Rainbow Club & Shop… separate new sites.

The long planned separation of the Rainbow Shop & Rainbow Fly Fishing Club has been implemented. They shared the same website for almost 15 years, but it was time for each to grow in its own way and they have each created a website dedicated to each function. The Rainbow Shop will continue to use the URL (http://www.rainbowfly.co.kr/) and the Rainbow Club will use the new URL (http://www.rainbowflyfishingclub.kr). They activities and functions remain pretty much the same but the dedicated websites will allow each to grow in its own direction. Both sites are still only in Korean, but I am hopeful that English menu will be added in time. I wish both places good luck and prosperity.

The Rainbow Fly Fishing Club recently held their annual Fall outing and here are some pictures from that.

what I never want to see…

I was recently fishing at night in a deep part of the woods. I made a pretty long cast across the river and suddenly the line came to stop. First I was thinking – oh crap, the line is caught in a tree… but then the line came loose again without any effort. This happened a few times during this night and then my mind started to wander… I imagined a lady ghost sitting in/ across the river, messing with my line. It would hold onto it, then let it go. Sometimes in the reflection of the moon, I imagined this scary thing sitting across the river, just staring at me. Time to shout out to my friend and walk towards his direction. I make up some bullshit story about how we should stay together because it’s safer wading that way, but I was just scared to be in the dark by myself. Of course once you start to catch fish, all this fear vanishes instantly, and you are horny for fish again.

We all have different scary stuff we imagine in the woods, what scares you? 아무리 무서운게 있다 해도, 이런 한국에 처녀귀신 보다 무서운게 없을것 같다. 보면 바로 쓰러져야 한다.

Happy Halloween.

Took friend from Taiwan out for lenok:

Hank from Taiwan came for travel to Korea with his girl friend for a few days and we found some time to catch lenok. The weather was cold in early morning; but by mid morning, it was much warmer and right away we saw the better result. Early, Hank was able to catch 34cm lenok which was a great size for that area. We had a great rest of the day catching many lenoks and eating spicy chicken with potato and kimchi for lunch.

Hawaiian Bonefish - Oio.

I had some work meetings in Hawaii this past week, so I took the opportunity and fished with Doug Lum from Nervous Waters in Oahu. I love fishing in Hawaii because it offers such close access to great fishing, great food, great sunsets, and of course great people. We met at the usual spot and started late in the morning as the tide were still high. Doug is a retired millionaire (although he won’t admit it), who fishes between Hawaii and Alaska. He is born and raised in Hawaii and has been fishing here all his life. He’s the one of the very few Hawaiian I know who doesn’t surf, because even as a kid, he preferred fishing over surfing. He’s a super relaxed Sinatra fan… an awesome person to fish with.

Combination of high winds & spotty/ thick clouds made sight fishing fairly challenging. Still we spotted a few good fish to cast to. We focused on sight fishing during the morning, and went for the deeper waters to blind cast in the afternoon. I had a tough time getting used to casting in such high winds, and the fly whacked my head a few times - fortunately it didn’t stick there. Doug tagged the fish that were caught, working with the Hawaii Department of Land & Natural Resources. HDLNR are finally starting more detailed research on bonefish, or Oio as they are called in Hawaii. The tag will help measure growth & distances travelled, among other things. Catching big bonefish is something to do in Oahu but nothing beats looking up from fishing to see a beautiful Hawaiian rainbow or sunset. It’s at those moments when I thank the Man upstairs.

I stayed in a pretty fancy house up near the North Shore and our friend Mike made his famous pizza omelets each morning. As I was getting ready to leave at the airport, I looked at my stinging fingers. It’s good knowing that I fished hard till my fingers bled… which is the way it should always be. Then, as I fell asleep on the place, I thought - perhaps I should wear a proper strip guard next time. Aloha.

Float with the big boys

Spent the last few days floating with the big boys of Wisconsin: Todd and Nick at On The Creek fly shop. We brought the big guns to go after muskie but all I ended up with were a few bass species and a wicked hang-over. If you ever want to go on a 7 hour booze cruise with a little fishing on the side give them a call. These are the last two playboys in the fishing industry, you guys will be missed.

Hand over the joy of fishing to friends:

Recently, I started to share the joy of fly fishing to my friend and his son because this hobby of mine is just too fun to keep all to myself. And I remember I got introduced this from one of my friends also. Recently, I took them to catch some lenok in the creek and that was our second trip out. The first trip was past winter and it was just too cold for beginners to understand standing in the cold water freeze to death and we ended up driving around country side just eating and talking although eating fresh vegetarian dish from county side is also one of excitement of Korean fly fishing. Tying hook to the tippet, connecting tippet to leader, and connecting leader to the line, there are many things to learn in order to be self sufficient. Especially, for the people who never experienced fishing in the past, it is just all too hard to grasp all that in a short period. This trip was good although both of them couldn’t hook any, but almost caught a few. I am sure it is all matter of time.

pocket waters

I don’t know what characteristics officially qualifies a certain stretch of water to be called “pocket waters” between serious fishermen, but I have my own ideas about what they look like. I’ve had opportunity to fish pockets waters for a few years now, and I have to say that it is one of my favorite type of waters to fish. I love it because it’s forgiving, meaning that it allows clumsy me to sneak up pretty close to fish and not spook them. I like the surprise of a fish coming up from where it doesn’t even look like it can hold a fish, either because the current appears too fast or the pocket seems too small. I like it that pocket waters often hold a lot of fish, sometimes in each pocket. It’s like a game of some sort, short choppy casts, and fish appearing out of nowhere. Sometimes I will cast several casts, then quickly move on, covering a large amount of distance. Sometimes, I will relax and cast to each prospective pocket water, many times – sometime 15 – 20 casts to the same spot. It’s rare but when a fish does rise after so many cast, they are usually bigger than the rest. Sometimes, if you listen carefully - you will hear all kinds of things being said by the pocket water. The wading is sometimes tough and I have has my share of falls, resulting in broken rods, lost fly boxes, and sprained fingers & bruised knees. Still, I enjoy fishing these kinds of waters so much that all those little pains just flow away swiftly like the current in these waters.

I love you pocket water.

the long cast.

Jonathan loves the long cast and he is very good at it. He especially likes to make the long cast with his favorite Sage 000 rod. I’ve heard of people who can cast the entire length of the fly line, but have never actually seen it. I wonder if I will ever be able to cast further than I currently can (which is not that far at all). Like golf, once you get stuck on a particular swing – it seems very difficult to get out of, and that is the case with my casting. Do you think taking a casting class worth it? I've never taken one and was wondering if any of you have.

Bridge Trolls

I don't even like the taste of trout, but the last week of the trout season every year the Wisconsin DNR stocks the streams with what I refer to as Trolls. They're hatchery raised brood stock rainbows, they're big and ugly and nothing like the wiley and hard to catch resident browns. The hatchery trucks pull up to the bridges and dump these toads in where they're harassed by the local population for a few days. I always go out and catch a few and the wife had been bugging me to kill a fish. This troll is fulfilling it's purposes. The first is to provide my family with something to eat and the second is to remind me that this is a blood sport and life is cyclical. It still didn't taste any good. The first pic is from Dan D, not the same fish but still a troll under the bridge.

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The red body grasshopper:

I visited a creek again to see lenok past weekend. Before I plan this trip, I found out that the red body grasshopper works well for larger lenok,so I tied a few. At one spot where I had to do long cast, I used red grasshopper, hopping to meet large lenok. On my second cast, my hopper landed right next to fast current running water where exactly I was expecting to see lenok. And I got one.