show off

It was a perfect day for fishing - a calm and sunny day of Saturday at Gangwondo. The place is called R3. I was lucky enough to catch my-record-high 30 fish. (이건 라스베가스에선 상상도 할 수 없는 일이야!)

Spring to Spring

Gone Fishing asked me to post some pictures of my trip near Sokcho last year where I went fishing with my wife on our honeymoon(I'm very lucky).....

My memories of a beautiful spring day still feel so fresh. like yesterday. Exactly one year later we went fishing with more friends on our anniversary here in Wisconsin. Another beautiful spring day enjoying the memories of different mountains and different trout.........Hey! Get out of my stream!

The happy dog "General"

At the rainbow fly fishing shop in Seoul Korea, if you can stay till about 8:00 PM in the evening, you can meet the happy golden retriever named “General.” He stops by the shop exactly about 3 minutes while he walks with his owner down the street. He would make grumble noise outside of the shop door to someone to open. After he runs inside, he just runs around to meet everyone inside, drinks water, or eats only food that he likes. Whatever he was doing greeting or eating, he would just leave everything after 3 minutes then makes grumble noise again to someone to open the door to catch up his owner who is already down the street. This is not necessary something you wait for, but you just experience everyday unexpectedly.

Honolulu … June July 2010...come

Aloha. If you can make it, come. These fish are waiting for you. Hawaii is in between Asia and US, a short trip either way. If you come, we’ll book a trip with Nervous Waters Hawaii – the one and only premier fly fishing guide in Honolulu. I've been out with them before and they got me onto many large bonefish – even when it was my first time out. They provide everything - you just have to show up. I’ll buy the booze.

Check these and more photos at: http://www.nervouswaterhawaii.com.

DW Fly Fishing & Tying

An awesome source for fly tying. Check out more at:
http://davewiltshireflytying.blogspot.com/

Kkuri time

With weather warming up, it's kkuri (Opsariichthys bidens) time again. Seeing reports back from various sites on kkuri being caught on both top & sub-surface flies. Here's some photos from SpiderFly - Jisuri waters. I love catching these hard fighting aggressive fish.

http://www.spiderfly.co.kr/

DP Valley, extra shots

DP Valley, April 17, 2010

Gift from the Fish Finder.

Knowing that I am headed to Hawaii, my friend CharlesTheFishFinder gave me a box of saltwater flies that he tied from his trip to Bahamas. I’ll say hello to the bonefish on your behalf Charles! Thanks again.

Catches from AdamsFly Korea.

Check out the nice rod seat. Very nice.

http://www.adamsfly.com/

Calm Spring Outing

A group of close friends got together over the weekend to go fishing for Cherry trout in eastern Korea. All of us have been pretty busy with work & it’s been a long while since any of us fished the creeks. While we were all pretty excited about the trip, the news of the recovered bodies of the 46 young Korean Navy men had each of us thinking about what had happened. These young men who are sons, husbands, fathers, brothers, friends… their lives taken away before their time. I thought about how thankful I am to the people who keep peace for the rest of us, how I am able to be here with friends fishing because of the work they do. As I walked through the valley and see spring all around me, it made me think again about how fragile life is.

The fishing was good, and the unique beauty of these cherry trout made up for the lack in size. Unfortunately, our friend Charles injured his back and had to stop fishing early. That really sucked because I know he’s been looking forward to this trip... Since then, he’s been getting some acupuncture treatment and will go back to his physical therapist as soon as he gets back to New York. I thought about a lot of things while I fished, and one of them was the fact that we are not twenty five anymore… sometime we feel like it, but our body disagrees. Thoughts like that can make one feel really depressed but it can also help one to truly appreciate the things and circumstances around ourselves. I did a little bit of both during this trip.

I enjoy catching lots of big fish as much as the next guy, but during this trip I came to realization that I am less horny about that than previous years. I’m sure I’ll never turn down an opportunity to throw a fly at a big fish if there’s one nearby, but I am equally content with catching small fish – or no fish for that matter, as long as I’m with the right company. I recently sold a small piece of farm land my father left behind for us and that made me think a lot about him during this trip. It’s been now over 10 years since he passed away and I find myself thinking about him more in the springtime than any other season. Although he never fly fished, I’m pretty sure he would have liked fly fishing and I would have enjoyed fishing alongside him. Fishing is simple and I don’t pretend to have any deep philosophical reasoning behind it, but it is an opportunity for me to honestly face myself. Confronting myself is no easy matter for me, most of the time I am scared shitless to do it. But sometime in the right season, at the right place, and within the right kind of company – it is a little easier to do than other times. This was a trip I’ll remember for a long time.

* By chance we ran into Matt, a friend of James Card at the bottom of the creek. It’s not often you see an foreign guy camped out on the valleys of eastern Korea in his one man tent, swinging a fly rod. I wished I had some time to hang with Matt, but we’ll have to look forward to the next time. Very cool when you run into friends unexpectedly.