Local

Sat morning, I went out to a local pond to see some familiar faces. No big mama, but extremely relaxing. Small poppers for small fish.

I got two trout and 1000 mosquitoes got me.

Went up to a local Wisconsin spot, caught a couple of trout and got hammered by mosquitoes. Damn I hate mosquitoes.

Creek Addict

I got up early saturday with aching back. Didn't take long to decide to continue on exploring lesser-known Catskills creeks. Made sure I had the map with potential fishing ground highlighted and off I went.

I wanted to explore some of the tributary water which supply the neversink reservoir. As I hoped, no one is to be seen when I got to the creeks.















As I started fishing for brookies, I realize that it was easier than the last time. They weren't being picky at all with my selection of flies. As long as dead drift is achieved, they gladly took my flies. I thought this contradicts all the things I've read about wild brookies but I wasn't complaining.

















After the trip, I got on-line to see why those brookies were so easy to catch. It turned out that high altitude catskill creeks contain high level of PH which limits bug hatches. Hence, those brookies will take anything they can get their tiny teeth on. Also the fact that those waters are not being pressured by anglers allowed me to feel like I knew what I was doing.
















Anyway, I think I will be enjoying these lovely creeks for years to come.

Sunday at SamTan River, Central Korea

Summer is here is Korea and with the monsoon just passing through many parts of the country, the rivers are plentiful with water and the river fish are moving up. I spent Sunday fishing central Korea with my good friend EnNu and brother Jonathan. We drove there in EnNu’s new van and naturally got into some awesome food on the way. The SamTan river itself is a pretty long one, eventually leading into the ChungJoo Lake. The river holds a variety of warm water species including sizable kurri, bass, sogari, and joonchi, which was what we were fishing for on this day. The river banks are open and accessible at many points along the river and is really great for casting as the tree line is further up closer to the main road. The river is especially good for beginners as the wading is safe in many parts of the river and the catching is frequent and easy (which was perfect for me). Joonchi are usually in the 30-40cm range but some grow up and over 1 meter long. The rain has been here in central Korea but not as much as expected so the larger ones were still staging further down south, waiting for the higher waters – which will be here about next week. We did a lot of catching, each person catching up to 20-30 fish, a lot of sitting on the banks and talking, and finished the day off at the most awesome chicken place called JangSooCheon. As it always is, fishing is mostly a time for good friends to share time together, catch up on life, and tune in closer to where each other are headed. Great fishing just makes that experience a little bit more exciting.

I’ll be away from Korea next week but back at the start of Aug. I am looking forward to the 3day bass trip in southern Korea, which is famous for lakes with huge largemouth bass among other fish.

Ross & Crew - catch from UP, Michigan.

Thanks for the photos Ross. Very cute.

Rain, Rain, Rain. So much this spring and now summer. The creeks go up and run like cement then come back down and the fish are ravenous. The challenge when the creeks are flooded is to find clear water. We started fishing up a small creek that was still a little off-color without much luck. We ran into a couple who live next to the stream and fish every day. "keep going higher" they said, "After you pass the old school bus the creek gets small. There brown trout turn into brook trout, you will find hungry fish!" We fished on, landing a few scrappy browns here and there. Then we started to catch more brook trout. Finally we came to a pool where two small creeks come together. We sat at the pool taking turns, catching fish. One after another, after another, until they were done. We had to split up so I took the left trickle, while my partner took the right. We crawled up to the small pools catching little specks until what was left of the stream disappeared into the mountain.

Tributary waters

Before I injured my back, I was planning on exploring the lesser-known streams of Catskills. Often times, in pursue of bigger fish, I tend to ignore all the tributary waters of Catskills which known to hold wild trouts, particulary brookies. Since, alot of these tributaries are located in high altitudes, it is perfect hatbitat for brookies. This saturday, I've ventured out to 3 tributaries of well-known Catskills rivers.

Due to continuing drought of NE area, all the waters were very low. However, the brookies were willing to take anything I throw at them. They weren't being picky at all since these waters have not been pressured by anglers at all. I guess, to most of people, these waters are nothing more than tributary water to their main fishing waters. I am glad that these waters are not being pressured at all.

My back is aching but after achieving the grand slam (rainbow, brown and brook) of wild trouts, I can endure the pain at least psychologically...