I didn’t want to spend the entire three-day weekend without going fishing, so I headed out to the river bright and early this morning to get a few hours in. I also wanted to test a theory I had which was that in the dark, and with the water being stained from that green algae, a white spinner bait should work. I’ve always read that at night, you should use dark lures because the bass see the silhouette better against the surface light. That may be true, but I figured that since visibility is down due to that green algae, a white lure with silver or gold blades should work just as well.
It might have been a fluke and pure luck, but on the third cast with a white spinner bait (ok ok, for you purists, I know it’s white with red, LOL), I caught this fish, about 20 feet out.
And, I also caught one on a 5-inch Senko, black, fished very slow with the occasional twitch. I also missed a couple, which is par for the course. Just like the last two weeks, the bites were before or right at first light; once it got light, the action stopped. I got two hours in, which was perfect for me and by 7, plenty of other fishermen started showing up so it was time for me to leave anyway. I always say; if I can see another fisherman, then it’s too crowded for me 
Published by Rob on September 13, 2008
in Fishing.
My wife and I went to Gosam and rented a boat yesterday. It was a beautiful day, but once again the fishing was extremely tough going. All of the ones we caught were very small, and were caught out in deeper water, 33′ to be exact. Once I realized that they were holding deep I put on a shaky head rig, and although I got numerous bites I couldn’t set the hook on one to save my life. Either the fish were really small, or I was doing something wrong. Any pointers? Yesterday was the first time I tried a shaky head rig so I really have no clue.
Gosam is actually a very beautiful lake, but I’ve never had much luck fishing out there.
That right there says it all, doesn’t it? LOL
It seems that my bass catching skills are lacking those of you guys up North. I fished for 6 hours yesterday with only one 12 inch bass to show for it.
I lost and missed a few bass (that felt much bigger) due to my lack of concentration :???: The worst part is, this was my last chance to catch a few before heading back to Nigeria on Sunday. Man time flies 
Well this morning was an adventure. First, check out how bad the algae is getting in the river:
And that stuff isn’t only floating on the surface; it’s permeated the water all the way to the bottom and there’s zero visibility now. I tried chatterbaits and spinnerbaits this morning but man oh man, now I remember why I never used lures from shore out there - I lost three chatterbaits and two spinnerbaits, all to getting hung up in the rocks 
I did catch a few fish and this was the biggest of the bunch. I hope they open the gates down by the seawall soon so this green crap floats over to China and the river clears up.
Published by Rob on September 11, 2008
in Fishing.
I received an email from Tex Mex this morning. He and his son recently went ocean fishing off the coast of California, and from the pictures it looks like they had an excellent time. They caught several nice sized barracuda, over 30 large rock fish and one rare ling cod. Joshua, who I think was ocean fishing for the first time, caught himself two nice sized barracudas and some nice rock fish. Way to go guys!
Published by Rob on September 11, 2008
in Fishing.
I hit the river bright and early yesterday morning for what I hoped would be a “not so crowded’ great day of fishing out on the water. Well, the “not so crowded’ part worked out great, but the fishing was a little tough. I caught 14 fish, but they were all very small. I also fished from sunrise to sunset, and received a healthy dose of vitamin D via the sun in the process. ;) Even though all of the fish were small, I still had a good time and consider it a true blessing to have been able to get out on the water, catch a few fish and enjoy the beautiful fall day.
Pictured below are the two biggest of the day, and I think they may have weighed a pound each, possibly a wee bit more.
As Nomad mentioned below, the green algae was horrible, but it wasn’t horrible everywhere. Weird…
The most exciting part of the day happened while I was dragging a top-water weedless frog across this stuff and a bass came out of nowhere and nailed it. I unfortunately missed the hook-set, but the way he exploded out of the water and slammed that thing was enough to get me hooked (no pun intended) on top-water fishing. I’ll definitely be doing some more of that in the near future.
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.
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