cast over past that little platform on the point -every now and then some bass would be lurking there. Carp fishermen to the right of me, nets to the left…what to do. I can’t throw the fishermen in the water (well I could but that would be considered rude) but nets can be removed, or so I’ve been told.
Another beautiful morning out there and without any further ado, here it is:
Before the sun even started rising, I was out there, fishing in the dark.
Continue reading ‘Into the sun’
Oh man, what a gorgeous morning out there at the river today! It was chilly enough to give me goose bumps, there wasn’t even a hint of a breeze, and I got to witness yet another beautiful sunrise:
This guy came in pretty close to where I was fishing, no doubt going after the carp fry that were in the shallows:
“But what about bass?” you ask….well, the bass were biting as long as it was dark and right until after first light but once the sun came up, it was like someone had flicked a switch. I caught several dinks and lost one nice one which got off close to shore 
, and just when I thought it was going to be another dink day, this one nailed my 5-inch (black) Senko and made an already good morning even better:
That fish was the biggest of the morning and like I said, once the sun came over the horizon, that was all she wrote. By the way, does anyone know what this stuff is? I’ve been seeing it all along the shore, on the rocks:
I’ve been hoping that since the nights are getting cooler, the water temperature would also go down, which in turn would bring the bigger bass back close to shore. It’s bound to happen sooner or later but that time isn’t here just quite yet, as I found out this morning (And what a beautiful morning it was!). But first, the obligatory sunrise pics:
I did catch fish today, but none were bigger than the two below, and all they wanted were 5-inch Senkos. I also tried a 4-inch and not a single bite. Go figure.
Last week, the water level in the river was super high, this morning it was back down to the point where I could walk the rocks along the shore again. The water is still a bit stained from last weekend’s rains and also still feels quite warm, although not as bad as it was a few weeks ago when it felt like bath water. I could be wrong, but I think things will improve in a couple of weeks.
I thought I was going to be able to add Idong to my spots for Early Morning Bass fishing, but maybe I’ll have to rethink that one. This morning, with about 30 minutes left to go, the old ajoshi who collects 5,000 won from people to fish there showed up on his scooter and wanted me to pay. I tried to explain that I was only going to be there for another 20, 30 minutes at the most, but he didn’t want to hear it and repeatedly told me to leave if I wasn’t going to pay up. What he was doing at that remote corner of the lake at 6:15 in the morning, I have no idea but I do have my suspicions…there were some farmers tending to their fields close to where I was fishing, and as he left he stopped to talk to them so I’m thinking they dimed me out 
.
The morning wasn’t a bust, however, as I did catch several bass in the short time I had, the above being the largest. The water level in Idong is up about 4 feet (if not more) from last the last time I was out there and I couldn’t get over to the same spots I was fishing the last few weeks.
I know it’s hard to tell by the above pic, but the path and shoreline that I was able to use to get around that bend and over to the left are completely under water…so I just stayed in one area and fished the grass. Had I been able to wade on around, ajoshi would never have seen me . I don’t mind paying if I’m there all day or even half a day, but I’m not going to shell out 5,000 won for an hour’s worth of fishing. Back to the river it is!
There are those who say “size doesn’t matter.” And then, there’s the other school of thought, which states “the bigger, the better.” I know where this bass stands and yes, your eyes aren’t deceiving you, that is a 5-inch Senko you see laying there. Amazing, isn’t it? And that picture pretty much sums up this morning’s fishing venture because it was dink central out at the river today - at least in the area I was fishing, which was kind of limited due to the number of carp fishermen out there, enjoying the holiday. Just in case anyone is wondering, the water in the river is still stained and has to be in the mid 80’s. Fall can’t get here soon enough, know what I mean, Vern?
Why “Frogs,” you ask? Because I wasted almost the entire morning throwing a frog without any results, that’s why . The water level has dropped about 2-3 feet since earlier in the week and the area I was fishing at last Monday was really shallow today.
On Monday, I was in waist-deep water when I reached that clump of grass, this morning I wasn’t even up to my knees. I waded way out past all that grass, at least another 25 feet and threw a frog, with no takers. I then came back and walked along the shore, stopping every now and then to wade out as far as I could go and threw the frog onto and into the grass, again, with no results.
Then with about 15 minutes left, I switched to a Senko and caught this fish…and that was the only bite I had out there this morning.
I got off early on Friday and decided to take advantage of the time off to do a little fishing. It was crazy hot, in the low 90’s with high humidity, but the fish didn’t really seem to mind; I caught eight, and up until just before dark, consistently had bites all afternoon. Unfortunately, most of the ones I caught were really small though. I caught one decent bass that weighed a little over two pounds. I apologize for the crappy pics, but all I had was my cell phone.
I got within ten feet of this bird (perched on top of the rock) before he flew away. He must have been really tired, or that spot must have been a really good feeding area that he didn’t want to give up.
Since I haven’t been out there in a while, I headed on out to the river this morning to see how much the bass missed me . Turns out they didn’t miss me that much after all, so I ended up taking pictures of the sunrise , a netter ajoshi and some birds eating what was probably a dead carp.
The sunrise.
Ajoshi on his way to check his nets. Those netters have some nice outboards on them and zoom right along.
Don’t ask me why I took pics of these birds…it’s just rare that they hang so close to shore but in this case, the attraction was a dead fish floating in the water.
And last but not least, here’s the biggest bass I caught this morning on a 5-inch Senko, black with blue flakes…the rest were all dinks. One thing - all my fish were caught before or right at first light. Once the sun rose, the bite totally turned off.
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